A piece of flash fiction by Jamie McCarney based off fractured fairytale writing prompts.

Once upon a time in Mecca, the land of the everlasting flood, the Pied Piper was rowing his boat up to the Jetty to pick up some rats for their daily tune. It was a strange day, as so far it had not rained and he could see a lot further than usual. The rats were all standing about joking and threatening to push each other in. He pulled the boat up and collected a few dozen for their tour.

Meanwhile, miles away on the other side of the water, Gretel was watching some Netflix and chilling. She could see clearly out of the window that it wasn’t raining and so to make the most of a once in a lifetime opportunity, she decided to go for a walk.

Months later she was still wandering, she had completely lost her way. The water had dried up in the rivers and streams and she could no longer tell which way was home.

She came across some sort of campsite, only everything in it was miniature. As she looked closer she could see hundreds of rats working on a structure of some kind, then she saw him, the rock star everyone talked about. He played the most amazing tunes. “Hey” he shouted and waved her over. He said “so do you wanna watch some Netflix and chill?”