Through These Eyes by Laura Shell
CW – gore
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My most recent endeavor was at a grocery store at night. Blood and flesh on the pavement in front, on the walkway, an old lady on the ground, in a heap, covered in cellular matter that should be inside her body. Go on…let your mind ponder that for a moment.
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I made it look like a trip-and-fall. No one was looking. It was dark, and the car was speeding. I couldn’t pass on the opportunity.
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She’d been walking in front of me. Slowly. I saw the car approach. Racing. I instantly made my decision, so once she passed the pickup parked at the end of the aisle, I quickly looked around, then tripped her and shoved her bony back. The driver of the MINI Cooper was doomed. The kah-thump, kah-thump of his tires shoving her tiny body and head into the pavement, and then to have the weight of a vehicle on top of her, even if only for a few seconds… It was beautiful.
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An EMT finally placed a yellow tarp over her crumpled body and smashed head. The blue and red lights of the first responders’ vehicles flashed over the horrified expressions of the bystanders. They all stood in front of the police tape. It seemed the entire store had spewed out to take a peek at the carnage in front of the building. The carnage I had created.
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The driver of the MINI was sitting in the back of a police car, crying into his hands. I had just ruined his life. I’d ruined many lives as a killer. Every now and then, I’d suffer a pang of guilt. Just a pang. And a pang is a very small amount of time. And that pang never left a lasting mark. It came and it went and that was all.
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I yawned as I watched the EMTs load the dead body onto a stretcher. I wondered who would clean up the blood and tissue off the pavement. Then I shrugged and headed into the store to get groceries.
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Laura Shell quit her day job in August of 2023 to become a full-time writer. She has been published in numerous online and print publications. Her anthology of paranormal stories, titled The Canine Collection, was just released. When she isn’t writing and reading short fiction, she jabs snarky remarks at her husband of 35 years.
laurashellhorror.wordpress.com
Image – Pam Metz – zenfluent.wordpress.com
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I love this! Nicely done!