200 words
By rjnewlyn
A selection of 200-word pieces; 'relentless whimsy' but what's wrong with that?
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- 2163 reads
Planet Earth is blue 18
A story in 200-word episodes. Falling into the sun.
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- 13 comments
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- 3199 reads
A fragile past
The danger of looking after time-travelling despots.
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- 9 comments
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- 2505 reads
Aethelstan's vision
The old Saxon king wonders whether all the fighting was worth it. (200 words)
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- 10 comments
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- 2322 reads
Dante's train
Purgatorial choices at Clapham Junction
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- 6 comments
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- 2129 reads
Doncaster
So what do you do if someone says that God lives in their shed?
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- 6 comments
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- 2138 reads
Troll bridge
The old world may be under concrete now but we shouldn't assume that it's disappeared.
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- 4 comments
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- 1637 reads
That dream of righteous and invincible vengeance
Doesn't everyone imagine this sort of thing every so often. Or is it just me ... ? (200 words)
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- 4 comments
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- 1468 reads
The Locket
A ghost story (200 words)
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- 8 comments
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- 2267 reads
The little god
Was it an accident that I found it? I’d taken a short cut through that patch of woodland behind the playing fields, rushing home as usual to look...
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- 15 comments
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- 3832 reads
The old god
How gods end their days (perhaps)
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- 3 comments
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- 1357 reads
Love in a time of apocalypse
I will always remember our last moments: memories literally burned into what’s left of my mind.
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- 12 comments
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- 3297 reads
The black angel and the seventh son
On the pros and cons of cheating death.
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- 6 comments
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- 1864 reads
The guitar and its ghosts
Man buys guitar and wakes dead. Does it for love apparently.
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- 6 comments
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- 1770 reads
Jacob's ladder
Climbing up the stairs that lead from earth into the heavens, all you can carry is a bit of hope.
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- 19 comments
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- 6489 reads
The horseman - part 1
A familiar dark-hooded rider brings a devastating storm to town. What else is there to do but fight?
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- 5 comments
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- 1925 reads
The horseman - part 2
It is said that he will come on a pale horse. But he'll have me to reckon with first. The pursuit continues ...
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- 9 comments
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- 2261 reads
The horseman - part 3
"And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him."
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- 4 comments
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- 1600 reads
The horseman - part 4
Death passes through and leaves the rest of us to clean up the mess. (incidentally, no particular need to have read parts 1-3)
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- 7 comments
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- 2024 reads
The horseman - part 5
Death's three colleagues decide to intervene ...
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- 5 comments
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- 1819 reads
The horseman - part 6
There comes a time of running away and perhaps that's when our ghosts press in hardest. (No particular need to have read parts 1-5)
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- 7 comments
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- 1891 reads
The horseman - part 7
The ghosts of the prairies and a man who can no longer die. The latest stage in a slightly bizarre journey - but feel free to join at any point you want.
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- 7 comments
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- 1886 reads
The horseman - part 8
Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil. 'Cos I'm the meanest *#*# in the valley.
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- 7 comments
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- 1760 reads
The horseman - part 9
If you pick a fight with Death, there can only be one result - or perhaps not ... (what would any self-respecting story be without a suitably overblown apocalyptic climax).
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- 12 comments
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- 3019 reads
The horseman - part 10 (epilogue)
A final chapter and a circle closing. If you chase after something for too long then you end up becoming it - there's nothing new under the sun.
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- 9 comments
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- 2390 reads
Wyrm
If you go down to the woods today ... Just because they're in stories, it doesn't make them safe.
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- 11 comments
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- 2525 reads
Wyrm 2
What lies at the heart of the blizzard ... (not a sequel)
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- 10 comments
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- 3003 reads
Wyrm 3
Not a sequel - just a series of stories, loosely connected by our scaly friends.
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- 9 comments
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- 2559 reads
Wyrm 4
(Not a sequel - just a loosely connected series). A conspiracy theory to end all others perhaps, or just the wonder of what might be 'out there'.
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- 12 comments
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- 2941 reads
Wyrm 6
When have space-time wormholes ever been good for the world? Who knows what might be dredged up?
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- 11 comments
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- 2927 reads
End of days 1
A final battle looms to end all others (possibly for real this time).
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- 9 comments
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- 2206 reads
End of days 2
I always hate the hour before a battle.
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- 6 comments
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- 2317 reads
End of days 3
Mr McKenzie was the first person I killed.
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- 8 comments
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- 2410 reads
End of days 4
The battle begins. Demons and sofas.
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- 9 comments
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- 1964 reads
End of days 5
Finally, the charge. Tea memories and pit devils and the darkness ahead.
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- 6 comments
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- 2059 reads
End of days 6
And then everything returned to normal again. Except it didn't.
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- 9 comments
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- 2534 reads
End of days 7
One minute leading God's all-conquering army on the eve of the apocalypse, the next under interrogation at the local police station.
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- 7 comments
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- 2216 reads
End of days 8
A serial of 200-word chapters about a man who thinks he leads a holy army at the end of the world. Who's right - him or the hospital?
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- 9 comments
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- 1982 reads
End of days 9
A serialisation of 200-word chapters. At night in the hospital, plans are made for an escape.
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- 11 comments
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- 2665 reads
End of days 10
A serialisation of 200-word chapters. The illusion of the hospital begins to break apart, or does it?
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- 13 comments
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- 2822 reads
End of days 11
A serial of 200-word chapters. In the darkness at the heart of the hospital lie shadow and flame.
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- 9 comments
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- 2376 reads
End of days 12
A serialisation of 200-word chapters. Drugged up in the asylum director's office, our hero remembers his holy sword ...
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- 7 comments
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- 2147 reads
End of days 13
A story in 200-word chapters. At the far end of an asylum, the celestial war reaches its conclusion.
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- 11 comments
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- 3333 reads
End of days 14 (Epilogue)
The final chapter. The pit closes, the celestial city appears and the world begins to end. All fine then (or possibly not).
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- 11 comments
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- 3205 reads
Planet Earth is blue 1
A story in 200-word chapters. Hiding in an asteroid, and the feel of the cold stone there.
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- 11 comments
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- 2997 reads
Planet Earth is blue 2
A story in 200 word chapters. Captured on the asteroid, waiting ...
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- 11 comments
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- 3107 reads
Planet Earth is blue 3
A story in 200 word chapters. You meet all sorts in prison.
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- 8 comments
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- 2005 reads
Planet Earth is blue 4
A story in 200 word chapters. Entrancing women from deep space are likely to be trouble.
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- 9 comments
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- 2208 reads
Planet Earth is blue 5
A story in 200 word chapters. A bad battle and Rhea's lost children.
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- 6 comments
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- 1856 reads
Planet Earth is blue 6
A story in 200 word chapters. Cold, outer space and dreams of childhood.
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- 9 comments
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- 2159 reads
Planet Earth is blue 8
A story in 200 word chapters. Conversation on the moon.
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- 10 comments
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- 2199 reads
Planet Earth is blue 9
A story in 200-word chapters. Returning to Earth's remains and a temple in the forest.
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- 7 comments
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- 1929 reads
Planet Earth is blue 10
A story in 200-word chapters. Conversation at gunpoint.
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- 12 comments
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- 2844 reads
Planet Earth is blue 11
A story in 200 word 'instalments'. Moonlight in the temple and time standing still.
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- 11 comments
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- 2496 reads
Planet Earth is blue 12
Outside the temple, a shower of rain drops loosened from an overhanging branch hung motionless in mid-air like a suspended necklace of diamonds. The creature gazed at it sadly.
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- 6 comments
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- 1726 reads
Planet Earth is blue 13
A story of sorts in 200 word episodes. Lily meets the angel Uriel and bad things inevitably happen.
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- 10 comments
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- 2144 reads
Planet Earth is blue 14
A story in 200-word episodes. Encounters with angels on the moons of Jupiter (special Christmas edition!)
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- 14 comments
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- 3424 reads
Planet Earth is blue 15
A story in 200-word episodes - but come and join at any point ... Battles commencing.
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- 14 comments
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- 4502 reads
Planet Earth is blue 16
A story in 200-word episodes. Celestial double-agents and more fighting!
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- 10 comments
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- 2342 reads
Planet Earth is blue 17
A story in 200-word episodes. Set the controls for the heart of the sun ...
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- 10 comments
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- 2214 reads
Planet Earth is blue 19
A story in 200-word episodes. After the explosion, watching the death of the sun
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- 13 comments
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- 3321 reads
Planet Earth is blue 20
A story that has been evolving in 200-word episodes. This is the final chapter - an end and a beginning!
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- 15 comments
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- 3614 reads
If you meet me, have some sympathy 1
Another story in 200-word episodes. It's a cold, grey city morning and someone has just been born again ...
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- 22 comments
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- 5630 reads
If you meet me, have some sympathy 2
A story in 200 word episodes. Just one of the problems with celestial radiance is what you let get past you.
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- 14 comments
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- 3013 reads
If you meet me, have some sympathy 4
A story in 200-word episodes. They don't have the internet in Hell ... (so he says)
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- 12 comments
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- 2368 reads
If you meet me, have some sympathy 5
A story in 200 words. Spirit warfare and the perils (or not) of the water cooler moment.
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- 12 comments
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- 2701 reads
If you meet me, have some sympathy 7
A story in 200-word episodes. Coffee with the enemy and the importance of names. And something nasty on its way.
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- 7 comments
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- 1542 reads
If you meet me, have some sympathy 8
A story in 200-word episodes. He calls himself Mephisto but so do half the others – it’s a popular name and they’ve no imagination.
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- 9 comments
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- 2133 reads
If you meet me, have some sympathy 9
A story in 200-word episodes. The thin line between department stores and Hell's furnaces.
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- 13 comments
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- 2875 reads
If you meet me, have some sympathy 10
A story in 200-word episodes. If you’re born in Hell, what are you supposed to think? You just do your job and keep your head down.
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- 12 comments
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- 2512 reads
If you meet me, have some sympathy 11
A story in 200-word episodes. Heaven and Hell hiding out in a council estate.
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- 11 comments
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- 2791 reads
If you meet me, have some sympathy 12
A story in 200-word episodes - but come and join any time; I don't think it's hard to pick up. Our hero from Hell doesn't feel like fighting today.
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- 8 comments
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- 2054 reads
If you meet me, have some sympathy 13
A story in 200 word weekly episodes. Even devils hate camping ...
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- 9 comments
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- 2015 reads
If you meet me, have some sympathy 14
A story in approximately weekly 200 word instalments. He's a devil with a conscience and she's an angel with problems and everyone's out to get them. That sort of thing ...
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- 9 comments
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- 2015 reads
If you meet me, have some sympathy 15
A story in 200-word episodes. In which there is a slight supernatural disturbance in a local library. Perhaps these things happen all the time.
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- 9 comments
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- 1973 reads
If you meet me, have some sympathy 16
A story told in 200-word chapters; join in any time. Our heroes find their way into the internet. This is where it gets a bit wierd ...
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- 9 comments
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- 2141 reads
If you meet me, have some sympathy 17
A story in 200-word chapters. If you're going to wander around cyberspace, stay away from the big sites. They mean business.
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- 11 comments
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- 2235 reads
If you meet me, have some sympathy 18
A story in 200-word episodes. Travelling through cyberspace has its excitements and perils. This is probably neither but, well, it takes all sorts ...
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- 9 comments
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- 2294 reads
If you meet me, have some sympathy 19
A story emerging in 200-word episodes. Our heroes have found their way into the social network, but it's not really what it's cracked up to be ...
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- 10 comments
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- 2237 reads
If you meet me, have some sympathy 20
A story in 200-word episodes. Getting a bit complicated to explain now - a devil and angel wandering around in cyberspace sort of plot.
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- 6 comments
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- 1529 reads
If you meet me, have some sympathy 21
A story in 200-word episodes. Our infernal hero escapes from cyberspace but loses his disguise.
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- 11 comments
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- 2059 reads
If you meet me, have some sympathy 22
A story in 200 word episodes. Join any time you like. In which a devil meets a geek and ruins his breakfast.
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- 8 comments
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- 1694 reads
If you meet me, have some sympathy 23
A story in 200-word episodes. In which some hordes of hell meet a sticky end in a council estate at the hands of one of their own.
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- 13 comments
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- 2211 reads
If you meet me, have some sympathy 24
A story in 200-word episodes. In which our infernal hero meets his infernal nemesis and messes up someone's council flat.
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- 7 comments
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- 2010 reads
If you meet me, have some sympathy 25
A story in 200 word episodes. In which two devils have a fight in cyberspace (or is it?) and one of them loses.
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- 12 comments
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- 2687 reads
If you meet me, have some sympathy 26
A story in 200-word episodes. In which an angel and devil begin a beautiful friendship.
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- 13 comments
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- 2236 reads
My dead diary - beginnings
A story of sorts in 200-word episodes. In which the dead diary is begun and our narrator feels he ought to get out more.
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- 13 comments
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- 3065 reads
My dead diary - parties
A story with 200-word episodes. In which there is much drinking and inappropriate behaviour but not very much plot.
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- 7 comments
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- 1566 reads
My dead diary - zombies and alcohol
A story of sorts in 200-word episodes. In which our hero learns how foolish it is to try to out-drink the undead of Clerkenwell.
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- 15 comments
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- 3024 reads
My dead diary - baiting vampires
A story of sorts in 200-word episodes. In which the writer expresses somewhat freely his distaste for his toothy undead colleagues.
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- 12 comments
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- 2622 reads
My dead diary - graveyard wars
A story of sorts in 200-word episodes. The sort of thing that might be going on under our noses as we lead our oblivious lives. Stands to reason ...
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- 11 comments
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- 2712 reads
What I promised the sea
I went down to the shore for the last time today: along the old lane, across the dunes, out to the very edge of the land where grey waves slapped...
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- 10 comments
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- 4123 reads
What lay beyond the glass
I found the mirror in the bedroom amongst your belongings. I was about to throw it away when something about the crack in its surface made me look...
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- 4 comments
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- 2048 reads
Where the nettles grew
At the end of the short-grass garden, the small gate leads to the long-grass field. Near the end of the field a fir tree stands apart from the rocks...
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- 6 comments
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- 2683 reads
My dead diary – Sunday 7th February
A dull, grey day after the rain. Sheltered most of the night in the Brompton catacombs, passing the time with a crypt-wraith who had stories to tell...
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- 9 comments
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- 4200 reads