Suspens Novels & Stories

The inflection of someone revisiting a statement they know is incomplete. Lena went very still. The kitchen was quiet. The problem set sat on the table in front of her, the unfinished fifth problem waiting. The cold tea. The green pencil. All of it perfectly still. "Susie," she said. "I'd been watching him watch you since year nine," Susie said. "From across the hedge. From across the school. From across every room he happened to be in at the same time as you." She said it plainly, not dramatically, in the way she said things she'd been thinking for a long time and had simply been waiting for the right moment to say. "He was never obvious about it. He didn't make it a production. But it was

Sharp as a blade piercing through her chest. Susan gasped and brought her hands to her heart, leaning slightly forward as if something inside her had been violently pulled. The tea she was holding spilled onto the carpet, spreading the hot, dark liquid. “S-Susan?!” Jenn ran to her, alarmed. “No… Don’t touch me!” Susan whispered, her pupils dilated, her eyes glassy and fixed on some invisible point. “He… He…” Her soul trembled. The bond… twisted, like a rope being wrung until it nearly snapped. A strange weight, as if a mirror had cracked inside her, scattering fragments of doubt, confusion, and despair.