He intervened promptly as the last breath left the client's body. The mold was ready, the face still warmed by the blood received the cold paste to the finest crevice of the skin. Sometimes, in waiting for the death, he witnessed degrading moments: spells, mourning, curses, enemas, massages with aromatic oils, requests for forgiveness and delayed, unnecessary declarations of love or hate. However, he felt blessed, a perfect artist. In his masks floated badges, dreams, and many question marks.
(Translated by Irina Giurgiu / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year I / Corrected by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)
Real Fiction is a collective project started in 2013 by Florin Piersic Jr. The concept of Real Fiction continued to exist as a Facebook group, after a volume of stories was published at Humanitas Publishing House. (In January 2021, the group has 3.000 members.) The authors write ultra-short stories, with the texts limited to 500 characters (in Romanian, so the length of the English translation might be a little different) - a flash-fiction exercise on a topic that changes every few days. The group's coordinators are Florin Piersic Jr., Gabriel Molnar, and Luchian Abel. (Drawing by Adrian T. Roman)
Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficţiuni Reale. 
