Story: EN25-017
The Vatican Shuffle
Word count: ~400
Comments
This story was written in the context of a Furious Fiction Challenge.
This was the original assignment:
- Take a major news event from 2025 and write a fictional story that either takes place during it or features it heavily in the plot.
- While the story may feature real people, your story’s MAIN character should be fictional.
- Your story must include the phrase (separate or as part of a longer sentence): “IT WASN’T THE FIRST TIME THIS HAD HAPPENED”
Publications
| # | Published | Publisher | Online | Podcast | eBook | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #001 | 2025-12-24 | Furious Fiction | Yes | ||||
| Published as part of the Furious Fiction December showcase. | |||||||
Contests
| # | Awarded | Publisher | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #001 | 2025-12-24 | Furious Fiction | Shortlisted | |
| This is what the Furious Fiction jury wrote: "Now, Mephistopheles from the Downtown Hellton Hotel may need to ready a room for our judges, but we simply could not resist this hilarious ‘fly on the wall’ take of what REALLY happens during one of the world’s most secretive elections! At first, it seems we’ve been dealt a hand of the buzzing voyeur as merely a metaphor, but the encounter with the cockroach confirms the surreal tone as the two insects watch the ultimate poker game unfold (and fold). The cockroach’s description of the five-day epic of 1922 and Pius XI winning with “a pair of sevens” is pure gold. Even explaining the smoke with the burning of decks was a fun addition. Highly blasphemous, but clearly tongue-in-cheek – this one goes ‘all in’ and takes home the pot!" | ||||