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Exes

A Story Every Day in 2024 Nov 4th 309/366

By Rachel DeemingPublished about a year ago 2 min read
Exes
Photo by Nancy Hughes on Unsplash

Bethan

Today's the day where I might finally get some answers. These past weeks have been...unsettling. I feel...shaken. But also strangely optimistic. I don't know. I always hoped that I would find Laney and as days turned into weeks, months, years, I wondered if I'd ever get straight again, in my head. I'm not really sure what that means. I suppose it's about closure, about being in a place that's sure.

When someone vanishes, you're plunged at headlong pace into the unknown; the darkness. Imagine it like a bungee jump over an abyss. You're descending at breakneck pace towards the ground, and there's something hard there waiting for you to collide with it, to signify the end. Some will hit it; others will bounce back. And what, then, for those others? Then, you're perpetually in the dark, dangling from a rope, the one link that's keeping you tethered, keeping you from falling, and that's your hope. And you're there, waiting for someone to pull you back up to safer, solid ground, to offer you that glimpse of something warmer and lighter than the dark. But what if no-one pulls you back out? Then, you're in a purgatory of empty air, keeping very still, waiting for something else to come and upset the relative safety that you've kept for yourself just to survive in this cold, desolate place and hoping that that disturbance is not the pummelling wind of grief or the wings of horror but the strong pull of truth, getting you out of there and tugging you up, away.

Some pull themselves out.

But some crave the plummet, because then, with impact, it will all be over.

Dave

I've texted Bethan, asking her to meet. Today. I need to choose somewhere where we won't be seen. I don't want this getting back to Christine and I don't want Katie to know. I don't want to leave anything to chance.

Not a pub. Outdoors maybe?

I need to get this back to how it was. I'll talk to Katie, bring her round.

I don't know what I'm going to do about Bethan.

She needs to leave me and Katie alone. I don't need this shit.

***

365 words

This started here:

Yesterday's here:

Full list of them here:

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309/366

MicrofictionMysteryPsychological

About the Creator

Rachel Deeming

Storyteller. Poet. Reviewer. Traveller.

I love to write. Check me out in the many places where I pop up:

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Comments (11)

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  • J. L. Greenabout a year ago

    The audacity of this prick. Lost a daughter. Knew where she’d been. Went to the PLACE she’d been. And said not a single 🤬 thing to his grieving wife???? Not to the police???? Just a quick, “I thought she was going to the quarry” after picking up the evidence of his buffoonery??? I am livid on behalf of Bethan.

  • Does he ever have a single thought that doesn't revolve around his saving his own sorry ass

  • D.K. Shepardabout a year ago

    I'm with John, I don't think Dave is a killer yet, but doesn't seem an impossible course of action for him to take at this point

  • John Coxabout a year ago

    Dave is starting to scare me.

  • Cindy Calderabout a year ago

    Me, me, me.....that's all Dave can think of.....Poor Bethan in the meantime.

  • Impressive imagery of the unbearable uncertainty and torture of someone going missing & having no answers.✅ Typical self-centred Dave.😵‍💫

  • Caroline Cravenabout a year ago

    That was a killer last line - just hope Dave isn't a killer and planning to bump Bethan off. He really is a nasty piece of work.

  • Cathy holmesabout a year ago

    Dave is so selfish. Also, the bungee metaphor was fantastic. Well done.

  • Shirley Belkabout a year ago

    Bethan proves that girl, YOU CAN WRITE!!!!

  • Lana V Lynxabout a year ago

    I hope Dave is not planning to kill Bethan. I understand he feels cornered but I hope he has enough sense to just air out the secret and be done with it. Loved the metaphor of bungee jumping for unresolved unending grief.

  • Dave doesn't want Christine or Katie to know he's gonna meet Bethan but he wants the meeting to be outdoors? How stupid is this man?

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