<description>&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is an occasional bonus episode, for the first of July, 2026, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Your one-hundred word story for the day is: The Rules Are There For A Reason&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;---&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;There was a tearing noise and there I was again. Slap-bang in the middle of some little scrote's chalk circle. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;It's always teenagers. They find an old book, think it'd be funny...&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;No-one expects it to work. They're so surprised; they muff the binding and I head home, trailing sulphurous clouds.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;This guy was different. Older. He offered a deal:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Free reign across earth to (I quote) "show those weaklings who's in charge" - so long as I let him live to witness it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;I accepted, stepped through the circle, and tore his head off.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;There's a reason you bind demons.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;---&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Remember everyone: it's always a bad idea to read the Latin out loud.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;But if you must, at least make sure you do it properly.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;---&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Take care, everyone, and I'll see you again sometime.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2-jul1-bonus&lt;/p&gt;</description>

A tiny horror story for July 1st, 2026.

"The Rules Are There For A Reason" is a tiny speculative-fiction horror story for July 1st, 2026.

Drabbletober

Season 2, Bonus Episode 9: The Rules Are There For A Reason

<description>&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is an occasional bonus episode, for the first of June, 2026. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Your one-hundred word story for the day is: Generational&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;---&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;She looked at me, disappointed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;"Don't you want to?"&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;"Of course I do! But... I need permission."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;"From who? You're an adult!"&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;"The Paterfamilias."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;"Ha, the Paterf... wait, you're serious? You still have one?"&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;My great-great-grandfather wanted his dynasty to last forever. During that narrow window in the mid twenty-first century, when everyone thought they knew the future, he set up complicated deeds and entails. And he did it well. It's completely watertight - we still haven't found a legal route to unplugging the damned thing.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;"So, yeah. If we want to get married, we've got to convince a century-old AI."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;---&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;As I'm sure you'll have noticed, AI is currently the answer to everything. I do wonder which particular aspects future generations will look back on and groan at our stupidity.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;---&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Take care, everyone, and I'll see you again sometime.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2-jun1-bonus&lt;/p&gt;</description>

A tiny sci-fi story for June 1st, 2026.

"Generational" is a tiny speculative-fiction sci-fi story for June 1st, 2026.

Season 2, Bonus Episode 8: Generational

<description>&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is an occasional bonus episode, for the first of May, 2026. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Your one-hundred word story for the day is: Anything From The Canteen Sheet?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;---&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;He lunges when it slides under the door. The first week, still used to shops and restaurant menus, he sneered at the crooked page. He mocked his cellmate's eager interest - and got punched for it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Now, he's the same. Any break in the grinding tedium is welcome. Anything. When something new appears on the list, he savours it. Plays with it in his mind. Orders it, even hair products he will never use. Anything for novelty.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;This week, between instant noodles and A4 notebooks, is a new item: Final Apocalypse. He writes a 1 in the box.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Immediately, thunder rolls.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;---&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;A while ago, I entered a drabble competition which had a theme of "Canteen". I sent this one, having discovered that the weekly order forms given to prisoners - in the UK at least - are called 'canteen sheets'. It wasn't placed, but I'll pop a link to the winning drabbles in the show notes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/100-word-project-128068977"&gt;https://www.patreon.com/posts/100-word-project-128068977&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;---&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Take care, everyone, and I'll see you again sometime.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2-may1-bonus&lt;/p&gt;</description>

A tiny story for May 1st, 2026.

"Anything From the Canteen Sheet?" is a tiny speculative fiction story for May 1st, 2026.

Season 2, Bonus Episode 7: Anything From the Canteen Sheet?

<description>&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is an occasional bonus episode, for the first of April, 2026. I'm Elizabeth Guilt.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Your one-hundred word story for the day is: Everywhere&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;---&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;There was a bang and, too late, a screech of brakes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;"Shit! A deer, we hit a deer."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;"What?"&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;"A deer! You saw that, right?"&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Dave was five or six whiskeys down, his voice rising, panicking. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;I'd seen blond hair, plastered by rain against a pale face.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;For weeks afterwards, I trawled local news sites. No reports of a road death, or a missing woman.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;I stopped drinking after that. Dave didn't. When his car ran off the road, I wasn't surprised. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;I don't drive at night any more. Is she there? I don't know, but I see her.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Everywhere.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;---&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Take care, everyone, and I'll see you again sometime.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2-apr1-bonus&lt;/p&gt;</description>

A tiny story for April 1st, 2026.

"Everwhere" is a tiny speculative fiction horror story for April 1st, 2026.

Season 2, Bonus Episode 6: Everywhere

<description>&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;This is Drabbletober, the podcast of tiny fiction.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Hello, and welcome to Drabbletober. This is an occasional bonus episode, for the first of March, 2026, and I'm Elizabeth Guilt.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Your one-hundred word story for the day is: Not Again&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;---&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Mason wakes up, a familiar pounding in his head. Not again. They'd only had six weeks this time. He looks wearily over the furnishings. 1800s. Probably Britain. He creeps through the house, finds clothes that mean he won't stand out, takes a couple of things to pawn, and heads out to look for Alex.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;They've got systems, but without internet it's difficult. Alex hasn't left messages in any of the usual places. It takes months.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Finally, Mason finds a run-down boarding-house in Bognor.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;"Alex!"&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;"What? Who're you?"&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Mason slumps. "Oh. This is one of the times when you don't remember."&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;---&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;---&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Take care, everyone, and I'll see you again sometime.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;https://www.elizabethguilt.com/drabbletober/s2-mar1-bonus&lt;/p&gt;</description>

A tiny story for March 1st, 2026.

"Yanked" is a tiny speculative fiction sci-fi story for March 1st, 2026.

Season 2, Bonus Episode 5: Yanked

<p>The podcast of tiny speculative fiction. Brand new drabbles (stories of exactly 100 words) every day during October.</p>

Drabbletober

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