The cemetery spread along the area known as Devils Abode.
The cab stopped in front of the sign, DEAD ZONE AHEAD. Jessie glanced at the meter as it began to glitch. She handed the man two 20s. “You don’t have to wait.” She gathered the bouquet of flowers and slid out onto the curb.
The driver made a sharp U-turn, the tires screeching, and sped back down the mountain.
There’s nothing evil about a place where the dead go to rest, she thought as she hiked toward the cast-iron gate. She looked down at the black screen of her cellphone. So electronics tend to fail here. She pulled her jacket over her shoulders. And the wind has a frozen lick to it.
Her husband’s grave was the first to the left of the entrance. She lay on the freshly shoveled dirt, placed the flowers above her head, waited for his arms to reach up and hold her one last time.
word count: 150
—Nortina
Mondays Finish the Story: a flash fiction challenge where we provide you with a new photo each week, and the first sentence of a story. Your challenge is to finish the story using 100-150 words, not including the sentence provided.
Click the froggy icon to read other stories and add your own.
Superb twist at the end of a scary piece of work~ A great build-up Nortina ~ 🙂
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Thanks! I must say, I love when I can provide a little surprise at the end! 🙂
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Oh my gosh, I love it! So heartbking at the end. But I felt tension leading up to it since it was the Devil’s Abode! Wonderful!
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I love how you guide the reader in one direction and then yank them back to send them on another path. And I love the line, “the wind has a frozen lick to it.” Great writing 🙂
One thing, in the penultimate paragraph you have “she thought has she hiked” – I think has should be as there.
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Yes, I’m definitely a lover of irony. Oh, and thanks for catching that!
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You had me crying! Well done Nortina! Thanks for writing again for the Mondays Finish the Story challenge. Be well… ^..^
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Thank you! 🙂
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A sad expression of grief with a bit of mystery thrown in. Love it. Wondering if the embrace happens. Well done!
Little suggestion you may have meant laid instead of lied in the last sentence. 🙂
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Thank you! And I’m glad you caught that error, although I think the correct word is lay. Ugh, lie and lay, two of my least favorite verbs. I always have to look in a dictionary to conjugate them correctly!
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