Accidents Happen

Chapter 7

He may disappear if I look away or blink.

 She rubbed her palms against the cell’s cold concrete floor, seeking the reassurance of hard reality. As Jessica continued to stare, Roger morphed into two Rogers. Both specters laughed while streams of bright colors darted from their heads, decorating their skulls with pointed coronas.

 “Roger…you’re dead.” It seemed the Rogers needed instruction on their current status.

“No no Lassie. Remember? We were in the kitchen rehearsing the scene where I play Othello to your Desdemona and stab myself with the knife - a fitting bit of drama we had planned for my guests. Just a bit o’ fun.”  He grinned. Jessica began to shake.

Someone must have switched the prop knife for the real one. Who? Why? Jessica’s thoughts returned to the moment in the kitchen when Roger had thrust the knife into his chest and had fallen to the floor with exaggerated pathos. Terrified, she ran to his side and yanked the knife out of his wound as blood pumped onto the floor and pooled around her knees.

 “I’m not dead.” Roger’s chuckle brought her back.

“Yes you are. The knife blade was supposed to slide up into the handle and disappear, but it didn’t!” She lowered her head and moaned.

Jessica crawled along the floor, inching her way to the Rogers. They didn’t move as she dragged herself through them. When she reached the opposite wall and turned around, the pair was gone. She heard herself laugh as if from a distance and wondered what could be so funny.

Jessica’s laughter drew Detective Bucci to her cell. Looking down on the sprawled prisoner, he called, “Sergeant, call the medics and tell them we’ll need a blood sample – again.”

Meet the author of this chapter:

Susan LeDoux writes nonfiction articles for the Christian market. A reporter for The Good News Newspaper , she also writes copy for churches and ministries as well as two blogs: Road to Emmaus at her website Ecclesia! (www.susanledoux.net) and here at Wordspinner at www.susan-wordspinner.blogspot.com .  Who knows, there may be a novel lurking in the back of her mind as well. Susan has taught various classes for adults through Greece Continuing Education but her most recent was “Beginner’s Guide to the Writing Life” for the newly established Rochester Brainery.