Two nine-year-olds crouched before a cage in the middle of the forest.
“Don’t tell a soul,” Damon whispered. “I can see it in your eyes—you’re thinking about it. I’ll hurt you…I swear to God I will.”
Jamie lost his balance and almost toppled backward onto the ground. The threat stunned him. He was speechless and didn’t know what to tell his friend—or who had once been his friend. Should he tell him he was demented? That this twisted game of life and death he’d been playing was beyond psychopathic?
Jamie stared at the emaciated rabbit. He had no idea how long it had been held captive, or how long Damon had been “playing” with the animal.
“Promise me,” Damon said, his eyes darkening.
“I…I promise,” Jamie replied, discreetly crossing his fingers behind his back. In his mind, he was already gone.
“Thought you might get a kick out of it. Maybe I shouldn’t have shown you after all.” Damon turned away for a moment, reaching for his pack.
In that instant, Jamie picked up the cage, heaved it aside, and yelled, “Go!” as much to himself as the rabbit.
The rabbit didn’t hesitate. Neither did the boy. They both took off as if they were in the presence of Death itself.
Damon yelled, but Jamie didn’t turn around—didn’t stop. He made a beeline for the hard-packed dirt path that would lead him out of the forest and to his bicycle.
Small rocks seared past Jamie, one after the next. Luckily, Damon was a poor shot. On and on he hurled them, vicious shrieks adjoining the flying rocks. By the time Damon decided to chase after him, it was too late.
Jamie broke free from the forest unscathed and hopped onto his bike. Before he pedaled away, he had a moment of clarity. He knew two things for certain. One: Damon Delfield wasn’t the person he thought he was. And two: he would tell the whole wide world about what he saw.
Some promises were meant to be broken.
A lone dust trail kicked up behind Jamie as he sped toward home.
Hey there, everyone. Thanks so much for reading “Don’t Tell” today. I hope you enjoyed the story.
recently wrote an excellent review of Stephen King’s latest collection of short stories, and, in turn, inspired me to “go darker” with this work of fiction. If you liked it, please remember to click that heart icon or consider sharing it with a fellow reader.Take care and have a wonderful week!
Let’s get together this Friday to read and write some fifty-word stories!
Fifties by the Fire will go live on Friday, August 23rd at 3:00 PM EST. If you would like to contribute a story, please see the prompt below.
Prompt: Write a fifty-word story (fiction, poetry, or CNF) that involves the theme/topic of transcendence. You do not need to use the word in the story, but you are allowed to do so if you wish!
Thank you, as always, to
for providing the beautiful photographs for our writing prompts.
A parable for our times, for sure.
It's wonderful you're experimenting, Justin, and it's always nice to see your stories pop up in my feed. I didn't know King had another short story collection. I'll have to check out the reviews.