Micro Fiction: First Round, First Place!

Here's my winning NYC Midnight 100-word micro-fiction story

The day the NYC Midnight results came out, I rushed over to the site and found my name in the top slot, which was more than surprising because I’d never written a horror story before.

I only had twenty-four hours to write in a genre I’d never even read, so I had to ask the internet what makes horror different from thriller. I discovered no one agrees.

Horror is basically this: something bad is happening, I hope it doesn’t happen to me. Thrillers are almost the same, but it takes longer to figure out what the bad thing is or who’s doing the bad thing. Bottom line, there’s more mystery in a thriller, but so many books and films could fall in either or both categories.

I wrote two stories before the deadline that day and posted the unused story, Company, a few weeks ago. Today I can finally publish the story I did submit.

Word count: 100 or less
Assigned Genre: Horror
Assigned Action: Lighting a fire
Assigned Word: Connect

Apprentice

The woman, all baggy skin and whiskers, reminisces about a fat boy she ground into sausage. A blind girl she buried with coals and dug up tender. An infant she pickled.

Often, she pushes a biscuit through the bars and says, “eat up!” But I don’t. Staying skinny is staying alive. The burn is familiar anyway—back home we were starving. 

She lights a fire and starts a pot boiling. “Today,” she announces, disconnecting my sister’s leash. They go to stoke the oven. 

Gretel returns alone, smiling, cheeks flushed.

”Here,” she kneels by my bars, pushing through a biscuit. “Eat up.”

---

Feedback from the judges:

”Oooh, I like the horror elements of this Hansel and Gretel retelling. The character details and imagery are excellent and the disturbing atmosphere works for horror. Great open examples of what happened to the children.”   {Judge 1880}

”I like the reference to the story of Hansel and Gretel, I didn’t see it coming. The descriptions of different ways to cook children is a fun read given the absurdity of it all - with a touch of mystery as well given that we see things from Hansel’s perspective.  {Judge 2263} 

”I really love the way this story comes together. It uses the Hansel and Gretel story, but the voice and way this is framed feels wholly original and fresh. I especially like the line about the "burn" of hunger being familiar; it really sets up why Hansel and Gretel are different enough to make a getaway.” {Judge 2144} 

What’s Next

5,000 writers were pared down to 1,500 in round 1, and we went on to compete in round 2, which took place last weekend. This time I was assigned comedy, which, as it turns out, is harder than horror.

Results won’t be posted until August, but in the meantime I have an alternate story to publish, so stay tuned!