Today’s Friday Fiction is courtesy of microcosmsfic.com. 300 word short story using the following elements.
Character: Inventor, setting: Laboratory, and genre: Fable.
A Man sought to build a machine, to cure an illness that beset his child. He dug a hole as big as a room below his house and turned it into a laboratory.
Many days and nights he spent there. Toiling away in the hopes of finding a cure. Yet when he finally concocted one, he feared it would kill his child if untested.
He noticed then, many Mice that roamed about the laboratory in search of food.
“Mice. Pray I ask thee a favour.”
The Mice, having seen the man’s compassion for his child, approached the Man without fear,
“Man, what asketh thee?”
“Merely of your labour as my assistants. My child is sick and I require your tenacious perseverance to find a cure.”
“And what shall be our fee?”
“I will build for thee a house of glass, where I shall feed you, provide water, and build you a wheel for leisure. You shall want for nothing.”
“That would please us greatly.” The Mice replied, feeling pleased at having to no longer scrounge for food.
The Man made true on his promise, and built a large house of glass with bowls filled with food, and bowls filled with water. Wheels and tunnels traversed the house where the Mice roamed freely. Beds of hay allowed the mice to repose without fear.
Then, the time came for the Mice to assist the Man, and aghast they watched a fellow Mouse pulled from the bottom of the cage, for that is what is was, and onto a metal platform to be punctured by a needle full of the supposed cure.
The Mouse died in agony. When the Mice complained, the Man replied
“Sometimes you must sacrifice the many, for the one.”
Totally loved writing this. If you’d like to see the thought process behind this weeks Microcosmsfic, come read it on my Pareon page. It’s free to read so please come check it out.
A-Scribe To Describe 