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Fiction, flash fiction, short stories, short story, story, writing
Erin had gone to the fortune teller at the funfair for a laugh. She had announced to her friends that she didn’t really believe in that new age hippy stuff, but she thought it would be funny.
She hadn’t even listened to the pale young woman who dealt out the cards one by one. It sounded vaguely like the standard “tall dark handsome stranger” stuff she was expecting.
But then they reached the last card. The fortune teller held it up silently, fixing Erin with a look that said, “You know what this means.”
It was the thirteenth card. Death.
That night, as Erin lay in bed listening to her husband snore, that card was all she could think of. When she closed her eyes she could see the bony face of the Grim Reaper leering out at her, and that strange, pale woman with white hair looking at her silently, expectantly.
She knew what she had to do.
She put on her dressing gown and crept downstairs to the kitchen. A steak knife perhaps? Or the big one from the block?
She closed her eyes. The Reaper leered at her; the pale woman waited.
Erin took both knives upstairs.
Later, the police listened to her story with obvious skepticism. They didn’t believe her story about the fortune teller who made her do it; but just to be sure they sent a detective to the funfair. The only fortune teller there was an old gypsy with a crystal ball; nobody there had seen a pale young tarot reader with white hair.
Nevertheless, at the trial they made sure they covered all their bases. The prosecution called an expert on the tarot to testify.
“The death card, like all the Major Arcana, is purely symbolic,” he said. “It indicates change; the end of one thing so that another can begin.”
In the dock, Erin closed her eyes and saw the pale fortune teller laughing.
© Kari Fay
Steve Green said:
Poor Erin, so easily swayed, and now very deeply in the poo, I somehow doubt her story will sway the judges so easily. Nice short Kari. 🙂
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Kari Fay said:
I don’t think “the fortune teller made me do it” is going to create a reasonable doubt, somehow! Thanks for reading.
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J. M. Strother said:
I think Erin was just looking for an excuse to knock off her husband. That damned snoring can be sooooo annoying. Nicely told.
~jon
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Kari Fay said:
Hehe, true, it can be annoying, but I think there’d have to be something more to get to murder. Thanks for reading and commenting 🙂
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Laura Eno said:
I could see the fortune teller laughing at her. Yep, more than snoring drove her to it. 🙂
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Kari Fay said:
Thanks for reading 🙂
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Danielle said:
How unfortunate that the poor Grim Reaper is always the bad guy. =) I enjoyed this quick piece!
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Kari Fay said:
People just tend to see him that way, I guess! Thanks for reading and commenting, glad you liked it.
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Roland D. Yeomans said:
The fortune teller only gave her an excuse to do what she longed to do anyway. The Devil does not make us do it. Our own darkness is our true enemy. Great job. I was absorbed the whole reading.
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Kari Fay said:
It’s one way to see it 😉 Thanks for reading.
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W. M. Dowis said:
The story makes me want more. Why did she really kill her husband? What was really going on that allowed the fortune teller to convince her so subtly that murder would work?
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Kari Fay said:
Well, so far plenty of people think she wanted to kill him anyway… and the police never did find that fortune teller… I like to leave it up to you 😉
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Ganymeder said:
Self fulfilling prophecy? Nicely told.
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Kari Fay said:
Thank you, Ganymeder.
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