“Grotesque”: A SciFanSat Microfiction Compilation

Few specify that adults aren't the only grotesque strangers hiding beneath fey masks. Yet, many hold lanterns for apocalyptic rituals, spewing libel on wraiths they aim to suffer through doll prisons. Agony shall eat them well. #SciFanSat #vssmurder #GrimList2020 #SatSpark #366FF pic.twitter.com/DrQYgwql9B

— Lexi Lefevre (@LexiIsAWriter) October 3, 2020

Tales told in the flickering fires, things they'd seen. Twin moons rising. Beautiful cities, fine as spider silk. And at the edge of the light, eyes watching. Things too grotesque to speak of. #SciFanSat #grotesque

— Voimaoy (@voimaoy) October 3, 2020

“Hey, Brak!” Ginda yelled to her fellow dwarf. “What’s worse than that band of goblins we fought?”

With a zombie growl, a grotesque spider of eight arms, two heads and a torso sewn together rounded a corridor.

“Their reanimated leftovers!” she finished.#SciFanSat #SlapDashSat

— Jason H. Abbott (@Jason_H_Abbott) October 3, 2020

I will find no sleep
Never to rest
Never #relax
For he haunts the
Nightmare hours
With razored lullabies
He was denied once
Now his #ritual
Must be observed
His broken mouth
Stretching wide
A #grotesque parody
Of a smile
As he carves my own#vss365 #SciFanSat #vssmurder #SatSplat

— Anna💫✨🇦🇺 (@annaburnswrites) October 3, 2020

“Hey, just #relax.”
Three words and a smile. He’d done it, taken a drink, grinned back. The faux-woman touched his arm, drew him into liquid eyes.
Hours later, he woke in a cellar. Others were there, darker shadows, faces, grotesque, in narrow slats of light.#vss365#scifansat

— John Everex (@EverexJohn) October 3, 2020

I can't #relax after the #grotesque #ritual summoning of the #skelf
The being twists & pulses like a crimson bruise in the air, words punctuated by dripping blood
"Your command?" it hisses
"Find source of #libel"#vss365 #BraveWrite #SciFanSat #satsplat #AchtenWrite #vssmurder pic.twitter.com/BYozALvUGL

— 🤩 Debbie Iancu-Haddad 🍒 (@debbieiancu) October 3, 2020

I hum songs of which, the words I know not but at night I heard them sung, from my crib, when I was young.
Made me laugh, dark thing #grotesque, saying goodnight kissing my neck.
Now Halloween’s near, kids oh dear;
Our treats’ll send them to their end. #Scifansat #Satsplat

— FizzyNeedsABiggerCauldron (@Fizzytwizler) October 3, 2020

Inside the grounds of the house, Sue finally stopped for breath.

"Thank God," she panted, "finally a chance to #relax."

Dave looked up, "That gargoyle moved!"

"It's a #grotesque", she said, rolling her eyes.

"I don't care, it's coming this way… run!"#vss365 #SciFanSat

— That Burnt Writer (@ThatBurntWriter) October 3, 2020

Long pointed ears & a wiry reddish beard framed his face where a large wart crowned the tip of his nose. He wore a plaid kilt under his grimy apron covered in cooking splatters. His grotesque features were thrown into sharp relief in the dim hallway light. #SciFanSat #SlapDashSat

— C Lee (@cleestories) October 3, 2020

As a bot he wasn't supposed to be aware of his code. But a power surge had overwritten his hard drive. Now he could see he was programmed to #relax his subjects. To distract them with memes, short videos, anything so they wouldn't notice the #grotesque agenda #vss365 #SciFanSat

— sam carr (@sam_c4rr) October 3, 2020

0/XF
"You do know what Eeri & his horde have been sowing on Earth?"
"Discord." Luna blew a dark cloud, her #grotesque emanation frightening.
"Do you think the Council …"
She cut in.
"To preserve the universal treaty, they #relax the rules, his antics remain."#vss365 #scifansat

— aran (@AranPotente) October 3, 2020

The #Apocalypse life wasn't exactly #relaxing.

No time for that, what with the #grotesque #supernatural monsters to deal with.

Miles #grinned to himself, hacking up another zombie.

Still beat the old office grind, right?#SaturdaySurvival #vss365 #SciFanSat #SatSplat #whistpr

— Nicklaus Kruger (@ThatLousyNick) October 3, 2020

The portal stood, an onyx sphere blending into the night, almost unnoticeable in the darkness. With a howl, a grotesque beast burst through, with the head of a lion and body of a rat and a tail of a thousand spikes.

It raised its sword. There was work to be done.#scifansat

— Yosen (@yosenspace) October 3, 2020

Already people are calling the place haunted—that grotesque Victorian house that belonged to Joe Barker. Children stand in the street and stare at it during the day, but they won’t go near it at night. They feared Mr. Barker in life, but in death…#vss365 #SatSplat #SciFanSat

— Armond the Incredible (@armondboudreaux) October 3, 2020

"#Relax" said the strange alien "To you I may look grotesque, but in the place where I come from, I am a thing of pure beauty"#SciFanSat #grotesque#vss365#amwriting

— Arvind Iyer (@ArvindIyer15) October 3, 2020

#Grotesque had consumed Vera's thin face in a morning-mirror
Its frame urged her to #relax
She hurriedly came back to a box
An inner cohesion was thinning with its every element
On this earthy profusion
she waited for a secluded starlight to confess#Poetry#SciFanSat #vss365

— Mou G (@writer_Mou_G) October 3, 2020

1. Procrastinate until the end of the semester
2. Conduct the #ritual without checking notes
3. Chase the #grotesque creature off into the woods
4. When the exorcists come to investigate the haunting, feign ignorance
5. Change your major
6. #Relax #vss365 #vssmurder #SciFanSat

— Laila Amado (@onbonbon7) October 3, 2020

I planted a seed of thought, a flower, a fruit, brain food. A plastic pot on a windowsill in October. A green shoot in January. Repotted In March. It grows. It grows. Flowers in May. Grows n grows. Petals fall away. The #grotesque fruits grow in my head. Brain food#scifansat

— Steve🌳Be🌸A🐕Birch🐇 (@PatchieSteve) October 3, 2020

#scifansat

The #grotesque loomed over the city square, gargoyle eyes unblinking in vigilance over the movements of the populace.

If only they knew it depicted something real. A skeleton in Governor Reidel's closet.

Of course, I cannot speak of this – my fate would be sealed. pic.twitter.com/ieInq6DW8D

— John Tannhauser (@JohnTannhauser) October 3, 2020

The armies clashed in a sodden valley and the knights were soon knee-deep in the mire. The conscripts laughed, killed the men who’d dragged them from their hearths and posed their corpses in a grotesque tableau. “No sight as #relaxing as a dead lord,” said one.#SciFanSat #vss365

— Lɪʙʙʏ Dᴏʏʟᴇ (@LibbyDoyle9) October 3, 2020