Fast Fiction Challenge: Return of the Screw
Title: Return of the Screw
Word: organism
Challenger: Mike Carey
Length: 200 words exactly The smell never changed, Austin realised, as he walked into the large hall, followed by his colleagues.
Snapping latex gloves on, he moved around the tables, to where the corpse lay, with an obviously freshly broken nose, dried blood covering the face. The long stick laying next to the body shined in the bright lights and the varnish looked at first glance to be undamaged. But the lab would check that in due course.
Only half-listening to the police detective talking to his men, Austin narrowed his eyes, and slowly turned his head, his gaze sweeping across the room. Something seemed off, but he couldn’t place it.
He got down on his haunches, and saw the two-inch wide white spherical object laying near the body, a smudge of red on its surface, and some smeared pale matter, some organism or other.
“Damnedest suicide I ever saw,” said the detective, picking up the cue, and leaning on the nearest pool table, making as if to play a shot, play-acting the ball jumping backwards towards the victim’s face.
Austin had already concluded the cop had committed the murder, and now he wondered how much he’d charge the detective to keep quiet… again.
© Lee Barnett, 2006
Word: organism
Challenger: Mike Carey
Length: 200 words exactly The smell never changed, Austin realised, as he walked into the large hall, followed by his colleagues.
Snapping latex gloves on, he moved around the tables, to where the corpse lay, with an obviously freshly broken nose, dried blood covering the face. The long stick laying next to the body shined in the bright lights and the varnish looked at first glance to be undamaged. But the lab would check that in due course.
Only half-listening to the police detective talking to his men, Austin narrowed his eyes, and slowly turned his head, his gaze sweeping across the room. Something seemed off, but he couldn’t place it.
He got down on his haunches, and saw the two-inch wide white spherical object laying near the body, a smudge of red on its surface, and some smeared pale matter, some organism or other.
“Damnedest suicide I ever saw,” said the detective, picking up the cue, and leaning on the nearest pool table, making as if to play a shot, play-acting the ball jumping backwards towards the victim’s face.
Austin had already concluded the cop had committed the murder, and now he wondered how much he’d charge the detective to keep quiet… again.
© Lee Barnett, 2006