by Cherise Papa | Apr 3, 2024 | Fantasy, Flash Fiction
Wind whips through my hair, stinging my cheeks and bare arms, and I laugh as I clutch my dragon’s harness tighter. He swoops low, his belly nearly grazing the tops of cars below, earning us a cascade of furious honking. Even my dragon snorts a laugh. He...
by Cherise Papa | Mar 27, 2024 | Flash Fiction, Horror
Darkness with flickering colors–that’s what the back of my eyelids look like. The sight is comforting, familiar. I want nothing else, yet the voice that speaks to me says otherwise. “Show them how they make you feel.” “Make them feel it...
by Cherise Papa | Mar 20, 2024 | Fantasy, Flash Fiction
Jessica circled the old plane, analyzing each dent and rust stain with a pretend critical eye. It didn’t matter what the state of the plane was, she just needed the junk to look like a plane. Well, and want to be a plane. She removed her glove, not caring...
by Cherise Papa | Mar 13, 2024 | Flash Fiction, Romance
The cold breeze forced the partygoers closer to the raging bonfire, but Clara kept to the fringe, leaning against a barren tree as she identified as many Halloween costumes as she could over the rim of her foam cup. Holding her hands around the cup’s warmth...
by Cherise Papa | Mar 6, 2024 | Flash Fiction
The young man takes another lashing, protecting in the only way he knows how. His brother caught cheating a game for coin because his belly hurt. Before it was his sister in trouble for stealing food and wood. Over and over again, more pain, more punishment. The young...
by Cherise Papa | Feb 28, 2024 | Fantasy, Flash Fiction
Salla closed her eyes as she pushed through the torture in her fingers and played the first note, pulling her bow across the strings as carefully as the quiver in her body allowed. She focused on the music, ignoring the ache thrumming in her body and the dragon...
by Cherise Papa | Feb 21, 2024 | Flash Fiction, Paranormal
The fence was confused. It only had one job: to keep things in. It had been great at its job, too. Decades of keeping pets and children safe in its confines. But how did it keep something in that had no substance? Each living thing the fence protected had its own...
by Cherise Papa | Feb 14, 2024 | Flash Fiction, Horror, Romance
This week is a double feature! A Sweet Romance Wind ripped through my hair as I stood at the edge, my eyes closed. My toes curled in the dirt. Waves crashed against the cliff below, and friends and classmates shouted and laughed. All I needed to do was jump. Yet my...
by Cherise Papa | Feb 7, 2024 | Fantasy, Flash Fiction, Horror
This flash fiction is extra fun because I combined two different prompts for it, the Wednesday Words prompt “I used to practice weaving” and a dialogue prompt I got from The Muse Writers Center from one of their write-in nights. I had to start the story...
by Cherise Papa | Jan 31, 2024 | Flash Fiction
My journal shakes in my hands, tears at the corners of my eyes blurring my vision. My pencil bag is emptied on the grass, colorful gel pens spread around me. I don’t even remember dumping them. I don’t remember collapsing at the park either. I’m just...
