Flash fiction

First published at Flashpoint Science Fiction | April 2023

Their timing was terrible. They both grabbed for a dented can of spaghetti and felt a spark between them. It might’ve been blind panic masquerading as desire, but it still stopped them dead.

“Hi,” he said. 

“Hi,” she said back. “I’m Eliza.”

“Roberto.”

Everyone had dressed in a hurry. Eliza was wearing a long coat—it had the most pockets of anything she owned—over jeans and a T-shirt. Roberto was in his pyjamas and a breakfast-spattered robe, sneakers with no socks. They were both sporting backpacks, unzipped and stuffed with whatever.

“This is crazy,” he said.

“I know.”

“Did you get a good look at it?”

“I mean, yeah. It’s huge!”

The store had mostly been picked clean, barring stomped produce and broken glass. Through the windows, they could see a steady stream of men and women, some dragging children behind them, some clutching babies to their chests. Everyone was running from something in the sky.

Eliza and Roberto were smiling at each other when they first heard it roar.

Read the rest at Flashpoint Science Fiction.