The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

A Mile in My Shoes
by Suzanne Madron

The faraway ringing of the churchbells followed me, the clanging echo chasing me in an attempt to impart Christian guilt into my heathen soul. My laughter bubbled at the back of my throat in answer: I am beyond saving. I am beyond redemption.

Above me, pairs of shoes applauded my progress, their laces bound together and affixing the solemates, one to the other, until death did they part. The shoes suspended at the entrance to the road were old and weatherworn. There were gaps in the congregation where laces had rotted and left a hole in the electric grin of the utility wires.

Toward the end of the road were newer shoes and here the wires were crowded, some of the pairs swinging and intertwined with others in an orgy of sole-slapping.

In all, there were two hundred pairs of shoes suspended up there, each one a milemarker in my life and each one a gravemarker for the former owners hidden in the forest lining either side of the old road. One mile and counting.

I reached the end of the road and the pair of sneakers in my hand swung limply, twisting in the wind while I contemplated their placement above me along the crowded line. After a moment, I drew my arm back and threw, watching as the laces wrapped lovingly around the wire.

Two hundred and one.

Fiction © Copyright Suzanne Madron
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com 

More from Suzanne Madron:

For Sale or Rent

The house across the street seems to go on the market every few months, but this time nothing about the sale is normal, including the new owners. No sooner has the for sale sign come down and the neighborhood is thrown into a Lovecraftian nightmare and the only way to find out is to attend the house warming party.

Available on Amazon!