Daily Flash Fiction Challenge

Flash Fiction - - 4-10-2018 - - strange old book

Another Task for Millie


As Millie neared a corner, she paused, then had difficulty getting herself going again in the old decrepit house’s hallways. After this clue, she reminded herself, perhaps only one more clue was left to solve and investigate. Gathering up her courage, she peeked around the corner.

Squea-ea-eak!

A floorboard cried out, announcing her presence. She froze in the dimly lit hallway. After settling her nerves, she proceeded to the last room, finding the old-fashioned glove box in a dusty dresser’s bottom drawer as the clue indicated.

Where will the book send me next? she wondered.

Noticing old garments in the drawer and some hanging in a closet with its door ajar, Millie resisted the temptation to further explore the long-abandoned room, its veiled stories covered in thick dust.

With her missions nearly completed, she cautiously headed homeward trying to piece the items together.

A lantern . . . anise seed . . . a skeleton key . . . unleavened black bread . . . wormwood and parsley . . . and now an old glove box . . .

Muffled thuds interrupted her thoughts, and she darted into a thicket of evergreens.

That was close, she thought, free from detection after four riders passed. Cautiously, she crept away, circling back to the barn where her collection rested, concealed up in the loft.

From a leather pouch, she lifted the pioneer’s ragged journal, consulting it. Where would it send her next? How would these items link her to this woman and her life?

Now, I’m supposed to read the margin of a newspaper clipping? she pondered looking through the box’s contents. If only I could just meet her! Talk with her!

“If you’ve come this far, then tonight I’ll meet you in that bedroom,” was scrawled along the clipping’s edge, which drifted to the scattered straw below as several hay bales stopped Millie’s sudden fall.



(word count = 297)