Very short original works

[HungLikeJesus]

I thought it would be nice to have a place for very short original stories.

I'll start.

The Killer Frogs

The killer frogs - you may remember reading about them or you may have had more intimate contact with them. I hope not. Perhaps you lost a friend or relative? Maybe a pet? It's even possible that you've seen one, but then you're very lucky ... you're still alive.

They aren't the size of a Citroen, as was once thought. That was rumor, started by the campers who were kept awake one night by the amplified croaking of a herd of feeding frogs, and who found the next morning the freshly stripped bones of two or three Americans soaking in a blood puddle.

And they aren't actually frogs, though they make a croaking sound when feeding and can jump eight or twelve feet - say from the side of the road to the neck of a bicyclist.

They vary in color, from yellow to green to dark brown.

Picture an animal about the size of a field mouse, but with its skin turned inside out and rotted to that color, with piranha teeth and retractable claws.

Imagine a dozen of those leaping out of the trees and the tall grass, landing on your back, holding on with their claws piercing your skin a half-inch or more. Imagine the smell and the feel of their slippery flesh, and the teeth ripping and your slippery flesh, wet from sweat and open wounds, the blood sticky and red-brown and reminding you of the rust that eats at the body of your car the rust that eats at your body the rust bucket that drips in the driveway, dripping you fall in a heap, a rust heap dripping in the driveway, tripping you fall in the knee-deep grass, bare legged and bare boned, dripping you trip and are covered by a shuddering green-brown slick and you slip away as they open your face and suck on your tongue.