Short Stories Based on Prompts

Prompt 2: He read his obituary with confusion

Sam awoke standing next to the window in his room. He didn't remember falling asleep near the window. Though he was confused he brushed it off as sleep walking, which was not uncommon for Sam Lacey to do, and made his way down to his kitchen for breakfast.

When he reached the kitchen he recognized the figure of his twenty-two-year-old daughter sitting at the table with a glum look on her face. She had a bowl of cereal in front of her, but she didn't eat a single bite of the food. She looked terribly thin and had bags under her red puffy eyes. Sam was confused as to what was going on. Alex, his daughter, had moved out after she finished high school and it had only been a day sense he talked to her. A day wasn't enough time to lose so much weight.

"Alex, Hon, are you alright?" Sam asked as he moved towards the table, but Alex just ignored him and started to blankly stare at the newspaper she held in her hand. Sam, utterly confused that he had been pushed aside like he was a raisin in a chocolate chip bag, sighed and sat across from her to gather his thoughts.

He wanted to eat but he found that he was strangely not hungry like he would usually be in the mornings, so he decided to dedicate his time to trying to get his daughter to speak to him. After many failed attempts he gave up. "Why won't you speak to me Alex, what happened to you?" He asked. Of course she didn't answer.

What did get her attention was the ringtone of her phone, which she picked up and brought to her ear. Her voice was scratchy as she talked to the person on the other end. Sam wasn't really listening until his daughter stood up with a loud shout as she slammed the newspaper on the table. "I don't want to get over it!" Alex yelled. "I want my father! Do you not get that the only way I will ever see him again is if I die! I would rather kill myself! I swear I will see him soon." After the last sentence she hung up, tears running down her thin pale face in rivers. She ran to the bathroom before Sam could react.

Curiously he picked up the newspaper. He only wanted answers to why she was ignoring him, and an answer he got. He read his obituary with confusion, horror slowly crept its way into his head. He stood in shock, not knowing how much time had passed. He heard the front door slam open, a man banging on the bathroom door pleading for someone to open it, sirens and flashing lights, a bloody body carried out on a stretcher, but he was in too much of a shocked state to realize what was going on. He only snapped out of it when he heard the voice of his daughter.

"Dad, I did it," She smiled, she was wearing a hospital gown. "I can see you again."

Words: 512

-Setta