Note: This story is published in Hidden Villains: Criminals
A menacing figure walks into a dodgy fortune teller’s shop in the middle of the night. He wants closure. She wants to survive. What are they willing to do to get what they need?
This story started with a simple concept: closure.
See, the older I get, the more people fall out of my life. Some drift away, some leave dramatically, and some are taken away by the cruel hand of time. Maybe it’s just me, but I suspect that everyone feels the occasional need to give a piece of their mind or apologize to or ask a question of someone who’s not there anymore. For me, it feels like a sneeze that I just can’t get out. Or, more accurately, one that will never happen.
But what if?
When there was a call for Hidden Villains, I had just finished working with the Kinston Collective on another project, so I had the supernatural on my mind. A criminal, the occult, closure: the elements started to come together. But I needed a protagonist! My mind immediately went to a roadside fortune teller shop I used to drive by on my way to work. Who was in there reading palms? What was their story? Then I needed a location, something spooky and dangerous. New Orleans, obviously! But I’d just written a story set there, darn it. Since I was already thinking heat and humidity…Savannah! When it comes to humid and spooky, it doesn’t get better than Savannah.
This was one of those stories where I arranged the pieces and simply wrote down what they did next. If you’ve ever had unfinished business with someone who isn’t around to finish it, I think you’ll like it. Check out Hidden Criminals in ebook or paperback (B&N is slightly cheaper than Amazon).
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