Provocation

She seemed to be totally unaffected by all the commotion around her. She kept working in a relaxed and sedate manner.

“Don’t be that harsh on yourself, join the party; after all how often do we win the World Cup,” someone tried to provoke her but his effort was half-hearted and pathetic. She knew that they were all deliberately fooling themselves and that, in fact, they were all very angry. But it was not a righteous anger.

It was after thirty years that the football team had a golden chance of winning the World Cup. They were hosting the tournament and they were in the final. Other team in the final was the weakest team in the tournament; it was just sheer luck and some patchy hard work that had enabled it to reach the final. The hosts were too confident of a thumping win.

The game was yet to start but everyone had begun to celebrate. The frenzy had to be seen to be believed. They had waited for many years for this intoxicating moment.

But to everyone’s shock and disbelieve the host team lost and lost miserably.  Celebrations turned into one long dirge.  

No one knew that she was fighting her own ghosts; her younger brother had been killed by riotous fans during a football tournament five years back.

She pretended to remain unaffected. But she was not aware that her sang-froid was provoking them.

*******

A post for Three Word Wednesday and Magpie Tales

Murder in the Bedroom

It was a gruesome scene. The man had been stabbed with a kitchen knife. The body bore multiple stab wounds. The blood was splattered all over the bedroom.

But what surprised the police officer was the attitude of the murdered man’s wife. She was found in her bedroom, peacefully enjoying her smoke; she had wrapped her eyes with a black herbal eye wrap. He tried to speak to her but her responses were extremely cool and calculated.  

The officer could not find even a single piece of evidence that could lead him to the killer. Needle of suspicion, of course, pointed to the wife.

‘You didn’t share his bedroom?’ the officer said in a sneering tone and tried to provoke her

‘No, never.’

Her sang-froid irritated him.

‘Why?’

‘None of your business; you suspect that I killed him but you can’t find any evidence against me, no? I feel so sorry for you.’

‘We will catch the killer; eventually they all make a mistake and get caught.’

She smiled at him; it was an enigmatic smile and that made him angry.

******

A post for Magpie Tales on a photo prompt and

Three Word Wednesday –word prompts: enigmatic, gruesome, irritate.

My post for Friday Fictioneers

Tell me astory

Three Women

She turned and looked at them.

There was something about them that disturbed her. A strange thought struck her, ‘They aren’t humans, no? They only look like humans.’

The tallest of the three was gazing at her with unblinking eyes.

‘She has read my thoughts,’ she was sure and tried to give the tallest woman a smile; she was still gazing at her.

Now the other two had also turned their unblinking eyes towards her. All three were unusually tall and appeared to be totally hairless.

Their stares were sombre, frosty and distant.

Suddenly she realized that she was alone at the pool; alone with three strange women who were perhaps not even humans.

“Are you the famous astrophysicist who was on TV yesterday? Would it be possible for you to help us?”

She thought she heard one of them say in a raspy voice.

“How can I help you?” she could not resist asking them. ‘Are they aliens, needing my help?' she asked herself.

“There’s no one here and we are new to the place. Would you mind staying here till we finish with our business?”

Taken aback, she didn’t know what to say. Compelled by nature, her eyes had an obedient look. 

******

 A post for MagpieTales  (on a photo prompt) and Three Word Wednesday.

Psycho

As he came out of the shop he happened to see the woman who was standing in the store on the other side of the street. He thought she was staring at him.

He felt he had seen her somewhere. But he could not recall where and when he had met her and that irritated him, for no apparent reason.

Was she the one, the only one, who managed to escape? When was it, last year? No, two years back? He was talking to himself. He shuddered.

He knew it was needless to worry for she could not have seen his face. He had always kept himself wrapped in a black mask. He would not remove the mask even after the victim had died.

But why should she glare at him?

He felt giddy. But it was only for a moment. This giddiness always came for a moment and what followed was inevitable.

Lewd thoughts took control of his mind and he laughed like a hyena; for he knew what he wanted to do; had always wanted to do.

******

A post for Magpie Tales on a picture prompt

And for Three Word Wednesday

Word prompts-giddy, lewd, needless