by P. J. Cowan
“I didn’t really want to kill you,” he said.
“It wasn’t you,” Austin told him. “It was that thing, that whatever it was we found in the dark. It got inside all of us. You. Me. Brian.”
“Hmmm.” said Muncie, sleepily.
The moon rose and by its light Austin could see Muncie’s blood, a black stain across her fingers.
“You never really played the game Austin. Not like me and Brian. You never did anything bad at all.” His hand fell away from his neck but it didn’t matter, the blood had stopped.
“Of course I did Muncie,” said Austin. “I killed you.”
Across the bowl of the sky the stars came out.
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Author Bio:
P.J. Cowan lives in Oregon with a remarkably patient husband and a number of four-legged roommates. Her short stories have been published in Alien Skin, Argus, Space and Times, Visions, and have been read on Golden Hours Radio. She is the producer of the spoken word CD, Stories of Oregon and past editor of the speculative fiction magazine, Nanobison. She is moderator of the online writers group, Becoming Fiction, and a member of the Northwest Independent Writers Association. Like Austin she once owned a landscaping company in Southern Oregon. You can learn more than you want to know about her at pjcowanauthor.com
