The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!
Wash Me
by Sonora Taylor
Kayla froze when she approached her car. A message awaited her, scrawled on the front bumper of her number one beauty: WASH ME.
Kayla frowned as she jerked her car keys out from her coat pocket. The nerve. How dare someone touch her beautiful car with their dirty fingers? How could they rub through years worth of desert dust, garden dirt, and human detritus with a swipe of their hand and a flick of their wrist?
“Hey lady!”
Kayla turned and saw a man walking towards her. He held a grocery bag in one hand and held up the other in a motion to stop her. His hand was filthy.
“You forgot this,” he said as he held up the bag.
His fingertips had smudges of dirt. Dirt that had once been on her car.
“You need help with –” The man’s words curdled behind a yelp as Kayla plunged her keys into the man’s throat.
“Don’t. Touch. My. Car!” Kayla screamed.
The man only replied with bewilderment. He touched his filthy hand to his throat. Blood covered his palms and fingers. Kayla got into her car and sped away. The message on her car blinked like neon in her brain: Wash Me! Wash Me! Wash Me!
Her car didn’t need washing — just the dirty fingers that had smudged it. She’d find them and clean them once and for all.
Fiction © Copyright Sonora Taylor
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com
More from Sonora Taylor:
Little Paranoias: Stories
Is it a knock on the door, or a gust of wind? A trick of the light, or someone who’ll see what you’ve done?
“Little Paranoias: Stories” features twenty tales of the little things that drive our deepest fears. It tells the stories of terror and sorrow, lust at the end of the world and death as an unwanted second chance. It dives into the darkest corners of the minds of men, women, and children. It wanders into the forest and touches every corner of the capital. Everyone has something to fear — but after all, it’s those little paranoias that drive our day-to-day.
Spreading the Writer's Word 
A sinister story.
Reblogged this on Sonora Taylor and commented:
I have a new story up on Nina D’Arcangela’s Spreading the Writer’s Word! Check out “Wash Me,” which is not about hand-washing but does feature dirty hands. Read more at the link below.