The moon was full enough to illuminate the path, but I clicked on the light anyway, enjoying how my shadow stretched across the lawn, a giant in the night.
In the cardboard box were the broken spectacles, the engraved wedding ring (Forever), the shoes with their matted laces. All dried now, still rusty looking.
The riskiest things to keep are the driving licences, row upon row of tiny photographs like prison mugshots.
But I keep them anyway.
And touch each with my outstretched fingertip when the kids are on playdates, when my husband is down the pub.
Bliss.
***
Friday Fictioneers is run my the wonderful Rochelle Wisoff-Fields. Come write and share and read other stories.
This week that shed took me along a deadly path by reminding me of the 19th century killing of Maria Marten at Polstead in Suffolk, otherwise known as the Red Barn Murder. My dad used to live closeby and I remember him pointing out the spot where poor Maria died. All I glimpsed was a flash of trees and a newer black barn as we drove past. The original building burnt down years ago but the tragedy lingers on.
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Word Shamble 
O dear, this sounds like one very dangerous individual
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I think you may be right, Michael
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Oh that is just lovely, Lynn. An insight
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Thanks so much, Neil. Glad you think so!
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Always a pleasure to find you joining in Lynn. A chilling voice here.
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Thanks, Iain. Love a bit of chilling!
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You do this genre so very well. Loved it, Lynn!
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Aw, thank you so much, Dale. I do like a little bit of creepy 🙂
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🙂
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Great story. We had a place near my hometown where an entire family was murdered. After many attempts to sell the place, each time the new owners found they couldn’t bear to live there for the hauntings therein. In the end, the fire department ended up using it for training purposes before it was taken away as rubble. I remember training there, and I swear to this day that I heard the screams of the children. Even as I type this, I can almost hear them in my head. It was terrifying. Now, it is a vacant piece of land in the middle of a cornfield that no one wants to get anywhere near.
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That’s horrifying. That a building held on to those resonances, still disturbing people after so long. Tragic
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I wouldn’t have believed it because I don’t believe in those type of things as a general rule… but, I heard those screams. And even decades later you still feel the bad juju just driving past the place. Shivers me to even think about it.
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Real life creepiness – the worst kind
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Dear Lynn,
Perfect amount of creepy in this one. All those drivers licenses made me shiver.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Thank you, Rochelle. I often think I should expand some FF pieces into something longer, but time – you know. I should definitely keep a list of ones to return to, though, so I don’t have to trawl through old posts thinking ‘it must be here somewhere…’ 🙂
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I hear you, Lynn. I think I expeanded one or two. But there are so many.
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Wonder how many FF stories you’ve written over the years. Have you kept count?
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For the first few years I printed them off and kept them in a notebook. But I’ve lost track.
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So many stories…
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A very somber feel to this story–and no wonder! Gives me the shivers!
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Aw, thanks so much!
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It’s creepiest that the character is a woman. Sadly, males are all too common, but females are rare – and even scarier. 😳
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Females are the deadliest of species in nature.
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To be fair, I know some pretty scary women… Thanks for reading 🙂
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I have missed reading your stories Lynn. A marvellously macabre feeling to this.
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Thank you so much, Kelvin 🙂
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Something chilling about those drivers’ licences.
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Ooh, good! Thanks for reading, Bernadette
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Yikes! Stay down the pub, mate, for your own safety!
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Oh, now, she wouldn’t hurt her hubby or her babies. But the others? Well…
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Oh okay.
Case of pleasant mum by day and maniac in covert
Great story.
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Absolutely. Semi-autobiographical 😉
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Hmm. A normal person with a mass murder hobby. Yikes. Well done.
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Exactly! Thanks Bill
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Lady Dexter, I love it. Turning on the light so she can feel like a giant in the night is a perfect metaphor.
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Thanks so much. I’m glad you spotted that. Thanks so much for reading 🙂
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You’re very welcome, Lynn.
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I LOVE this, Lynn! The rusty colored shoes. Driving licenses. The power of her extending shadow. So well done. Marvelous!
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Thank you so much, Sascha! That enthusiasm is so lovely. Thanks 🙂
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