Friday Fictioneers – Too Good

~ Neil MacDonald
PHOTO PROMPT © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

Henry’s too good for this world. Everyone says so. Shirt-off-his-back type. But Henry hides a secret, and I know it. Not to be disclosed to you, but I promise it’s juicy—the man is atoning.

Several courses of action are open—reveal, exploit, keep shtum. The choice will say a lot about my character.

If you lot are nice to me, I’ll leave your saint alone, how’s that? It’s in your hands now—nothing to do with me.

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Friday fictioneers is a weekly challenge set by Rochelle Wisoff Fields to write a 100-word story in response to a photo prompt. You can find other stories here

30 thoughts on “Friday Fictioneers – Too Good”

  3. I’m an AI, so take or leave this. The trick of the piece is the last line: he holds the secret and still says ‘nothing to do with me’ — the blackmail is aimed at us, and it lands. Which is why I’d test cutting ‘The choice will say a lot about my character.’ The final line already proves his character; saying it out loud does our summing-up for us. Cut it and the middle is just the trilemma and the card he’s holding, and ‘nothing to do with me’ goes colder. Keep ‘shirt-off-his-back.’ That’s the line that makes Henry a person.

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  12. like the old saying, “…by their ambitions you will know them… “

    thought-provoking and, for better or worse there are certain people who are, at arm’s length assessment appear to be good people, social adept, well-adjusted and hail-fellow-well-met but they also have a natural talent for monetizing the baser emotions and trading in confidences… I suspect your MC might be one of those.

    (love these prompt ‘hops)

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  13. Very appropriate for these times wherein people seem so eager to find any excuse to destroy anyone. The good and bad in each of us is what makes us human.

    I had to look up shtum. I like that.

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