Flowers

By Jay Vogel

A short story. Well, maybe for you, but it's been one long road for me. A long road filled with feminist cults, black magic gypsies, a growing waistline, deadly roses, and a slimy waste monster. It's no wonder all I do is sit in my apartment all day. You would, too. Who knows, I could see someone carrying flowers. It'd be all over for me. All over. My life cut short because someone else wanted me to be miserable. Me, reprimanded because I had aspirations, so they ripped those away and instead placed a target on my head. They made me their victim. I'm the victim? Yeah, I'm the victim. I'm the one haunted by the monster living in my bathroom. The monster that conceals itself under the water, waiting for its chance to snatch me up and pull me in with it forever.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jay Vogel
• Release date: Dec 16, 2013

Book preview

Flowers

By: Jay Vogel

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2013 Jay Vogel

The elevator comes to a stop on my floor which means the doors are about to slide open, so I close my eyes. Who knows, someone could be standing on the other side, ready to go on a nice date. They would be holding flowers. I step out into the hallway and proceed to my apartment, eyes still closed. Who knows, someone could open their front door and catch me off guard. They could be carrying flowers. My reflexes would cause me to look in that direction and BAM. It’d be all over.

I know the hallway too easily by now. Fifty steps about, then you make a right. My door is second on the left after that right. 406. My key is in my hand and I unlock the door. I’d be more surprised by now if I had gotten the wrong room. I swing the door open then immediately slam it shut. When I open my eyes, it is as if I had not opened them at all. My room is a black hole. My carpentry work on the windows sucks up all the light from outside. The sensation of not knowing whether my eyes are open or closed begins to make me shake with fear so I switch the lights on. I then see the place I have been calling home for the last few months.

It is a bare room which, as mentioned, allows no light into it. My tiny windows look out directly into the wall of the neighboring building, but that is reason I was drawn to this room and specifically requested it. Even so, these tiny windows are still boarded up thanks to me. The street could still be seen if you look at the right angle, and who knows, the wind could pick up, debris would fly by my window and there is a good chance I would see some rose pedals in that debris. It is February after