In May, we challenged you to submit a 300 word flash fiction story containing the words spider, rainbow, and cake. From over 1,100 stupendous entries, we chose two Grand Prize Winners and three Runners-Up. We hope you enjoy reading them as much as we did! (For more excerpts, check out this forum thread.)

The air was warm and damp on Maren’s face as she leaned against a tree, laughing to herself as she held a thick slice of cake up to her mouth. Mum would be furious with her.

The cake was for the Governor, when he visited today. Maren knew it was of the utmost importance—Mum had told her the visit could even end the war! And if the war ended, Dad would come home—something Maren had been longing for.

But Maren hated being told what to do.

“Don’t you touch one piece of that cake, Maren,” Mum had demanded, scowling. “It’s all for the Governor.”

So, naturally, Maren had cut herself a slice of the Governor’s cake and ran into the woods to eat it.

With her back against the firm tree trunk, Maren licked the rainbow sprinkles right off the cake, and bit into it. It had an odd taste, but Maren didn’t want to waste a crumb of it. After all, Mum had worked so hard to make the treat—she had been inside the kitchen all morning.

Licking her fingers to get the last of the frosting, Maren noticed a spider dangling in front of her, on a thin silver thread. She swiped at it, but the simple movement suddenly made her incredibly nauseous, and she stumbled to her knees, clutching her stomach.

What on earth was wrong? Maren never got sick, and she hadn’t eaten anything recently… except for the cake.

Suddenly her vision blurred, and everything spun wildly. The cake! It must be the cake. But Mum was always careful with her cooking… Maren had never gotten food poisoning before.

Everything was going black. Maren heard something—a voice.

“It’s all for the Governor.”

Odd. When Mum said that, she had smiled.

Asenath W. is a rising sophomore who loves reading and writing fiction, painting, and acting. Her friends and family are always trying to get her to stop reading at meals, although it doesn’t usually work. She also enjoys randomly speaking in a British accent, and sometimes does it without realizing it. Although she has the unfortunate habit of starting multiple writing projects at once and never finishing any of them, she hopes to write a complete novel one day.