A Short Story Collection
By Donna Hernandez
SMASHWORDS EDITION
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PUBLISHED BY:
Donna Hernandez on Smashwords
A Short Story Collection
© 2011 Donna Hernandez.
All rights reserved. Except for the use in any review, the reproduction of utilization of this work in whole or part in any form of any electronic mechanical or under means, now know or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying or recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system is forbidden without the permission of the publisher and author.
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This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
ISBN 978-1-4661-9920-0
To my mother for all the encouragement you gave me
ROSES IN THE STONE
His face was scarlet with rage; his nostrils flaring and his breath rapid and forceful as he kicked open the motel room door. He shouted at the girl cowering inside as he waved the gun. “Where are my drugs, you little bitch? What have you done with them?” His bloodshot eyes e seemed about to pop out of his head. Joining him in the room, Tom had never seen his friend so out of control with rage.
She struggled as he dragged her through the hallway and downstairs. There didn’t seem to be anyone else around, or maybe they’d spotted the gun and decided to hide. It was that kind of motel.
Tom saw fear in the girl’s eyes as she turned towards him. “Tom please tell him. I did not take his drugs.
“I didn’t take it. I swear,” she whimpered.
“Where are my drugs? Did she take them or not?” He shouted as he twisted around pointing the gun at each one of the men in turn.
Tom’s heart pounded in fear as the gun pointed towards him. “I’m telling you. She walked out of here with them. She wouldn’t listen when we told her to leave them.”
“Where are my drugs?” he demanded one last time.
Tom heard an explosion, then dead silence. Tom watched in horror as, as if in slow motion, the girl jerked backwards and crumbled to the floor with a bullet wound to her head. Blood was pooling under the left side of her head, blood spatter covered the wall. Tom felt something wet on his face; wiping it away he saw gray tissue. Tom could not believe what had happened.
“Oh, my God! What did I do? Okay, okay, she shot herself,” the man said forcing the gun into her hand “She got upset and grabbed the gun and shot herself in the head. Okay that is what happened. If we don’t all tell the same story we are all going down for murder.”
“Shit Tom. We are in big trouble. Someone had to have heard the gunshot,” Jack said fearfully.
“Man, we’ve got to get the body out of here before anyone comes. We’ll hide her in the desert and clean up this place fast. If anyone finds her they will think it was done there. Man, I can’t go down for murder,” Adam shouted. “I have a wife and two kids. I can’t go to prison.”
Tom removed the gun from the dead girl’s hand, pulled a blanket off the bed and wrapped her in it. Adam looked out the door and waved to the other three to follow. He opened the trunk of the car and motioned for Jack to throw the body inside.
They headed out to the desert and found a deserted place far from any dwellings; they laid her in the rocks. Except for the gunshot in the left side of her head and the blood covering her nightgown, she looked like she was sleeping. Reaching down Tom spread her hair over her gown to cover the blood. When he looked in her eyes it seemed as if she were asking him to help her.
As they sped away into the night, Tom knew they could not return to the room, with all the blood and evidence. Who knew if the police were there?
Tom watched from down the street as red and blue lights flashed on the motel. Police were all around searching for something or someone. Just then he saw Sara pull into the parking lot of the motel. Oh my God Sara, Tom thought.
“Sorry miss no one can enter.”
“I live here, my room is right there.” She pointed to the room police were searching.”What happened?”
“This is your room? Where were you tonight?” He asked.
“I was at work. I was there from two until about ten minutes ago. What happened?” Sara tried to look in the room; she saw what looked like a reddish stain on the carpet.
What happened in my room? Is that blood? Oh my God what is going on? Why are they searching my room? Sara thought as she turned back to the officer.
“Miss someone was murdered. The landlord thought it was you. But I see it was not. Who else has access to your room?”