This morning I decided I was going to write some flash fiction because I haven’t written any in a while. Since no ideas presented themselves I started searching WordPress for writing prompts. I found one at Today’s Author:

Five days into the new year and her New Year’s Resolution already seemed doomed.

It sparked an idea and the following is the result.

Maybe Next Year

Tonya promised herself she could give up her biggest vice but it was getting harder to resist. For the last five days, since making the New Year’s resolution, she’d walked up and down 2nd street asking herself how she could give up something she truly enjoyed. Deep down she knew she didn’t really want to stop but her health and safety had to be considered. If she kept up her bad habit sooner or later it would kill her. Her mother, then her father died because they stubbornly held onto the same lifestyle she was now choosing to give up. She didn’t want to end up like them.

An attractive man in an expensive suit bumped into her as they passed. He has a cigarette in his mouth and Tonya inhaled it deeply, feeling her self-control slip. Screw it she thought. Turning on her heel she began following the man. The smoke found her no matter which side of the sidewalk she choose, making her cough, but not dissuading her.

It took longer than she hoped but he finally turned down an alley. She’d been watching him since New Year’s Eve and knew he was headed for the backdoor of the building he owned. Quiet as a mouse she made her way directly behind him before he could unlock the door.

When Tonya pressed her knife against his back he offered her his wallet, his watch and his keys. She took all three before stabbing him. As he fell she watched the cigarette fall from his mouth.

“What a filthy habit!” she said. Given her own vice, she knew she had no room to judge, but at least killing people wouldn’t give her lung cancer. Too bad about that resolution but she didn’t really want to give up her knife anyway.

I had no idea I would go creepy when I started writing but it’s nice to feel creative again. I’ve been doing revisions and I’m in the stage where I’m finding all the things I did wrong. This is a nice break from mentally bashing myself over the head.

Rough draft 300 words.