Day 304 Writing Short Stories

Crescent

I skipped this one. I couldn’t find a story—just glimpses of ideas, but nothing to pull me into writing.

Nurse

He watched the woman leave yet again after the sun had already set. He had been watching her leave the house for three months now, only when it was dark outside. They had been neighbors for years, and he was sure he had never seen her during the daytime. He never saw her come home.

She wore a nurse’s outfit, but he was sure it was a cover. In truth, she was a vampire. She was pale enough to fit the description.

He logged her departure in his little black book and returned to his programs.

The same happened the next night, too. She left at ten PM, wearing her uniform as if it were an excuse for all the sin in her. He had called a local priest on how to fend off vampires. But the man had referred him to come and see him so that they could have a chat. He had called the priest a moron and hung up.

He had asked his nephew to look up how to protect oneself from vampires. Now enormous crosses hung from every wall of his flat. He had mounted garlic over his front door, and he had stolen holy water from the church last Sunday. He was sure God would forgive him.

His little book filled with the goings on of the woman. He would love to catch her coming in, but he never got the timing right. He usually fell asleep in the chair he had dragged next to the window.

But this morning was different. He watched a small figure walking down the path to the apartment building. She looked a lot like the nurse. First, he hadn’t been sure it was her, but then he had seen her sensible shoes. To his horror, he saw that the woman had blood-stained clothes.

His hands shook.

He rushed to the door, listening for her to come in. He took the bottle of holy water he had stored next to his front door and squeezed it hard in his hand. This was it. It was now or never. He had had his confirmation. The woman was a vampire.

He burst out of his door, screaming. He sprayed the holy water on the woman, who looked shocked. She staggered back and collapsed against the wall opposite his door. She shielded her face as he kept spraying water over her.

Then he stopped. She wasn’t burning as she should be. The small woman was trembling, her eyes wide with shock.

He ran back into his house, leaning against the door. He could feel his heart racing.

There was a knock at his door, and he was startled. He looked out of his peephole and saw the woman standing there. The red on her blue clothes looked like a pink blotch. Her hair was wet, and her makeup was running down.

He carefully opened the door and said, “Go away, fiend!”

“Are you okay, Mr. Henderson?” the woman asked.

He stammered with his words. “Yes?” he tried.

“Are you sure? I can call someone,” she offered.

“You do not fool me, vampire?” he said it more like a question than an accusation.

She gave a warm, apologetic smile. “Mr. Henderson, I will call anyone you like. Or if you, like we, can have a chat, if you let me in.”

His nephew had said that vampires needed an invitation to come in. He was about to usher the fiend away, but then he stepped out of her way and let her in.

She looked around his flat, peering at the dozen crosses hanging from every wall.

“What a lovely decor. I’m Susie. I don’t think we have been properly introduced. I don’t usually socialize with people. Not with my job, but I would love to get to know you, Mr. Henderson.” She gave that warm smile of hers.

They sat around his kitchen table, and soon they were drinking coffee and having a quiet chat. Susie worked as a night nurse. She liked the graveyard shift as she had never been good at waking up early. He assured her that he wasn’t mad, that he had just jumped to a conclusion, an outlandish one, and he was ashamed of his behavior. She had laughed it off. The blood on her clothes was raspberry soup; she had drunk it on the bus way back home, but the bus had made an abrupt stop, and she had gotten it all over her.

The chat was making him feel better. He had been a silly bugger. He couldn’t understand what had gotten into him. He escorted her back to the door. When Susie was gone, he had an odd sense that he hadn’t seen her reflection in the hall mirror, but he brushed it off. It was his mind playing silly buggers.

Supermarket

A man forgets his son at the supermarket; he drives frantically back only to find — I skipped this one.

The prompts are from the book A Year of Creative Writing Prompts.

I didn’t get the rest I planned yesterday. After the massage, I had too many errands to run. It doesn’t look like I’ll get that rest today either. Not in the way of a quiet night in. I’m going climbing with a friend soon. Then another friend wanted to go for a walk with me. So I will go for a walk when I get back home. I didn’t know how to say no to either of them, even when I planned to go out climbing alone. I had a rock in mind. But it can wait; making connections with people is important.

Now I have an hour to kill, and I’m planning to spend it with my cat. Cuddling him resets my mind. He is the best medicine there is against anything.

Thank you for reading ❤ Have a lovely day!