Micro Story Time

The path was long, most of it over difficult terrain. It went over hills, through deep forests and stagnant swamps. It crossed the horizon, went beyond it, and finally looped back to where it started. The traveler nodded. The location wouldn’t change, he would. He liked that.

The river was wide and deep. It divided the land, crushed all who fought it. So when the girl set out to tame it, they were horrified. “Don’t do it!” they cried. “You can’t hold back the water.” “Maybe,” she said. “But it’ll always win out here if we let it win in our heads."

Dreams come true, they said, but never how you expect them to. The boy thought this was bad advice, and redundant to boot. Of course they don't follow expectations. Had they ever even had a dream? They shift and turn, change on a dime! He dreamed of never becoming predictable.

The certainty that they were in love fell upon them suddenly. He made a joke over the phone, and they just knew. It was wonderful but scary. They hadn’t seen each other in 3 years. How were they gonna make this work? She felt him smile far away. “I don’t know, let’s find out."

Being haunted was nothing like what he expected. He thought it would involve visits from the ghost, at least some kind of communication. He didn’t expect it to just be a loose feeling in the back of his mind. Like every step he ever took was being watched. And followed.

It started off as the idea of a melody in the dark of his mind. The song evolved. Grew. Became a thing he could sing. He spent 70 years singing it. Humming it. Whistling it. Every year it grew. Until he was old and weak, and the song sung him more than the other way around.

Time was running away with them. It pulled them ahead. Day to day. Year to year. From birth, to school, to university, to the laboratory, to - Time stopped for a moment. Laboratory? Wait, what's this machine they made? They grinned. They were going to run away with time now.

The water was at his head. One wrong move, and it would overtake him. He had to find the one thing he could do to save himself. And he was so focused on getting himself out of this mess... ...That it never occurred to him to call out for help. And the lifeboat passed him by.

He had a simple philosophy: explosions solve every problem. It didn't always seem that way. But if you made them big enough? They solve every problem. They didn't always have to be literal explosions. They could be emotional explosions. Social ones. As long as they were big.

It was just a game to them. Every day, they would go up to the bluffs and run towards the cliff’s edge. And they'd see who would be the last to get afraid and stop running. Every day, they’d get a little bit closer. A game of deadly flirtation. And the wide, waiting blue.

Dreams, they told her, were a pathway to another world. A crossroads where she could see other lives she hadn’t led. It was still a shock, though, when she ran into a different her, walking towards her life. “Don’t worry,” the other her said, "I’m just popping in for a bit."

The ground was moving beneath their feet. First, it was just a distant rumble. Then, a light shaking. Then, the cracks began to appear. “Should we do something about that, dear?” she asked. He shrugged. “I don’t see why. If it’s bad, I’m sure someone will take care of it."

On a long enough timeline it all evens out. A nice thought, but how long would be long enough? He vowed to run from death until what he’d done could be forgiven. So he ran. For thousands of years. And when he looked back, what had once been mountains were finally molehills.

It wasn’t a bad life, per se. Just lonely. Working hard every day. Feeling productive. Knowing he’d helped - saved lives, even. He just never got over the feeling that everyone he met was just a ship, passing in the night. But ah well. The lighthouse wouldn’t tend itself.

The world seemed to move too fast sometimes. It would be so much more manageable if it slowed down a bit. So they created a switch that did exactly that: slowed the world down. Slowed it so much the sun didn’t even move in the sky. It just stayed put. A multi-decade sunset.

At long last, the man found the old sage. “Wise one,” he said, "the world is such a scary, uncertain place. How can I protect myself?” The sage replied, “Be kind, be giving, care for those around you.” “If you want to stay in this world, make the world want to keep you in it."

“Where do you want to go?” “I don’t know. Let’s just jump on the train and take it to the end of the line.” But one week later, the train was still going. “I don’t think it’s gonna stop... should we jump off?” “No, don’t be silly. I want to see what all this build up is for.”

“Rob from the rich, give to the poor.” It was a simple motto. But after 6 months of operations, we were loosing too much capital. So, “Rob from the rich, give to the poor after reasonable expenses.” One thing led to another and - Well, we’re announcing our new startup: RBNHD.

She'd always wanted to change the world, and spent a lifetime amassing power and influence. Finally, she was ready. She could remake it with a snap of her fingers. But she stopped cold: she couldn’t remember what she'd wanted to change it to. The world had changed her too much

The boy didn’t believe the old man’s warnings. A cursed camera? Who would buy something like that? But when he took the first photograph, the world around him froze. He couldn’t move, talk, even blink. And somewhere out there, a creature of silver nitrate had taken his place.