The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

If push Came to Shove
by Leah McNaughton Lederman

She was pretty sure she’d gotten all the crevices. A piece this intricate, it was like it slurped in the blood, absorbed it. So many small, tight grooves.

And then there were the fibers. She couldn’t think about that.

They’d know it was foul play. It was obvious. She’d bleached the hell out of it, conservation be damned.

No one could know.

It was just an accident, after all. A misunderstanding.

He shouldn’t have been talking like that. He made her do it.

It didn’t take much, either.

Just a shove.

A perfect landing, the iron doorhandle to the temple. Eight centuries of history in that room and half of it stained with blood in a second’s time. A breath. A blink.

She’d do it again, if she had to.

Fiction © Copyright Leah McNaughton Lederman
Image courtesy of Nina D’Arcangela

Image courtesy of Pixabay 

More about Leah McNaughton Lederman:

Leah McNaughton Lederman is a freelance writer and editor from the Indianapolis area, where she lives with her husband, their two sons, two cats, and puppy. Since obtaining her Master’s degree in English Literature from the University of Toledo in 2009, she’s busied herself with writing, editing, parenting, and teaching (though not always in that order). She started her own parenting column in The Toledo Free Press, and has had her short stories published by Bloodlotus Online Literary Journal, The Indianapolis indie magazine Snacks, and in Scout Media’s anthology A Matter of Words. Her most recent work will be released by Indie Authors’ Press in Issues of Tomorrow. Several other pieces are awaiting rejection. As an editor, she’s worked on dozens of indie comic scripts and has been featured on the comics news sites “Creator Owned Expo,” “The Outhousers,” and the podcast “Comics Pros and Cons.” In addition to her work in comics with writers like Dirk Manning, Howie Noel, Bob Salley, and Kasey Pierce, Leah has edited short story collections, children’s books, dissertations, and several novels.