The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Final Sunset
by Rie Sheridan Rose

Looking out over the lake, you’d never know what happened here. It’s so peaceful…the water like glass; the clouds limned with gold. So beautiful…

But under that smooth mirrored water are secrets. Terrible, bloody secrets.

This island is deserted. There are no people, or shelters, or corner groceries. Just me, and my thoughts. My memories. The broken oars that got me here, but won’t ever get me back to the mainland.

That’s alright. I don’t want to go back. There’s nothing left for me there. Peter was all I had…and now…

He’s under that lake out there. Down at the bottom with the rest of the secrets. Head as broken as the oar he tried to kill me with. The blood has almost stopped flowing now, but it’s left me light-headed.

Even if the oars were unbroken, I wouldn’t be able to row even half that distance.

I guess I shouldn’t have told Peter about the baby. He wanted so badly to start a family, but I knew I never could. Not with him. No matter how much I loved him. He just…snapped. And then, he snapped the oar—jammed it in my side.

I snatched up the other and broke it over his head then shoved him out of the boat.

Somehow, I made it here…just in time to watch the sunset. Like I’ve done before. Cradling the baby…

Well, now Peter can be the father he always wanted to be, under the lake, with the secrets.

And I’ll enjoy this final sunset.

Fiction © Copyright Rie Sheridan Rose
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from Author Rie Sheridan Rose:

Skellyman

“I have always preferred the supernatural in tales of horror, the knot between life and death. Rie Sheridan Rose’s Skellyman is cool and creepy. Her first horror novel is a chilling read.” — Charlee Jacob – Stoker winner, Best novel, “Dread in the Beast”

Brenda Barnett is trying to cope with raising her four-year-old daughter all alone after an accident tore her family in half. As she and Daisy go for a much-needed treat, the little girl spots a Skellyman on the corner.

This pivotal encounter leads to a wave of mounting terror as Brenda’s life begins to come undone around her. Who is the Skellyman? Why does he keep appearing? Can the sympathetic policeman Brenda turns to stop the madness before it is too late?

And why does Daisy insist that her dead brother is trying to tell them something important?

Available on Amazon!