Most people are already buried, I tell him while spinning the beer bottle around and pointing to those at the bar. Buried in debts, of all kinds. In fear. Paralysed in imaginary lives. I light his cigarette and he blows out white smoke, transparent like unfulfilled dreams. And you're alive? Maybe, maybe not, but at least I'm not fooling myself. And what do you want from me? I'd like you to exist, first of all, and to not lie to yourself. Don't promise me anything. Don't promise things to yourself, either. I don't have a three year fare. We don't love each other just to deny death.
(Translated by Bianca-Maria Ciucașu / 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 November 2021, the group has 7.500 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, Răzvan Penescu, and Luchian Abel. (Drawing by Adrian T. Roman)
Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficțiuni Reale. 
