I hope you enjoy this week’s flash fiction!
Never go out at night. Lock the doors. Shut and board the windows. Rub garlic along the door frames and windows. Wear the sacred cross at all times.
Those were the rules his mother had always mentioned, always made him promise to follow. But the summer after his mother passed to the great beyond, when the humidity and heat was at its peak, Stanley rubbed extra garlic on the window frame and cracked open the window.
He slept peacefully, lulled to calm by the warm breeze.
When he woke, his clothes clung to his body, sweat-soaked as always. Exhaustion still plagued him.
The next night, the intense heat returned, and he open the window once more. When he awoke, he was as exhausted as ever.
At the end of the heat wave, Stanley could barely stand as he worked. His father often checked on him, worried. He slept longer hours, tossing and turning and desperately seeking a breeze even in the cooler nights.
The doctor was perplexed. The boy’s vitals were good, if not his body weak. Everything should be fine.
“I just don’t understand,” his father pleaded. “We follow all the rules, yet we’re still cursed.”
Stanley whimpered. “No, not all.”
His father paled. “Which ones?”
“The window…”
His father stomped to the window, finding it still ajar. “Next time,” he heaved, “listen to your mother’s words.” And he smashed the window shut, breaking the lock in position so it would never open again.
“Now, we are safe.”
For more enchanting Wednesday Words by other authors, check out the official Wednesday Words page!