by Kimberly King
The mess on the manicured lawn looked as if a raccoon had been busy at work, but I soon discovered otherwise. A wrinkled fast food bag was left gaping open amongst balled-up hamburger wrappers and crumpled napkins, suggesting that whoever had been here had left in a hurry. Annoyed, I sighed with disgust at the garbage can that was just four feet away as if it had somehow been involved.
I picked up the garbage with great deliberation, shoving it into the paper bag. Beneath the fast food remains were shredded photographs. A bad breakup, I decided. A negative strip burrowed up from the pile, and I almost stuffed it into the bag too, before changing my mind. Instead, I held it up to the sun, staring at it until the strange images began to make sense. In one scene, a car was overturned in what looked like a ravine. The image below revealed a body, naked and sprawled out like Da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man.”
Murder. This dirty word echoed in my mind.
Chills like landmines exploded over my body, and I became light-headed as if suddenly aware that I was being watched. I quickly placed the brown strip into the bag, pretending I hadn’t seen anything. With wobbly legs, I stood up and shoved the bag into the garbage can, suddenly grabbing the negative at the last second, and stuffing it into my pocket. As I walked the lonely road to my house, another set of feet lurked behind.
6 comments:
A story after my own heart! What a great way to start a thriller and leave me in suspense!
Thanks, glad you like it! :)
This is a great premise to a bigger story.
whew...this is suspenseful. Good job Kim!
Thank you, guys!
Yipes! Lots of good suspenseful build up, now I'm ready to hear what happens next.
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