The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Beneath the Flashing Lights
by Melissa R. Mendelson

Beneath the flashing lights, I grimaced at the mud on my boot, disgusted by its presence. I dug my boot deep into a pile of dirt, trying to wash off the stain. I kicked my boot out into the air, releasing the dirt around it, and as I did, I listened to their grating voices near me. Hey, did you see last night’s game? Boy, did I get plastered earlier today, but don’t worry. I’m now right as rain. Hey, remember those young girls we caught? Well, I gave them something that they will never ever forget. If only they would shut the fuck up, but what was worse than them? The damn sighers. Those antsy, restless, eager, chomping at their lips and fingers. What the fuck were they waiting for? So what if this girl was dug up and dead? No one cared, and I stared at the mud still on my boot, which helped avert my gaze from her mangled body, one arm stretched outward with dark red nails matching the blood in the dirt. Finally, the coroner had arrived. It’s about time. We were finally free and ready for our next departure, but now, they were annoyed at me. I was taking too long, wavering, glancing, wondering whose daughter were we leaving like this, but as one man had said, no one cared. I shouldn’t, and I knelt down, rubbed the mud away, and grabbed the silver ring with an Onyx stone off the dead girl’s finger. My daughter always liked things like this, and I slipped it into my pocket. I stepped away, leaving her body there, beneath the flashing lights.

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Fiction © Copyright Melissa R. Mendelson
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com.

About Author Melissa R. Mendelson:

Melissa R. Mendelson is a horror, science-fiction and dystopian author and poet.  She has two publications with Wild Ink Publishing.  One is a prose poetry collection, This Will Remain With Us, and the other is a short story collection, Stories Written On Covid Walls.  She also self-published a sci-fi novella, Waken and a small short story collection, Name’s Keeper.

If you’d like to learn more about Melissa, you can visit her accounts here: www.MelissaMendelson.com