Friday Fictioneers : Speckled crimson

PHOTO PROMPT © Dale Rogerson

 

The world was swollen that night, heavy snow turning hedges and curbs to fat pillows. Beneath were the same thorns, the same sharp corners to catch unwary toes.

As she looked across a garden glazed white, she realised that was what her marriage had always been – pristine to the casual observer, while beneath that shallow surface …

Despite everything, she saw beauty in those contrasts of soft and sharp, sweet perfection and hidden terror.

Her favourite contrast lay beyond the misted window pane. Crisp, white snow, smeared and speckled crimson.

Her grip slackened around the knife’s bone handle.

 

Written for Rochelle Wisoff-Field’s Friday Fictioneers. See the pic and write a tale and don’t forget to read and comment. See here to join in.

50 thoughts on “Friday Fictioneers : Speckled crimson”

  2. Very graphic, Lynn. I’m sure another fall of snow will disguise the evidence, but there is the small matter of the ‘cushion’ that contains the body. Well done.

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  5. Very mysterious! I’m inclined to feel this is something other than murder – self-harm, perhaps – because her appreciation of the hidden beauty is an ongoing thing, and because the snow is only speckled and smeared with crimson. If she had killed her husband, I’d expect more blood. But perhaps I’m over-thinking it. It’s a gripping story, Lynn, and I’d love to read more about it!

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    1. Thanks Penny. Some terrible mishap has occured, that’s for certain. I don’t know why, but I had seen her as the trophy wife of a career criminal who finally had enough of her husband’s terrifying life encroaching on her own. I don’t think she expects to leave the house alive, put it that way. Thank you so much for reading

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    1. Thanks kindly Bill! Just emerging from Valentine’s Day so will try to catch up a little online over this next week. Hope all’s well with you 🙂

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  8. Delightful contrasts in this 100-words. The opening paragraph draws the reader in and the final sentence spits the reader out (all in a very good way). Everything in between carries the story beautifully.

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  9. This is so neatly turned, crisp and contrasting – as you intended. I love the way you use rhyme and slant rhyme, though I’m not sure whether it is conscious or instinctive. Maybe a bit of both…

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    1. Ah, you see, that’s why you can write poetry and I can’t – you see things I don’t! Instinctive only, I’m afraid – I’m terrible at self analysis and just go by if something ‘sounds’ right. Thank you for picking that out though – I’ll take a look at it again now, see what I did!

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  12. Oh no! I guess there was no way she could converse with him about her concerns. . And, hence the last resort.
    Beautifully written, as always. .

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      2. Yes, he did have a thing for platinum blondes, didn’t he? Strikes me the film Vertigo (where James Stewart tries to transform his new girlfriend into a clone of his dead one) reflects Hitchcock’s own continual search for a ‘type’ – cool, smart, curvaceous, white blonde. Not sure what that says about the man, but it’s probably not good.

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      3. Ha, no, not according to the amount of refereeing his wife had to do between him and various of his leading ladies.

        Hmm, Madeleine… that was the most chilling part of the film for me, him re-making a woman into his dead wife. The immense loss of female agency and commodification was chilling, overlaid with that whirling, romantic, eerie Bernard Herrman score. It didn’t even add depth to the level of his grief, more underscored his delusional desire to replace her.

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      4. It’s a disturbing film all round really, one of the few times James Stewart played someone not 100% nice, which in itself must have been disturbing for viewers. And that controlling / being controlled relationship – toxic.

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      5. Definitely. I have never liked Jimmy Stewart, he had an air of Southern Gentleman which combines mannerliness with condescension, whether being nice or not.

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      6. I rather liked him as an actor but I know that in real life he was very conservative and he and I would most definitely not have got on. I try not to let an actor’s real character affect me, but it does. 🙂

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      7. The famous Hitchcock quote was something like ‘I reason I choose blonde female leads is because they have a whiteness of quality, like snow, all the better to see blood on.’ Very wolfish.

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