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What Lingers
by A.F. Stewart

We lived here once.

Back before the dense rolling mists and the cold dark water covered the land. Bustling life, along the river and small lake, sweeping over rolling hills, spilling from rows of cottages. A small rural town of farmers, fishermen, and artisans. 

Now it’s gone. 

Nothing’s left but the inland lake and a few crooked planks that used to be the wharf. One day, one hour, that is all it took to break everything. Lives, security, trust. Because we believed what we were told. We believed we were safe. 

Until the day the dam broke.

No warning, no hope of escape.

Our little town vanished, submerged under a deluge of water, lies, and hubris. Homes smashed into debris, bodies drowned in the flood. Screams, cries for help, and then silence.

The calm, crushing hush of death.

Then the black headline: No Survivors.

And the world moved on.

Yet, we’re still here. Under the water. Hungry, angry spirits, roaming through the currents, in the murky depths, past the decaying remnants of our lives.Years trapped under the cold press of water, under the instrument of our demise. Ghostly fingers beneath the surface, reaching for the sun, reaching for an answer, reaching for a justice that never came.

Now we have settled for revenge.

We are patient, we will wait. Until they forget. Until they come back. Reshape the flooded land into a new home, rebuild over our graves. 

Then we will rise. 

Then they will understand our pain, our loss.

.

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!