Just Gone

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Just Gone

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No warning, they were just gone. We were left to wonder, “what’s going on.” The entire family strangely disappeared, no clue what happened. Truly very weird.

Taken in an instant, to where, we may never know. Midst this kitchen clutter, it all abruptly ended. Was their mortal life forfeit, or was time within these walls, ominously suspended?

“Highly suspicious”, thought the detective. “People don’t simply vanish.” So he began an intensive investigation. Searched each room, the attic, the garage outside — he searched it all. Lastly even the hollow of the cookstove wall.

Finally he concluded, “there is nothing behind the wall, except a space where the wind whistles.” Yet, muffled by that wind, come inaudible cries — there is no doubt. “Oh please! Please hear our bloody fingers, scratching to get out!”

~ ~ ~

rob kistner © 2020

 
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40 thoughts on “Just Gone”

  1. You went all Poe on us, brother–way to rock the prompt. You use dialogue well. This had a lovely macabre flair to it. At first I thought alien abduction, then a witch’s curse.

  2. YES. The ending is so satisfying as a horror tale. At first, I thought this was a mystery, but you turned it all around at the final point. That is terrifying, especially with the common theme of being trapped or buried alive as described in the Horror King’s short stories. Nicely written, Edgar Rob Poe.

  3. Great tale, Rob! I love the way we follow the detective around as he contemplates the mysterious disappearance and the macabre twist at the end. If only the detective had read his Poe!

  4. I could imagine you reading this in the dark with a torch beneath your chin – and at that final chilling line – click. (And all those unanswered questions too – wonderful stuff).

  5. I love the way you channeled your inner Poe, Rob, with a detective too! It also reminded me a little of a film I watched years ago, but I can’t think of the title. Such a scary thought, someone or something living in the walls. Saying that, I recently watched an episode of True Horror, in which the ghost a dead father pulled one of his grandchildren into the wall cavity. I love the way you express the suddenness of the family’s disappearance ‘Midst this kitchen clutter’ and the thought of ‘time within these walls, ominously suspended’ building up to ‘audible cries’.

  6. inaudible cries — there is no doubt.
    “Oh please! Please hear our bloody fingers,
    scratching to get out!”

    You keep us wondering with the close, Rob, perfect mystery, really the wind or trapped voices! Spooky within just a few sentences. Great!

    Hank

  7. This reminds me of a gruesome case we had here a few years ago. Father gets the four kids back from school for a get-together, entire family disappears. Somebody thought to look under the new cement patio. All of them are there except the father.

    1. What you describe Jane is a horror similar to that which occurred in Oregon City, OR, in 2002, just a few miles from where I lived with my family, in the Cascade Mountain foothills. It was perpetrated by Ward Weaver III. I don’t want to go into detail, but if you are interested, you can find them in Wikipedia under his name.

    1. It was a cathartic write, symbolizing the wall of evil, in which Trump had trapped the United States. We are now, bloodied by years of digging out, hoping Biden hears our cries, and sets us free. …nah, probably not.

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