If you subscribe to my newsletter (and you totally should!), you received my latest entrant into a writing contest - microfiction!
To recap, I was given 250 words and 24 hours to write a suspense or thriller about breaking a mirror that had the word "pocket" in it.
With that prompt, what would you have done?
My story ended up a little creepy, so I thought, with it being Halloween, I'd share it with you. Hopefully you think it more a treat than a trick!
THE DARE
You shouldn’t be here.
Of course you knew that, even outside, when they chuckled, pointed, dared.
Yet you lifted your chin, pushed against the front door.
You expected it to open on its own, but you had to shove. I tried to keep you out. Remember, later. I tried.
But you insisted. Pushed.
Stubborn thing. You cross the creaking floor, down the creaking hall, up creaking stairs. Each step, each creak whispers, “Leave. Leave. Leave.”
Of course, you don’t. You tremble, heart pounding in your throat, and still you come closer.
Stupid bravery.
And then you’re here, in this room. Your hands shake, and you clench and unclench and re-clench them, then shove them into your pockets, square your shoulders, inch closer.
All too soon you’re in front of me, in front of my dirty glass and chipped frame, and it’s too late.
You see yourself first, but then my hollow cheeks and dark eyes materialize from behind the streaks and within your reflection.
You gulp back a sob, but you don’t look away.
When you yank shaking hands from your pockets and pummel fists against my glass, I try to hold on. But I crack, then shatter, and then I’m scattered across the floor, your poor fists bloody. I try to hide myself in the shards, but I can’t.
Unwinding my limbs from my broken mirror, I slowly straighten.
You should’ve kept your hands in your pockets, I think. You shouldn’t be here.
And I wrap bony arms around you.
What would you have done with the prompts? And how are you celebrating Halloween tonight?
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Happy Halloween!