What Lies Ahead
Shorty Contest Entry
Word Count: 298


She opened the door to a dimly lit hallway, an eerie silence hanging in the air. Her heels clicked on the tile floor as she took her first steps towards the rest of her life.

Nothing had ever seemed so simply symbolic as that walk. Her heels clicking on the floor and the flickering of one of the florescent lights reminded her that life and death were closer than they appeared. The noise of her shoes made only small sounds, like the small ripples in the fabric of time made by one individual. The blinking light would be there one second and out the next, similar to the lifespan of that same individual. One person could only make so much of a difference with the time they were given.

The silence was so loud that it drowned out her thoughts, all her focus on the doors in front of her. Her steps sounded loud to her own ears that she feared she could wake the dead.

Once at the end of the corridor, nothing in her life would ever be the same. Her life had become complicated the minute he stepped into it, and it would only get worse if he stepped out. She had been sent to identify the body of her love, her life, and her only friend.

If it was him, she knew she would never recover.

If it wasn’t, she knew she’d never let him go again.

It was all awaiting her at the end of this shadowed passageway. Her feet moved forward unconsciously, finally reaching the other doors. She took a deep breath before opening one slowly, discovering her fate on the other side.

In reality, it was only a few steps down a hallway, but to her it meant so much more.

{Fin}