Only 236 words, this story packs a punch. The original version of "Collusion" is linked below. I recently wrote an alternate ending. Here is the full story:
“Collusion”
The music is blasting fast in my head, and I’m wired like the telephone lines that whistle past the open window, and the engine hums, and we’re one, and no thoughts fill my head – no school, no home, just the music so fluid it coats my bones – and I look over at Elle, and she’s smiling because she knows I’m vibing, and the music lifts, and I shift gears, and we slow for a sign, and the moonlight shines, and we start to roll, but a shadow jumps into the headlights’ glow, and the car jolts, and we stop, and the headlights shine red, and I hear Elle whisper, scared and low, Jake, we have to go, so I go, and the shadow is static, a scarlet mass on the moonlit road.
*
I am standing in the gallery, staring at the wall where a painting hangs square. The dark oils on the canvas swirl violently towards a small pool of silver at the bottom. A vague scarlet stain hovers above. I turn, and she’s there, just a silhouette framed by the sunlight streaming through the window behind her, and I can't see her face, just the blinding sunlight, setting her aglow.
She kisses me, and I hear her voice, floating faintly, saying, The children are waiting, it’s time to go, and we smile, and I count the shadows as we walk past the gallery windows.
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