Editor’s Note:
I've been experimenting with the 100-word story format, or drabble, as some call them.
Writing with such a tight word limit offers a unique and fun challenge for me to play around with words and style for maximum effect.
This 100-word story was inspired by Mort Künstler's painting, “The Hunter Becomes the Hunted”, included below.
Enjoy.
The bullet ripped through his target. Connors watched the body drop hard on the snow. His shot was off. Old eyes. Old hands. Twenty years of killing finally creeped up on him.
He tread along the snowy path stained with blood. Winter sunk her ice cold grip in this hellish frozen wasteland.
His target laid in a crimson pool. A young gun. Struggling. Gasping. Connors retrieved the fat envelope from the poor kid's bloodied jacket. The greedy bastard.
He aimed his pistol, but hesitated.
“Let him go,” his thoughts urged him.
He shot him instead. Twice.
Old habits die hard.
Lots of subtext and backstory hidden behind those 100 words! I particularly enjoyed what wasn't said, leaving that to my imagination.
While not my preferred format, I really enjoy 100 word stories as a way to get out a quick burst of creativity. I've even got a section on my 'stack dedicated to 100 word stories.
https://joshtatter.substack.com/s/hundo-ws