Flash Fiction Friday
Lingering in the New Year
I’m not ready to let go of the new year festivities just yet, so this week’s flash fiction short story spends a lot of time lingering in the moment.
And be sure to complete the Crescent Alliance Survey for a chance to win the complete collection of my Bonded By Blood Vampire Chronicles. Drawing happens January 31st.
The Eternal Party
James tapped his foot, his polished dress shoe reflecting the fizzing sparklers the guests waved. The tune was catchy and never stopped. Always the same tune, a jazzy number that had been playing since…since when? He couldn't quite remember.
Where was Margaret? He scanned the crowded ballroom, the same faces swirling around him, the same clinking of glasses, the same laughter echoing off the high ceilings.
Her trip to the powder room seemed like an eternity. But wasn’t it always for women? Long lines out the door at the bathroom. He smiled. She was so lovely tonight. A shimmering emerald-green dress, the way she laughed, her head thrown back, her eyes twinkling.
James passed into the parlor of the mansion and paused at the grand hearth, which only flared to life as he entered. Strange. Dust coated the mantle giving the gilded accents a gray pallor.
A man in a blue suit bumped his shoulder. “’scuse me.”
He teetered in his drunken state and James grabbed the man, then seized the whiskey bottle by the neck before it crashed to the floor.
“Whoa.” The man took his bottle back. “Thanks.”
James nodded. Odd. What a strange sense of déjà vu. The whiskey sloshed as the man stumbled toward the hearth.
James glanced at the hazy clock on the mantle. Five minutes to midnight. Where was she? They were going to miss toasting the new year together.