The challenge over at TerribleMinds this week was to write a three-sentence horror story.
Writing a three-sentence story is always hard. But after much deliberation, I came up with one. There was but a single problem: although it’s about fear, it’s not really “horror”. As such. So although this isn’t an entry into Chuck Wendig’s weekly challenge, I hope you like it.
Scared
Maude smoothed the crisp white sheet on her lap and said, “When I was a girl I was scared of monsters, but now I’m more scared of Alzheimer’s and dementia and losing my mind so I don’t remember what I was saying two minutes ago. I want you to promise me, son, that if that happens to me, you’ll do whatever it takes to help me die quickly and with dignity. Because when I was a girl I was scared of monsters, but now I’m more scared of Alzheimer’s and dementia and losing my mind so I don’t remember what I was saying two minutes ago.”
Ha! Love it!!!
Yay! Thank you!
brilliant
Thanks! Glad you liked it.
This suggests a fourth sentence to me that makes it a horror, I think… but it’s a bit gruesome so I won’t utter it.
I imagine it’s fairly similar to the fourth sentence I had running through my mind, but I didn’t want to write it. Perhaps that’s a failing on my part. Or perhaps not.
That fear, is true horror! The worst is those ocaasional clear moments when they realize, what a repetitive hell they live in and that it will swallow them up again before they can say BOO.
Great choice!!
Thanks, Judith. When I tried to think of something that terrified me, that’s what I came up with. I’m not sure whether it’s worse to be in the mother’s position, though, or the son’s.
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