FICTION | DYSTOPIA | WRITING PROMPT | CHALLENGE | DRABBLE
5 Dystopian Drabbles
Five connected stories of 100-words
In the last week, I was inspired by Jann Christoph von der Pütten’s dystopian prompts and JF Danskin’s drabble challenge. I’m in! But when deciding which one to do first, I asked myself: por que no los dos?
What follows are five 100-words stories, as per JF’s challenge, each based on one of Jann’s prompts. Stay until the end for a challenge to yourself!
Unseen
They’re all dead, which is unfortunate. I created the mining company because I needed blood. More blood than was available, anyway.
In the golden times, a boy would disappear and that wouldn’t raise suspicions. After the mine’s depletion, with just a few families living in the town, they soon caught up.
Yes, I am a vampire. It’s a blessing, I think, but they seemed to differ. So they fought. They lost.
Now I have to leave the town if I don’t want to starve. But it’s a good thing. The town was a prison. Now I can run free. Unshackled.
Unshackled
They didn’t believe us. They said we were crazy.
“Golems?” they said. “In the woods? Fairies too?”
Yes, actually.
They laughed. I hate politicians.
We didn’t want to scare the general population so, for centuries, we kept their existence a secret. But the forest golems were growing angrier and angrier. The pollution fed their rage, and we’d no longer be able to hold them without help.
But we asked, and they laughed.
No one will laugh now. They will all scream and cry.
Tonight, the golems freed themselves from the ancient shackles. And humanity will be taken by surprise. Unprotected.
Unprotected
This is my last entry. I have to go, but I’m not taking you with me.
You’ve been a good companion through the lonely meals, the lonely nights, the lonely everything. But I’m running out of food and, though I know facing zombies is the stupidest choice I can make, it’s the only one.
I’m sorry for leaving you alone, unprotected, but I want someone to find you, in the future. If I take you out there with me, the chances of you being lost forever are too high.
When future generations find the bunker, you’ll be waiting. Untouched. Unread.
Unread
Nana told me the stories, but I didn’t believe her — who would believe stories about books?
She taught me how to read the ancient symbols but from that to believing everything was a big leap. Worlds hidden inside books? Taking people on journeys through space and time? Coocoo.
But then I found the book on the frozen pond, lost, forgotten, unread. I was immediately transported into the world hidden in that book.
She was right: magic!
In the back, I found instructions on how to find The Library. I can’t go back now. A world without books is unhabitable.
Unhabitable
We’ve made a mistake. The world didn’t listen to science.
Our poisonous methane emissions delayed it, but the next ice age was upon us. We’re humans, though. We always survive.
We found a way to live in the underground. We haven’t seen a day in hundreds of years, but we know they’re there. We still have our science, from the plants fed by artificial lights to the atomic generators that power those lights.
One day, we’ll come out, back to where we belong. Until then, we will be hidden from the cold stare the universe shoots down at us. Unseen.
Thanks JF Danskin and Jann Christoph von der Pütten for the inspiration! Now I challenge you two (and everyone who wants to join) to write a String of Drabbles.
Write at least 3 drabbles (it can be more), and link them together. It can be a theme, a word, a setting, a character, whatever you want. Get creative! As long as there are at least three drabbles and they're connected somehow. Are you up for the challenge?
You can finally make your dream of buying me a ko-fi come true! I’ll have a quad Americano, please. But if it’s after 4 PM, make it decaf — I already have enough trouble sleeping because of, you know, all the voices in my head.
If you want more of my fiction, this cyberpunk series is pretty dystopian:
