Write Her Story
Offspring
by Suzie Lockhart
Sunlight glistened off the water as I reclined on the dock, feeling thankful to be alive as I watched my grandchildren letting out whoops of joy. My son-in-law was in his speedboat, pulling them from behind in inner tubes.
It was the happiest I’d felt since my partner, Donald had died suddenly last year from a massive stroke.
My cell phone vibrated in my pocket.
I recognized the number instantly, and contemplated not answering.
“Abe speaking.”
“Hello, Abraham.” Cassandra Moxie’s cool voice came across the line. “I’m afraid this isn’t a personal call.”
“I’m retired, remember,” I stated flatly, waving at my grandkids. “Surely you have an agent that can handle whatever is going on.”
“Not this time, Abraham. Not many agents remember what it was like to work for the FBI when things started, 35 years ago.”
Unfortunately, Moxie had my attention.
She had to be wrong.
“What’s happened?” I asked.
“Can I send you the pictures from the crime scene?” she asked.
I hesitated for a moment. “Sure.”
“Call me back.”
I waited for a few moments for Moxie to send the photos. I tried looking at them objectively, but that was hard to do.
The carnage did, indeed, look much like the attacks from the infected I’d seen as a rookie agent. Instead of the grotesque monstrosities that had attacked the living—before a vaccine was discovered which reversed the process—a group of young adults sat amidst a macabre setting of candles and skulls.
A familiar-looking girl sat in the center. Long brown hair hid half her face; spidery veins covered the porcelain skin on the other half, with blood and gore trickling down from the corner of her pouty lips. Her dark eyes were blank.
Bile rose in my throat as I recognized Donald’s daughter…
Fiction © Copyright Suzie Lockhart
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com Artist: Enrique Meseguer
More from Suzie Lockhart:
Killing It Softly
Suzie Lockhart and Digital Horror Fiction are thrilled to present 32 chilling tales of terror from some of the best authors in horror. Killing It Softly includes stories from New York Times best selling authors Nancy Holder and Elaine Cunningham, together with more shocking short nightmares from the finest award winning female writers in the genre. Your heart won’t stop pounding as you dig into the pages of this book; from the moment you immerse yourself in the first tale, about a women waking to find herself inside a coffin, buried alive, until the last, a coming of age story about a sixteen-year-old’s journey of self-discovery amidst all hell breaking loose. You’ll find your proof that women can, indeed, do a wicked dance between science fiction and horror as they penetrate your darkest thoughts, to bring forth stories promising to leave you with a lingering anxiety you can’t seem to shake. Any romantic notions of vampires will be crushed, and dark and twisted plots will confirm definitively that females can even write about zombies. We dare you to read stories that will leave you deeply disturbed, and some that will slice into your very soul. It wouldn’t be horror if there wasn’t an ode to Edgar Allen Poe…we have two masterfully written tales. There are stories off the odd and unusual, stories that take a perilous dive into worlds of disturbing shadows, and there’s even an exorcism—in a tale that daringly addresses the heartbreaking disease that is alcoholism. Enter at your own risk…
Stop by my other blogs for more Women in Horror Month content!
Sotet Angyal, The Dark Angel – Dark emotive flash fiction written by me.
The Road to Nowhere – Horror movie picks staring strong leading ladies.
And don’t forget to visit the Women in Horror Month official web site
for more great WiHM8 events and posts!
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