Flash Fiction Addiction
22 Short Short Stories
Volume II
Garden Summerland
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2011 Garden Summerland
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Table of Contents
1 An Accident
2 Displaced
3 Laid to Rest
4 Except Elizabeth
5 Melody
6 The Tattoo
7 The Human Way
8 Penny
9 Forgiveness
10 Sweet as Honey
11 Inside the Asylum
12 Inheritance
13 Let Us Pray
14 Sweet Hell
15 A Golden Carriage
16 Cliffed
17 11:11
18 Sanguine City
19 Peace for Jacob
20 A Fine Line
21 More Than Just Friends
22 Precious Ruby
1 An Accident
The cemetery was bathed in the soft glow of the huge yellow moon, in spite of the gathering dark clouds. Minx re-arranged the flowers on the grave, and shook her head. It still wasn't right. She took her flashlight out of the knapsack she'd brought & flipped the small chapbook open to the marked page. She had set everything up to look like the picture, except... something wasn't right about the flowers. They should be above the grave, not just on it. She looked up at the perfect moon; then she checked her watch, it was 11:49. She still had a few minutes.
A branch snapped in the woods behind her. She froze for a moment, holding her breath. The wind blew softly, and leaves rustled in the chill of the October evening. It was nothing. Still, as the dead of night should be. For now.
She picked up the mixed bouquet of dead flowers and laid them on top of the headstone, a couple of the longer stemmed ones hanging over the edge; wilted memories. That was much better. She looked at her watch again; soon. She read through the incantation twice, to make sure she had the rhythm down. She only had one chance to get it right or it would be next year before she could try it again. It was the 16th of October and this was the third year she had come. Each time she had used a different spell, and each time she had failed miserably. A cold breeze stirred the leaves. It was just the wind, wasn't it? She glanced around nervously. It wasn't as dark as it had been in previous years, and yet it felt darker.
She heard footsteps. No, she was just losing her focus. There was no one there. Not yet.
It had been three years since the accident. That was how everyone referred to it. How had she been getting on since “the accident”? She needed to move on and stop dwelling on “the accident”. Everyone had been so thoughtful and considerate since “the accident”. Her fiance Cody had died in “the accident”. Cody had hung himself. It wasn't an accident. Why did everyone call it that?
Minx remembered how thrilled she had been coming home that night; it was October 16th. She'd bought tickets for Halloween Hell House; an annual haunted house event for charity. She and Cody had been looking forward to it since the previous Halloween, when tickets had sold out the first night and they hadn't been able to go. Excitedly she opened the front door, and burst in, calling out his name. And there he was, in the living room, hanging from the ceiling fan by an electrical cord. It was an image she would never get out of her mind. The police came, the ambulance came; and a dark van marked CORONER on the side of it in huge white letters came; she remembered that one the most.
The shock and emotional trauma she had faced in dealing with the death of a loved one, especially in such a gruesome way had taken it's toll on her. And suicide? Minx would never understand why Cody of all people killed himself. It had never made any sense. After the funeral, she had gone to stay with family for a couple of months, and they had convinced her to sell the house. But she never did. There was an inexplicable force that bound her to that house; that's why she and Cody had bought it. They had been drawn to it. And now, it was a Hell House, holding Cody hostage. But she was going to set him free.
Cody had been such a sweet and loving man in life, but in death, he had become something evil. A wicked entity that had terrorized her night and day for the past three years; but it was going to end tonight. Either he was going to move on, or she was. She was going to summon his ghost to the grave, and command him to go. Then she heard it again, a noise behind her. Crunching leaves, and then silence.
“Cody?” she shouted in a whisper, and no answer came.
She looked at her watch. Midnight straight up. She began the spell, her voice shaking as she drew the symbols in the ground on top of the grave. She heard the rustle of leaves again, and then she felt his ice cold hands on her shoulders, and then around her throat, as he pulled her up, and turned her to face him.
“Oh Cody...” she choked out the words, as his grip tightened, and she couldn't breathe.
She was barely able to speak, the incantation now coming out as little more than a gasp for air, but she felt his grip lessen.... and he was fading away.
“An accident....” he hissed at her.
And he was gone. It was over, finally. Minx left everything in place, and walked away, never once glancing over her shoulder.
“Rest in peace Cody.” She sighed as she got in her car and drove home.
She unlocked the front door, and walked into the house, relieved that her torment had at last come to an end. Then suddenly, from the darkness, an electrical cord was noosed around her neck. She tried to scream, her arms flailing wildly as she was being hauled up into the air, and hung from the ceiling fan. The last thing she heard was Cody's voice echoing in the distance... “it was an accident”.
******
2 Displaced
Every day Christopher sat outside the cafe waiting for Mary Ellen to get off work. And every day, she came out and walked right past him. Never spoke, never even acknowledged his presence.
This had been going on for two years. Two years of his life spent waiting just to catch a glimpse of her for a few seconds as she walked past him; waiting, wanting and hoping that just once she would look at him, smile at him, maybe even say hello. But nothing.