Prompt: Fear
Word Count: 154
When Elena was 5 years old, she was terrified of Box Elder bugs. She had mistaken the little orange and black bugs for fireflies, and a well-meaning friend in her kindergarten class had told her if she touched the little bugs, they would burn her little fingers off. It wasn’t until years later that she found out that she had been horribly misinformed.
The little bugs were harmless, perhaps plentiful at times, but harmless all the same. Years later, Elena realized that many of the fears in her life were like the Box Elder bug, as she let one wander over the palm of her hand. Small, but made to be big. Elements of falsehood wrapped up in truth. But her biggest realization was this:
If she could hold a Box Elder bug in her hand and keep her fingers intact, she could face any other fear that life had to throw at her.
Flash fiction is short fiction, often under 500 words and often written in a short space of time. If you would like to do your own piece of flash fiction, feel free to put it in the comments or link me to the place you post it. I would love to see what you come up with for the prompt.
The Taming of the Muse 