Lovelyn Bettison

Paranormal Horror and Suspense

Blog

The Procedure (Flash Fiction Challenge)

Elaine would do anything for beauty. Everyone who saw her knew that by taking one look at her face. The skin around her eyes was pulled so tightly it looked like it might tear. Her forehead was as motionless as a piece of granite. She gingerly lowered herself into the black leather chair in her plastic surgeon’s office.

“What can I do for you Elaine?” he asked. His own face had been pulled and tucked so much that he resembled a lion.

“When I look in the mirror I’m still not happy,” Elaine said, as she rummaged through her Italian leather purse. She pulled out a photo and handed it to the doctor. “I still don’t look like that.”

The doctor leaned across the desk and took the photo from Elaine. It was a picture of her when she was young. She wore a bright pink jumper. Her brown hair was cut short. Her full cheeks glowed in the sunlight. “How old were you here?” the doctor asked.

“Twenty-one.”

“You sure were a stunner.” He tried to hand the photo back to her, but Elaine shook her head. [Read more…] about The Procedure (Flash Fiction Challenge)

How to Handle a Ghost in Your House (Flash Fiction Challenge)

“Where are the other kids?” the boy asked. He sat on the sofa wide-eyed swinging his legs. His right knee dripped blood. Dirt streaked his green shirt. His round cherub face was smudged.

Tawana scanned her living room. The windows were all closed. The furniture was in place. She pulled the mace from her purse and ran from room to room: the kitchen, the bedroom, the bathroom. She checked the closets and the shower. No one. When she returned to the living room the boy was still there sitting on her couch but this time there was a second one–a double. Maybe he was his twin. The second child’s knees were black with dirt but were not skinned like the first. A trickle of blood ran from his nose. He licked it off before speaking. “Did you find the other kids?” he asked.

Tawana jumped backward clutching her heart with her free hand and holding the mace out in front of her with the other. “Where did you come from?” she yelled. [Read more…] about How to Handle a Ghost in Your House (Flash Fiction Challenge)

Eddie’s Search for Color (Flash Fiction Challenge)

“What color is this?” Eddie asked, holding a swatch of fabric above his head.

The cashier sucked her teeth. “Green,” she said. She motioned to the next customer in line to join her at the register.

He wrinkled his forehead and gave the piece of fabric a long hard look. “Are you sure it’s not dark gray?”

The cashier shook her head rolled her eyes at the customer she was serving. This was the fifth time Eddie had asked her to identify the color of a piece of fabric. “Why do you keep asking me if you’re not gonna believe me?” The stick-thin woman she was serving stood perfectly still looking the other way so as not to get involved.

“Never mind,” he said. He wandered back into the store to weave through the countless aisles stacked high with bolts of fabric. He used to love this. He became a fashion designer because color excited him so much. Now the only saw black and white just like his French bulldog, Matilda. Seeing the world in shades of gray was so difficult that he wondered how his poor Matilda made it this far in life. [Read more…] about Eddie’s Search for Color (Flash Fiction Challenge)

The Professional Eater (Flash Fiction Challenge)

Renée gets paid to eat. When she worked as a receptionist in an accounting firm, she never imagined that was a possibility. Some people fall into the job of their dreams. Renée’s dreams were always filled with cakes, pies, and slices of pizza dripping with cheese. When she saw the opportunity, she hurled herself into a life full of sticky, gooey satisfaction.

It started as a hobby after she watched a new segment about a group of people in a faraway country that earned thousands of dollars eating as much as they could on camera. The idea made her skin tingle. Salvia pooled in the back of her mouth, and she hurried to her computer to search for someone to watch eat.

She sat mesmerized in front of her computer watching people eat piles of food while talking about their lives. There were so many of them. Her favorite was a small man with a round face, his black hair slicked back with too much gel. He ordered Chinese takeout and sat with the containers of food spread out on the table. He ate so much that Renee marveled. Stuffing his face with lo mein and General Tso’s Chicken, as he told jokes to his audience. Renee would watch his performance every evening after work. He chased away her loneliness and made the meals she ate alone in her apartment that much more bearable.

Renée remembers it like it was yesterday, she came home from work changed into a pair of comfortable exercise clothes and decided to set up her camera. If he could do it, there was no reason she couldn’t. The first time she sat in front of a heaping bowl of spaghetti with marinara sauce looking at the red blinking light on her camera, she was so nervous she could hardly eat. She spilled spaghetti sauce all over her shirt and knocked over a glass of lemonade sending a cascading over the edge of the table onto her light gray carpet. When she finished, she lay on the sofa and swollen with food. [Read more…] about The Professional Eater (Flash Fiction Challenge)

The Woman Who Knows My Name (Flash Fiction Challenge)

I call the same number every day. I let the phone ring twice before I hang up. I’ve done this for so many days that I don’t have to think about it anymore. The right numbers find themselves beneath my fingertips and the phone at my ear automatically.

Once a few months ago I dialed this number by mistake. After two rings a woman answered the phone. “Hello?” she said. As soon as she answered, I knew I had dialed the wrong number.

“Sorry I must have the wrong number,” I said expecting full well to hang up the phone and go about my day. It didn’t quite happen that way though. [Read more…] about The Woman Who Knows My Name (Flash Fiction Challenge)