Congratulations to the Winners! | #HarperCollinsSummerReads Microfiction Contest

It’s a wrap! Thank you all for your enthusiastic participation in our #HarperCollinsSummerReads MICROFICTION contest!

The wonderful entries have made picking 10 winners that much more difficult, but you gotta do what you gotta do, right? So let’s congratulate:

Rachita Baruah

@rachitabaruahwrites

I race to my room and take out my dead Grandpa’s satchel. Inside it, I find the herbal potion which I have been consuming as a precautionary measure against Covid 19. Ignoring the medicines, I take out an old wrinkled paper. On it is written ‘amrutam‘. Suddenly the radio on my study emits some mysterious signal. I take a pen and write down the codes. As a professional cryptanalyst, I soon break it down – COVID-19 terminates world population. Amrutam has been detected at Raisha Apartment, Beltola, Assam. The coordinates have been sent to the pilot. Safe to land.

We had heard of Grandma’s remedies, but it looks like Grandpa’s remedies can be just as useful!

Tanvi

@tea_for_tanvi

My street looked beautiful in its eeriness— the Frangipanis of the Gupta household were in full bloom; untouched clothes fluttered on the Syeds’ verandah; and old newspapers crinkled as they lay outside silent houses. I yelled, I screamed, I banged on doors but no one came out. Exhausted, I began to desperately sort through the weathered newspapers. ‘19 March…21 March… 30 March!’ The news only talked about how the government had started human trials for the anti-virus vaccine. Suddenly, a tiny note on one of the newspapers caught my eye. “If you are reading this, you have to stay alive. Don’t go to them.” I was petrified, my phone was not working, and almost everyone had disappeared overnight. I needed answers. As if reading my mind, the radio crackled again, “The pandemic is over, you are safe, the authorities will reach you shortly.” Nothing made sense, but one thing was clear, I needed to get out of here.

Way to end one cliff-hanger with another!

Chitra Iyer

@bookvue

I walk along the familiar but deserted road. Just then the wind picks up and I hear a distant scream. And just as suddenly, it is all silent again. Had I imagined it? I start running hoping to hear it again but it’s only my heart thumping.

I am tired and feel something closing in. Like a dark shroud moving closer and closer. It is suffocating. I don’t want to give in but the force is too much. And finally loneliness shows its face and as I look into its terrifying eyes I know I have no choice. I give it my all. I scream as it devours me and all is silent again.

We attempted a scream at the same decibel level at breakfast when the peanut butter ran out… #CovidFrustration

@kilmora

Silence pervades outside, everything is still. “Haven’t they heard…?!”, I wonder and try hard to remember names but draw a blank. I was never friendly and it’s impossible to recall the name of the boy whose cricket ball often landed on my balcony. His pink shirt is all I recollect. “Anyone home?” I shout in space. Only echoes return back. I yearn for days of chaotic regular neighborhood ruckus. Then something beams in familiarity, a lone small pink-shirt on the clothesline, swaying to breeze. A hopeful ‘maybe’ enters my heart, as I walk towards a stranger’s home.

A strong dose of hope – this one is just what the doctor ordered!

@craving_expat_life

“Hello?” She had gotten up wondering where her little daughter and husband were. But nobody was screaming, asking her to play, look here or there, and she had thought they went out for a walk. Now, cold sweat broke out. “Hello!!!” Was she alone? On the planet? Panic! How long would she be able to sustain herself: water, food, electricity…? And then it hit her and a smile spread over her face! She ran back inside the house, took everything she needed and sat up in her favourite spot under the palm tree “Finally! My quiet time to read!”

This winner has her priorities in order!

Vrushali Dongre

@_just_for_thoughts

91 days  2184 hrs  131040 mins

The radio message ended, leaving behind an obnoxious silence and a peculiar feeling. The vandalizing pandemic was finally over. My excitement ran over the wave of anxiety as I stumbled on my way out, half expecting my neighborhood to be in ruckus as this perpetual anguish was finally over! However, I never expected the petrifying quietness as I stepped onto the deserted land. 

91 days 2184 hrs  131050 mins

‘Th–is- a pre–recorded b-roadcast. All spaceships have safely left the planet. 00:00:15 minutes till asteroid hits the surface of the ea–rth . I rep— ”

2020 – the gift that keeps on giving.

Megha Nayar

@meghasnayar

… I step into a surreal world, far removed from the realities of my hometown. This is a mesmerizing forest awash with sunshine and yellow flowers. Ponies graze away to the background of birdsong symphony. A river flows gently by, its water so clear I can see the contours of every rock and pebble.

Where am I?

And then, I see them. My gentle grand-father. The sweet neighbour. My precious Oreo. They’re here, all the good souls.

The scoundrels, it seems, are left behind.

Relieved, I smile. Can’t complain about a virus that led me, in good company, straight to paradise!

If heaven had a face…

Rajat

@rajatjee2020

“Aargghhh!!!” I screamed in desperation. Surely someone had sent that broadcast, someone who could save me. Three months of total isolation and now completely alone ? Better to just end this right now and so I jumped. “Too bad, I really thought this one would make it”, said the simulation operator, moving all four of his hands quickly over his controls. “These humans are just too fragile, not like us Andromedans,” said his three-headed boss. “Well, lets just move to the next one”. And the pandemic started all over again.

Well, there’s a plot twist we weren’t expecting…

Devki

@howtobeabooknerd_

I sprint along the empty road, my breath held to my thumping heart. Tears stream down my face as I scream with joy. It had finally happened. They stepped out, these foolish humans. Inspite of knowing that the pandemic isn’t something that would magically disappear in a day or a month, they stepped out. How easy it was to fake a radio announcement! The infection must’ve spread ten times faster, just as I intended it to. It’ll be easier to take their souls. Some were too smart to be lured. These people would live. I’d let them live, I decide.

That awkward moment when you find out the hero is actually the anti-hero…

Ananthi S.

@ananthiwrites

I’m energy

A still locality. Not even rustling of leaves.

Quietude doesn’t soothe me, but.

A hundred steps ahead. Wait. I sense a ray of hope.

“Heyy”. I hear a faint human chatter.

“Anyone there?” No one responded.

Feeling outlandish, I kowtow down on the road. Someone touched me.

I turn around.

No one. And where’ve the roads, trees and buildings gone?

They’ve all vanished. I see a pitch dark cosmos in day time.

Frightened, as I run for the newscaster in radio station, the entire sky and the earth sink into obscurity.

Now, I’m up in the void blending with infinity and spread everywhere, I do exist. Only me.

We couldn’t have wrapped this list up without a poetic entry, could we?

Congratulations once again to all the winners. For everyone else, keep in mind that just because summer is over, doesn’t mean we’re done. Keep an eye out for more exciting and engaging campaigns by us, and remember to keep reading!