2025 February Flash Fiction Challenge: Day 19

For today’s prompt, outline someone’s personal hell.

(Note: If your story gets flagged for review, be patient—we will be releasing comments every few hours throughout the weekdays of this challenge. Our system randomly flags comments for review, so just sit tight and wait for us to set it free! If you run into any other issues with posting your story, please just send me an e-mail at mrichard@aimmedia.com with the subject line: Flash Fiction Challenge Commenting Issue.)

Here’s my attempt at a story outlining someone’s personal hell:

The Manager’s Hell

If he’d imagined hell before he died, it wouldn’t have been this. Cashier during the holiday rush, an endless line of irritated customers. Not one person signed up for the credit card. Every glance showed it was never closer to his shift’s end. Every 100 customers, his headset squawked, “Our goal is 12 credit cards.” The voice was his own. His knees ached; his feet screamed. He kept poking himself on the clothing sensor pins.

After four Earth years, he asked himself what he’d done to deserve it. It took 10 to admit he could have been a better manager.