From Scoot
It’s Flash Fiction Friday! Welcome back after a long and dark offseason. I am very happy to bring the beloved weekly writing prompts back to help you write and, maybe, get into a habit of writing.
Prompts for 20 February 2026
Write about an heirloom
unseemly glory
“don’t cry”
A character who wants to run
“Don’t cry.”
The disembodied voice seems to echo all around the canyon. I can’t identify the source, not the direction from which it is coming. I finger the ruby heart necklace around my neck, a gift from my great-grandmother, who received it from her great-grandmother. I just hope I live long enough to pass it down to my own great-granddaughter.
At this particular moment, I’m not thinking about the future with all its unseemly glory. I just want to run from this rocky maze with all its echoes. Cry? I’m not crying—yet. There is an exit if I stay calm and think through the next steps.
Quietly I step left, then three paces later, I turn right. Around the next corner I see it. The final portal to freedom.
And my obnoxious big brother grinning at me, a carnival hot dog in one hand and cotton candy in the other.
Yes. Bonus!