THURSDAY@3 and F3 cycle 95 "KILLING TWO BIRDS"

{photo credit}

I promised there might be a new story up here this week, in the old 'Thursday@3' slot! (see the right hand sidebar for more stories!)

Well, I was sitting knitting this morning (best 'plotting' time!) and I was reminded of a comment I made on Cathy Olliffe-Webster's blog the other day, about the unlikely event of her and another writer, Laura Eno , having a camping trip, which I'd suggested would make a good plot for a short story. Then I recalled that this week's F3 writing prompt centred on what might happen in an isolated cabin when someone hears a telephone conversation they weren't meant to (as in the Barbara Stanwyck film "Sorry, wrong number" )

So, I thought, kill two birds with one stone (which also gives me a title for the story!) and link Thursday@3 and my entry for F3. So, Cathy and Laura - thank you for the inspiration and the kick-start to get the writing muse under control! :-)

Coming in at the maximum word count for Thursday@3 (333 words) here y'go!

KILLING TWO BIRDS

Laura’s eyes wandered across her spartan surroundings. Getting ‘away from it all’ in this wilderness was not her idea of fun but at least Cathy’s experience of the great outdoors would ward off her fears of the more savage aspects of nature and so she had finally agreed to this girlie camping trip.

Three hours earlier she had arrived at the cabin bedraggled, cold and miserable. Cathy was nowhere to be seen and any sense of adventure had long-since evaporated. Noises of unseen animals scuttling about reverberated on the wooden cabin walls, resembling a demonic scratching and snuffling that conjured frightening visions in her mind.

More worrying was the unexpected phone call that had interrupted these fantasies of terror, replacing them with an altogether more sinister reality. The voice was gruff and unrecognisable. At first she’d thought it was Cathy playing games, but the two-way conversation she was privy to had quickly revealed something else.

“I saw the second car parked at the foot of the incline; now they’re both here. We have all weekend.”

“Hmm!” another voice had answered, sounding like its owner was licking his lips; there was almost something of excited anticipation tucked into that one drawn out response.

“So keep your head down. The fun starts soon!”

Laura had tapped the receiver rest repeatedly, trying to clear the line before it clicked silent.

That had been half an hour ago and since then her mind had put two and two together and come up with a reasonable four: it was time to leave. Fast. But as she jumped up to make her exit she dropped her keys. Scrabbling wildly under the chair to retrieve them she felt something soft and clammy.

As she pushed the chair back she saw a hand whose fingernails bore an unmistakeable shade of vibrant nail polish and realised Cathy had been here all along. It was a discovery she had little time to worry about, in the split second before the lights went out....

-oOo-

Author's note:  Although the characters names are based on reality, the events are entirely fictitious!