Shorts: A Collection of Short Fiction

I'm Sorry I Killed Your Daughter

The cursor blinked its morse code of mockery as I ended the letter I'd dreaded writing since the incident. The computer script stared back with impersonal apologies. Should I add some soggy tears in the margins to show my remorse?

I killed your daughter. I'm sorry...

But I didn't regret it. She stole my necklace. I mean, I went away and left it behind and the next thing I knew I saw her at that estate sale with greedy eyes...

Her name was Faren and the only thing I knew about her was she shared my taste in department store jewelry and had a husband and a gaggle of blond kids with giant smiles on their chubby faces.

I shouldn't have done it, but when I saw Faren with my favorite pendant, I broke inside. I saw those happy babies fiddling with the pitiful knickknacks and kitchen gadgets that proclaimed the empty story of my lonely life and there was no turning back.

With fresh anger, I hit the delete key and erased every word of that apology letter to the lady's parents. If I was anything, it was honest.

I floated away from the library computer and passed through the door as the memory of the head-on collision thrilled through me. I smiled and drank in the rejuvenating energy of hatred.

Right and wrong were fantasies for the living, not old spirits like me.

I heard Faren landed on the top. The big H. Imagine a crook like her flying all the way up there. I keep expecting to awaken on the basement floor with the wailing and gnashing teeth, but so far I'm safe.
Thank God (or whoever)

I'm safe.

But I'll never forget the way they screamed when I mowed them down with that semi-truck.