Bugged

Daily Flash Fiction Prompt: Write a story in which something (a color, a type of object, an animal) frequently appears near the main character


Henry staggered across the well-manicured grass. There was something wrong with his legs, but he could not figure it out. His head felt sore and his brain had a difficult time telling his limbs to move. Insects buzzed about him. It was late at night and Henry’s flesh tasted good to flying critters. Henry slowly made his arms wave away the bugs.

Still waving, he tripped over something hard and fell down. His mouth had a hard time making a curse word come out and he swallowed a fly in the process. Gnashing his teeth in anger, pain, and disgust, he slowly checked his shins. They were still there, but so sore. He struggled to stand again.

Colors and shapes tried to right themselves in his vision. Henry felt around for what he had tripped over. His fingers touched something grey, cold, and hard.

Henry’s brain whirred and his eyes blinked out bug wings. It was a headstone that had tripped him. He looked sluggishly around.

He was in a graveyard.

A hand came in contact with his head. Finally. He scratched his scalp and thought.

Henry remembered visiting his wife’s tombstone. Nearly mad with grief upon recently losing her in a car crash, he had gone to her grave every day since the burial. He had begged wildly that she come back.

His brain clicked. He seemed to remember that she had come back. He heard the padding of bare feet and slowly turned his neck.

His wife was a zombie. “I came back, love.” She constructed a smile. “I made it so you and I can be together, forever.”

Henry nodded. She had killed him.

Flies feasted on their decaying flesh as the zombie couple held hands and tottered through the graveyard.

294 words

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FP