The Styx was calmer than ever that day. Charon, with a full boat, called out to Cerberus to come and help him sort. As they divided by category, according to how dark the soul was, they heard a sigh and a snot-pull not too far away. Curious, the porter went to check, and was puzzled to find Death himself behind a bush. She was sitting on her thistle with a steaming mug in her hand, sweating furiously. What's the matter, girl? Charon asked. I saw Life with my eyes. He invited me for coffee.
(Translated by Anca Maria Florea / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year II / 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 June 2023, the group has 11,430 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, Luchian Abel, and Vlad Mușat. (Drawing by Adrian T. Roman)
Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficțiuni Reale. 
