The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Within the Shadows
by Linda Lee Rice

The tunnel was a newfound shortcut that I liked to take on my way home from work. True, it was dark, dank, and unnerving in some spots, but most of the tunnel was lit.

I don’t know why my co-workers looked aghast when I told them about my shortcut. One girl even turned white and shuddered. She muttered something about gruesome unsolved murders and women disappearing. I just shrugged it off as sensationalist news to sell the tabloids. The tunnel cut a half-hour from my walk home after a long day.

But now, I’m not so sure. At first, I thought it was my imagination, the faint footsteps. There was a soft scraping sound reminding me of a knife being dragged across rocks. Then there were the whispers, echoing just out of my hearing, not sure of what was being said, almost sing-song.

I turned, seeing nothing, the footsteps stopped if indeed they were footsteps. A faint fog drifted slowly across the opening in the tunnel, the light dimming but not quite dark. My footsteps quickened…

There was a spot up ahead that never bothered me before. It was the part of the tunnel that the light was faint, and dampness dripped from the ceiling. Mossy puddles formed, and I had to dance around them to avoid getting my feet wet. But not today, I sloshed through the pools of water as the hair rose on the back of my neck.

I felt a chill breeze brush across my face as a shadow loomed in behind me. “Lookie, what we have here,” the voice crooned in a sing-song voice as the knife flashed before me…the puddles are now red…

Fiction © Copyright Linda Lee Rice.
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More about Linda Lee Rice:

Linda Lee Rice aka Ruzicka has poetry published in Twilight Times, Dark Krypt, Fables, Descending Darkness, Writing Village, Spine, and Page, Muses Gallery, Bloodbond, Lycan Valley Press Publishers, Alban Lake, Highland Park Poetry, Rosette Maleficarum, The Siren’s Call, Edify Fiction and the June Cotner anthology, “House Blessings” and “Garden Blessings

She has short stories published in The Grit, and Reminisce, Haunted Encounters: Friends and Family, FrostFire Worlds. Plus, a personal essay at Mamalode. She also has various articles and blogs published online as a freelance writer.