Final Friday Flash Fiction #2

Welcome to the second installment in my series! This is the part of the month where I write a piece of flash fiction based on a prompt you give me! This month's winner is Gray Marie! If you want to find out how you can inspire my next FF, you can find out at the bottom of this post.

What is flash fiction, you ask? FF is a short story written in 1000 words or less. It can be a challenging length to write due to its brevity, but I enjoy the difficulty. I get the opportunity to dive into the emotion of a scene or idea instead of spreading out a plot.

Without further ado, here's this month's story! It's not necessarily up to my normal standards because I wrote it in about two hours (Thanksgiving, y'all). It's based on the picture below.

Life Keepers

Maps. They used to say X marked the spot for treasure. That’s not the case. Not anymore, anyway. It marks the spot, all right, but there’s no treasure. Not unless, of course, you consider your friends and family all gone a treasure. You’re a sick creature if you do. Not even human in my eyes. 

No, on our maps, X marks the spot for the end. The end of someone’s life. It is our job, as Life Keepers, to record the deaths of each person on earth. You know how you might have the fear that you’ll stumble across a dead body at some point? Well, we not only have that fear as a reality, but it’s our job. It stinks.

We go about finding out deaths, writing down how they happened, where they happened, and then move on to the next until the day when the X we mark is our own. Dead person after dead person. You begin to long for the company of a living human being, but that’s not our lot in life. Our lot is to give others closure, answers about their loved ones’ deaths. At least that’s what we were supposed to do. But seeing as you’ve probably never heard of us, that’s not how it ended up. 

I suppose the upside of this whole story is we get to see the world. Traveling is on the bucket list of so many people. That’s a win for us, right? You name the country, we’ve been there. 

It’s a smaller world out there than you might think. There aren't many differences between us all. We all love, hate, laugh, cry, celebrate, and mourn. There are elements that make a culture, yes, but they don’t define humans. We’re more than a culture. We’re more than something that can be defined on paper. And I think that’s one reason why we do our job. We want to find out what brings us closer together instead of further apart. 

It comes with its price, though. Pain. Sorrow. A day never goes by without a death. It’s statistics. Most deaths are normal but still sad. Old age in a hospital or at home. Sometimes a younger person with an illness. Then you have the heartbreaking ones where loved ones are gone too soon. You stand by watching the family and friends grieve. You don’t know these people, but you wish you did. You feel like you do. Maybe if you knew them, you could provide some sort of comfort, but you don’t so you stand in your corner like a creeper taking notes. Move on; never see them again. 

And of course, you can’t forget the deadly ones. The ones where people die tragic, horrific deaths. Some seemingly deserve it. They’re bad guys. They had it coming. But is that really how it’s supposed to be? On our end, we see the aftermath. We see that these people were loved by someone. Not loved by most people, but loved nonetheless. These are the hardest deaths to write about. What do you say? Here is a man who lived an evil life and received his reward for his deeds? Or a man who was loved, but made evil choices and in the end died tragically? And then you walk away wondering if they really deserved it. Or did they deserve a second chance? 

So you see the conundrum of our task. What do we do? What should we say? Is our job worth it? Instead of answering these questions, we choose to stay in the background. We observe from afar. After writing down what we need, we move onto the next person. We avoid contact with the people surrounding the death as much as possible. It’s the reason no one has ever heard of us. But now you’ve heard of us. What are you going to do? Will you sit and nod your head, only to forget about our task once you turn away? Or will you join us and try your best to remember the stories of those who pass away around you and earn a deeper appreciation for humanity? You never know what you might learn. You might even find out something about yourself along the way. Are you in?

~Want to Inspire the Next One?~

As promised, you can enter to win the chance to inspire the next FF. This sign up sheet will remain open until December 1 at noonish. I'll email the winner that afternoon, Lord willing. 

So what did y'all think? Are you still interested in me continuing this series? I can't wait to see what other prompts y'all are able to give me!