Drabble Thursdays #3

Wow, this week's stories are overwhelmingly dark. Maybe next week I'll have some happier ones.

DISCLAIMER: Drabbles may suck.

12/13/2012

The girl climbed up to the chair, and sat with the large man that was there.

He was clothed entirely in red, very old with a ragged white beard. His face was screwed up in a malevolent sneer. “What do you want for Christmas, kid?” he said.

“I don't believe in Santa,” said the girl. “I just came up here 'cause my parents made me.”

“Is that so?” the man growled. “I see. Well, I'll let the real Santa know you're a nonbeliever.”

That night, while the girl was sleeping, the rogue elf dressed as Santa snuck into the room.

12/14/2012

There are three kinds of Sandman. The first is a mythical man who puts children to sleep at night. The second is a Spiderman villain. The third is me.

It's kind of tough, honestly. Living beneath a desert, I mean. The thing about sand is that it could collapse at any moment. But that's also what makes me feel safe. I may be enclosed all the time, but it's in my home, and I know my home so well that it's comfortable that way.

Now if I ever have kids, I just hope they can agree to all of that.

12/15/2012

The night is not an oppressive darkness, meant to keep people enclosed in the safety of their homes. People only choose to look at it that way. Even on a cloudy night, the stars and the moon shine through and onto the world. The few who live for the night understand this. They learn to look for the black shapes and still blacker ones, side by side, representing objects in a new way. People forget that darkness is the normal state of things, and that light is a unique privilege that allows us to see. Don't take it for granted.

12/16/2012

The warrior stood on all fours, maintaining the disguise of the wolf skin he was wearing. It was the best way he could think of to blend in with nature. Animals didn't know any better.

Across the clearing, a woman limped along. The forest creatures scattered at the sight of her, but it didn't matter. There was something odd about her, and the warrior ran to her.

She stopped and stared at him. Then, when he was about a foot away, she pounced.

She wasn't a woman at all. She was a wolf in a human's skin, the perfect disguise.

12/17/2012

Before anyone knew what was happening, the blast had engulfed everything. Only people watching from far away could see it, but even in all the dust one thing was clear: New York City was gone.

The people standing on the fringe didn't even know what to do. They were just stunned: how could this be? There hadn't been an attack on American soil in 500 years.

News traveled instantly across the world, and an automated response system was sent to try and repair the damage. The system didn't have the intelligence to know this was useless: it was all gone.

12/18/2012

He lives on the roof of the tallest building in the city, looking down past all the lines of windows and down onto the streets and the sidewalks. In the daylight, he is entertained by watching the swirls of people massing around, walking back and forth, living their normal lives. At night, he watches the play of the few lights that stay on into the morning hours. He doesn't eat or drink or sleep. He just sits on the roof and watches everything.

Nobody knows he exists, until one day, tragically, he moves slightly, and he falls from the roof.

12/19/2012

In a society ruled by snakes, culture and civilization would be very difficult. How would snakes build architecture, paint pictures, or write things down?

Imagine the Snake Olympics. Well, there goes gymnastics, at least. And swimming? Well, there are water snakes, but they'd win by default. I imagine there would always be a certain species of snake that would win at a certain event. Perhaps their entire society would be organized by that principle. Can you imagine the classes that snakes would be organized into?

Snakes, of course, have never imagined this situation, where they're higher than humans—or have they?