The giant looked sad, so we spent a month weaving willow branches to make a coat, it was #adorned with flowers and bells and knitted woolen trinkets. When it came time to give it to him, it was too heavy with expectation to lift. He still smiled, we were like children offering burnt cookies. #vss365

The sound of the fairies was beautiful, at first. As they rose from the forest, their wings beat a #symphony, carried on the wind. We smiled as they dotted the sky like a growing cloud. Then, we screamed. Pin razor teeth made short work of flesh and bone. This land was always truly theirs. #vss365

I did it all right. I was careful. I kept to the paths and obeyed the signs, I made sure every step landed on pavement, wood or stone. I must have slipped. Somehow, I #spooked the grass. I froze, but there must have been a blade growing through the cracks. Now I feel it creeping up my legs. #vss365

School wasn't a good time for the #oddballs. We were trained to laugh at them, by the other kids and by the teachers, too. I joined in, of course. Letting slip you were one of them would be suicide. The best defence is attack when you're 12. I hope they're okay now. They were the best of us. #vss365

The circus used to be fun. We laughed at the silly clowns as they cartwheeled around inside the circle, squirting water from their flowers and pushing pies in each other's face. Then someone turned the tent inside out. Now we're trapped in the circle, #clueless how to stop the clowns outside #vss365

"No, I mean it." "Sure you do," he says, "I love our jokes." "I'm being serious." "Of course! But I'll win you round eventually, haha!" "You're not listening" "Okay! Don't call me unreasonable! We'll agree to disagree. For now." I'd rather be argued with, than dismissed as #balderdash. #vss365

Mum's teaching rhymes with slightly naughty words to the kids. My sister looks furious, but won't spoil the fun. Me and my brother stand either side of Dad, beer in hand. Our conversation is short sentence #abstraction. Sports. Cars. Work. Then Dad presents his BBQ steaks to show us his love #vss365

All giants start small. Our children squeal in #delight as they wash up on the shore. They are billions of iridescent grains of sand, swirling up and over each other, turning the beach into a wave of colour. Only one or two will grow into mountains. For now, we enjoy the beauty of potential. #vss365

Maybe you are rich? Maybe you are important? Maybe you are wanted? Or maybe you are not? Maybe if you try harder, you will achieve... what? We all have something, right? Just out of reach? Or, maybe, you are nothing but a passing moment in the #dream of some wandering star fish? Why worry? #vss365

Mum says, "Let's #travel." So we fly to a beach where the sand squeezes between your toes, before eating croissants in Paris and pizza in Rome. We climb the pyramids, The Hoover Dam and China's Great Wall. We do it all. Then we open our eyes and smile, because one day we will do it for real. #vss365

I've just realised that today marks 5 years of doing #vss365 every single day :)

The giants have one #sole purpose; to wait. They are very good at it. They have waited for longer than the blink me and you have existed. For longer than everything we have ever or could ever know. They have been waiting since before time, and they are ready. Let's try not to anger them. #vss365

Dad doesn't believe in #Mars. "Have you ever seen it with your own eyes?" He's not just asking, he's angry. He spits the words at me as if accusing me of something. Judging me for thinking I know better. At some point facts became feelings, and knowing things became the worst insult of all. #vss365

There was something going on and we didn’t like it, so we declared a war with the #air. We fired our best guns and dropped our best bombs, but no matter what, the enemy seemed to be everywhere. So, we gave up oxygen to starve them out. The man in the nice suit said we were very good patriots #vss365

I am stuck in a #struggle with the duvet cover. I can hear the kids laughing as it starts to fight. I twist left and I twist right. I lift it up by each corner, then it swallows me whole with a gulp. The children's laughter fades away. "Dad? Dad, are you okay?" The duvet begins to digest. #vss365

I hope you #survive today. Wether it's managing the rising flood of paper, or putting out spot fires of squabbles between siblings. Whether it's missing someone deeply, or trying to stay warm. I hope you survive. This day is just a day that will come and pass like any other. You've got this. #vss365

They make their escape at night. They crawl through their tunnel, chin to floor. We hear it took six months to dig it out with a spoon. They wait for the lights to turn, then they run. We #shoot them one by one as they emerge. Except for our talkative friend. He will get extra bread tonight #vss365

We're playing #jump rope. Look at how happy we are, with smiles set like cracked plaster. One. Two. Three. Then, soon, one hundred. One thousand. My hip aches when I land. I ignore the shooting pain in my shin. I can't be the first one to stop. The man with the gun walks the rows between us. #vss365

Did you know, you could pass through the rings of #Saturn and not even notice? That fantastic belt of light is made of floating rocks, hundreds of miles apart from each other. Sometimes, up close, you can only see the blackness. You need to travel half the sky away to finally see the beauty. #vss365

I have three houseplants. Each one is in its own #fight for survival. They are loved, but neglected, with leaves reaching out for help with browning fingertips, like spines slowly drooping with the weight of old age. Every now and then I splash a rescue mission into their pots from the sink. #vss365

I came from a #humble home. Though, apparently, so did everyone else. "We struggled too, you know?" They say, annoyed you don't see how hard their parents worked to pay for piano lessons, or afford that second holiday. My Mum worked 50 hours too, but still had to "borrow" food from the shop. #vss365

It's the small things in life which are most important. Sometimes I believe that. Sometimes I do not. Sometimes I can see you show me your #gratitude by not saying anything and by holding the back of my hand. Sometimes I wish more than anything that you could bring yourself to use words. #vss365

At first I dipped my toes in the water, it was cold enough to take my breath. I jumped in anyway. I paddled down the stream until it was a river, then I carried on into the sea. The tides are rough out here, and thick as treacle. I still fight to get to the shore. The Sea of #Regret wont win #vss365

Let's issue a #recall. The entire batch is faulty. We take a loss, send the stock to the furnaces and start again with a new design. I don't know where we went wrong, but they were never meant to turn on each other like this. It's a complete empathy failure. Shame. Humans had such potential. #vss365

Have you ever looked up at the clouds? The fluffy white ones that swim through the blue? Have you ever seen animals, people or whole countries, only to watch them split into tiny fragments of something else? That's how #memory works. What you see today will be different tomorrow. Cherish it #vss365

£7 ice coffees and yoga before breakfast. Holidays spent climbing or hiking or cycling in France. She was clever and vegan and had a house that smelled of burning spices. She was the #boho life. She was the woman for me. Except, I grew up wearing traccie bottoms and eating 7p per tin beans. #vss365

If you listen closely, there is a heartbeat. It is easily confused for a #monotonous background thrum, but don't be fooled. The daddum, daddum, daddum is pacing our lives, chiming a systolic, diastolic rhythm with the beat of time. Can you hear it now? I can. And I think it's getting quicker #vss365

One Monday morning, the Moon reached its #apogee, then just kept on walking. Our brightest and best looked up, confused, as it shrank to a tiny dot in the sky. As it left us behind, chaos fell. The tides broke. The Earth's skin began to crack open. But really, who could blame it for leaving? #vss365

The King of the giants died. It was time to choose a #successor. Blood was not important, neither spilled nor inherited. Time, they knew, ruled all. So, they stood shoulder to shoulder and waited to see who would last. When the little people looked up they confused them for night and day. #vss365

The lovely people at #101words featured one of my flash stories today :) 101 Words - 101 Word Short Stories share.google/Tv63j4gKL3tZ...

Gran deals in #illicit substances. She knows how to get her hands on the good stuff. She palms the package off to me under the table while nonchalantly gazing around the room. Nobody notices the hand off. My supply is good for another day. Mum's healthy-snacks-only prohibition fails again. #vss365

It was very loud, so I went for a walk. I passed so many people with so many scars it was difficult to tell where the fight came to an end and the person began. When I reached grass, it was beautiful. I laid on my back and watched sky turn to night. It was nice to be #bewitched by the stars. #vss365

When the clouds clear, the mountain's eyes crack open, the last giant looks down across the Earth. For a thousand years, he weeps at the devastation. The small people had so much, yet they chose so little. Now they are gone. The giant takes #consolidation when he sees the seeds still grow. #vss365

Nan calls Dad an ingrate bastard, then asks Mum to pass the pepper. "Your lasagne is lovely," she smiles. Dad isn't shocked. None of us are. We don't even stop to laugh anymore. The cruel #soliloquy wasn't said out loud, not as far as Nan knows. We accept it, because we love her. And she, us #vss365

For a month the sky stalled between daytime and night. It shouldn't be possible, but there it was, a #magenta blanket stretching for as far as anyone could see. It was a good month. We would gather on hills and have picnics, looking up and taking in the beauty. I want those calmer days back. #vss365

Anyone else doing this month's #furiousfiction? Do you think they would let us change the tense of the prompt phrase? They're usually fairly lenient, but it does say it has to be those 8 words in the rules this month

They laughed at his #augury. They told him he should be a comic on stage. He didn’t find doom funny, but he was desperate to get an answer to the grim omen nobody else seemed to see. He stood in the spotlight. He took the mic. He whispered. "Please, why DID the chicken cross the road?" #vss365

I went through school dressed in hand-me-down #chic. Wearing the same shirt in photos as my brother, my cousin and my uncle. Everyone has a story about borrowed clothes, so it's hard to get them to listen. How many of them still have that shirt, just in case, for their own children? I do. #vss365

I was desperate for a son, so I planted one in a box. The seed was marbled with purple and gold. I watered him. I fed him. He grew lithe tendrils that tickled my nose as we talked. Then one night, he stretched his petals and showed his #vespertine beauty. The next day, the petals were gone. #vss365

The #chivalrous knight came to save the day. The princess said nothing. He put on his armor and waved his huge sword, then he ran at the dragon with a scream. Later, they picked the meat from their teeth as they cooked the carcass over an open fire. One which the dragon was happy to provide #vss365

I came 7th overall in my group for #twistedtournament, a multi round flash fiction competition. I'm pretty chuffed with that :)

He jumped into his ocean and never came back, swallowed by the #aphotic expanse. We tried to send help, of course. First it was chocolates, or hugs. Pills just dissolved in the water. Later we dragged him back up to go for walks, but he was always still below. Now he's just floating shadow. #vss365

I went for a walk in the forest. Mr Otter greeted me by the stream. He looked very #suave in his moss green jacket and tan leather hat. He offered me scones, jam and cream. I thought it rather odd as I wiped crumbs from his moustache. I wondered, was it wise to have drank that mushroom tea? #vss365

The #last of the giants is tired. He has seen so much, yet it feels so quick. He sits on the crumbling edge of time, warming his hands against the last star in the sky. Its dull red glow barely lighting his face. When it goes out, he smiles. It was fun for a while, and now it's time to sleep #vss365

The giants held a meeting, the humans were #matters of concern. They huddled round and talked it through, their heads covered in snow and their toes dotted with trees. When they were done the little people had spread far. Their screams echoed when the mountains stood up to reclaim their home #vss365

Imagine being alive at the perfect point in time where, thanks to science, sanitation, vaccines, and a better understanding of our body chemistry than the world has ever known, a few idiots still waste this gift of #health by swallowing the lies of conspiracy theorists just to feel superior #vss365

We voted against #learning. It seemed like a waste of time. How can you trust what 'experts' say, anyway? They're probably just lying to you because of their agenda... the nice man with the smile and suit made it all very clear - the powerful people are manipulating us! Thank god we have him #vss365

There is a giant in the ocean. He swings his arms in an ancient dance, guiding the tides. His back aches. He is tired. But somewhere up above, a child sits on the edge of a jetty and dips her toes into the water. She giggles as the ripples break her #reflection. So the giant pushes some more #vss365

I #timed the gap between your letters. At first they landed on the mat like a metronome, tapping out a rhythm that showed you still cared. 1 day. 1 day. 1 day. It felt like a heartbeat. Now I count the gap in seconds. Fifty four million since the last. It helps me see you're not coming back. #vss365

When did you stop being young? For me, it was 40. I became one step disconnected from how 'now' works and that's fine. The youth watching videos at 1.5x speed. Using cringe as a noun. Being judge, jury and executioner of #relevant with a swipe after three seconds. It all makes my knees hurt. #vss365