literature

FFM15 - 18: Gift on a Gurney

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There was one body too many in the morgue. Susan checked, then double checked the paperwork, before returning to the unaccounted-for corpse. The only thing worse than a missing body, was a spare one. If her boss found out, she’d be in for it.

Biting down on her lip, Susan gave the nameless she a quick once over. The body was still in good condition. It can’t have been old. Maybe the paperwork was still coming. She glanced towards the door, half-hoping her assistant, Viva, would pop in right then with the required documents. She didn’t.

Susan bit her lip again and wondered if she should just move the body to the incinerator. She could have it gone in a flash...But using the incinerator would trigger an alert, and she would be expected to explain it sooner or later. Dammit. The job at the Community Morgue had been hard enough to get; she wasn’t about to let it go now.

Covering the body, Susan wheeled it out the door and into the hall. She flashed her security tag at the card reader and called the lift. There were several incredibly drawn out seconds before the flashing light on the wall stopped and the doors opened.

“This is madness,” Susan muttered to herself as the lift took her back up to street level.

She hurried across the tiled foyer, still pushing the gurney. She kept her eyes forward and her pace even, as though she were meant to be wheeling what was obviously a body through the room. No one looked twice. Bless these blind fools.

Susan took the gurney into another lift, exchanging a tense smile with the man who shared it with her. When the lift dinged at her floor, Susan hurried down the hallway, stopping outside her apartment. Turning away from her door, she knocked on the one opposite.

It took her neighbour only a few moments to answer. The middle aged man, with his silvering hair in wild disarray, looked up at her with pleasure. “Susan,” he said with a smile.

“Hi, Frank. I’ve got a gift for you.”
FFM Day 18
Wordcount: 353

Challenge:
Use the opening line from another FFM piece this month. "There was one body too many in the morgue" from Too Many Corpses by Augmented4th
Use the username from another FFM participant: NamelessShe
Use any of the following words three times: Flash, Flashing, Flasher, Flashed
Use any of the following words three times: Viva, Fist, Fistpump, Community, Madness

Read the rest of today's entries here: FFM Links- 18 July 2015

You can also find the rest of this year's flash fiction here.
© 2015 - 2024 C-A-Harland
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NamelessShe's avatar
Beautifully done! :D