Iain Kelly

‘I tried Tiddlywinks, Ludo, even Snap. In the end I settled on this.’ Death gestured to the game scrawled out on the paper in front of them.

Reginald felt a pang of sympathy for the depressed figure shrouded in his black robe. ‘Really? Tic-Tac-Toe was the only one we could cope with?’

‘It’s called Noughts and Crosses,’ Death humphed. Reginald swore he heard him mutter ‘Americans’ under his breath (if a seven-foot skeleton can have breath).

‘Once it was Chess,’ Death continued, ‘but more and more people arrived without a clue how to play it. A symptom of the dumbing down of humanity.’

Reginald put a circle in the corner and declared it a Cat’s Game.

‘The trouble is anyone with even a mediocre IQ can draw game after game. What number are we on now?’ Death asked.

Reginald checked, ‘Game 5,789.’

Death checked his watch. ‘I really have to be going. Tornado season is just about to hit.’

‘Does that mean I can live?’ Reginald looked hopefully into the black holes that were Death’s eyes.

Written as part of Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers. The challenge is to write a flash fiction story or poem in around 150 – 175 words, based on the weekly photo prompt. Thanks as always to the challenge host Priceless Joy. For more information visit HERE.

To read other stories based on this week’s prompt, visit HERE.