[Critique Group 1] Marcia January submission

[Marcia Wick]

Prologue

375 words

 

 

Why was she working on a Saturday? Alone at the office all morning, she
hadn't accomplished much. Stuck inside on her computer, the late May weather
hinted at summertime in Michigan, making it difficult to concentrate. So
what if she'd accepted a promotion that came with a bigger work load. It was
a three-day holiday weekend, after all. If she ducked out soon, she'd have
time for an afternoon bike ride around the lake with her friend. She slipped
the spiral bound day timer for 1976 into a drawer and locked her desk. Car
keys in hand, she reached for the push bar to enter the stairway.  

 

Seized gruffly from behind, the woman was too surprised to scream. Her neck
was clamped in the crook of an elbow, preventing her from turning to see her
attacker. Eyes bulging, she stared at the working edge of a sharp hunting
knife. Her head jerked back in reaction to the threat. Mascara burned her
eyes. The exit sign blurred. The assailant's grip tightened on her throat.
Like an immovable boulder, the door to the stairway now blocked her escape. 

 

Frightened to death, the woman stepped outside herself and watched the
struggle as if viewing a movie. She saw herself claw at the powerful arm
restraining her. The slice to her throat was so swift and clean that, at
first, she didn't feel the cut. Crimson tears trickled from the stinging
wound. Forced off balance, the frantic woman lunged into the push bar and
collapsed onto the linoleum landing. The weight of her relentless attacker
crashed down on top of her. A fierce scramble for control erupted. Would the
doe escape the grip of its hunter? 

 

The heel of a boot landed one, two, three, four kicks to her head. "Fuck
you, fuck you" echoed in her ear like a jackhammer. The woman struggles onto
her hands and knees, grasping for purchase. One push by the predator and
down she plunge, backward, head first. Her skull struck a concrete step. The
acrid smell of blood mingles with the stench of her loosened bowels. 

 

So, this is how my story ends? Eyes flickering, the dying woman recognized
the killer grinning down at her in disgust, before her world went dark.

 

# # #

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://bluegrasspals.com/pipermail/group1/attachments/20210119/7f02531c/attachment.html>