I Made You, I Kill You

Andra Toropoc
He used to wake up early, drink the same type of coffee, and head to the workplace. He walked monotonously, her shoulders slouched, her eyes downcast, he spoke little and didn't care about anyone asking him why he was so blue. He told them that he got accustomed to being as such, and that was the way he was. One day, a careless girl bumped into him on the sidewalk and, apologizing smiled broadly. His eyes say that, and his mouth did something funny, it mimicked the girl's lips. Later on, he would say that at that moment he smothered the sad being that resided inside him and kept having the same type of coffee only he brought another mug.

Vero Anttheia Teodoru
He was a sour-tempered guy, but that morning the signs seemed right. In the bathroom, he found the famous Gregor Samsa lying helpless on his back. He felt an urge, he didn't know what, but in a hurry, he flushed him down the toilet. Over bits of toilet paper, the hapless one still moved his antennae and legs in bewilderment. The long-awaited relief came. A smile of gratitude and then the bug plunged into another universe as if through a wormhole, not comprehending such absurdity. I made you, I'll kill you, Kafka said.

Ina Moldoveanu
He couldn't believe he escaped. The judge had sentenced him to a year in the rehabilitation centre. But here is the heaven itself. He works and follows the rules, he has warm food and a bed, he isn't chained, takes showers and his clothes. Accustomed to whacks and humiliations, he had managed to grab the knife out of his mother's hand and stab her in the heart. Ten times, He crushed her fingers with the meat tenderizer, stepped with the stiletto heels on her bleeding body, and submerged her head in the water. Minutes on end. He put her in his chains and laughed in her face. He ate heartily and called the police.

(Translated by Bogdan Macarie / 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 July 2023, the group has 11,540 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.