Two slaves were walking in chains. Where are we going? said the first one. We are goingbefore, because it was better before, and behind, where we came from, we are no longer welcome, said the second with a bitter smile. Yeah, but beyond it is word-free, while here it is word-full. You can't get over it, because they're pulling you back. Above is the sky, below is the earth. It's the same thing, here, there, everywhere. Let everybody carry their own common sense, because most of the time we walk without it. Never empty, always too full. Master for others, slaves to anyone. Beyond is delusional. Live here and now.
(Translated by Elena Patricia Măroiu / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year II / 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 February 2023, the group has 10,500 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. 
