Another week, another flash fiction challenge. As always check out this link to read more wonderful flash fiction, by fabulous authors. The challenge this week was to take a random photo and let it inspire a story.

Shattered Forest

Vince rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. All around him the world was awash of thousands, nuanced shades of Grey. The sky was twisting aimlessly sparkling to almost white and deepening to almost black. Around him was the shattered remains of a forest. Some of the trees floated, some of them tipped over, some trying to grown tiny, grey colored leaves.

A squeezing pain started at the base of his spine and had inched upward over the last hour. Now it was trying to break through his skull. The ground crackled with shinning silver energy as he pushed his foot down. “I don’t see anything, Jane.”

“I’m telling you, there is someone here.” Her voice sounded frustrated even though the haze of the seeing.

Rolling his eyes, Vince let loose his will. A cascade of silver, almost shocking in its bright newness, spread outward. Streams of it went in many directions thinning out to tiny filaments. The pressure increased as he felt his skull throbbing.

He was about to stop the whole thing, when he felt it. A spirit wandered at the far reach of his senses. By how it moved, it was attempting to avoid him. It hadn’t been dead long enough for all emotions to bleed from it. Jolting into a sprint, he leapt over various trees, and rocks. Once he saw a glimce of it, he let his will brush over it. “Gotcha ya,” he said.

Then, he looked away from the Grey. Bright sunlight caused him to blink so much he was blind. Once his eyes adjusted he looked around the beautiful, lush forests filled the gentle breeze took a deep breath. The sky was a clear blue with only a few wisps of clouds to mar it.

A huffing sound as a woman stumbled into the clearing beside him. She dropped to her knees. The neat fashionable roughed up jeans were now actually roughed up. The makeup and hair had taken a hit as well. Her dark brown eyes glared at him. “You do realize that you have been running this whole time.”

Vince smiled his grey eyes crinkling up in the corners. “Yeah, well, no one told you to go out in the woods in all that.”

She sighed rubbed at her super curly hair. “Do you know how long it takes to get this hair into shape?”

Vince rubbed his hand through his own stick straight black hair with a grin, “Nope. I found your spirit. My aura touched it. If you spell quickly enough you can keep it here.”

Her hand flared out. Her dark skin had the gloss of sweat across her face and hands in seconds. Then, she smiled. “It can’t leave.”

“Seems cruel. Whoever it is hasn’t been dead long.” Vince stepped into the sunlight. Been a while since he’d been out in the forest. His job as a counselor didn’t leave him a lot of free time.

Jane leveled a glare at him. “I’m trying to find a killer. They are already dead. There isn’t much else I can do for them, besides Speak and give them justice.”

Vince agreed to a point. Yet, they weren’t really dead yet either. It was a strange place, the Grey, it wasn’t dead and it wasn’t alive. Jane would never see that way. She gone into FBI to find killers and stop them. The discussion of what truly is alive or dead didn’t appeal to her.

“Let me go! I didn’t do anything to you people. Hey, assholes! Let me go.” The spirit, a young man, by the voice screamed from not far away.

Jane and Vince jogged in that direction. A kid, maybe sixteen years old, skinny as could be, stood in place. Raged contorted his face. He saw both of them and he spit in their direction.

Vince had to smile. Most newly dead spirits were too shell shocked to really get this mad at someone. Or, they were obsessed with whatever was keeping them here. Of course, sometimes they didn’t know what it was. Sometimes, there wasn’t anything keeping them, they just weren’t fortunate to cross over.

He kid glared at him. “What do you want?”

“He doesn’t want anything. I’ve been coming here for weeks looking for you.” Jane spoke in her clear, business voice. Unlike Vince, she couldn’t see the kid. She was a Talker, not a Grey Eye.

The kid looked her up and down, “What for?”

“You’re dead,” Jane said.

Vince winced. Tact is not Jane’s middle name, that’s for sure.

The kid nodded a few times. “Yeah, I know. What of it. I’m not haunting anyone.”

Jane put her hands behind her back, widening her stance. “I’m here to find your killer.”

The kid frowned, “Why?”

“I’m in the FBI, I hunt down killers. Yours has been evading me for a while. He’s gotten under my skin. Together, I think we can do something about that.” Jane swallowed at the end.

That was her only tell. This whole thing was really bothering her, Vince knew right then. If this kid blew her off, then it was over.

The kid looked down. “What if I told you I don’t know anything?”

Jane tipped her head to the side. “You probably know more than you think.”

The kid brought up his head, his eyes looking teary, before jerking his head away again. “Yeah, I’ll help you.”

Jane nodded as if she expected this the whole time. “Good, come with me.”