The first wave of butter has splashed against the walls of the arena, and we have selected a winner for our flash fiction contest. All of our competitors are former arena combatants. They found their way back into the sands of the arena just to give you more of that buttery goodness.

For those of you who didn’t see it, we received a trio of fantastic butter related stories under 1000 words. You can read them all here.

Before we announce the winner let’s take a look at the stories.

Logan Noble drew first blood with his story “The Death of Eddie Price.”

This mob story might be light on actual butter, but it melted faces. Seriously, there is an enforcer nicknamed “Butter” who had his face melted. It’s a fun little story and is the most polished of this competition. Flash fiction might seem easier, but to make compelling characters and tell a whole story in under 1000 words is terribly hard. Great work Logan!

D.M. Slate went to the movies with “Butter.”

If you’ve ever been on a date with a sloppy person, this one is going to trigger some bad memories. A movie theater is a perfect setting for a story about butter. The yellow stuff flows out of these places, making our snacks better and our apathy unbreakable. This story gets dark, and we love it for that.

Jordan Rutherford went full horror with “Butta.”

A young man named Butta tells us most everything we need to know about this bulbous pseudo gangster. We find his mother, a year after the drive by shooting that killed Butta, staring at a bloody stick of butter that he had been nibbling on. What starts out as an odd reflection on mourning takes a darker turn.

These three stories all excelled at making butter a prominent force in their tales. Unfortunately there can only be one winner in this contest. This was chosen by arena denizens Tony Southcotte, Joseph Devon, and Albert Berg.

The winner is…

“Butter” by D.M. Slate! Congrats Danyelle! You are our first Flash Fiction contest winner.

We will be doing one of these every 10 rounds for the foreseeable future so be sure to enter!