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Broken
by A.F. Stewart

On stormy days, you can hear the wind gusts through the broken window, the ragged edges of the glass pane rattling in protest. Not that it matters anymore in this abandoned house. The wind is just another peripheral ghost in a place of the damned.

Was it ever a happy home? Perhaps, once, but those times are hard to remember now. After that day, misery seeped into the brick, corroding the building with a melancholic taint. No one who comes here feels joy, as if the air itself is forlorn, stale with tragedy; some said they even heard the faint echoes of my screams.

You can still see it, a faint discoloration in the wood grain at the bottom of the stairs; a stain of red that no scrubbing would lift. There are other scars too; a nick in the bannister where I bounced, and scuffs on the top stairs.

I remember it all. One wayward push was all it took, one vicious, careless moment in anger. My body, suddenly airborne, tossed into the grip of gravity and falling… then the crack of bone when I landed into stillness and darkness.

Death settled into the house that day and never left…

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Fiction © Copyright A.F. Stewart
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from A.F. Stewart:

Visions and Nightmares

Tragedy spares no one… and takes no prisoners.
In the twilight shadows, secrets are revealed past the whispers of madness.

Wander into the realm of the old gods with Elenora, where humanity and marriage are a prison.
Step through a looking glass of dark horrors with an Alice you never knew.
Join with Zenna to seek the truth as her death by magic grows closer.
Journey with Olivia as she crosses paths with a monster of the forest and runs for her life.
Watch Isobel summon the faerie to solve her problem of an unwanted husband.
Shiver as Doctor Killbride experiments with corpses to create life from death.
All that and more await within the pages.

Ten stories. Ten women.
Who will survive? Who will fall? And who will succumb to their inner evil?
Find out in Visions and Nightmares.

Warning: This book contains disturbing scenes that may be upsetting to some readers.

Available on Amazon!