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Time-Loop Murder
#WritcoStoryPrompt9
The cry was faint but I heard it loud and clear it as I walked past the dark bushes. My steps faltered. It was late and I wasn’t sure if it was a smart thing to stop and inspect the source.
I had to walk dead center through the backside of the FaeDistrict, which had lost it's wit and whimsy many moons ago. 'Nope, nope, nope,' I thought only half resolutely to myself. 'It's late. I'm tired. So not my business.'
I started walking again, determined to make it to my two-bedroom condo apartment before my favorite show began. I barely made it half a block before the cry came again. This time is was even louder and more insistent. More desperate.
"Dammit all to Hades," I cursed quietly to myself. And to the nuisance crying in the bushes.
I turned back, on my heels, and crepted toward the shadow-cast bushes. The cry was hard to place, like that of an infant or injured animal, yet not. The not knowing did nothing to sooth my tired nerves. I worked, pretty unsuccessfully, to convince myself it was the non-existent wind.
The cry came again just as I made it to the brush and reached out towards the leaves. I jumped out, and right back into my skin. The irriation I felt afterward, almost washed away the fear. But not quite.
'Fuck it,' I thought, gathering my wits, and screwing up my courage. I plunged my hand deep into the leaves and twigs, phone flashlight at the ready, and looked down to the the possible horror possibly lurking within.
Instead, I was faced with a much more terrifying nothing. There was nothing. No injured rabbit... no abandoned baby. The warm, weightless relief of not having to remedy either of those situations, quickly dissolved into the hard, grounding fear that I had been tricked.
Before I could react, the burning, stretching, tugging power of a portal yanked me free of my reality and landed me...
The cry was faint but I heard it loud and clear it as I walked past the dark bushes. My steps faltered. It was late and I wasn’t sure if it was a smart thing to stop and inspect the source.
I had to walk dead center through the backside of the FaeDistrict, which had lost it's wit and whimsy many moons ago. 'Nope, nope, nope,' I thought only half resolutely to myself. 'It's late. I'm tired. So not my business.'
I started walking again, determined to make it to my two-bedroom condo apartment before my favorite show began. I barely made it half a block before the cry came again. This time is was even louder and more insistent. More desperate.
"Dammit all to Hades," I cursed quietly to myself. And to the nuisance crying in the bushes.
I turned back, on my heels, and crepted toward the shadow-cast bushes. The cry was hard to place, like that of an infant or injured animal, yet not. The not knowing did nothing to sooth my tired nerves. I worked, pretty unsuccessfully, to convince myself it was the non-existent wind.
The cry came again just as I made it to the brush and reached out towards the leaves. I jumped out, and right back into my skin. The irriation I felt afterward, almost washed away the fear. But not quite.
'Fuck it,' I thought, gathering my wits, and screwing up my courage. I plunged my hand deep into the leaves and twigs, phone flashlight at the ready, and looked down to the the possible horror possibly lurking within.
Instead, I was faced with a much more terrifying nothing. There was nothing. No injured rabbit... no abandoned baby. The warm, weightless relief of not having to remedy either of those situations, quickly dissolved into the hard, grounding fear that I had been tricked.
Before I could react, the burning, stretching, tugging power of a portal yanked me free of my reality and landed me...
