As I reported a week or so back (so most of you have quite understandably forgotten) I somehow squeezed into the 2nd round of the NYC Midnight Micro Fiction Competition, though well back in the field.
For those of you who are not aware, the word limit is 100 – which is fairly crazy. But anyway ….
For me, this time, the requirement was for a Horror story about ‘hatching from an egg’ and including, somewhere in the 100, the word ‘confuse’.
The obvious way to go might be a story about opening the fridge one morning and discovering that half a dozen eggs had hatched overnight and given birth to an angry flock of man-eating poultry. That would probably have worked best with the judges, I suspect.
Instead, though, I decided to suggest that the greatest horror story of all might be life itself. I tried to create an egg/womb/sleep analogy alongside one of life/death/afterlife/rebirth. I was trying to suggest that sleep was a form of afterlife – a sort of transition period – a brief holiday from the horror which is life ….before doing it all over again (and again and again). A quick debrief from God before being shot back out through the birth canal.
I think it may have been a bit ambitious in 100 words. It’s taken more words that that to try to explain myself. But this is it …
Here we go again.
After only a brief respite in the afterlife; before-life; temporarily enclosed within the egg. Warm, dark, and misleadingly comfortable.
Soon to be forcibly reunited with the calamity of self-awareness; coerced down the tunnel, back towards the blinding blue light. Birth? Or death in reverse? Where one’s first confused screams of terror will be only briefly audible in the looming chaos of existence.
A tiny fracture forming upon the surface of the shell precedes reincarnation. Not a miracle, but a curse. The first hints of dawn glow menacingly on the horizon.
As it ends. So it begins.
Here’s another thought.
As you are probably aware, the suicide rate is much much higher within affluent society, where everything is pretty good, compared to struggling societies, where everything seems pretty terrible. Even with the constant threat of war, disease, rape, murder, starvation and so, even when things seemingly couldn’t get any worse, people tend to go on and on and on – even when things actually do get worse. We lucky ones, on the other hand, are ready to call an end to it all if 3 instagram posts in a row don’t get a like.
So it stands to reason that the suicide rate in heaven must be very high and, in hell, virtually non-existent. Suicide is a mortal sin, and therefore most likely an immortal sin as well … so there’s only one place to send the offenders.
So … unless we are all doomed to revisit this mortal coil over and over again (not just until it kills us) we are all bound for hell.
I hope I’ve cheered you all up.
Sleep well, everybody.
Richmond Road 
I don’t think that committing suicide sends you to hell. I think it sends you to a place of deep regret that wiser souls have to come and coax you out of so you’ll keep going and try again.
I also don’t think that people get suicidal over social media likes. If that’s the case, there must be something underlying it like extreme PMS (hormones), mental illness, stress, etc. There would have to be some form of chemical imbalance.
I didn’t know that people living in difficult countries were less suicidal! That’s quite interesting!
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I was exaggerating a tiny bit. But, just for the record, we all end up in the same place regardless of our behaviour here. You just end up dead. Kaput. That’s it.
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That makes sense! 🙂
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Oh, and I love your story! I hope we make it to the next round!! YAY!
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That cheered me up immeasurably! Lol.
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That’s the spirit!
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I found the Key To A Happy Life. I really did. Then I lost it, so hopefully someone will find it and return it to me😂😂
I like your story. I have noticed that some of these younger folks who grew up wired into the interwebs have some bizarre expectations about what life should be like. It’s like they think all the pretty pictures are Real Life 😲 and they think there should be no bad days (or bad hair days 🤔) and everything should be rainbows and unicorns🙄🤦🏼♀️
Good luck with the judges, and let me know if you find my Key😂
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I happen to love rainbows and unicorns.
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I do too, but life isn’t full of them every day😂😂 That’s why they’re so special😉
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I see.
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I’ll keep trying keys until one fits
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Choosing to seek out rainbows and unicorns everywhere instead of focusing on the monsters that lurk in the shadows is a sign of strength. Rainbows and unicorns absolutely do not represent entitled people who can’t handle a bad hair day. There is no connection whatsoever. I think you misspoke. Pretty pictures are real life. I for one refuse to dwell on the negative, and when I catch myself doing it, I get upset with myself. I’m not sure if you’re suggesting that we should ignore happy things, or what, but it’s a bad message. It makes rainbows and unicorns everywhere look bad. Please rethink it.
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I also choose to see the positive over the negative. By “pretty pictures” I was referring to the “perfect”, filtered Instagram pictures that IMO, are NOT a reflection of daily life. Daily life can be very difficult, and finding the joy sometimes takes more effort.
My point was that, again, IMO social media can give people unreasonable expectations about what life is “supposed” to be.
I’m definitely not suggesting we should ignore happy things. My daughter actually told me I was annoying for being so optimistic 😂😂😂
I’m sorry that my words weren’t clearer. I guess I have a problem with thinking that people will just “get” what I’m writing about…like they can see inside my head. I need to be more careful with my word choices to avoid misunderstandings like this.
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Thanks.
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