The Way Out

By G. Deyke

One month.

Thirty-one stories.

Thirteen challenges.

Often dark, sometimes desperate, sometimes droll – and, occasionally, hopeful – these 31 very short stories (exploring everything from the mermaids of today to the museums of the future) contain a little something for everyone. Written entirely during July 2020 as a part of Flash Fiction Month.

• Language: English
• Publisher: G. Deyke
• Release date: Sep 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005619312

G. Deyke

G. Deyke is an indie author of games, novels, short stories, flash fiction, and the occasional poem. They will write anything from humor to horror to fairy tales, but have a particular penchant for speculative fiction: especially (though not exclusively) fantasy. They currently reside in a small village in southern Germany. Due to a tragic imbalance of their machismo-to-sense ratio, G. Deyke can never refuse a ridiculous challenge.

Book preview

The Way Out

by G. Deyke

Copyright 2020 G. Deyke

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

Thank you for your download of this ebook. You’re free to share it non-commercially as much as you like, provided it remains complete, unaltered, and properly attributed: print it on your plague-averting facemasks, fold it into a series of paper planes with which to annoy your socially-distanced companions, use it to smother a wildfire. The words printed on your wildfire-smothering material will have no effect on its efficacy, but they won’t be an infringement of copyright.

If you enjoyed this book (in the form of a poorly aimed paper plane or otherwise), please consider taking a look at G. Deyke’s other work. (If you enjoyed it in the form of a stranger’s facemask, take a step back: you’re probably standing too close.)

Thank you for your support.

Contents

Introduction

Account History

Blood for the Weeping Tree

The Long Wait

Blending In

The Best Day of the Month

Like

The Chambermaid and the Keeper of the Keys

Eye Candy

The Crushing Black

Tonight

Ascent

The Garden

1-Star Recipe Review

Two Starlings at Sunset

Child of the Forest

Black Box

The Friendship of the Sun

For Love of the Empire

One Hundred Dead Mermaids

The Way Out

A Customer Service Complaint

Jasmine's Mask

Fear of Falling

Pointy Things With Clouded Eyes

The Burning of Cob Weaver

The Sword That Would Bring Them Down

The Besom of Rose and Myrrh

Keep an Eye on Your Baggage at All Times

Dream of Tomorrow

Call Down the Moon

Any Reason

Closing Words

Find G. Deyke Online

Introduction

For me, as for many, it has been a year of troubles and extremes, and the failing strength and motivation that come with them. It took a great effort of will to grasp at normalcy this July, and participate in Flash Fiction Month as is my habit: a thing that might not, to most, register as normal.

For every day in July, a story of fifty-five to one thousand words: thrice a week following an extra challenge. It’s something I’ve done for seven years now, which goes to show that normalcy is relative.

I didn’t particularly expect it to go well this year, but well it went, and it showed me a way out of many of the troubles and extremes that have plagued me. The world is still on fire, but I’m no longer burning.

May reading it – temporarily, at least – do the same for you.

Please enjoy.

Account History

(A series of photographs:)

A plate of spaghetti, artfully lit. A selfie, obviously posed: a young man with a pensive expression, looking off to the right while sporting a comical false moustache. A wedding: the brides taking one another by the hand; a slice of white-frosted cake, trimmed with lustrous, presumably edible false pearls; another selfie, both brides laughing into the camera, the young man with his arm around one of their shoulders. A small puppy in a garden, playing happily with a fat red-haired woman in a floral-print dress. The same puppy head-on, floppy ears perked up, tail a blur.

(These are still online. The first of them are captioned and filtered; beginning with the wedding, they were uploaded automatically.)

Then, jarring after all the care taken with lighting and camera settings before: an odd angle on an unremarkable bathroom sink. The focus seems to be on the mirror, but it reflects nothing but the opposite wall. No effort has been made to keep the photographer – the same young man from the selfies, now sans comical moustache –