FLASH FICTION | WRITING CHALLENGE

Stage Left

This timed flash fiction writing challenge stipulated that the story be set in a theatre, include somebody shouting and use the words ‘uncomfortable, record, and shrink' within a 500-word limit.

Arpad Nagy
The Short Place
Published in
3 min readOct 5, 2024

--

Image created by author using Leonardo AI.

Oh, how she so loved opening night! The candelabra and the costumes. The beautiful ballerinas and the handsome danseurs in their tights, tutus, and pointe shoes. The finest Parisians in the formal gowns and fine suits. The music, stage designs, and heavenly voices of the opera!

There was no place on record like the Palais Garnier. The Louvre, or Eiffel Tower, may say “Paris,” but the famous, opulent, grand opera house said, “Oui, Paris!”

Christine hadn’t missed a show in years, and tonight was her favourite ballet of all time — Le Corsaire! She swooned over the dastardly pirate, Conrad and yearned to be Medora, the slave girl he loved. As the performance went on, she imagined herself in the throws of passion, awaiting Conrad’s dramatic rescues and thwarting her pursuers, escaping abduction.

She lived and breathed the ballet and opera; the stage was her destiny. Tonight, all Paris would know her name — Christine! As in Gaston Leroux’s famous The…

--

--

Arpad Nagy
The Short Place

A Proud Hungarian-Canadian, throwback romantic who loves to write. Editor @ Kitchen Tales,The Short Place (Fiction) The Memoirist, Age of Empathy, The Book Cafe