200 words

A selection of 200-word pieces; 'relentless whimsy' but what's wrong with that?

Cherry

Planet Earth is blue 18

A story in 200-word episodes. Falling into the sun.
Cherry

A fragile past

The danger of looking after time-travelling despots.

Aethelstan's vision

The old Saxon king wonders whether all the fighting was worth it. (200 words)

Dante's train

Purgatorial choices at Clapham Junction
Cherry

Doncaster

So what do you do if someone says that God lives in their shed?
Cherry

Troll bridge

The old world may be under concrete now but we shouldn't assume that it's disappeared.
Cherry

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)

The Locket

A ghost story (200 words)
Cherry

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...

The old god

How gods end their days (perhaps)
Cherry

Love in a time of apocalypse

I will always remember our last moments: memories literally burned into what’s left of my mind.

The black angel and the seventh son

On the pros and cons of cheating death.

The guitar and its ghosts

Man buys guitar and wakes dead. Does it for love apparently.
Cherry

Jacob's ladder

Climbing up the stairs that lead from earth into the heavens, all you can carry is a bit of hope.

The horseman - part 1

A familiar dark-hooded rider brings a devastating storm to town. What else is there to do but fight?

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 ...
Cherry

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."
Cherry

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)

The horseman - part 5

Death's three colleagues decide to intervene ...
Cherry

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)

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.

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.
Cherry

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).
Cherry

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.

Wyrm

If you go down to the woods today ... Just because they're in stories, it doesn't make them safe.

Wyrm 2

What lies at the heart of the blizzard ... (not a sequel)
Cherry

Wyrm 3

Not a sequel - just a series of stories, loosely connected by our scaly friends.

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'.
Cherry

Wyrm 6

When have space-time wormholes ever been good for the world? Who knows what might be dredged up?

Wyrm 7

He's waiting ...
Cherry

End of days 1

A final battle looms to end all others (possibly for real this time).
Cherry

End of days 2

I always hate the hour before a battle.
Cherry

End of days 3

Mr McKenzie was the first person I killed.
Cherry

End of days 4

The battle begins. Demons and sofas.

End of days 5

Finally, the charge. Tea memories and pit devils and the darkness ahead.
Cherry

End of days 6

And then everything returned to normal again. Except it didn't.

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.
Cherry

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?
Cherry

End of days 9

A serialisation of 200-word chapters. At night in the hospital, plans are made for an escape.
Cherry

End of days 10

A serialisation of 200-word chapters. The illusion of the hospital begins to break apart, or does it?
Cherry

End of days 11

A serial of 200-word chapters. In the darkness at the heart of the hospital lie shadow and flame.
Cherry

End of days 12

A serialisation of 200-word chapters. Drugged up in the asylum director's office, our hero remembers his holy sword ...
Cherry

End of days 13

A story in 200-word chapters. At the far end of an asylum, the celestial war reaches its conclusion.
Cherry

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).
Cherry

Planet Earth is blue 1

A story in 200-word chapters. Hiding in an asteroid, and the feel of the cold stone there.
Cherry

Planet Earth is blue 2

A story in 200 word chapters. Captured on the asteroid, waiting ...

Planet Earth is blue 3

A story in 200 word chapters. You meet all sorts in prison.
Cherry

Planet Earth is blue 4

A story in 200 word chapters. Entrancing women from deep space are likely to be trouble.

Planet Earth is blue 5

A story in 200 word chapters. A bad battle and Rhea's lost children.
Cherry

Planet Earth is blue 6

A story in 200 word chapters. Cold, outer space and dreams of childhood.
Cherry

Planet Earth is blue 8

A story in 200 word chapters. Conversation on the moon.
Cherry

Planet Earth is blue 9

A story in 200-word chapters. Returning to Earth's remains and a temple in the forest.
Cherry

Planet Earth is blue 10

A story in 200-word chapters. Conversation at gunpoint.
Cherry

Planet Earth is blue 11

A story in 200 word 'instalments'. Moonlight in the temple and time standing still.
Cherry

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.
Cherry

Planet Earth is blue 13

A story of sorts in 200 word episodes. Lily meets the angel Uriel and bad things inevitably happen.
Cherry

Planet Earth is blue 14

A story in 200-word episodes. Encounters with angels on the moons of Jupiter (special Christmas edition!)
Cherry

Planet Earth is blue 15

A story in 200-word episodes - but come and join at any point ... Battles commencing.
Cherry

Planet Earth is blue 16

A story in 200-word episodes. Celestial double-agents and more fighting!
Cherry

Planet Earth is blue 17

A story in 200-word episodes. Set the controls for the heart of the sun ...
Cherry

Planet Earth is blue 19

A story in 200-word episodes. After the explosion, watching the death of the sun
Cherry

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!
Cherry

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 ...
Cherry

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.
Cherry

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)
Cherry

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.

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.
Cherry

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.
Cherry

If you meet me, have some sympathy 9

A story in 200-word episodes. The thin line between department stores and Hell's furnaces.
Cherry

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.
Cherry

If you meet me, have some sympathy 11

A story in 200-word episodes. Heaven and Hell hiding out in a council estate.
Cherry

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.
Cherry

If you meet me, have some sympathy 13

A story in 200 word weekly episodes. Even devils hate camping ...
Cherry

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 ...
Cherry

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.
Cherry

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 ...
Cherry

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.
Cherry

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 ...
Cherry

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 ...
Cherry

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.
Cherry

If you meet me, have some sympathy 21

A story in 200-word episodes. Our infernal hero escapes from cyberspace but loses his disguise.
Cherry

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.
Cherry

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.
Cherry

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.
Cherry

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.
Cherry

If you meet me, have some sympathy 26

A story in 200-word episodes. In which an angel and devil begin a beautiful friendship.
Story of the week

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.
Cherry

My dead diary - parties

A story with 200-word episodes. In which there is much drinking and inappropriate behaviour but not very much plot.
Cherry

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.
Cherry

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.
Cherry

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 ...
Cherry

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...
Cherry

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...

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...
Cherry

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...