Brief

A collection of ironic micro-short stories surrounding the themes of paranoia, revenge, and deceit.

What We Liked

The idea of micro-short stories with thought-provoking plots and resolutions will always be appealing to viewers. In the current times, audiences lack the time to commit to long shows, so this can be an interesting alternative.

Film: Films composed of multiple stories that carry a common thread in theme or genre are a proven success. They work in theaters and TV, and the quick payoff can keep the audience engaged throughout the whole movie.

TV: There are too many options out there on TV, streaming platforms, and theaters. So a good collection of short stories can easily fit into a busy person's schedule. Mystery is always an appealing genre, and from the moment it catches the viewer's' attention, it doesn't take long to offer a payoff.

Key points: Short stories; Mystery; Thought-provoking; Reality-bending; Ironic lessons

Synopsis

I Saw It All

Fed up, Ulysses leaves his car with his face covered in stockings and a gun in hand. He walks towards a group of teenagers; one of them, Felix, brags about beating someone up. A girl sees Ulysses and screams—but it’s too late. Ulysses removes the sock and reveals his face to Felix, who now sobs. Ulysses makes Felix get on his knees and pisses all over his head and face. Then, he shoots Felix on his head. Some people run, some people watch. The police arrive. Someone watches it from afar, by a tree. Earlier that day, Ulysses talks to a girl at the bar. The same guy watches. Felix and his friends show up and steal the girl. Confusion erupts, everyone runs. Ulysses runs, and the bouncers go after him. Moments later, outside, Felix beats Ulysses. Boys and girls around the fight laugh at Ulysses, who is now upset. The same guy sees the whole scene.

The Night I Met My Doppelganger

A man feels like he is being stalked by someone else and decides to keep his 0.38 gun in his car. He describes past events when people attributed some actions to him that he didn’t do. Like a bartender forbids his entrance due to past fights he never started; and a woman at work who claims to have met him before. He was always someone proud to be clean, not linked to anyone else’s bad business. So being stalked felt random, and that was even worse. He got a ticket for leaving his .38 in the car but explained to the cop the situation. He was told he should have reported it. But he decides to keep things quiet and his eyes open. He recalls men in the fish market where he works who would nod to him as if they knew each other. One day he met a hot woman named Jenny; they started going out. One day, Jenny invites him to meet her friend, Tammy, but the man is filled with a weird sensation that he’s been talked about. On their way to the bar, they stop to get his pick-up truck, and Jenny finds the hidden gun. At the bar, the man feels strange. When he sees the men that followed him earlier, he starts a fight with one of them. The fight escalates, and the men run to their cars and pursue each other away, each with his own gun. The other man shoots his rear tire, and his car spins and flips. The man walks towards him, gun in hand, and profess hate words for something he supposedly did—and how if he kills him, he can live the rest of his life.

The Girl Next Door

A man falls in love with the image of his neighbor; he can’t help himself but to spy on and stare at her to the point he fears she might notice. But he is so attracted to her that he also wishes that she notices him. One day, he has a feeling she is spying on him as well. But then, the girl next door disappears for weeks. He goes outside to check on her multiple times until one day she’s back and smirks at him. Nervous, he falls down the stairs. The next Monday, his body is found by a janitor who calls the police. Detectives try to understand what happened, as suicide seems strange. The dead man’s eyes were looking up at the woman’s apartment, so the detective asks if anyone lives there, but the landlord states the apartment hasn’t been occupied in years.

Games Women Play

A man likes his girlfriend, Lisa, so much he can’t leave her even after he finds out she’s having an affair. The girl once accused him of liking her best friend Sheila, with whom she gets together to idolize a third friend, Trish. One day, Lisa goes do laundry, and Sheila comes over, very upset to have found out her boyfriend, Garnet, is, in fact, married. Sheila hugs the man and wishes all men were like him, admitting to liking him. Lisa sees the scene, and there’s a big fight, as she doesn’t believe him. The fight takes weeks to resolve, and Lisa decides to break up the friendship with Sheila. One day, the man accidentally finds Lisa and Sheila talking and overhear their conversation as he realizes Sheila and Garnet were never together, and he was having an affair with Lisa instead.

Three-Card Monte

A dealer playing three-card Monte loses 800 dollars to a man on an orange T-shirt. Devin, a 14-year-old boy, watches and decides to bet his 10 dollars to win double. His friend advises him against it, but he’s too fixated on the idea to change his mind. He loses the money. Then, a 16-year-old girl plays. She loses 30 dollars. Devin and his friend go back home; his friend pays for his bus fare. Devin doesn’t know how to tell his mom about losing the money, so he decides not to say anything and instead walks back from school. It’s a long walk and, in a parking lot, Devin sees a van drive in and out in a hurry. The van dumps something on a curb, and Devin checks it out. It’s the body of the man in an orange shirt. He’s about to call the police when he sees the money in the man’s pocket. Devin gets the money, calls the police, and his friend, to him all about it.

Six Days Left

On a strange week, Charles keeps running into old acquaintances. After he runs into Sue, he remembers the day his friend Dave introduced him to her and her friend, Jill, the last person he runs into. Charles remembers a childhood professor who tried to convert the students to his church, using the threat of the world's end for those who didn’t. Then, Charles runs into his friend Dave, who nervously talks about how the world is about to end. Dave is too overwhelmed by the thought of the end of the world, and later that day, he kills himself. Now, Charles talks to Jill about it, and they both agree that each person has their own end of the world.

If You Only Knew

A man is surprised to receive a call from Maxine, a very attractive married woman he knows. She asks to stay with him, as she has nowhere else to go. He agrees to, meets her, and takes her to his trailer. They live together, but the man has one rule: no one can go to the trailer when he isn’t there. Soon, Maxine breaks the rule, and the man is too tired to complain. Then, she begins showing up with large quantities of money. The words around town spread that she’s a prostitute. One day, the man gets arrested. In prison, he tells this story to fellow prisoners. He was sentenced to 3 years for pimping her, but he wasn’t her pimp—they hadn’t even had sex. When the man leaves prison, he sees Maxine and the detective who arrested him together. He’s her pimp, and they share a life in the man’s old trailer.

Twenty-One

Doug tries to quit selling steroids for Fish, a local drug dealer. He reminds Fish had promised he could leave when he wanted, back in the day. Upset, Fish proposes a bet: whoever wins a basketball game of 21 points gets what they want: Doug can leave, Fish can make him stay. They play at a court atop of Fish’s penthouse. Doug agrees to the deal, they play, and Doug wins. As he celebrates his victory, Fish throws the ball on his face. Doug loses his balance and falls to his death, off the court, three floors down to the ground. Fish smiles and remarks that he may leave but never come back.

The Employee

Jerry attempts to get his old job back, but the supervisor, Sam, keeps blaming every disturbance on him. His co-workers know he isn’t guilty, but no one defends him. One day, they are shoving logs into the trash compactor, and they ask for help, stating there’s a cat trapped inside. Jerry goes in to save the cat, but it was all a trick to get rid of him. His fellow applicants turn on the trash compactor.

Guilty Conscience

After Clarence’s wife dies in a fire, he moves to a different town. He often feels guilty about her death, thinking he could have done more to save her if only he was happy with her. But he didn’t. Clarence gets a new job as a janitor and moves on with his life, still feeling guilty. One cold day, the steam from his shower sparks the disconnected wires of the door buzz, and, later, after Clarence is asleep, his apartment catches on fire, and he dies with no one else to help him.

A Love Letter

A man is very much in love with an older woman. But, one day, they fight, and she breaks things off. They don’t see each other for weeks until one night she calls and begs him to go to her, as it’s an emergency. When he gets to her place, she isn’t there. The next day, the police show up and ask if he knows her, as she was hurt. He points them to her ex-husband, but a few days later, the police arrest him, and he confesses. In jail, he makes his one call—it’s to her. He apologizes; he never meant to hurt her; she pays the bail, retrieves the charge, and he leaves. A month later, the two get engaged.

Oops, I Just Woke Up And Thought I Had Money

A man, believing he's rich, gets into his fancy car and goes to the bank to withdraw money. On his way, he ignores a homeless man. At the bank, the teller gives him all the money in a bag, and he drives back home. On his way back, he stopped by the cops—the homeless man was actually an undercover cop. They order him to drop the money and point a gun at him. The man wakes up; he isn’t rich. It was all a dream. The teller thought he was robbing the bank, and that’s why she gave him the money.

Swsh

Jason and Lora talk outside a club. He complains about her boyfriend, and he asks her why she never went out with him. She says he was too slow, as she liked him first before her current boyfriend showed up at the pizza place, where they all met. Now, the boyfriend was jealous of Jason. Then, some hot women arrive, and Jason gets distracted by them. Left alone, Lora goes enjoy the night, unaware that her boyfriend and his friends went after Jason. When Jason goes to the bathroom, the boyfriend’s friends attack him, cut off his penis, and leave him to bleed to death.

In A Process Of Time

A bodyguard is approached by his boss and asked to kill his wife’s lover. There’s a large cash reward, so he accepts. The plan is to pretend it’s a robbery, and the boss gives him all the tips on where to find jewelry and money to steal after shooting his wife and her lover. The guy is nervous, but it’s a lot of cash. On the day, he breaks into the house, shoots and kills the wife, shoots and paralyzes the lover, but forgets to take the necklace. Nervous, he calls the boss, but he calms the bodyguard down and pays him the money. The plan works, and the bodyguard invests his money in a trust fund.

It Was An Intense Scream

Dawn spills a can of oil on Angie and sets her on fire. She screams as the flames consume her. On a hot day, Dave walks into a café. As he recovers from the heat, a man tells him to stop staring and Angie. He denies doing so. The man and his friend badly beat down Dave, as Angie laughs. Dave leaves, upset. Then, he sees Dawn setting Angie on fire. It’s only his imagination, but he smiles, satisfied.

About The Author

Rodney Johnson is an author who explores the dichotomy between good and bad within every human being. His stories aim to provoke thought, and his goal is to make the reader experiment life inside the character's shoes.