Flash Fiction: The Last Line

Chuck Wendig’s “Flash Fiction Challenge” for this week over on his “Terribleminds” blog was simple:

I want you to come up with the final sentence of a story.
One sentence. The last line.
Shorter is better than longer. No more than, say, 50 words, please.

I let the thought simmer for a few days, and my muse came through. (Yay, muse! You go get ’em! Kick ass, take names! Now, as long as I’ve got you on the line…)

Two nights ago, just as I was drifting back off to sleep after the dog took off howling after a raccoon in the yard at 4:30 AM waking up the whole neighborhood, the idea came to me. It’s a tad cliche, but not too bad after I cleaned it up.

“The sunset was stunningly beautiful, the towering clouds every shade of pink and orange, the sky red as fresh blood, the stratosphere thick with the smoke of all of the Earth’s burning cities, while the ghastly white glow of the approaching comet grew ever brighter above the clouds in the east.”

I especially liked the phrase “thick with the smoke of all of the Earth’s burning cities”.

OK, enough fun stuff. Back to sending out resumes.