‘Why did we have to meet here?’
The leaves have long fallen, the creek’s fringed with ice. A wind cuts along the path, sneaking beneath my sweater, raising my skin to pimples.
‘You know why,’ snaps Flick, checking her phone signal.
There are still ribbons of police tape further along the track, tangled in the twigs like black and yellow bunting, the only sign remaining that anything happened here.
Madison and Lily are silent, Lily trailing behind as always. Madison’s gained weight since we last met – she always eats when she’s worried. And Lily … she’s a ghost girl. Silent, bony, big eyes staring like she’s seeing things that aren’t there. Maybe she’s sneaking some of her mom’s sleeping pills. I’m old enough to buy my own.
We’re together in this, a bond unbreakable.
Though I wish with all my heart I never had to lay eyes on these bitches again.
*******
Written for What Pegman Saw, the fantastic prompt that uses Google Street View as its starting point. Today, we are at Bridal Veil Falls, Utah. See here to join in, share, read and comment on others.
Word Shamble 
I am intrigued. As usual with your flash fiction. And, oh boy, are you right about how cold the weather. Those girls look cold, for sure.
LikeLike
Thanks Crispina. And teenage girls never wear enough layers out in the cold, do they? I remember as a teen myself walking home from the pub in a snowstorm (this being Buxton) wearing only the tiniest jacket and a ridiculous, ankle length pencil skirt. It was hard work as I recall! Thanks for reading 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Always enjoy the read. And yea, I can remember walking home from clubbing. Seven miles cos I’d drank my taxi-home-money, the snow crisp around the sexy stillettos! And no coat. Perhaps the alcohol kept me warm? Or I was still hot from dancing.
LikeLike
Or we just thought we looked better without coats and that was more important than being warm? My priorities have changed these days 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Definitely. I think that happens some place along the (very long) run up to the 50th birthday.
LikeLike
🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Builds a mystery!
Definitely want to know more! 🙂
LikeLike
Thank you so much 🙂
LikeLike
What a find–there is a story in that photo and you’ve unraveled–or rather started to unravel–it beautifully. Love your artful character sketches and the voice rocks!
LikeLike
Thank you Karen! I’ve found this before on Pegman, little groups of people caught in a moment that suggest ‘something’ is happening between them. I just crack the story open. Thanks for the encouragement 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Waiting for the back story now… 😁
LikeLike
Well, it can only be bad … 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very atmospheric little snippet!
LikeLike
Thanks Matthew 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh the intrigue! Your descriptions are, as always perfection.
Excellent writing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Ma’am, you’re very kind 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Just tell it like it is 🙂
LikeLike
When I saw the image I thought those girls were on some kind of mission of mercy! Trust you to intuit the murky truth – whatever that may be. Beautifully written as always.
LikeLike
Haha! Yep, no story for me in goodness and empathy. Give me the sociopath every time – fictional ones, at least! Thank you for reading Jane 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I wonder why some of us go for the dark side – maybe by turning it into fiction it stops it from seeming real. I love bloodthirsty films about gangsters and coke dealers, but in reality that world disgusts me.
LikeLike
Living vicariously through film, TV, fiction is normal as it comes. There are dark sides to us all, rage and curiosity about horrific things – I guess it’s why so many people rubber neck at car crashes. No harm in indulging a little of it within reason. It’s the people who become unhealthily obsessed that you have to watch out for
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think rubberneckers are the ones who would enjoy public hangings. I’d rather avert my eyes unless my intervention could make a positive difference.
LikeLike
I agree with you. It’s why I hate salacious stories on the news and in papers. If I can’t help, what’s the point in seeing an incident time and again until it becomes no more than a story.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I once saw my Liverpool-bred (ex) sister-in-law run gleefully toward the sound of an ambulance siren. I was horrified – I hadn’t realised it was a spectator sport. I assumed that it was a Northern thing until I felt the excited buzz all around me. I must have been blind…
LikeLike
I worked with a girl like that, who knew the ins and outs of every (unpleasant) news story – accidents, crimes etc. Disturbing to say the least
LikeLiked by 1 person
What intriguing hints you have dropped along this sinister path! Nothing as vicious as a bunch of teenagers with a terrible secret. Of course now I’m dying (hm, perhaps bad choice of words, ha ha) to find out what happened. The police tape suggests someone died, but I’m hooked wondering how exactly these girls were involved. As usual, you leave me wanting to turn the page!
LikeLike
As you say, it’s going to be nasty. A secret that’s eating away at some of the girls at least. Glad it intrigued you and thanks for reading Joy 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Secrets make for great tension and conflict, and with teenagers even more so!
LikeLike
Got to love a nasty secret and teenagers are so secretive anyway, they could be up to all sorts of things and seem like perfectly nice young people to their parents and teachers.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow a powerful piece. I’m wondering if there one friend is truly a ghost, & the somehow are in this pact having had responsibility of some kind for a death. But it also reminds me of being a young girl in high school, the judgement of other girls, how they treat other girls. How sone girls love & hate their friends equally for their bitchy behavior. But perhaps, in this case her hate is more to do with this bond, what her friends (and her?) did which makes her hate them and binds them all. Would be an interesting movie.
LikeLike
Hi Amanda, nice to ‘see’ you :). I imagined the latter, something that’s bound them together in secrecy, something awful none of them can now escape. Girls can be bitchy, grown women too, but I’m used to working in an all female environment. It’s simpler somehow. Thank you – I’m so glad you liked it
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s very funny. A lot of times you are right. It is simpler. But sometimes I find the opposite to be true. Women get bitchy (we can’t always help it), men punch each other and/or have it out, & go back to business 😅
Take care Lynn. Nice to talk to you.
LikeLike
Oh, yes, I’ve experienced this too, the toxic bitchy atmosphere – absolutely awful and very destructive. Men are more straightforward, you’re right, though I still find them mystifying too – they really are wired differently! Nice to chat to you too Amanda
LikeLiked by 1 person
You too Lynn.Agreed.
LikeLike
What were these girls up to last summer? Nice description of the urgency of their mission, partners in a crime long past perhaps? More questions than answers but you definitely set the scene for a mystery!
LikeLike
Thank you Andrea. I’m glad you came away intrigued, even if I didn’t give many answers! That’s the thing with short fiction – always more questions than answers. Thanks for reading
LikeLiked by 1 person
I did not mean that critically at all. I was only musing about the possibilities. Oh, the problems of expressing emphasis, in written, and therefore silent and easily misinterpreted, language, without the musical intonations of the voice!
LikeLike
And here’s me thinking the same! I didn’t take your comment as a criticism – sorry if it came across that way. It is an issue with flash – I just start to ask questions and the story’s over. I always enjoy your comments as they’re very thoughtful. No offence taken here 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person