Sometimes I feel the end in my chest and the call of eternity nags at my core. But I cannot see myself a slave to inspiration. That is why I build a barrier of clay between the beast that I am and the rotten body that I will become, and nip in the bud any resemblance to godhood, so that I may live far from the eyes of the world, like a Minotaur in a labyrinth of vain desires. I can only rid myself of emotions through sacrifice, so I kill meaningless words and from their bones I fortify my alienation from this living world.
(Translated by Andreea Grințescu / 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 December 2021, the group has 7.750 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. 
