2025 February Flash Fiction Challenge: Day 27
Write a piece of flash fiction each day of February with the February Flash Fiction Challenge, led by Managing Editor Moriah Richard. Each day, receive a prompt, example story, and write your own. Today’s prompt is to write about a puzzle.
For today's prompt, write about a puzzle.
(Note: If your story gets flagged for review, be patient—we will be releasing comments every few hours throughout the weekdays of this challenge. Our system randomly flags comments for review, so just sit tight and wait for us to set it free! If you run into any other issues with posting your story, please just send me an e-mail at mrichard@aimmedia.com with the subject line: Flash Fiction Challenge Commenting Issue.)
Here’s my attempt at a story about a puzzle:
Missing Piece
The hardest thing about her mother’s passing was visiting her house after. She expected it to be emotional, but the half-finished puzzle on the dining room table, a cup of tea gone cold next to it, brought her to her knees.
She’d never been a puzzler, but that night, she found herself working on it late until the night, a raunchy audiobook playing through her headphones, one piece slotting into the next.
When she was down to the last piece, she sat back, feeling its dips and ridges with her fingertips. She laid it down, tears streaming, leaving it unfinished.
Since obtaining her MFA in fiction, Moriah Richard has worked with over 100 authors to help them achieve their publication dreams. As the managing editor of Writer’s Digest magazine, she spearheads the world-building column Building Better Worlds, a 2023 Eddie & Ozzie Award winner. She also runs the Flash Fiction February Challenge on the WD blog, encouraging writers to pen one microstory a day over the course of the month and share their work with other participants. As a reader, Moriah is most interested in horror, fantasy, and romance, although she will read just about anything with a great hook.
Learn more about Moriah on her personal website.
