"Returning Home," an experimental flash inspired by the award-winning roguelike game Returnal

Everything is crimson here, even the wind howls red.

Dear hopeful reader,

Yesterday I had an experimental flash fiction piece published by trampset, a fantastic publication that pays their contributors, promotes their work, and supports diverse voices in the literary community. All this is to say: go read what they publish and submit to them soon!

You can read my piece “Returning Home” on trampset or below. It was inspired by Housemarque’s latest third-person roguelike shooter Returnal. I’m not the biggest fan of difficult Soulslike games because of my impatience and health, but this is one tough title I’ve invested months playing.

In Returnal, you play as Selene, an astronaut who crash-lands on a foreign land that shape-shifts constantly, with increasingly menacing creatures and environments. Fighting for survival and truth, she dies and returns to the same crash site until she can finally break the cycle—or so she hopes?

Returnal is addicting. The mysterious story sucks you in. The gameplay gets you to stay awhile. And the difficulty makes you feel challenged and rewarded. My greatest achievement of last year was finishing Returnal, and then writing a story inspired by it.

“Returning Home” is about seeking self, home, and family, despite the impossibility of ever finding any of that. Interestingly, when my husband read it, he thought it was about overcoming health challenges. While I do write about health, for once, I didn’t think of my chronic conditions while writing this piece. Huzzah!

Also read: Flash fiction “I Dream Of Horses”

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Do you have a piece about finding self and/or family? Comment with a link below, and I promise to read it shortly.

Yours hopefully,

Nadia

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