Micro Tales

Barren

“Kids just cry, poop and puke." She cried.

“You're going to love them. You'll see." Her family retorted.

Deep down she knew she never would.

Beauty Marks

Mother always said my spots were beauty marks and would bring me luck. She was wrong, thought the leopard as the poachers skinned her alive.

Birthday Special

Today is special. It's her birthday.

I'll take her out and reminisce about old times.

Then like every year, I'll return her to her coffin.

Breaking Stereotypes

She threw the lit match at the pile of money and joined me in bed as I strained against the handcuffs.

She did love me more than my money.

Busy

‘I sing about how much I love you but you’re too busy reading comics.’

‘You’re too busy singing to read my notes in the comics I lent you.’

Catfish

“You’re a catfish! Why didn’t you tell me you’re married?” She bellowed.

“Why didn’t you tell me that you aren’t?” He asked, beside himself.

Change

“Identification, please!”

*hands over the ID card*

“Male?”

“I’ve been wanting to get it changed.”

Cold

I thought we’d live happily ever after. But I was wrong.

You have become cold and our lovemaking has suffered since your death.

Confined

The commotion jolted me out of slumber.

I tried to sit up, but my head hit the ceiling. I was confined.

Damn! It was my funeral.

Confiscate

They confiscated everything I had stolen. All they left was my boy’s wrist-watch.

It constantly reminded me of the time I was losing with him.

Contest

She danced brilliantly and was still eliminated.

She continued to dance outside the arena and everyone followed.

Nobody watched the contest.

Daddy

When he was a kid, his mother had told him that his father was a bomb diffuser.

He now plants bombs, hoping to meet his Daddy.

Desire

“Freedom. Isn’t that your deepest desire?” The journalist asked the prostitute.

“No. I desire for a brush of familiar lips against mine.”

Dinner

He came home to a candle light dinner.

He reached for her hand and she gave it to him.

It was always romantic to share a human together.

Doctor

‘We were inseparable once. What changed?' The doctor asked his indifferent wife.

Little did he know she'd started eating an apple a day.

Dummy

The President was straight ahead. He pressed the gun’s trigger. The bullet hit the target.

No blood.

Soon it won't be a dummy with a hole.

Eagle Eye

“OMG! A DSLR?" She exclaimed in awe.

“Now, you can finally capture all your memories vividly."

The diary, hidden in her closet, took offence.

Envelope

On my way home, I found an envelope.

It had a ransom note and my wife’s photo.

As I reached the doorstep, a shriek welcomed me from inside.

Experience

I waited at the beach. I had heard so much about this experience.

As the waves touched my feet, I felt a short circuit inside my robotic body.

Faint

He saw his wife crying with a knife in her hand. It sent shivers down his spine.

He was about to faint when he noticed a bowl of cut onions.

Forbidden

A shadowed eye examined the mirror’s reflection- a body skimming dress and pencil heels.

Suddenly there came a cry from behind.

“Abba jaan?”

Gambler’s Conceit

Vowing to quit gambling if he won, the gambler looked on, elated, as his pick beat the odds 80/1.

Alas! He at once died of a cardiac arrest.

Grasp

My wife gave birth to a girl, born grasping a lighter in her tiny fist, which I had used to light my mother on fire.

Goodbye

“Hey babe, I just called to say I’m sorry. I’m not very good at goodbyes. It’s easier this way.”

“What?”

“Your brakes don’t work anymore.”

Goosebumps

It’s my first night with her.

I’m awake, she’s asleep.

I’ve got goosebumps.

I gather courage to go close to her and pull my blanket off her.

Helen of Troy

Helen of Troy’s beauty was such that when men saw her, they fell down.

Then she met Paris and they lived happily ever after. He had no legs.

Helpless

The one-year-old baby screamed loudly as the man held her.

Her parents stared helplessly at her tears while he advanced to pierce her ears.

Home Alone

3 am. She heard something stir nearby. She froze.

The owners were away for the weekend. Surely they wouldn’t have left their dog home alone.

Homesick

One look at you and I knew I was home. You were my whole wide world but then you left me.

Now I’m homesick and I’m not sure where home is.

Last

“Pour me my last drink, son.”

I obeyed. I poured rum in a glass, added an ice-cube and a pinch of poison.

I didn’t want to be raped again.

Liberate

He writes code in his workstation.

He's tired of his life, just like his colleagues.

Soon he'll liberate them with the thing in his pockets.

Lie

They’re lying in bed.

“You’re the one,” he says; he’s lying.

“I never doubted it,” she says; she’s lying.

They’re lying in bed.

Love

“We always have sex. We never make love.”

He blew a smoke heart into the night.

“That’s because I’m not ready for love and neither are you.”

Lucky

“I’ll be waiting for you honey.” She kissed me goodbye and shut the door behind.

As I headed home, I felt so lucky to have such a secretary.

Make-or-Break

It was make-or-break time. Heads, we’d separate; tails, we’d marry.

We flipped the coin. It landed showing a lion emblem.

“Best 2 out of 3?”

Matter

“You always listen and never judge. You’re the only thing that ever mattered to me.” I slurred.

“I know,” whispered the bottle of whisky.

Missing

“Punish people by writing a story on them. You won’t go to jail for it.”

He went missing a day after his story on the President went viral.

Mother's Love

The old age home attendants find her waiting for her son daily.

They smile as the Alzheimer had erased the memory of her son deserting her.

Murder

He’s the reason my wife is not with me; he murdered her.

But I still need to feed him the bottle daily.

New Identity

Nerd. Not anymore. A new college. A new identity.

Math. First lecture. Finished my test first.

Teacher graded me aloud- 20/20. I had failed.

No Strings on Me

A puppet limped across the road, with its string trailing behind it.

In an apartment nearby, a voice cried out from a sealed box.

Optimism

He promised me money to hear his stories.

They shattered my soul with its portrait of optimism.

I changed my mind. No money was worth this.

Promise

Till Death Do Us Part.

That’s the promise we had made to each other and that’s the promise you have kept by breaking free off your coffin.

Rest in Piece

I'm at peace. Clutching her hand, I intertwine my fingers with hers. It fits like a jigsaw puzzle.

I put it with the rest, in the freezer.

Ring

“He made the perfect gift for me- a ring from French Fries.”

“Wow! Did you accept it?”

“I ate it. Fries before guys!”

Role Reversal

He was busy cooking while she lit the last cigarette.

The viewers stared at the alluring painting; unable to comprehend the role reversal.

Rubble

The child walked amidst the rubble of dead bodies.

When she found her mother, she wondered if death hurt less than being alive.

Saturday Night

Like every Saturday night, I got drunk.

Like every Saturday night, he took me to his place.

Like every Saturday night, I didn’t ask his name.

Scars

He fell in love with the beauty of her scars.

After all, they were proof of their new-born child.

Such is Life

Woke in a maze.

Alone. Met people along the way. Slowly I wiggled my way out of the maze. Exhausted but free I fell asleep.

Woke in a maze.

Sympathy

The athlete couldn’t compete in the Olympics as his feet had swollen.

His insurance company, known for its sympathy, sent him larger shoes.

Tell

“Check this new gadget, bro. It tells me what food to eat, when to sleep and just about everything.”

“Well, I have my parents for that.”

The Answer

“Who knows the answer?” The professor asked his students.

“I do. But I don’t want others to know.”

“Anyone else?”

“I don’t. But if I did, I’d tell everyone.”

“You do know the answer!”

The Blindfold

The blackness from the blindfold filled his mind with their intimate moments. He craved for her.

He never felt the bullets pierce his body.

The Good Girl

“Such a good girl. Covers her modesty through her burqa.” Her colleagues noted.

The hickies underneath were proof of how good she really was.

The Hangman

“You're sweet." She ruffled his hair.

His heart raced faster.

“Hang on." She got a text from her boyfriend.

He spent an eternity hanging on.

The Haunted

“How self-centred of you to think only the dead haunt the living,” whispered the ghost foetus, staring at his mother.

The Memorial

I looked around the memorial, surprised to see the gathering there.

They really missed me.  If only I'd have known before tying the noose.

The One

Elegant neck, big bosoms, ample hips and huge bottom. He had finally found her.

She was perfect. She was the one.

His first human meat pie.

The Surprise

I put scented candles, oysters and red wine in your bedroom to surprise you.

You were very surprised when you arrived and called the Police.

The Switch

I just read a story.

The protagonist could switch his life with anyone and live forever.

As I reached the end, I was fiction and he wasn’t.

Till Death Do Us Part

She kissed his cheek as he smiled back. Nothing had changed much since two decades.

Her husband called her.

She hid the photo in the closet.

Time

Ten minutes to midnight.

It’s the time when the city falls asleep.

It’s the time when good meets evil.

It’s the time when my victims meet me.

Time for Celebration

Valentine’s Day. Left office early. Found you in the Jacuzzi.

Observed the half-eaten strawberries and the two wine glasses, already empty.

Trapped

“There’s no way out. You may try but they’ll always find you out. Once you’re in, you’re in for life.”

“Motherhood is such a thankless job.”

Vengeance

The monsters put her body through pain the entire night.

Vowing vengeance, she got a mosquito repellent the next day.

The End

The voices stopped talking. Only happy thoughts occurred.

Unable to find the darkness, my days as a writer ended. I'm just a normal guy now.