Short Story: The Morning After

photo of man sitting on chair

Andrei awoke to soreness in his neck. Grey morning light pierced the split in the curtains, casting a shadow on the empty side of the bed behind him.

Unsurprisingly, Tobias had left before sunrise.

Andrei put his hand to his throat, brushing away a crust of dry blood. Dizziness and lethargy tempted him back to bed, but he didn’t give in – he’d feel better once he’d eaten something.

He buttoned up his shirt and slipped on his tie, pulling the knot tight to hide the puncture marks on his neck, and – in yesterday’s suit – he headed to work.

This story was written for the Six Sentence Story word prompt knot.

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18 responses to “Short Story: The Morning After”

  2. hah! the dead give-away… “…in yesterday’s suit.”

    Besides the fun of reading (and writing) Sixes, I’m usually on the lookout for Sixes that help me self-improve my own writing… this little detail, if, I believe an example of the ‘show don’t tell’… gots to learn to do that
    Good Six

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    • Thank you 🙂 I like the challenge of writing microfiction like this, because it forces you to think creatively about including details and ensuring the story makes sense despite the tiny word count. I always ask my husband to rephrase what he thinks happened in the story to check it makes sense to at least one other person other than myself!

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  5. Metaphorical or not, you have opened the door to all kinds of possibilities!
    As Clark mentioned, a prime example of show-not-tell.
    What you said earlier about microfiction forcing you to think creatively…is so true.
    One would think that the forced parameters (number of sentences or word count etc) would hinder creativity; the exact opposite happens.
    I

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    • Very true – I used to think short stories were written by people who couldn’t be bothered to write a whole novel! Now I know there is a skill to capturing a whole story in a small word count.

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      • I have witnessed that time and again with children with mild autism or other differences (from the so called normal) I have worked with, trying to promote their creative thinking.
        They do exceptionally well in a defined context, as opposed to giving them unrestricted / undefined territory to explore.
        The misty mountains of Vague can follow later and they do 🙂

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  7. I too thoroughly enjoyed your Six and was impressed by your economy of words at no expense to the essence of the story. In total agreement with you about the skill required to convey completely (without the “telling”) an entire story in minimal words or sentences.

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