Time: 10 minutes. Click here to go to my list of prompts.

“Mistaken identity” (this guy must look like a real jerk!)

START:

“I know what you did,” the man approached Ian.

“Pardon, have we met?”

The man lunged at Ian and shoved him. Then the world went black.

###

We he woke, there were rainbows across the sky. Ian slapped himself, and pinched himself, and all those little tricks you do to waken from dreaming. They didn’t work. Well, if he were dreaming, he might as well explore.

The ground was covered in a gray pulsing net. Waves undulated through it, like drops in a lake but fast, this way and that, coarsing across the hilly, bald land.

He saw a man on the far hill. He started toward him, but then he recognized him as the man who pushed him. He went the other way.

After some time, the gray mesh grew taller and crenelated. In the distance he saw a town. He walked to it, and the town was formed from the mesh. People, no, more like automatons, moved through the city, dancing a strange, architected dance that never stopped and never slowed.

Ian weaved through the automatons, who never even noticed him. He kept walking, and eventually the mesh grew sparse and there were flowers and grass.

A woman ran up to him. He extended his hand to shake. She punched him across the jaw. The world went dark.

###

When he opened his eyes again, there was only blackness. His face hurt, and he suspected this was not a dream. He felt around, sensing cold rocks. Was he blind? He stumbled along, sensing he should go somewhere, anywhere but here. Someone kicked him.

###

He woke up, floating in the clouds of a world with six moons in the sky. He swam through the ether, at one with life.

He saw the woman who had punched him.

“Wait, please talk to me at least before you hit me!”

She frowned, but she did not hit him.

Time: 7 minutes. Click here to go to my list of prompts.

“I was playing in the snow when aliens walked out of the woods”

It was the first snow of the year. It wasn’t a very good snow, with patches of withered yellow grass poking through already, though it was only 10 in the morning. Still, my brother and I ran outside and threw ourselves into it. It melted quickly through our snow pants and gloves. Why is it that when snow is the warmest it’s the coldest? I tried to gather up a ball of snow to throw at my brother. It wouldn’t clump, and it just made my hands cold. Well, it was only December. The prime snow months were still ahead.

My brother ran out of the yard toward the common grounds. The retention pond, almost always empty, has sloped walls that are nice for sledding. He sets his sled on the edge, climbs aboard, and leans forward. Nothing happens. “Cruddy snow!” he shouts. It echoes. The trees are all glistening and dripping in the woods. At least it’s pretty.

Two forms approach us from the woods. I take my brother’s hand and try to pull him off the sled. In school, we learned about adults who hide in woods. They’re called molesters, and they’re bad people.

The men reach us before I can get my brother’s attention. They moved amazingly quickly, and now I am giving Miss Roth a little more respect. I had thought her characterization of molesters exaggerated and cartoonish, but indeed, they move with super human speed. They also look strange. Their skin is rubbery, and their eyes are large and shiny and black. They don’t seem to have elbows or knees, just wobbly limbs like and octopus. They flow along on these things with evil fluid grace. God truly looks down upon these men.

“Oh my god, aliens!” my brother shouts, beaming. “Pew, pew!”

“No, Jake, they’re molesters, and we have to get out of here before they get us.”

Jake shoves me away and runs toward the gray men. “Take me to your leader!”

“H-hell oh,” one of them says slowly. Miss Roth didn’t say anything about them not speaking English. Maybe Jake is on to something.