The Ladies of Horror
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Solitude
by D.M. Slate

Tiny droplets of rain fell from the sky – remnants of the squall that had battered the remote island just hours ago. George stood in the lighthouse watching the silhouette of a small sailboat pass in front of the setting sun, amazed that the ocean swells hadn’t swallowed the tiny vessel whole.

He took his time descending the spiral staircase and then stepped onto the uneven rocks outside. Thunder shook the sky as the thick gray clouds unleashed another round of pouring rain. The boat was nearly to the shoreline and he saw two people on deck. They lowered their anchor and then then clambered overboard, life vests keeping them afloat as they swam toward land.

The woman was the first to make it in, and George reached down to help her up the sharp, slippery incline of the rocks. Her companion wasn’t far behind. He could hear the woman sobbing as he helped the man out of the water. Once on his feet, the man reached out shaking George’s hand.

“Thank you so much! We’ve just been through the worst storm I’ve ever seen.”

The woman chimed in. “I was so scared. I thought we were going to die.”

George smirked at the irony of the statement. Lowering his head into the wind and rain, he pointed toward the tree line. “My house is over there. Let’s get out of the rain.” The raspy sound of his voice surprised even himself.

As they walked to his cabin George wondered how long it’d been since he’d spoken to another person? Solitude had a way of playing with a person’s mind… enough so that it could even drive a man insane.

Fiction © Copyright D.M. Slate
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from D.M. Slate:

Roots of Deceit

Fueled by the underlying currents of her daughter’s death, Gianna vows to unravel the mystery surrounding the foreboding apparition who keeps making appearances in her new home, but she’s not prepared for the grisly trail of clues that’ll unfold before her; testing not only her sanity, but her guilty conscience as well.

Zack and Gianna call on a team of paranormal investigators to start them in the right direction, and after the initial terror of the ghost’s presence begins to dull, Gianna finds herself sucked into a web of deception, lies and murder, as the ultimate questions are posed: who is the terrifying pale-faced ghost, and what does she want? As the secrets of the past reach their gnarled fingers out beyond the grave, grasping firmly onto Gianna’s soul, she starts to suspect her only neighbor, old farmer Peterson, of committing the unthinkable crime.

But finding evidence to prove a twenty-three year old murder is more difficult than Gianna anticipated, and when the ghost gets tired of waiting, she takes matters into her own hands; at which time the distinction between the two women begins to blur…

Available on Amazon!