Take Ten to Write

“The Room”

Author’s Note: This is a Take Ten to Write story and has not been proofread for errors. If I feel inspired or if there’s interest in the story, I’ll post a revised, edited, and extended version at a later date. Happy reading!

Prompt: “Red suitcase.” — suggested by Lexi

The room was completely silent, save for the soft whine of the air conditioning. The light breeze blew through the room, gently rustling the stack of papers on the coffee table.

Along with the papers, a vase and a decorative bowl sat on the coffee table. The vase held a single white rose. The petals had just begun to curl at their ends, and the slightest tinge of brown was creeping into the leaves. The bowl bore an assortment of plastic fruit. Grapes, apples, and oranges overflowed from the bowl and kissed the tabletop.

Beneath the table was a white rug. The thick strands of the rug were woven together in an intricate pattern, but they were held tight and not a fiber was out of place.

The pure white rug was tarnished by a single dot of red at the very edge. The spot would have been imperceptible, if not for the whiteness of the rug.

Just next to the red spot, on the bare floor, lay another dot. Red, again, but raised, having nothing to settle itself into. It sat, bulbous and shiny, on the cold wood.

More spots followed, equally bulbous and shiny but of various sizes. The spots seemed to grow as they distanced themselves from the white rug, as if they knew that they would get sucked into the thick fabric if they approached too closely.

The largest spots merged, forming a puddle of red on the wooden flooring. Eventually, the floor ran out. The redness began climbing more fabric, clinging to the rough texture. It spread, almost covering the case in its entirety.

This is how the room was laid out when the lead detective arrived the following morning. The only clues he had to go on were a stack of papers, a decaying rose, some plastic fruit, a nearly-pristine white rug, and a trail of blood leading directly to a suitcase.

Final Comments: Hey, it’s TTtW story #150!! For this one, I wanted to try writing a descriptive passage, and I found that I really enjoyed it. I wish I could’ve made the beginning more cryptic so that the objects were only revealed at the end like the suitcase, but that’s a problem for the editing stage…

Overall Rating: 😄

2 Comments

  • Stew

    Story no. 150 is incredible!! Really fine writing & intrigue throughout, and even afterwards. I mean, “The room was completely silent, save for the soft whine of the air conditioning.” that is a stellar start, and if that was the only sentence this would still be amazing. You could say I love it, I suppose. 😛

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