Just bang this one out:
You’ve arranged a quaint Christmas village on your mantelpiece. It’s lovely, with Thomas Kinkade-looking cottages and trees, all lighted from within, aglow in snowy splendor. So pretty that you can’t walk past it without stopping to peer into the tiny windows and sigh. Doing so you see the weensy postman has fallen and lies in a red spot… of blood. A tiny dagger protrudes from his back. Surely, someone—your spouse, your ragged teen, your nosy neighbor—is playing a joke.
You set things right, but soon notice the weensy milkman has fallen dead. Clearly a serial killer stalks the village! The police are of no help. The police think you’re nuts for calling 9-1-1. The game—as they say—is afoot!
Give me five hundred words on this. Post your entry in the Comments, below, or post a teaser and a link to your entry on your Substack or like platform. I’ll shop around and cut and paste to a “Gloves Off”-style post with feedback. No hurry on this. I’ll give you a couple weeks, but the limit is five hundred words. Don’t overthink this. Hold the idea in your noggin for a few days. Find a good way in. Find a good voice. Take the story in some direction.
Stop the slaughter. Or don’t.
Oh you’re definitely the killer. Muahahaha!
Figure this may be useful question to ask:
The limit is one story per person, right?