Content warning
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Content Warning: mentions of death
Make sure to read these first.
***
A month after the funeral
The first thing I noticed when I walked in her old room was the peeling yellow paint on the exposed brick. Then the small pen mark from the time a three-year-old Andrea drew on the wall and Mom couldn't wipe away the last bit. A trail of petite red stain creating a path from the bathroom to the bedroom entrance, the notches on the door frames.
It's amazing how much I've noticed since Mom told me what was going on with Andrea before...
How did I not see that something was wrong before?
Mom tells me not to blame myself; I wasn't here. But when I look back now, the times I was home, there were signs. Small, barely there signs.
A slight tremor of her smile, the tentative hugs, the darkness around the edges of her bright spirit. Even the walls of her bedroom were seemingly affected; the sunny yellow becoming duller every time I came to visit.
I sigh as I reach for the light switch and hesitate. The funeral was weeks ago, her room has been cleared, but this, this feels like a finality.
My hand falls at the same time as the first tear starts to fall, plunging what used to be the happiest room in complete darkness. And all I can think is...
Isn't it horrible what you finally see when you know the whole story?
Word Count: 236 words
***
Dear reader,
You may notice I changed from a third person point of view to a first person's (Gabriel's) point of view. When I was writing this, I realized it would be best written from his point of view to get a grasp of his inner thoughts.
Due to this change in point of view, I have gone back and edited Orange's point of view. Red may or may not get edited after the VWAs; I do not want to mess with this story too much since it was submitted.
I have also been working on alternate covers for the table of contents, Red, and Orange pictured below. I would like your input, especially if I am going to create a complete collection of everything.
Table of Contents Options
Red Options
Orange Options
About the Creator
Alexandria Stanwyck
My inner child screams joyfully as I fall back in love with writing.
I am on social media! (Discord, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.)
instead of therapy poetry and lyrics collection is available on Amazon.
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Pick a song that represents summer for you. Use the song as the title of your piece, and to inspire either a poem or a short story/micro fiction about summer. Feel free to use some of the song's lyrics in your piece as well, and add a link to the song so we can hear it too.
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Comments (10)
I finally got it after looking at it for a long time. Read mine too? https://vocal.media/fiction/stella-was-the-thing-dreams-were-made-of
Congratulations on Top Story. Well deserved.
Also, I like the options where the items are not filled in death leave the void and just the outline of the items in the cover photos I think helps symbolize it… the emptiness after the wake of grief
Grief comes in waves… and I believe it has colors. I love this so far. Keep writing… I want to know if Gabs going to be okay, what really happened to her, and if someone is going to be brought to Justice
Excellent work. Grief comes in many colours and those colours change through the process. My mom died two months ago, so this hits deep.
Congratulations on your Top Story🎊🫶🏾💯🎢
Excellent story and series, this is wonderful work. Grief is so difficult for all of us to deal with
Having read the first 2 parts, this was so hard because you did an impressive job capturing Gabriel's innermost feelings with aching realism! Congrats on Top Story!
So achingly raw and grief stricken it’s heartbreaking and painful 😓 You did an excellent job with the description and the visceral reaction of the empty room that felt utterly wrong in so many ways
Daahlink - A little 'Dark' for you regardless of the colors - Since my Soppy-Tale I've bopped over to Humor category with 'Popsicle' a little more within my comfort zone. *As mentioned I don't get into challenges so I don't know about all of the pictorials. But, you, are far apart brilliant from the people that Snip - Write 'A' Write - J-Bud