The rook was dominating the chess board. The dynasty of the queen of hearts had come to an end. They were all a bit sick of this neverending chess game. In the dark corners of the palace, the bishops were consolidating their positions by slaughtering the escaped pawns from the King's Gambit. At nightfall, the sicilian would close its shutters and throw mistresses into the street. In depleted taverns, the wine was almost gone, as was the king consort. I should not have given her a draw when I caught her in bed with the enemy, he muttered. I make the last move: my kingdom for a knight.
(Translated by Bianca Ioana Prisecaru / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year I / Corrected by prof. dr. Nadina Vișan / Edited 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 2022, the group has 9,580 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. 
