Alyssa Devine is the Readers’ Choice in this week’s Indies Unlimited Flash Fiction Challenge. The winning entry is decided by the popular vote and rewarded with a special feature here today. (In the case of a tie, the writer who submitted an entry first is the winner per our rules.)
Without further ado, here’s the winning story:
Masquerade
by Alyssa Devine
The room reminded him of his own daughter’s room, with shelf upon shelf of stuffed animals, romance magazines scattered here and there, and cosmetics strewn about the desk. It was the quintessential teenager’s safe haven. Given its appearance, it seemed as if Erin had left for school five minutes before he’d arrived. Except she hadn’t. Now, sadly, he had just told her mother she never would return.
“Why not?” Mrs. Baldwin asked, dabbing her eyes with a tissue. “She was always so happy, always smiling, even on the morning she disappeared. Why wouldn’t she come home?”
She picked up a picture of her daughter taken with two other girls the previous fall at a high school football game. “That’s Erin in the middle. Isn’t she beautiful?” Erin was the tall, statuesque brunette with long brown hair worn in a ponytail. “The girl on her left is Jessica Trimble. On her right is Karen Lambert. The three of them were inseparable. If you saw one, you saw all three. They were like sisters. When Erin disappeared, Jessica and Karen quit the cheerleading team and, other than going to classes, withdrew completely from school activities.
“It doesn’t make sense,” she continued, now sobbing. “I keep thinking . . . was there something I could have done, should have done, to keep her home that morning that might have changed things? But everything seemed so normal. It’s a boy, isn’t it?!”
“No, I so sorry, Mrs. Baldwin, but Erin’s committed suicide.”
Congratulations to Alyssa. Yay! another win for you. 🙂