Fiction | Fantasy

Relentless

A fantasy flash fiction story

This is a stand-alone fantasy drabble, and also a response to Bradan Writes Stories’s ‘Monday mashup challenge 4’, which you can see here.

A new town; a fresh start.

Goper smiled. The merchant was briskly setting up shop by West Mountville’s tall southern gate.

Soon, a customer: a noblewoman in a thousand-crown white dress. She reached for a black-rose figurine, then made a face. “Eww… dirty!”

“No… that’s black onyx. It’s supposed…”

Just then, Goper noticed flames rising from the cloth upon the stall.

“Sorry…”

Cursing the relentless pursuit of his poltergeist, Goper whacked the fabric.

As the customer huffed and departed, a ghostly hand splattered blood across the back of the noblewoman’s dress.

Goper’s eyes widened. “No…!”

Time for a fresh start.

Thanks for reading! How’d I get on?

Main prompt — a wandering merchant and a ghost trying to ruin his life (2pts); something catches fire (1 pt), a black rose (1 pt), someone acts like a ‘Karen’ — the noblewoman (1pt), white dress covered in blood (1pt), a phrase that is a palindrome—the second line goes GST-MWB-SUS-BWM-TSG (2pts).

Check out Bradan’s list of mashup responses below!

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