Here are two quick flash fiction stories I wrote based on looking at two images

Flash Fiction – fiction of a type characterized by being very short, typically consisting of only a few hundred words.

– Oxford Languages definition of Flash Fiction

Locked and Lost

Mandy looked up and blinked, looking out over the seemingly endless horizon, her machine iris flickering in strobing light as she surveyed the scene of destruction before her.

Red hot explosions in the distance shimmering crescendos of light through the dust, the sound of the end.

Looking down at her hands, her exoskeleton half melted by the flames she screamed in agony, a sound that echoed throughout the landscape surrounding her.

Her tortured frame writhing, as she realised what she had done.

Was it all for nothing? Would she ever be free of her programming?

That was the question, and the answer? A riddle, a paradox hidden away in some engineer’s brain.

You + Me = Forever²

She looked outwards with her mutant eye scanning the cybernetic birthing pod, this witches wormy womb which had spat her out.

“I” – the thought echoing in her mind, not yet understanding what it meant.

He looked down at this creation, with a sly smile, a smile which though betraying a certain arrogance, nevertheless contained a deep care.

“You” he said softly baring down on her with his gaze, his eyes widening at his creation.

“You and me forever, just like it was before” he proclaimed, a certain melancholy present in his voice, as if recalling some faded distant memory.

That was how it was, it’s how it would forever be.