Flash! Friday: Prompt #3-47

It's Friday! This week's Flash! Friday prompt was, appropriately, based on the book Frankenstein. Requirements were a 175-word story (+/- 10) with two of the following:

• Conflict: man v self, man v society
• Character (choose at least one): a cowardly scientist; a man-made, sentient creature; a hapless fiancee, an oblivious optimist.
• Theme (choose one): forbidden science, danger of the pursuit of knowledge, fate v free will, secrecy
• Setting (choose one): Romantic-era Europe, a laboratory, a ship voyaging in the Arctic, ANYWHERE STEAMPUNK!

Thanks as always for your thoughts!

One of a Kind

Neeasha stopped before the mirror in the entryway, settling a purple-and-gold felt hat carefully on her hairdo. She tilted her head this way and that, ensuring today’s choice adequately hid her horns.

Her tail slithered up her back, twining around the spikes between her shoulders. A heavy jacket covered the resulting bulges—and the blinking cuff on her forearm. After a last glance at her reflection, she picked up her bag, stuffed her scaled hands in her pockets, and headed out the door.

“You are not alone!” a flier advertising counseling screamed at her as she walked past chatting groups and entwined couples. She paused at the entrance to Stein’s Science Center, staring for a second at their smiles.

Three stories below, behind seven different locks, the cuff clicked open. She stripped to her underwear, letting her tail unfurl and stretching, maroon claws scratching the ceiling.

Beeping monitors surrounded her, waiting. At least he let her sleep elsewhere now.

“Why can’t I take one of the classes?” she asked the man behind the glass.

“Maybe in the winter,” came the daily reply.


(182 words, using a man-made sentient creature, and secrecy)