Micro Fiction Monday: Truth or Dare

“I’m not doing it.”

“You picked dare.”

“Yeah, because there are only so many things you can do in a car going a hundred miles an hour.”

“And this is one of them!”

“And it’s insane. I’m not doing it.”

“Come oooooooon!”

“No. You can’t make me.”

“I’ll pay for your share of gas money for the rest of the trip.”

“…….I hate you.”

“Is that a yes?”

I sighed and unbuckled my seatbelt. “Just realize that if I die, you’re the one who’s going to be cleaning my dead carcass off the interstate.”

He grinned. “Sounds like a yes to me.”

I rolled my eyes and swung my legs over the console. “I can’t believe you’re making me do this.”

“I’ll let you know if any cops come.”

“I’m more concerned about dying, but thanks, I guess.”

I positioned myself in the back of the car and made eye contact with him in the rearview mirror. He grinned again and reached up to hit a button on the dashboard, opening the sunroof above me.

“Good luck,” he yelled over the wind.

With a pounding heart and sweaty palms, I gripped the edges of the window and pulled myself through the gaping hole in the roof. The wind plugged my ears and dried out my eyes as I squinted into the sun in front of me. I stretched my legs slowly, rising above the car and the blurring landscape around me.

And suddenly, I was flying. The wind pushed my hair out of my face, and the sun shone on me like a spotlight as I flew down the highway. I stretched my arms to the sky and squealed, basking in the warmth of the setting sun, before the car horn sounded, and I dropped back down to safety.

Micro Fiction Monday: Keepsake

She allowed herself to step back for a moment. She stepped back, leaving her body as an empty shell so she could fly. So she could sleep on a cloud with the moon as her nightlight. So she could ride the waves of the wind and collect the stars as she went.

When she returned, all was as it should be. Her extraordinary life was no longer extraordinary; mundane, as most lives are. Except, of course, for the stars filling her pockets; a keepsake and a reminder of her journey. She would keep them forever, pressed into the pages of her favourite books.

They shined just as brightly as the stories inside them.

~~

Until later,

- Justyne

Skyward Dance (Micro-Fiction Monday)

When you’re ready, meet me above the clouds.

The wind wrapped itself around her body, brushing her hair against her skin and rustling the feathers behind her back. She flexed the muscles protruding from her back, stretching them out as far as they would reach. Her fingers twitched, feeling the wind that embraced her.

She took a breath and ran.

Her bare feet pounded against the dirt beneath her, splashing through puddles and crushing dead leaves. It was dark, but even so she could see the end of the earth fast approaching.

She stretched out her arms, shifted her wings. Her feet pushed off the ground for a final time, the weight of her body working with gravity to push her down, down towards the earth that was now far beneath her.

But gravity had never won against her before.

Within moments she was soaring, flying, swooping with the wind. Her wings carried her up, higher and higher, the wind growing colder and pricking her skin with goose bumps. She felt the moisture of the vapor as she entered the clouds; the things she had once imagined as fluffy cotton balls nothing more than water in disguise.

                

Thousands of stars, stretching out for miles and miles in all directions. The earth was far beneath her now; the air was thin and cold, her short breaths coming out in clouds of her own creation. The moon sparkled and shone in the sky—not as bright as the sun, but easier to look at.

Then there was him.

The moonlight accented his own wings as he circled around, riding the currents of air as he waited for her. He noticed her quickly and paused, allowing gravity to drop him towards her. He took her hands in his and the two shot upward, twirling and dipping and soaring together, as they performed their own skyward dance in the starlight.

~~

Until later,

- Justyne