'Bard' by Suzanna Lundale

The scene opens on a river scene. Plentiful swans are placidly swimming. The camera pans to a bridge – not a modern bridge, but a Tudor-era wooden bridge. A young man in early-modern dress leans on the bridge, watching the swans.

“Master Will,” says a female voice. “Well-met, indeed. I wondered if I might find you here.”

The young man smiles shyly. “Mistress Anne. Would it sound a lie if I confessed I was just thinking of you?”

Voice-over: [dreamy, sultry feminine voice] You have read his stories, seen them play out on stage and screen.

The camera irises out. We see the same young man walks in a dense wood, telling himself a story about a fairy queen and her kingly husband, who seeks to embarrass her after she snubs him. Not all of what he says is audible, but the audience can make out the names – Titania and Oberon.

Voice-over: [same voice] But what of the mind that conceived them?

The camera irises out. We see a montage. Will traveling to London. Will meeting men at alehouses, getting deep into discussion with them. The Globe being built. An early rehearsal. Culminating with criers touting Julius Caesar. The montage slows to show us a bit of the “Ides of March” speech.

Voice-over: [same voice] This fall, in theaters everywhere, the tale of William Shakespeare, the Swan of Avon, THE BARD.

'If the Shoe Fits' by Donna M Day

This Halloween she will carve a carriage from the pumpkin, wrap her feet in glass and crash the biggest party of the year.

All she wanted was to dance but now he’s determined to find her.

And he’ll never give up. Even if he must burn the whole world to cinders. 

'Lab Rat' by Jaime Bree

When the crew of a Starship are contaminated on a routine mission in Deep Space, one man discovers he's more than just a pawn in a sinister experiment and it might take his future to undo his past.

OVER BLACK

SUPER - ELEVENTH HOUR - 5th November 2078

V.O

It’s not everyday you learn the person you hate the most is

responsible for millions of deaths.

SLOW FADE TO:

- Siren

- Red lights flash

V.O (CONT'D)

My father.

MEXICAN STAND OFF.

GATS aims his gun at MASON who returns the favour.

DEVLIN, moves her aim between the two.

GATS

Ask him how he did it.

- Flashes of bodies and blood

- Siren accompanied by slow ticking.

Gats pushes his gun into Mason's head, hand shaking.

Mason pushes his into Gats' throat.

MASON

DEVLIN! DO SOMETHING! I don't wanna

have to shoot this fucker...

- Ticking. Faster.

- Lights flash.

- Faster

- Siren. Loud.

- Retro clock flips backwards.

CUT TO:

Gats slumps down the wall, licks powder from a tiny transparent bag, runs it round his mouth.

His head smashes against the wall, eyes wildly stare.

He gasps, body rigid.

- Lights flicker.

- Dots of colour trip across the floor.

He grabs at them. They bounce off the ceiling, cause electric shocks as they hit the lights.

- Light explodes from the impact, drops slowly, hangs in the air like fire-flies.

- White wall opposite swirls into a 1970s psychedelic trip.

- The swirl opens, creating a doorway beyond the wall.

Gats walks in.

- Huge Tetris-style blocks crash to the ground forming a maze-like pathway.

A silhouetted figure walks towards him.

V.O

In space everyone can hear you

scream. Even from the future.

The figure steps closer.

FIGURE

Hello Dad.

Gats, shocked, reaches out as

- his son propels backwards into the wall. His body explodes into coloured dust.

GATS

No!

- Red lights flicker.

- Flashes of bodies and blood.

CUT TO:

Gats holds a gun to his own head. Hand shaking.

SLAM TO BLACK: 

- Clock ticks slowly.

- Breathing.

- Ticking

- Slower.

- ... Slower.

- Nothing.

A retro flip clock clicks backwards.

'Show Time' by Geraldine McCarthy

It’s time to play the music. It’s time to light the lights. It’s time to teach the students who’ve been partying all night.  

You don your fancy work clothes. Review your copious notes. You stride into the lecture hall and rehearse your better jokes.  

The students up the back are sleeping. Such a shame to disturb. You switch on your microphone, and they look rather perturbed. 

The PowerPoint isn’t working. So it’s over to plan B. Chalk, and talk, and stories, and oh poor me, poor me.  

The girls in row three are chatting, the beardy bloke scrolls through his phone. You know in your heart that everyone would prefer to be at home. 

You mention the word ‘tip’, and in the same sentence ‘exam’. A silence descends. Now they’re eating out of your palm. 

You wrap up proceedings, knowing you haven’t lost your touch. Pity you’ll have to go through the same ding-dong with third years after lunch.

The Six Forty Eight straight though to Euston by Stella Turner

 

Silence alarm clock, empty bladder, quick swill, shave, neck a cup of coffee; grab his lunch, out in record time. No kissing his wife goodbye, she complains, it wakes her. She isn’t a lark. Neither is he. He tells his kids he drives Thomas the Tank. They don’t believe him. He has to believe. He’s following his father’s giant footsteps. He wants his own footprints. The noisy commuters crowding on his train, the guard waiting to give the signal, he slips back onto to the platform running towards the future as if his life depends on it. The guard waving his arms, making hand signals at his disappearing back. Damn he’d left his lunch in the cab!

NFFD 2023 Prompt #16: Show Time

 

Show Time

Welcome to The Write-In!  This year, we're celebrating the 2023 National Flash Fiction Day Anthology theme of time.  Throughout National Flash Fiction Day, we'll be posting one time-related prompt on the hour every hour from now until midnight (BST), for a total of 25 prompts in all.  You have until midnight on Sunday (BST) to submit your responses for possible publication here at the Write-In.  We'll start posting responses on Sunday, 25 June 2023....

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Write a story in the form of a film trailer.  You can focus just on the text of the trailer, or if you wish, you can intersperse descriptions of the images that would display alongside your text.  

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If you’re submitting this to us, make sure to note that this is a response to Prompt 16: Show Time.

You can submit responses until 23:59 BST on Sunday, 25 June 2023 for a chance to be published here at The Write-In.

You can claim the badge for this prompt until 23:59 BST on Sunday, 2 July 2023 by going to the here (hosted by the NFFD website).