The floorboards creaked is a prompt from a Dean Writers Circle workshop, stolen as usual for my FaceBook prompts.
The house sat sleeping, blinds drawn against invasive sunlight. It had slept for many years, glad to rest, to let the silence heal the rooms where once the cries and laughs of children rang,
The house dreamed on, banishing that last day when shouts, screams, heart-breaking sobs had soaked the walls, seeped into the carpets, plastered themselves to the ceilings.
The house had quivered with the horror, the floorboards creaked.
Afterwards, when the red-stained rugs had been carried away, the ripped curtains taken down and the smashed furniture piled into a van which reversed noisily down the long, gravelled drive – afterwards, the house settled on its stone foundations, learning to forget.
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Find Cheryl’s flash fiction and short stories, including audio versions of some, here.
Who lived there? The tenants from Hell? Poor house LOL
Possibly!