Hello, dear Prosers!

     Three months ago, I posted a challenge to celebrate the release of my short story collection, Ten Minutes to Two and Other Tales of the Sinister and Surreal. The challenge asked you to explore a person’s struggle to come to terms with a strange, sinister, or surreal reality in a short story or work of flash fiction. And now the time has come to announce the winners!

      Just before that announcement, however, I would like to take a moment to thank each and every entrant for participating. I can honestly say that I enjoyed every piece and the creativity of all the challenge entrants was absolutely inspiring. I read the entries as they came in and re-read each one after the close of the challenge, and every single story was compelling, unique, and rich with meaning that was only enhanced through multiple readings.

     I must also say that due to the very high standard of the entries, I did not have an easy time choosing the winners! I wish I could give a prize to everyone but unfortunately there can only be so many. Before naming the three winners, I would like to give honorable mentions to the following two entries:

     Mountain Game, Broken_Toe

          https://theprose.com/post/158916/mountain-game

     Restitution, EAllain

          https://theprose.com/post/159307/restitution

And now for the winners:

3rd Place (500 coins)

     Cuttlefish Garden, Acadec56

          https://theprose.com/post/156500/cuttlefish-garden

2nd Place (1000 coins)

      In the Blood, HermitThrush

          https://theprose.com/post/151780/in-the-blood          

1st Place (2000 coins)

     Homeward, Ferryman

          https://theprose.com/post/170843/homeward

Congratulations to Acadec56, HermitThrush, and Ferryman! In addition to the coins, you will each receive a signed copy of my collection.

     Thank you so much again, to the winners and to all the entrants, for your stories and your support of my writing through participation in the challenge.

Four miles

does not seem very far, 

does not sound very far,

even in a city like Los Angeles.

Especially at three in the morning,

when you can safely assume

traffic will be light;

and even on a bicycle - 

     I was in pretty good shape - 

I figured I could be to your place

in fifteen, twenty minutes tops

and told you so over the phone,

telling you to just hold on, 

just wait fifteen minutes and I would

be there and we could talk it out, 

that I would stay with you until the morning

and then we could go get coffee in

Santa Monica and I would skip work

and spend the day with you, so just

hold on, don't do anything you will

regret.

I love you like a brother, I told you,

and just hang on until I get there,

goddammit. But no matter how hard

I rode, and how many cars there actually were

out at three-fifteen a.m. and how many

nearly ran me over, it turns out that

four miles is exactly the distance

from before to after,

from the possible to the irreversible,

from one side of the world

     to the other. 

From one broken heart to two.

Rule 1. No girls.

Rule 2. No baths. 

Rule 3. No parents. 

Rule 4. The clubhouse location is top secret. Guard it with your life. 

Rule 5. President has the power to decide who's in or out. 

Amendment #1

Rule 1. Seriously no girls. I don't care if she "has nice hair," Jonathan. 

Amendment #2

Rule 4. What don't you get about SECRET, Elliot? I appreciate the enthusiasm in the efforts to take down the girls, but when you decide to eat their faces, don't do it in the clubhouse. 

Amendment #3 

Rule 6. Absolutely no kissing. (Credit: Thank you Marcus for the correction)

Amendment #4

Rule 2. A bath and a date? That's the last straw, Jay, you're out. 

Amendment #5

Rule 5. But order of popular uprising, the President has been replaced with democratic rule. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, Michael. And take a bath, jeez. 

Amendment #6

Omit "No Girls" and permit the girls. 

Public Notice:

Cootie shots will be administered on Tuesday.

(Just in case)

1.) Be born.

2.) Notice you are different from the other boys or girls, and you are not sure how.

3.) Go through puberty.

4.) Now you are sure how.

5.) Learn that the word that describes you is an insult word.

6.) Learn that all of the words that describe you are insult words.

7.) Think about suicide.

8.) See positive gay people on TV or Internet, think it gets better.

9.) Get beaten up by the football team.

10.) Graduate High School a virgin.

11.) Spend your entire 20's correcting that condition numerous times in numerous ways with numerous guys.

12.) Find one guy to love.

13.) Lose your job when your boss finds out you are gay.

14.) Move in with your new love.

15.) Plan to adopt children.

16.) Plan his funeral.

17.) Be homeless when his parents kick you out of the place you lived in for ten years since to them you were just the "roommate" since you were never legally married.

18.) Nation wins the legal right to get married, but a bit too late for you.

19.) Move in with a woman you met in college, she had a crush on you, she got married to some other gay guy, and is now divorced.

20.) She meets a guy who is actually straight. She says you can stay, but you know you have to go.

21.) Live in your car.

22.) Get new job in gay coffee house, sleep on a cot in the back room.

23.) Meet a man.

24.) Serve him coffee every day.

25.) Fall in love.

26.) Actually get married this time.

27.) Move in together, adopt three Cantonese kids and three Siamese cats.

28.) Live Happily Ever After.

- Bob, when she's 13, in her bedroom, covered in pink, the pussy bleeds

- John, 16, in his bedroom, covered with poster girls

 *repeat 2x, until he dumps her for another girl

- Brad, 18, in her dorm room, while roomie sleeps

 *every night until she leaves him for...

- Henry, 19, in his dorm room, while roomie secretly watches

 *2x a week, until he gets kicked out of school

- Michael, 22, in a dingy motel room, first blowjob

 *he didn't call

- Phillip and Paul, 22, in a different motel room, first three-way

- Can't remember name, 22, in a dark alley, in exchange for heroin

- More names, unremembered, 22-25, various locations, usually strung-out

- John (a different one), 26, another motel room, first foray into BDSM

- Steven, 26, back to the alley, in exchange for heroin

 *2x a week, until she "quits"

- Monte, 27, first interracial fuck

- Tim and Theodore, 27, their place, another three-way

- Tiffany, 28, in a nice hotel, first same-sex encounter

- Wanda and Robert, 28, their place, another three-way

 *repeat 3x, until Wanda gets too jealous

- Sylvester, 29, in a van, exchanged for heroin

 *repeat 12x, until thrown in jail

- Marie, Stella, Connie, that redhead, 2 unnamed guards, 30, in her jail cell

- Matthew, 30, in a halfway house

 *repeat 2x, then he confesses he has...

- AIDS, 35, alone in the bathroom, last masturbation, last breath

One. You used me. 

Two, I let you, because I could not stand to see you hurting. 

Three, on the  night you called me from your car, drunk and broken, I was sitting on my floor, depressed and breaking. 

Four, I never loved you. Four, I just wanted to make you less broken, four, I am tired of watching you lie in the dirt and complain when it gets in your mouth, four, you need to find somebody else to abuse. 

Five. Don't come crawling back to me when your supports crumble under the weight of your cowardice.

Six. You know I would take your call.

The minute I woke up I could tell. Something was off in the garden of Eden, but I couldn't say what. The emerald trees still glittered brightly, with technicolor apples and pomegranates dangling enticingly from their branches. Vivid butterflies still alighted onto the flowers that spotted the ground around the cool rivers. I slowly got up from where Adam and I had been resting under a leafy overhang, careful not to wake him.

I began to walk to one of the many streams, when a huge gust of wind blew my hair back. Startled, I looked up to the sky, where grey clouds were beginning to form. My heart clenched in my chest. Was He angry with us? God had never sent bad weather before, but what would prompt him to now? Quickly, I whirled around to tell Adam, but stopped when I saw her.

A pale woman was sitting against a tree in the middle of the garden. Her lanky blonde hair whipped around in the wind, obscuring her face from my view. She was wearing a tattered grey tunic, that appeared as if it had once been white. Intrigued, I approached her, intending to ask where she had come from. Once I was close enough, I could finally see her face. In contrast to her clothes and hair, her face was luminescent. Huge, red-rimmed blue eyes bored into the ground, as if trying to read something. An innocent mouth curved gently into a frown. In the stormy atmosphere, she appeared to glow.

"Excuse me", I started, "are you alright?"

It was as if I hadn't spoken. The radiant girl continued to stare at the tulips sprouting under her feet. Maybe she just hadn't heard me. I tried again.

"Who are you?"

Finally, she looked up at me, grimacing with the slight movement. She shifted slightly, and my breath caught. Magnificent white wings spread behind her, but they looked as if someone had tried to hack them off. Her back was covered in blood, some spilling onto the grass. Where the blood dropped onto the ground, the grass withered into grey stalks.

"I am the morning star."

Overhead, a clap of thunder sounded. For a morning star, she looked incredibly dismal.

"Do you have a name? Mine is Eve."

Her crystal eyes locked onto mine, and my head started to spin. She was beautiful.

"You can call me Dawn."

What a fitting name for someone so bright. It looked like the sun was caught inside her skin. The feeling of something being wrong left me immediately as I was enveloped by her warmth. For a moment, I couldn't speak, my awe was so great.

"How did you get here?"

Dawn didn't break eye contact with me.

"I'll tell you, but you must heed my warning: your God is dangerous."

How could God be dangerous? My feelings of doubt crept up again, but I forced them down. I was curious as to what she had to say.

"I was once an angel who served your God. My service was my life, and I became His closest friend. Together, we ruled a paradise even greater than the one you have here. He began to become distant, though, and cruel. His jealousy of the power I was gaining grew until I was no longer bright in his eyes."

I find it hard to believe that Dawn could have been dull at any point in her life. Her eyes filled with tears as she continued.

"Today he cast me out. He cut my wings and threw me down here. If you think your God is great, then think again. He is violent. He brought suffering upon me, and now I can never see paradise again. Eat of this tree, and you'll know the truth."

Dawn took a shuddering breath, then slumped against the tree. Slowly, I glanced up. The fruit glittered temptingly. I reached up to pick a pomegranate, when the garden was suddenly lit by a strike of lightning. Realization quickly flooded my mind. This was the Forbidden Tree.

"I can't eat this fruit. God told me it was forbidden!"

Dawn's face became ripped with fury.

"After everything I've told you, you still trust the word of God? He doesn't care about you! He is lying! Everything that he says harms others! He hurts innocent people like me!"

At this point, Dawn was screaming. Rain began to pour down, and she looked at me. I felt like I was being torn open and lain out for her to see my soul. The dizzy feeling overcame me again, and my hesitations disappeared. Dawn wouldn't lie to me. She was bright, and pure. I could trust Dawn. Besides, what was the harm in knowledge?

I turned to the wet branches of the tree and enclosed my hand around a piece of fruit. With Dawn's icy eyes fixed on me, I took a bite.

All the trees in the garden fell down, shattering the earth. Wet tornadoes of leaves, fruit, flowers, dirt, and rocks tore over the ground. Thunder and lighting cracked through the clouds, and I screamed. I turned to Dawn, but in her place was an amber serpent. Terror seized me, and I stood frozen to the dying earth.

God screamed overhead as the serpent lunged for my throat. A flash as bright as a morning star burned my eyes, and then all was dark.