Welcome to my Advent Calendar Story Train, where you can read through 24 stories under this year’s theme, ‘Lost’. Today’s flash fiction story is by me!

Lost Project

“I definitely left it here!”

I try to contain the panic that’s rising as I cling precariously to the top shelves of the old cabinet.

My fingers grope blindly around the tatty books and oddly shaped glass bottles stuffed into these high shelves. They clink noisily, threatening to break at my rough handling. I can’t worry about that now. The presentation is in less than fifteen minutes and I’ve lost my entry for the group project.

“Why didn’t you leave it in the class cupboard like everyone else did?” Marsella asks, unhelpfully, from her place in the doorway.

Her dark red hair is pulled back from her face, exposing a dash of freckles on each cheek. Her own piece of the project held loosely by red-nailed fingers. Its colour matches her hair and nails. She can’t help but make everything the same shade as her favourite colour.

“Is this it?” Venecia calls, brushing back a long wave of ghostly pale hair.

I look over at the orb cradled gently in her hand and shake my head. It’s covered in sparkles that wink in and out; they took me forever to get the chemical composition right and if I hadn’t entered it into another project last week, I’d use it as a substitute. But it had already been listed in the Great Chart.

“I’ll keep looking,” Venecia says, her voice bright. She’s always been the optimist of our group, the one who rallies and motivates us all.

I catch her glancing at her piece of the project. It’s sat on my small couch, suspended in a glass cube for safety. I think she’s worried it might vanish into the black hole that appears to be my room. The girl almost had a heart-attack when she caught Marsella and Ursula throwing theirs back and forth to each other last night in some odd drinking game they’d made up.

“You’ll never find anything in this mess.”

I throw a daggered glare at Marsella who has crouched down to give my cat, Cosmo, a scratch behind her ears. The cat is pawing at something behind a pile of ancient books.

“What have you got, Cos?”

As I climb down from the shelves and move to a rickety chest of drawers, dragging everything out and tossing it to the floor, Marsella shifts the books and Cosmo pounces.

“Ew, what is that!” Ve shrieks. I turn as Cosmo darts across the room, a definite tail hanging from her mouth.

“Damnit, that’s Zuzuma’s pet. It escaped three days ago.”

Cosmo is already climbing on my desk. Oh no! “Stop her, before she–“

I groan at the splash as the creature is deposited into my exotic aquarium – which has become Cosmo’s catch-all for some reason.

Marsella is laughing as she scoops up the cat. Venecia gingerly approaches the tank and rescues the flailing, scaly creature.

“Err… I think I found your project piece.”

My heart drops as I join her and peer into the tank. There, the round stony ball is sitting at the bottom of the aquarium amid the multi-coloured silt and tiny sea monster decorations.

Pushing up my sleeve, I reach in – to the indignance of the tank’s inhabitants – and retrieve it.

My two friends crowd me, as I turn it over. It’s full of water now and is that…?

“Yuck! It’s got stuff growing on it,” Marsella says, her nose wrinkling.

Venecia chews her lip. “I… I don’t think you can enter that. It looks… weird.”

I turn the rock around in my hand. Water sloshes across its surface while the patches of uneven stone still protruding above, are now starting to appear green.

“We need all eight pieces to complete the project,” Marsella reminds Venecia. “It’s ugly, but it’ll have to do.”

I smile, holding it tenderly. “I think it’s beautiful.”

© Ari Meghlen 2025

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Thank you for reading today’s story. The next story will be available to read sometime on the 20th December, titled “Beggar Man“ This link will be active tomorrow when the post goes live.

If you missed yesterday’s story, you can go and read it here.

You can also visit the Advent Train Hub page where all the stories will be linked as they are released.

Thanks for reading

Source: Images from Canva

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