I wrote this as part of a Flashwords Contest for Crimebake 2010. It was my first and only attempt at Flash fiction. I didn’t win, place, or show in the contest. But I had a blast writing this!
We had to write a compelling crime story in 150 words or less, using at least ten of twenty title words from Charlaine Harris’s books: Bedroom, Bone, Club, Corpse, Counselor, Dark, Dead, Family, Fool, Grave, Heels, Ice, Landlord, Living, Pick, Scene, Secret, Surprise, Trollop, Worse.
Bones
By Kourtney Heintz
My wife hated dead things. Corpses and graves brought on panic attacks. I spent twenty years living with her fear, navigating our family around it. Every Halloween, things got worse.
This year, she decided to face her fear.
It was no surprise that I ended up sitting beside her in a cemetery after dark. Her teeth chattered, but she refused to leave.
I stood up. “Don’t be foolish. You’re freezing.”
A secret swam in her moss green eyes. “I was six when I found my first dead body.”
“What?”
Her voice turned to ice. “It was my mother.”
I dropped back down on the cold ground.
“Daddy bashed her head in with an iron skillet.”
She’d said she was an orphan. “Where’s he?”
She smiled. “I caught up with him one Halloween.”
Dear God. She couldn’t.
She shivered. “I never realized how hard it was to get rid of bones.”
Excellent, and creepy! Well done.
Thanks! It was fun to write. And even though I wrote it in 2010, it’s pretty decent.:) Most of the time I look back at my writing and go “Yeesh, I wrote that?”
Agreed!
Thanks La La. 🙂
Love it! All I can say is the standard must have beem extremely high if you didn’t even place. I want to know more….
Thanks! There were 150 entries, but the ones that won were more cozy mystery and way more descriptive. Very very well written too. I’m not a big adjective and adverb person. I like the characters to tell the story. Thanks–I was thinking this could be another novel possibly. A very very dark one.
GOOD STUFF …..!!!!!!!!! ME LIKEY !
SHARP SHARP SHARP 🙂
8 DAYS TO GO —— BY THE WAY —– !!!!!!
GOOD MORNING AND HAVE A BEAUTIFUL DAY 🙂 XO
Hello Miss Catherine! Thanks. I love horror ala Poppy Z. Brite but I’ve never written anything like that. This was a small attempt at it. 🙂
8 days. 😉
Have a fantastic day! It’s supposed to be in the 80s here in CT today. Wow. Spring is heating up fast.
🙂 IT’S SO HUMID HERE – FEELS LIKE THE TROPICS …..
HAVING A REALLY GOOD DAY – JUST GOT AN AUDITION FOR WEDNESDAY FOR PRINT WORK FOR A CAMPAIGN FOR ACCESSIBILITY ONTARIO !!!!!
🙂 71/2 DAYS !!!!!!!!!!! COUNTING DOWN THE NANO SECONDS FDOR YOU 🙂 XO
Catherine, I’m having a quiet day indoors. My dog and I don’t like heat. And 90 is a bit much for April. 🙂 Congrats on the audition & good luck!!!
Thanks. It’s funny the first two rounds I was so busy with work, I hardly realized the date was coming. This time, I’ve been aware of every hour. 🙂
ROUTING FOR YOU A ZILLION PERCENT XX
Then I will definitely make it. 🙂
HOPE !!!!!!! FAVE WORD XOXOXOXOXO
Great word! 🙂
I KNOW
I SO WOULD LOVE A HOPE TATTOO 🙂 LOL XO
Oh that sounds really cool! I’ve played around with the idea of a tattoo. But I never found anything I loved enough to keep for a lifetime. 🙂
I HAVE A FEW ! LOL ……
ALL LOVE ON THE INSIDE OF ONE WRIST AND BELIEVE AND A MONARCH ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE OTHER – YES —— MAKE SURE YOU LOVE SOMETHING VERY MUCH .
MINE ARE REMINDERS XOXOXO
They sound gorgeous! 🙂 Great reminders.
YEP – I LIKE THEM XO
STICKING WITH YOU ALL THE WAY TO 24 AND BEYOND XOXOX
Aw thanks Catherine! 🙂 You are the bestest. 🙂
SO ARE YOU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
EVERYONE IS IN THIS LIFE TOGETHER —— PEOPLE FORGET THAT – I KNOW I DO SOMETIMES ! LOL …….
X
Thanks! 🙂 The blog has helped me find some amazing folks, like you, who remind me that we are in this journey together.
Much love,
Kourtney
GOODNIGHT XOXOXO
Sweet dreams. 🙂
Didn’t see that coming! Good job!
Thanks CC. I love twist endings. Or twisted endings. 😉
Creepy, but in a good way 🙂
Thanks Lisa. I’ve always enjoyed dark sinister stuff, but never written it. This way my first foray. I kinda liked it too. 😉
I can’t believe this didn’t win! Really great flash fiction, Kourtney. Creepy–which is just how I like it. 🙂
Thanks Carrie. 🙂 I love creepy stuff. Horror movies are my favorite.
Dark, twisted and lovely! It’s so important to celebrate the fun involved with writing. Prizes and recognition should be frosting. 🙂
Very true. Prizes are nice, but I’d rather get industry feedback. Let me know what wasn’t working so I can move forward a better writer. 🙂
Fantastic! Should have placed. I can picture the whole thing. Sends perfectly creepy chills. 😀
Thanks Debra! It’s great to hear when your writing sends chills and creates good visuals. 🙂 I always worry that I see things so clearly in my head, but they don’t translate onto the page as well.
I love it!
Thanks Laura! 🙂
How bone chilling. Write a mystery please…….
Berry, I have a YA mystery I’m trying to sell. I might try a little something darker and more along these lines as my fourth book. 😉
Wow, that’s an awesome piece of flash fiction in my book! Great twist at the end, and you really pack a punch in so few words!
Aw, thanks JM! That 150 word limit was tough. But it made me really economize. 😉 Glad you liked it.
Outstanding! You should have won! (Yeah, go with it for that 4th book)
LOL. Thanks so much! When I was posting it, I thought this is a new kind of story for me. Definitely more gruesome but it could be fun to see where it goes.
Wow. I can’t believe you didn’t place at all with that flash fiction piece. I think it is wonderful. Didn’t expect the twisty ending. Well done.
Thanks, Kathryn. The people who won used more adjectives and more description in their writing. One was about a woman in a casket trying to steal back her shoes. It was pretty funny and well-written. I like twists in my stories. Even the short ones. 😉
Ah, shivers! 🙂 Well done!
Thanks! It’s great to know when my writing gets under someone’s skin. 🙂
Twisted. I liked it. It’s really hard working with a lot of limitations. Makes it harder to be yourself.
Carol, I thought I could never write under such constraints. But then I gave it a try and actually enjoyed it. It was a challenge and it was a bit of a relief to have constraints. It kept me focused.
It’s funny because so many different stories emerged from these constraints. All with such unique voices. It was kinda cool to see how each writer took the constraints and still made it their own. 🙂
I love it. You completely creeped me out!
Thanks Kelly! It creeped me out to meet that character. I’d love to write more about her sometime. 🙂