If you follow my Facebook account, you may have seen last week that I won a writing contest — the first writing contest I have ever won in my life. Thank you to the Write Now Podcast and Reedsy for putting on the contest and for reading what looked to me like roughly 175 (!) original flash fiction stories.

The prompt for the contest was a quote from Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore: “Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart.” Most of the stories I read headed in more or less the same direction. My story…didn’t.

Oh! I didn’t give my story a title in the contest because I didn’t want to run the risk of accidentally going over the 100-word limit. I’ll give it one today. Here we go!

Death is My Memory

“Relax. This won’t hurt a bit”, Jaxon lied as he boosted the memories from the newest cold case into my head. I choked, gasped. Salt water on my tongue. Dammit. A drowning. I focused on my breathing against the rising panic. Jaxon started to speak, but I held up my hand. I got this. I’m no rookie.

The headache sat low and gnawing in the back of my skull. Like my badge and gun, it reminded me of my task — solve the case in 48 hours or die as the memories scorch my brain.

Jaxon smiled and started the clock.

There you go. Tell me what you think!

(Photo Credit: Sarah Werner via Write Now Podcast)