Victoria, Your Twenty Minutes Start...NOW! - Flash Fiction

Flash Fiction time at Sultry Scribes!

Our task? Close our eyes and pick two words from the dictionary. Three people, six words. Include three of those words in a story.
Our words were: defeat, nemesis, perk, contortionist, clutch, stodgy
And here’s my story:


It hovered like a sickening cloud, waiting, wanting to strike me down.

My nemesis smiled at me with mocking pity. She could see my defeat. Smell it.  She’d been waiting a long time for this moment. Her pale blue eyes shone with malice.

My heart thudded in my chest. My stomach knotted. Only my pride kept me still.

Wiping my sweating hands down my sides, I took a deep breath. Then flung back my shoulders. The crowd hushed and waited.

With clenched fists, I faced her. I would not bow my head to this woman. She would not be my master.
And so, with a smile every bit as taunting as her own, I returned her venom. I enjoyed her frown.

Those who thought to judge me stared. Doubt flooded their faces. So it should. They were wrong.

They tried again. Their heads leaned in, touched, whispered, nodded. Then he stood, the main one. Fixed me with his steely grey eyes. My enemy shuffled closer, to be included in his gaze. Her eyes flicked to mine. Ah. Not so confidant now?

“The vote is unanimous,” he said. “My apologies, Mrs Perkins.” He smiled at me. “What you have given us is perfect, not stodgy in any way.”

The crowd drew in a collective breath. Her shoulders slumped.

“I declare your entry to be Best Cake of the Show.”