Every time Marv checks his reflection in the mirror, it terrifies him. 

Instead of neatly combed hair and a clean-shaven face, a distorted version of himself peers back. A reflection of his darkest self. Mouth carved into a scowl, jaw hard. Eyes filled with fury. Hair wild, fists clenched at his side.

The image wavers as if the room is titling. He blinks. The placid man he believes himself to be returns: smile in place, hands loose. Calm. This is the real illusion.

He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. All he needs to do is walk out there and give a quick speech. Say nice things about the person who made his life a living hell.

He’s spent a lifetime training for this, yet can’t force himself to move.

When he opens his eyes, rage simmers — the mirror won’t cooperate.

This time, the mask refuses to return.

I’m currently in the querying trenches, and like all aspects of writing, it comes with its own challenges. One of those is condensing your entire story down to a meager 150 words. To garner a little extra practice at this, I upped my word count and start writing 150-word flash fiction. The ideas are based on whatever genre, action, and word I’m given.

This week I had:

Genre: Magical Realism

Action: A character ignores a warning

Word: Mirror

I struggled to get the story moving, but once Marv started sharing his problems, everything fell into place. It took a bit to wrangle the words in the right order, and keeping them within the limit.