The dried droplets led him to the barn door. It was closed. Among the planks, the lantern's light pierced through, pulsing just like the death of bacteria itself. The moon dozed beneath the sluggish clouds. Darkness. He walks cautiously, feeling the blades of grass with his bare soles. A faint creak that turns into the high-pitched scream of a crying baby. Dilated pupils. Soundlessness. The giggling of a joyful girl discovering the bliss of a kiss emanates from the dark barn. After eight strikes, the wood gives way. A father embraces his daughter.
(Translated by Lucia-Alexandra Brînaru-Mitrofan / 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. 
