Santa and the Siren

 

Everyone at the holiday ball noticed Rhonda.

While most women drank champagne in elegant, black gowns or shimmied to Jingle Bell Rock in red velvet, Rhonda wore yellow.

Hair color was not mentioned, but they talked.

Her face was not seen, but they stared.

No one left the party that night without having glimpsed the woman in yellow. Yellow and nothing else.

One kind-hearted woman said the dress was “sheer”. Rhonda heard snippets of conversation—some crude, some accusatory.

She smiled, thinking of her senior prom ten years ago.

Ignored, unnoticed, invisible. Not even worthy of a sneer or snide comment. An overlooked young girl in a yellow dress.

 

Sitting on Santa’s lap, putting her lips next to his fur-trimmed hat, she whispered to the man in the suit, “Not a wallflower anymore, eh, Jim?”

 

 

Sarah Brentyn Reef Flash Fiction - sig -

 

Cocktail Party

 

Fruit punch splattered her dress, the shimmering silver fabric stained with neon red splotches. She looked like a walking disease. “What the hell did you do that for?”

The man smiled, wiping his large hand on a cocktail napkin. “That drink wasn’t meant for you.”

No matter. He was always prepared.

Tugging his shirt cuffs so they peeked out a quarter inch, he glanced at the puddle under her feet. “You’re welcome. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

He patted the extra vial of poison in his pocket, pleased at how easy his job had become after just one kill.

 

 

Flash Fiction Challenge over at Carrot Ranch

March 16, 2016 prompt: Just One In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story about the idea of “just one.” If all it takes is just one, what is the story?


Sarah Brentyn Reef 99 Words - sig

Okay, so here’s a perfect example of my #Tweets4Blogs idea. I was running out of time to get this 99 word writing prompt in on time. My six word story from Twitter sparked an idea and 93 words later…here we are. 🙂 The original tweet was:

 

“That drink wasn’t meant for you.”