all things fiction

Let's play a little fiction writing game. I'll give a prompt, you write the opening paragraph of the story.

Character X moves to a new country to escape their past, only to find that their past keeps catching up with them.

(You can choose any genre, plot direction, setting, character(s), etc.)

Here's mine:

Happy hour at the Tortuga brought about as much joy to this rural Croatian town as a clown to a wake. I had turned my head for no more than a second to check for the last time if the woman to my left would cast her eyes my way. When I turned back, a man had assumed the empty chair across from me. A stranger might have said I was looking at a mirror. Hooked nose, thin lips, fleeting brown eyes, thinning black hair. The kind of face most comfortable in a Turkish prison. It was what the mirror couldn't see that ended any notion of our resemblance. 

"I won't mince words," he said. "If you play nice, we can walk out of here as associates, friends even. You'll be back in Sarajevo by morning. They'll even send a welcoming committee."

"And if I don't?"

"Well." He paused, leaving the rest of the sentence to my imagination.

/allthingsfiction. Accidental Intrigue podcast (https://accidentalintrigue.com). Furtive Khan novels (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08CB6H3SH). @carboncopy-refi.

Somehow I get a feeling this town's just not big enough for clowns, wakes, and happy hours.

Writing sci-fi stories and other things too: markmcclure.xyz Casting in the word shallows.

To invoke the cliche... Nothing is as it seems. 😂