Thank you to Colin Ward, author of To Die For, who has taken part in the story in less than one hundred words challenge. Colin writes thrillers and has made no exception in his ninety-nine word story, Leaving. To find out more about Colin’s writing you can visit his website
Everything was arranged. Tickets booked and bag packed. He’d triple-checked his passport was there. The chlorine smell lingered on his clothes.
‘Never leave your home dirty,’ his mother always said. Advice akin to why one should always wear clean pants.
‘Just in case the worst happened and…’
He silenced her voice.
Starting the car and looking over to the house as a matter of habit. He hummed a popular John Denver song about a jet plane.
He was about to put the car into reverse when he saw the thin, dark red line down the edge of his thumb.
99 words
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Patricia M Osborne 