Tunnel

(100-word flash fiction)

The train had entered a tunnel and quite inexplicably the lights had gone out. When they had emerged into the daylight, there he had been, sitting opposite her. Quite inexplicably her heart had fluttered. At the magic of it. His sudden appearance or the meeting of their eyes, she wasn’t sure.

He had smiled, as though looking knowingly into her heart.

Twenty years of togetherness had ensued.

Now, after the funeral, looking up at his smiling photo, it seems as though he is still looking deep into her heart, past the grief, and saying, “the magic will always be there.”

~~~

Getting a bit sentimental this week for the Friday Fictioneers fix. 🙂

 

PHOTO PROMPT © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

 

Prison

(100-word flash fiction)

His arms had been the bridge from her tormented world to his – calm, soothing, secure.  She had dived into his open, welcoming heart, as though rushing in from a raging blizzard into a warm home.

Together they had sailed, on new adventures, like jubilant, freed prisoners.

She didn’t know then that life is always a prison.

Now, all she feels is submergence.

Cold, suffocating waters of indifference press into her mind, nostrils, lungs. Sobs sit heavy-footed on her chest like tons of water. Words claw with shark teeth at her throat to break free.

Maybe, fire is the escape.

~~~

Life’s a bitch sometimes, (I do have great respect for the female of the canine species 🙂 but it sounds compelling somehow 😀 ) because it keeps me away from joining the fun at the weekly gathering of the eclectic group called Friday Fictioneers, all shepherded lovingly by the lovely Rochelle.

This week’s photo prompt –

 

PHOTO PROMPT © Ted Strutz