Flash fiction

The Thirteenth Floor

The Thirteenth Floor

It happened on this floor. They heard the piercing screams in the midnight, lodgers in the adjacent rooms and those close by.

People stood agape around the dead woman’s body lying in a pool of blood.
The victim’s sister came rushing, at the phone call from the hotel’s manager. Red eyed, she vowed to find out the culprit. She stayed back to see things through.

“She was in the next room to the manager’s suit. She was here on holiday. Why would she interfere in anyone’s affairs?” Natasha was talking to the sergeant. She told him about the coat button she found in her dead sister’s hand. Obviously she scuffled with her murderer before being thrown down.

Natasha got close to Rocky, the bandmaster at the hotel, who knew her sister well. He filled in some details surrounding her sister’s death. The night she died, Natasha’s sister got drunk at the bar, and forced her attentions on him. He brushed her aside, and went back to his room. After ten minutes, she banged on his door, pleaded with him to open the door, and then he heard her death screams. It was too late when he opened the door.

A few days later, Natasha noticed an unknown woman coming out of the manager’s rooms at midnight. She followed her to a posh house in a rich locality. A rich businessman’s wife messing up in an extra marital affair!
The police closed in on the woman. She revealed shady details. Natasha’s sister saw them both in a compromising state. The only way to hush her up was to put an end to her life.

The manager pleaded guilty, sentenced to serve lifetime in a Louisiana prison, paying the wages of sin.


Word count:293