photo prompt : JHardy Carroll
Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers 100 word challenge this week is prompted by this mysterious building. Here’s where my imagination led me.
HEART OF STONE
Angela’s crepe soled shoes squeaked as she strode along the polished corridor. Plum job, she reflected, checking her scarlet nails. Assistant Director of Dr. Q’s Ultima Private Health Clinic.
She paused outside Dr. Q’s office : could he share her secret ? Seduce him maybe ? No — onto her mission, the mortuary. What a pain. Her fool-proof scheme hadn’t worked. The poison had failed to kill her lover.
Emergency plan was to check him into Ultima. He died two days later. So far so good. Need to shift his corpse…..out of sight, out of mind. Angela paused —- was Dr. Q a man after her own heart ?
February 19, 2019 at 2:42 pm
Well she wasn’t to be deterred. there seems a lot of this kind of thing going on these days. You leave us wanting to know the answer to so many questions and in that respect it’s job done, but a longer complimentary version would be good. Nicely done.
February 19, 2019 at 2:59 pm
Thanks so much Michael – I appreciate your feedback. Id like to write a short story one day, so it’s interesting to think which small seeds of flash fiction might germinate into longer pieces. How do you start a novel, I wonder ?
February 19, 2019 at 4:35 pm
The way I do it is to awake with something I’ve dreamed up but other times I just keep writing the shorter piece and it grows, sometimes into a short story, sometimes into a novel. My novel was a short story which someone advised needed more and it just grew from there. I know some plan out meticulously but I tend to just keep going and am surprised at how it ends, as though someone else wrote it.
A short story need only be a thousand words so you could definitely start by expanding this and seeing how many words you have by the end of it. A lot of competitions ask for about 1,500 words so you could end up with something to submit somewhere. It’s all fun.
February 18, 2019 at 8:51 pm
A rather sinister Nurse Ratchet 🙂
February 19, 2019 at 1:44 pm
Thank- you – you’re so right !!!
February 17, 2019 at 11:52 pm
I loved this one. But I’m a huge mystery fan.
February 18, 2019 at 10:24 am
Thanks for your feedback – glad you liked the story.
February 17, 2019 at 9:24 pm
She makes me shiver with her stony heart, apt title. Since she seems to have everything sorted out, telling Dr. Q. would be a stupid risk, but the way I see her, she wants someone who shares her worldview, and guilt. Great detail, I love it.
February 18, 2019 at 10:27 am
I appreciate your feedback and your take on Angela’s character. Pleased you liked the story.
February 17, 2019 at 8:46 pm
Nope… she need to do the job herself… I think the usual trick is to dissolve his body in acid and flush him out… making meat pies is the other option… Made me think of the film Nikita… an assassin always need a colleague for the wet part of the job.
February 18, 2019 at 10:33 am
Thanks for your feedback Bjorn, meat pies eh ? Like Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber, who made pies out of his barbershop clients ! I’m not familiar with the film Nikita.
February 16, 2019 at 6:26 pm
I have a feeling she won’t want to keep the secret to herself. Dr. Q is definitely in trouble. Great detail!
February 18, 2019 at 10:36 am
Appreciate your feedback Brenda – I think you’re right about Angela needing to share her awful secret. Glad you like the detail.
February 16, 2019 at 2:06 am
Run Dr. Q, run!
February 16, 2019 at 9:16 am
You bet ! Thanks for your comment Sascha.
February 16, 2019 at 4:27 pm
🙂
February 16, 2019 at 1:01 am
The details are incredible. You painted the picture very, very well.
February 16, 2019 at 9:21 am
Appreciate your feedback Lisa, so glad you liked the story.
February 15, 2019 at 11:49 pm
I, too, love the details: squeaky shoes, scarlet nails, a plan to seduce another man two days after killing her lover. this is one cold-hearted woman. You portrayed her wel..
February 16, 2019 at 9:27 am
Thank you Lisa, I appreciate your feedback- pleased you liked the details. I decided to go for all out stoney heartedness !!
February 14, 2019 at 10:30 pm
What a wicked woman! Loved the way you brought her to life with so many well-considered details.
February 16, 2019 at 9:30 am
Thanks Karen – I’m pleased you liked the story. For some reason, I was pleased with the squeaky crepe soled shoes — I imagine in old fashioned mental asylums, that the orderlies had squeaky shoes.
February 16, 2019 at 3:36 pm
I loved the shoes too!
February 14, 2019 at 7:26 pm
To tell or not to tell… a partner and confidante or a one-way ticket to the slammer… 🙂
February 14, 2019 at 8:10 pm
Thanks for your comment Ali – think you summed up her dilemma perfectly !
February 14, 2019 at 6:09 pm
The less people who know, the better, I say… no use taking unnecessary chances…
February 14, 2019 at 8:15 pm
Appreciate your feedback Dale. Think Angela is a bit too sure of herself, don’t you ?
February 14, 2019 at 8:18 pm
Methinks so 😉
February 14, 2019 at 5:31 pm
I’d avoid the risk of telling Dr. Q.
February 14, 2019 at 8:20 pm
Thanks Iain – I think you’re right !
February 14, 2019 at 5:29 pm
Loved the details, but not her.
February 14, 2019 at 8:27 pm
Thanks for your feedback – glad you enjoyed the details. Angela is not a good person….
February 14, 2019 at 4:37 pm
The clinic doesn’t dispose of its dead? What kind of a place is that?
February 14, 2019 at 8:32 pm
Thanks for your comment Neil. I was thinking of creepy horror films where improbable things happen.
February 14, 2019 at 1:46 pm
Love to find you here on FF, after having you join the Attitude of Gratitude!
Some wonderfully descriptive writing here! In these lines alone–– “Angela’s crepe soled shoes squeaked as she strode along the polished corridor. Plum job, she reflected, checking her scarlet nails––” we learn so much about this character. I really like those unique details!
February 14, 2019 at 8:38 pm
Thanks so much Dawn – glad you liked the story.