Ken Thomas took the scenic route home to enjoy the spring air, but he found a cold-blooded betrayal instead. Now, he has three choices—and one of them ends in blood.
Writer’s Prompt
The shadows in Crestview Park didn’t care that it was a Thursday. They stretched long and jagged, like ink bleeding across a blotter. Ken Thomas usually traded his soul to the office fluorescent lights on Thursdays, but the spring air had smelled too much like hope to ignore.
Halfway through the oak grove, hope died a quiet, violent death.
There was Emma. His Emma. Her fingers were threaded through the hair of a man who wasn’t Ken. The man was Bill Hathaway—Ken’s best friend, his best man, the guy who’d held his hair back after too many whiskeys. They were locked in an embrace so tight it looked like they were trying to merge into a single, duplicitous organism.
Ken didn’t scream. He didn’t even breathe. He just pulled out his iPhone, the screen’s glow a cold, digital witness. He recorded the betrayal in high definition, every whispered word and stolen touch preserved in silicon.
He retreated to a nearby bench, the metal slats biting into his spine. His mind became a courtroom with three presiding judges:
- Confrontation: Throw the digital proof in her face tonight. Watch the prettiness of her lies crumble into ugly reality.
- Absolution: Delete the file. Crawl back into the warmth of the deception and hope her guilt eventually brought her home.
- The Final Script: A “murder-suicide.” Two bodies in Bill’s bachelor pad. A staged note. A clean break from a dirty world.
Ken felt the weight of the phone in his hand—a weapon or a peace offering. He stood up, his shadow merging with the coming night. He started walking toward their house, but at the fork in the path, he stopped.
What does Ken do when he opens the front door? You tell me how this noir ends.
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