Iron Mountain digital data logo, featuring an anvil and stars inside a circle, with text above and below the anvil.
Book cover featuring a man walking down an autumn street with falling leaves and trees with orange foliage, titled "Negative Space" by Russell Mickler. The words "Flash Fiction" are also on the cover.

Negative Space

What if New Year’s resolutions were legally binding?

Desperate to pay his mortgage, one man sells his promise to “never forgive” on the Resolution Exchange—an easy deal, or so he thinks. As the app tracks his progress, small grudges become a way of life, and the cost of success grows heavier.

Darkly humorous and unsettlingly relevant, this sharp, satirical tale explores the price of resentment in a world where even emotions are commodified.

Satirical. Haunting. Melancholic. Dystopian.

Flash Fiction | ~800 Words | February 2025