INTRO

Bats eat mosquitoes and pollinate many crucial plants, including bananas and agave (a plant used for making tequila). They also occupy the belfries of imaginative minds.

Taking to the bat caves this week, writers emerged with batty stories and stories about bats. This collection promises to be crazy-good.

The following stories are based on April 12, 2018, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story that includes a bat. A bat denotes “extra points” for including a cave. 🦇

PART I (10-minute read)

Bats by Irene Waters 🦇

I came too; lying on the ground, my eyes shut tight. I don’t know if I could have opened them. I didn’t want to. The bright purple light made me feel at peace and the forest that was drawn on this backdrop was calming. Verdant green. Mystical. My breathing slowed. My pulse dropped lower and lower.

Bats. Hordes of black spots alighting from the forest. ‘No! My mouth is not a bat cave,’ I wanted to shout but the words froze on my lips.

“Lizzie”

‘Lyssivirus’ I thought before a shake penetrated my consciousness.  Eyes opened.  Yoga meditation embarrassment.

🥕🥕🥕

Pride & Prejudice by D. Avery

“Eew they are so gross.”

“It’s hard to believe they’re mammals like us. They’re so creepy looking.”

“Remember when one got in here? We kept swatting at it trying to get it to leave. Mom, you totally freaked out.”

“They’re dirty and dangerous; they spread disease. Don’t go near them.”

“Oh, come on, they can’t all be all bad, they must serve a purpose.”

“You’d think. But can you think of any good that has come of those hairless apes and their opposable thumbs?”

“Some of them have been putting up bat houses for our kind.”

“It’s not enough.”

🥕🥕🥕

Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na: Bad Date! by Chelsea Owens 🦇

“Good morning, sir.”

“Eeeuurrrgh. Alfred?”

“You seem out of sorts. There is, however, a pressing issue which may require your attention.”

“Errr -what? Attention?” Sploosh! ….Why am I wet?”

“Well, sir, the cave seems to be experiencing an excess amount of water.”

“It’s a cave, Alfred. It has water. …Probably not this much.”

“Precisely, sir.”

“We’ve got to get out! What happened?”

“Do you recall that female companion you entertained last week?

“…No.”

“Saturday?”

…..

“Charity dinner?”

“The blonde?”

“Precisely, sir!”

“Well?”

“I believe, after the young lady stayed the night, that she left the faucet running.”

🥕🥕🥕

5am Paper-route Interruption by Dan Julian

I had just pedaled past the house of that kid who looked like a pint-sized John Cougar Mellencamp when the bat landed on my face. It was about a face-sized bat. I couldn’t see crap. To my credit, I did not freak out – much. Nor, funnily enough, did I slow down at all. Just kept one hand on the handlebars while peeling the bat off of me with the other. Little did I know at the time that this experience was to prove to be metaphorically relevant to the rest of my life. Right up to this very day.

🥕🥕🥕

Flash Fiction by Frank Hubeny 🦇

“You look like someone kicked you out of your bat cave.”

“Me?” Brian was used to it.

“You look like you’d make sense if you had a brain in your bat head.”

Brian repositioned George to avoid bed sores. George was tired of making points that didn’t matter.

“Could you open the window and let in some bats?”

“Sure.” Brian went to the window and opened it wide enough for some imaginary bats to get through.

Talking to one of the them, George observed, “Brian isn’t as bad as he thinks he is.”

“You’re not half bad yourself, Georgie.”

🥕🥕🥕

Batty Shirley by Gloria McBreen 🦇

Conversations with Snooty Shirley are frustrating since she misplaced her hearing aid.

‘I’ve just seen several bats flying around my house,’ she shrieked. ‘Nasty little creatures! Where do you suppose they live?’

Stephano sighed. ‘With an old bat in a nearby cave.’

‘Don’t be silly. There’s no cave around here,’ she retorted.

‘There’s one a few doors away,’ he smirked.

‘I can’t hear you. Speak up,’ Shirley demanded.

‘THERE’S ONE FAR AWAY.’

Her eyes bored into him.

Stephano has known for ages that Shirley has furry little tenants in her attic!

He’s not quite ready to tell her yet!

🥕🥕🥕

Revenge of the Old Bat by Molly Stevens

“Mum’s gone batty,” said Ron, “telling us she sees birds flying all over the house at night.”

“I know,” said Marion, turning out the light. “She stays awake for hours waiting to catch them with a net. She says she needs them for her ‘magic spells.’”

“We’ll have to make an appointment for her to see Dr. Johnson. Maybe her confusion is a medical problem. You know, something treatable.”

“Or it may be time to reconsider a nursing home.”

“What is that fluttering sound I hear?”

Marion screamed, “Something bit my neck!”

From the next room, they heard cackling.

🥕🥕🥕

Mysterious Tales by Reena Saxena 🦇

He was impressed by the depth of her intellect. An exquisitely beautiful face and haunting eyes framed by dark hair, made her look like a princess from a bygone era. Or was she a saint or nun? He was unable to make up his mind, in the besotted mental frame.

Her sartorial taste was rather quaint. Dresses in dark colors with dolman sleeves just added to the allure of her mysterious beauty.

Disheartened by her non-committal detachment, he followed her one evening ….

“A young man found unconscious outside a cave in the old fortress…” screamed news headlines today.

🥕🥕🥕

Bat by Kim Blades

Flies buzzed around the pooling blood. The air was pungent with the sticky fluid’s raw, sweet smell.

Detective Norris stared down at the body. The corpse’s facial features were obliterated. Only the ears identified the bloody fragments as belonging to a head.

Norris looked up from the macabre spectacle as his superior, DCI Mowbray, entered.

He also stared down at the corpse; his face impassive as he asked, ‘Any sign of the murder weapon?’

‘Yes, Sir, the Forensic guys have just taken a bloodied baseball bat with them to the lab. It was lying right next to the victim.’

🥕🥕🥕

Batty by FloridaBorne

“Coke bottle glasses,” Jessica giggled. “You look like a bat! No one wants you on their team!”

Plagued with double vision, and legally blind without glasses, I eagerly took the bench. A sunny day, what a magnificent scent coming on the north winds from a climbing rose. I closed my eyes to enjoy the beauty of it.

“Laura,” the coach said.

“Not another substitute,” I mumbled. “Their compassion is misplaced.”

“Why don’t you try to hit the ball?”

Dutifully, I went up to bat. The ball looked like several moving toward me. Swinging, I missed, and endured the laughter.

🥕🥕🥕

You Said It Was Ok… by Caitlin Gramley

“No! How could you?”

“What? It’s just a bat.”

“Why would you kill it though? Bats are wonderful, mysterious creatures”

“No they are not. They are disgusting.”

“That’s your justification?”

“They are also annoying and ugly.”

“Anything else?”

“They are pests. They come into your house unwanted. They make noise.”

“So all those reasons make it ok to kill?”

“Yes. I just can’t stand to be around them. Killing them is just a public service.”

“Oh. Ok. Good to know”

“Hey, what are you doing with that shovel?”

“The way I see it, I’m…..doing a public service.”

“Wait! ……..”

🥕🥕🥕

Bat Out Of Hell by Sherri Matthews

‘I heard it…fly in through the open window, so fast, wall to wall…it touched my hair and I screamed. I…’ Emma bit her lip.

‘You’re doing fine. What happened next?’

‘Well…he heard me scream and came into my room, annoyed. I told him about the bat, asked him to help get it out safely.’ Emma stared down at her hands, then looked up. ‘But he got my tennis racket and killed it. I hated him, for the bat and for me. I wanted to take the racket and beat that bastard dead.’

‘Now we’re getting somewhere,’ nodded Dr Harper.

🥕🥕🥕

Batty for Summer by A. R. Clayton 🦇

It was official: I had gone batty. Bats in the belfry, Alfred in the Batcave serving lemonade and bats in the dugout, collecting summer rays and warming their metal handles for the next gloved batter contender. It was summer, the splendid season where sundresses, popsicles and grass stains abound. Need I say more? Summer in America, simplistic and beautiful, trailing on the dresses of fireflies, a brilliant schooner floating off of a child’s eager fingers. We hide the pickle jars with pierced lids back under the kitchen cupboard.

Let beauty transgress just a little longer, young one.

🥕🥕🥕

Bat by Michael Grogan

In Australia, the word bat is synonymous with cricket. We use a bat to play the game. Two teams play, one-team bats with each batter batting and wearing batting gloves until they get out and when one team has finished batting the other side then bats.

We talk about going in to bat for a friend, to offer them help and support.

We do have tiny furry bats hanging in trees and being in some places a nuisance.

We refer to eccentric relatives as going batty, but overall it’s a word with many meanings we love to bat around.

🥕🥕🥕

Belfries (Other Boxes Are Available) by Geoff Le Pard

‘Logan, explain cricket, will you? It’s driving me bats.’

‘Why, Morgan?’

‘My boss is taking me, ok.’

‘Right, you have two teams, ok?’

‘Uh huh. Got it.’

‘The team tosses a coin to see who bats…’

‘Bats? They’re the flying ones?’

‘No, moron, they’re wooden. So, one team bats. The batsman goes out to bat. He’s in until he’s out when he comes in until everyone’s out, and then they all go in to try and get the others out. You ok, Morgan. You look pale…’

‘It’s… someone mentioned ducks? Is that as well as bats or instead of ?’

🥕🥕🥕

Howzat by Ritu Bhathal 🦇

Parker readied himself, bat in hand, waiting for the bowler to release the ball.

He was a top spinner, and a fast one at that; tricky to handle, but he’d been practicing.

Here it came… Parker lifted his bat and slogged it!

It flew over the heads of the fielders, sailing over the boundary.

“Howat!”

Parker started to celebrate his first ever sixer, when it landed, with a crash, through the window of the newly refurbished club bar, aptly named The Bat Cave.

Celebration turned to commiseration – he’d have to pay for that.

So much for this month’s bonus.

🥕🥕🥕

Night of the Dark Knight by Anurag Bakhshi

“Mom, I can’t find my bat,” I cried out exasperatedly. It was the night of the Little League World Series Finals, and the hopes of my team depended solely on me…and my bat.

“It’s outside in the lawn Jamie,” my mom replied from her favorite spot in the house, the bathroom.

Aghast at this outrage, I shouted, “Outside? But it was raining the entire day!”

And without waiting for a response, I rushed outside to bring it in. Our team did not stand a chance in hell without my pet bat to distract the opposition during the game.

🥕🥕🥕

Born Champion by Christina Coster

He was fearless in the ring. Everyone wanted to endorse him; he was the face of Pepsi in his heyday. He was swift. Opponents didn’t see his left hook coming. He was light on his feet; surprising for his size.

It was his last entrance though, that everyone remembers; the crowd were eating out the palm of his hand. His final 12 bouts, a career spanning nine years. Striding into the ring to Meat Loaf’s Bat out of Hell, he was confident. He had no reason not to be. He captured the moment poetically. His rival had no chance.

🥕🥕🥕

PART II (10-minute read)

Lullaby of Bats (from Rock Creek) by Charli Mills

Logs of cottonwood crackled and threw flames toward the night-sky. Most of the travelers had left the bonfire to bed down beneath their wagons. The baby Sarah heard crying earlier had stopped. Night insects chirped, and somewhere near the wagons a horse stomped. Night sounds of camp. Sarah relaxed on a log stool while Cobb played a slow fiddle tune. Back and forth he rubbed the bow. Bats darted in and out of the visible light, bobbing to the gentle lullaby with wings spread. Sarah sighed, looked toward the stars and watched the last of the evening’s dancers fly.

🥕🥕🥕

Flight of the Fruit Bats by Norah Colvin

All day they hang upside-down like blackened fruit left too long in the hot sun. Only an occasional stretch shows them capable of independent movement. Passers-by sometimes stop to wonder and photograph. Other keen observers travel greater distances to marvel at the spectacle.

Locals grow to abide their noisy, smelly presence and accommodate their daily activities.

Every evening at dusk, the colony flaps and stretches, then rises in unison like a cloud of dust shaken into the darkening sky. High above, their silent wings carry them away for night-time foraging. Others screech and squawk their joy in closer feasts.

🥕🥕🥕

Flight by Kay Kingsley

It was dusk as I drove over the delta causeway. The sun had set, a grey haze developed while the heat hung in place. The once vibrant colors quickly muted their glow as darkness encroached.
I drove a steady pace, the rhythmic sound of tires bumping the sections of the causeway drifted my mind towards sunset.

The smoke in the distance was changing shape, rising and falling in a moving circle. As I neared, my focus sharpened. Bats, thousands of them. They flew from their cave below the causeway into the darkness, predators in flight, a sight to behold.

🥕🥕🥕

Summer, Early ‘80’s by Liz Husebye Hartmann

Indiana Summer, in cheap housing with no a.c., a mixed neighborhood of blue collar, elderly, and our houseful of assorted grad students, temporary sublets like me.

We students don’t know each other yet. We will by summer’s end. They’ll return to their dorms and I’ll peel off North, searching for something more real than school. But at present, we have a family of sorts, and music.

The neighbors strike up their guitars, fiddle and banjo, singing sweet country tunes. I’m drawn outside, to the back steps, to the night, barelegged and barefooted.

Grateful for the insect-eating bats, dancing overhead.

🥕🥕🥕

Bats by Luccia Gray

‘Granny, what do bats eat?’

I sighed wishing my daughter was here to answer her son’s question. ‘I have no idea, Jimmy.’

‘We need to find out.’

‘Why is that, sweetie?’

‘We’re doing a class project about what animals eat and I got the bat.’

‘Let’s ask Google.’

‘Who’s that?’

‘Someone who knows everything.’

‘Everything?’

I nodded and tapped the microphone. ‘Ask your question.’

‘What do bats eat?’ Jimmy asked.

A woman’s voice replied. ‘Most bats eat insects and are called insectivores…’

‘Mrs Google is a really clever lady, granny. Can we ask her when mummy is coming back?’

🥕🥕🥕

Batgirl by Juliet Nubel

James swore he wouldn’t let her do it again. But deep down he knew he didn’t stand a chance.

She batted at him day in, day out.

Sometimes her batting made him wash up the dinner dishes alone. Sometimes it dragged him into town on a busy Saturday afternoon. Often it made him change channels in the middle of a match.

His beer buddies warned him endlessly.

“You need to make her stop, James. She’ll be the ruin of you one day.”

He knew they were right, but how could he resist the bat of those perfect black eyelashes?

🥕🥕🥕

The Three Walters by Anthony Amore

Their bat removal plan was solid.

Big Walter, Little Walter and Old Walter would rush the door behind Memere’s thick and ancient quilt. Big Walter would go left with the tennis racket, Old Walter would break right with the goalie stick and Little Walter would attack forward holding the quilt

They were boldly confident; Little Walter wasn’t. Witnesses agreed Miller Lite was likely the source of their profound assurance.

The bat in the upstairs bedroom, however, fled sometime before the battle. Two Walters toasted victory, while the third shook his head muttering, “Grown ups are stupid.”

🥕🥕🥕

Mating Right by Miriam Hurdle

“Hey, Bat Boy, you’re in my territory. Out!”

“No way, Bat Kid, my girlfriend is coming here to look for me. Off you go.”

“Nonsense, Bat Boy. Did you see the mark I left last year? I have been living here for the last 20 years. You’re the invader.”

“Who cares?” He whacked Bat Kid left and right, left and right.

Bat Boy wasted in no time to smack him back faster and faster.

They banged each other fiercely until their wings got punched and fingers were broken.

They were lucky to be rescued by the Bat World Sanctuary.

🥕🥕🥕

Uninvited but not Unwelcome by Wallie the Imp and Friend 🦇

Bats are whispering, fluttering creatures. Their furry bodies, their reptilian wings, are such a contrast of the charming and repulsive that they catch the unready mind off guard. For dragons as much as humans, bats are a surprise.

“You’re not a little dragon,” said Smoak, “and you’re not a mouse. What are you?”

“Bats! Bats! Bats!” came the answer from the eager, whirling masses. “Home! Home! Home!”

The dragon watched the little creatures snap the mosquitos and gnats that loved her damp cave.

“Well, it’s my home,” said the dragon. “But if you eat the bugs you can stay.”

🥕🥕🥕

Flash Fiction by Paula Moyer

Jean was five months pregnant with the baby that would become Lydia. Halfway there, nausea going away. Starting to love the kicks from the inside out.

Then Moira, their roommate, came down the attic stairs. Eyes bugging out like Groucho Marx.

“A bat.” Her words eked out, toneless. “It. …” She stopped and gulped. “It flew into my hair. Got stuck in my hair before it got out.”

Jean and Sam looked at each other, then at Moira, and then at each other again.

Jean started. “What should we –”

The creature, looking for home, swooped down the stairs.

🥕🥕🥕

Flash Fiction by Shalom Galve Aranas 🦇

At the edge of the night, Manika wrote stories inside a bat cave. She wrote about a young Indian poet whom she had fallen in love with. Each night, her bat drone flew towards a tree and perched downwards to spy on the lovely young man write his poetries for publication.

One night, she blew the tapers and dared come out of her bat cave. She went to his home and knocked. It was brownout. By the candlelight he saw the most lovely young woman with succulent red lips. He smiled but when the lights went on he frowned.

🥕🥕🥕

Time of the Season by D. Avery 🦇

The steady snowfall created a classic Christmas card scene.

“No!” Myrtle complained, “Christmas cards don’t have sap buckets hangin’ off the trees. This isn’t even a damn Easter card, that was two weeks ago!”

Her husband, whose hobbies had only been enhanced by nature’s disregard for the calendar, took a swig of his drink. Without taking his eyes from the TV, he shared his recurring thought that Myrtle might be going batty.

“Hey,” he continued, “Does summer fall on a weekend this year?”

“I’m leaving this bat cave.” He didn’t look up when Myrtle trudged out to her garden.

🥕🥕🥕

Bats by Susan Sleggs

“Lady, you’ve got bats in your belfry.”

“I’m not batty. I know I saw your signed bats in the attic.”

“Those bats better be in my gun safe; they’re worth money. Any bats in the attic better be the furry kind.”

“If there are, I’m out’a here.”

“For how long?”

“Don’t get excited, only until the exterminator is successful.”

“Darn, I thought I could tell my friends my old bat left.”

“Buddy, you’re cruisin'”

“Just kidding darling, you know I love you. You’ll always be my Robin.”

“Goody, first a bat and now a boy. Where’s my furry cape?”

🥕🥕🥕

Emma on Bats by Nicole

I’m an optimist. Emma prefers pessimism. When I’m wrong reality is rough; when she’s wrong the news is not so bad.

I was planning to write about beneficial bats. Emma said, “Bats? Oh yeah, spring’s here. The bats will be coming out to harass people and cows.”

I was certain she was wrong. I consulted National Geographic.

“During the darkest part of the night, common vampire bats emerge to hunt. Sleeping cattle and horses are their usual victims, but they have been known to feed on people as well.”

Next, I’m writing optimistically about politics.

I’m not consulting Emma.

🥕🥕🥕

Writer at Bat by Bill Engleson

“Stumped?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Cause you’re watching softball instead of writing.”

“Yup. Indiana at Purdue.”

“And that helps? What’s the prompt?”

“Bats.”

“Ah! So, being a couch potato watching sports works for you?”

“Hey, its softball. Women with bats. Bound to shake up the muse.”

“I want to watch CNN. Comey is driving the Donald batty. There! Better then baseball.”

“Softball.”

“Pardon?”

“I’m watching softball.”

“Don’t they both use bats.”

“Of course.”

“So, it doesn’t matter. Anyways, let’s watch the news. I want to know what Trump is tweeting from his bat cave.”

“Fine. I’m overthinking this anyways.”

🥕🥕🥕

The Bat Fight by papershots

He got a punch in the face because he said to his friend he was a bat, at recession in the courtyard. The animal impulse in this (un)usual kid fight, the species gathered round to witness. And now mom is trying her best in discipline-&-living-together parenting, although, well, it’s funny because “why a bat?”, the 5-year-old replies that she used it, to dad, once. “Really?” Surely no adult would… “Yes, in the car, to the airport.” “Sweety, I probably said rat.” “Daddy a rat?” “It’s a long story. Forget it.” Pause. “Rats are cute. Jamie is a bat.”

🥕🥕🥕

Batting in the Batty Place by Anne Godwin

Henry wasn’t a batsman, but he didn’t mind donning his whites when they were a man short. In fact, he was pleased to be asked. Until he discovered Saturday’s fixture was at St Luke’s.

Fortunately, they played the staff team. They let the inmates out to watch but kept them away from the pavilion. They weren’t invited for tea.

Standing before the stumps, Henry hoped he wouldn’t disgrace himself. The ball hurtling towards him, a familiar voice called his name. Tilly? Here?

He heard the willow smack, but not against his bat. Blame the batty woman. Henry was out.

🥕🥕🥕

That Night We Learned She Can Sing by Elliott Lyngreen

Indescribable patterns flutter through until Eleanore Fairview unravels a roll of toilet paper up soaring to the twilight.

Near the muddled shadows of forestry two bats sharply twist from, disarray swiftly and smoothly encircles the uncoiling roll.

Believe you me we did not want, yet had to do which these things made us do.

She scattered silent screams before the white stream misconstrued the irregular scene from this dystopian future.

She’s 100 neons beyond, instantly.

A hologram jukebox performing ages ago and more than ears can handle, she sings ever determined they will follow us. She reveals some talent.

🥕🥕🥕

Death Comes With Wings by Kerry E.B. Black

Sadness draped Carole. Medical charts and inconclusive connections conspired against her until dread deadened her thinking. She lit a candle and said a prayer. “Will she be okay?”

As though in answer, a strange, irregular flapping and pounding echoed from the chimney. Carole’s heartbeat altered. She squeezed her eyes against the inevitable.

Something burst from beneath the confines of the mantle. It buffeted her hair, pandemonium on leathery wings. The bat turned, dove, beat an unsteady dance through her living room. It bumped the candle against her friend’s photo.

Carole groaned. She knew the portents. Death comes with wings.

🥕🥕🥕

 

Sermon Bat-tles by Sarah Whiley 🦇

I tried to focus on the priest’s sermon, but the light fixture behind the altar, kept drawing my attention. How realistically it flickered; shadows dancing behind the coloured glass even though it wasn’t turned on! I craned my neck and squinted my eyes, trying to see what was moving. Suddenly, there was a high-pitched shriek. The congregation looked, confused, but I knew from where the sound had emitted. A black wing unfolded over the edge of the light fitting, as the creature found a more comfortable position. A bat who’s found himself a new bat cave! I thought incredulously.

🥕🥕🥕

PART III (5-minute read)

Foolish Follower (Part 1) by JulesPaige 🦇

Phillip Ratsbane knew the Lady’s aversion to all things night. So it was with staged gravitas, his asset that he made her make an incredible Pit Friend Promise. Phillip had already convinced her to bribe the bellman for him… so he could easily escape over the horizon as easy as pie.

Fog had made the night blurry. There was no margin for error on the Lady’s part. She’d have to go into the batcave and find his next clue in order to escape his clutches.

Would she be lost without Ratsbane? A gentle rustle, the bats were leaving.

🥕🥕🥕

Liberated in Loss (Part 2) by JulesPaige 🦇

Lady sat down on a rock by the opening. Temporarily lost in the mystic of the flight of the bats. She momentarily seemed to become one of them – once the disorientation faded and her sonar vision cleared. Lady saw Ratsbane enter the cab – with his leather bag. He was leaving, not waiting for her to return. Was there even any clue in the cave for her to find.

Detective Collins had convinced her to place a tracking device in Ratsbane’s bag. Then Lady remembered she had a similar device in her shoe. Someone would be coming to rescue her!

🥕🥕🥕

Gilding the Lily (Part 3) by JulesPaige

Lily had nothing left to fear. Having been relocated and given a new name. She had told Detective Collins any location without rats, but bats were just fine. Perhaps she’d even study them. Help in some way to discover how to prevent the White Nose-syndrome that was driving some of them insane.

After all the bats, at least one of them had saved her, had let her exchange souls just to let her see that one horrid man was a true snake in the grass. She didn’t want remember any of her time with Ratsbane. Maybe that would happen?

🥕🥕🥕

“I Curse You!” by Colleen Chesebro ~ The Fairy Whisperer

The hourglass sand ticked off the minutes. If she didn’t figure out how to reverse the revenge magic spell, she would have to live out her life as a bat. Esmerelda spread her wings and circled the cauldron careful to avoid the searing steam.

“Where is that eye of newt?” Her tiny bat voice squeaked as she landed on the table with a thud. The spell against her ex-best friend had backfired.

She scrambled toward the bejeweled bottles holding her witchy potions. The special decanter she desired was empty.

Karma was turning out to be a real bitch.

🥕🥕🥕

The Ghost Bat by Anita Dawes 🦇

It is said that an old hermit lived in the old bat cave many moons ago. Children called him the batman, chanting behind him as he roamed the woods for herbs to make his potions.

The villagers never worried about the old hermit, leaving food by the cave for him and children would often watch the hermit make his potions.

He had once been a doctor and he still travelled through the village caring for those who needed his potions. On one of those trips, the children noticed the white ghost bat fly from the folds of Henry’s sleeve…

🥕🥕🥕

Flash Fiction by Robbie Cheadle 🦇

The change in temperature made the boys shiver as they entered the cave.

Their flashlights made dancing shadows on the floor and walls as they made their way towards the far corner, dragging their spades behind them.

Dark shapes fluttered past them heading upwards into the darkness. Tom felt something like spiderwebs brush his face and he yelled out in fright.

“Come on, Tom,” said Paul. “They’re only bats. Think of the gold.”

Tom thought of the legendary Kruger Millions that were thought to be hidden in this corner. He started digging into the deep bat guano with enthusiasm.

🥕🥕🥕

Flash Fiction by Pensitivity 🦇

‘I tell you I’m not going out there!’

‘Don’t be so silly. You’ll be fine.’

‘No! I like it here. It’s safe.’

‘It is for now, but sooner rather than later you’re going to have to trust yourself and take the plunge with the rest.’

‘I said no, and I mean no. I’m staying here.’

‘OK. I’ve tried being nice. Now, as your mother, I’m going to have to lay the law down. YOU ARE LEAVING!’

‘Shan’t.’

‘You pups think you know it all. We all have to go before the cave floods, otherwise we’ll die. Your choice. Coming?’

🥕🥕🥕

Transitioning Wings by Jo/The Creative PTSD Gal

Every night the winged beast hung from the trim outside my window. One night he flew into my room instead. I screamed, ‘DADDY!’ and topped that off ear-piercing whaling. My dad comes storming into the room and finds me crying under the blankets.

‘Honey, what’s wrong?’

‘Dad, the bat flew into my room. He’s going to give me rabies!’

‘Shh, no baby. They are actually a symbol of transition and rebirth. It doesn’t mean death or demon nights. Wait, something will change for the better in your life.’ Two weeks later I received my scholarship to the art academy.

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Sue & Chiroptera by Lisa Rey

The day Sue met Chiroptera she was sitting in the park eating her sandwiches. 72 and in early retirement, she felt there was not much purpose to her life anymore. Then a gust of wind blew and a bat flew off the tree landing on the ground beside her. She rushed to him and was glad that he was safe apart from a broken arm. She nursed Chiroptera back to health and visited him each day when she had released him back into his habitat. Sue made a friend and regained a purpose in her life. Her little star.

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