The Sins of His Past
Frank Lombardo fingered the gun hidden deep in the pocket of his coat. The wind howled, and through it he heard Belinda’s voice whispering to him from the boardwalk.
“Frank…”
It was just his imagination. There was no one at the fairgrounds besides himself and the ghosts that haunted his dreams. The place had long been abandoned, ever since the fire he’d been responsible for all those years ago.
“It’s your fault,” Belinda said, accusing him from the grave.
“I’m sorry,” Frank sobbed. “I didn’t mean it. I loved you.”
“If you loved me, you wouldn’t have killed me. You wouldn’t have killed us. You were jealous.”
The faces of those who had worked for him flashed before his eyes. The fairgrounds had been the permanent home of his circus. It had been Valentine’s Day. Belinda had looked so lovely in her red dress. He’d stopped to see her before she went on.
Then the screams of people trapped inside the gates, echoed down the boardwalk.
Were they coming for him at long last?
“Join me,” Belinda whispered, her voice brushing his ear like a cold hand.
Frank touched the gun again. Every Valentine’s Day for the last ten years, he’d thought about ending his life.
“Join us.”
He turned to leave.
They were behind him.
Belinda in her red dress. Roger in his tuxedo.
The perfect pair.
Twins. Conjoined.
He loved her, but he hated Roger, because Roger had always been closer to Belinda than Frank ever could be.
“I didn’t want you to die,” Frank said.
“Just my brother,” she replied, her eyes heavy with sorrow.
“I thought… if I could burn him off you…”
The idea had been insane.
She had screamed when he doused one half of her in gasoline.
Now Frank screamed too, the gun useless in his trembling hand, offering no protection from his sins.
I think even if I'd stayed on top of my reading and read each of these in their proper week I'd still end up with "wow" as my comment for each one.
ReplyDeleteYou take your stories around twists and into shadows that I don't see coming--maybe it's lack of familiarity with the genre but it feels like brilliance in your writing. Loving a conjoined twin but trying to burn off the other only to be haunted by both... I don't know what to say, but I won't forget reading it for a long time.