Flash Fiction Prompt: Twenty Years Later, the Past Wants Blood

What if the man who destroyed your life reappeared? Would you finally take your revenge—or let the past walk free?

💥 Grab Hold Prompt

The moment he walked into the bar, I knew the past hadn’t stayed buried—it had just been waiting for me to dig it up.

It had been twenty years since I last saw him—the man who smiled as my world collapsed. He sat at the end of the bar, older, softer, but his eyes still carried that smug glint. My mind flashed back: the lies, the betrayal, the day I was marched out of my job like a criminal. I’d promised myself then that if I ever saw him again, I’d end it. My hand curled around the cold glass in front of me, but my pulse pounded hotter than fire. He hadn’t seen me yet. I could walk away. Or I could walk toward him and fulfill the vow I’d carried like a shadow all these years. The bartender leaned in, asking if I wanted another. I nodded, but my gaze never left him. I wondered if he remembered, if guilt had ever touched him. One step could decide whether I lived with this wound forever—or made sure neither of us walked away unchanged.

If you were the man in this story, would you choose revenge, forgiveness, or simply walk away? Why?