When seven strong men picked her up on her way home, she didn't instantly think it would be the last day of her life, as she had known it. They made her blood run cold, but her hope in the Star of life did not immediately fade. Only after she had counted creakingly, in the pain and tearing of flesh, in the crushing of soul and dignity, from one to seven many times over, did she understand that her Star would never shine again. The day after? The unreal hell in which seven strong-willed men go about their normal lives.
(Translated by Andreea-Daniela Vasilache / 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 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. 
