Now

Your journey begins with…

☐ a stranger

☐ a damsel in distress

☐ a sticky situation demanding you skip town until it resolves itself

☐ all of the above

Your transport of choice is…

☐ a tin on wheels

☐ a joke

☐ a van that has seen better days, just like your wallet

You call this…

☐ a road trip—after all, you’ve never seen the ocean

☐ a quest

☐ an unfortunate detour

The girl you pick up on the side of the road…

☐ hasn’t seen the ocean either

☐ wears the skin of a frog

☐ claims this isn’t weird

On the road towards the ocean…

☐ you fall in love

☐ drink water from each other’s hands

☐ kiss under the swelling moon

One night, she…

☐ whispers in your hot ear, “My father is the death king Koschei”

☐ giggles because you both had too much gin

☐ sighs, “He’s never going to let me go”

☐ disappears in a puff of acrid smoke

Here are your choices:

☐ run away (as usual) or

☐ don these iron shoes

☐ leave the van

☐ walk until the world turns upside down and blooms like a strange forest

Koschei’s death is a needle hidden…

☐ inside an egg

☐ inside a duck

☐ inside a rabbit

☐ inside a chest

☐ inside a deep, black cave

If you want to pass this test, you will…

☐ twist, turn, bleed, chase

☐ bite, fight, kill

☐ snap the needle

☐ break the curse

When you both return to the van, holding hands…

☐ brush off the dust

☐ start the engine

☐ watch the road unroll towards the blue ocean, just for you

__________

Laila Amado is a writer of short and very short fiction as well as multiple unfinished longer drafts. Her stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Lost Balloon, Flash Frog, Necessary Fiction, Swamp Pink, HAD, The Deadlands, and elsewhere. Two of her works were included in Best Small Fictions 2022 and Best Microfiction 2024 anthologies. In her free time, she can be found staring at the North Sea off the Dutch coast. The sea, occasionally, stares back.