7 Comments
User's avatar
Becky Hayward's avatar

“I sat back down slowly while the smell thickened around the house. Wet fruit. Fermentation. Flowers rotting in water.”

The smell!! Such a great element added here. This was really creepy! Loved it!

Crosswind Chronicles's avatar

Thank you so much! Honestly I was trying to describe “smelling like a funeral home” without ever actually saying those words outright 😂 but wet fruit and fermentation worked better

Becky Hayward's avatar

Yes! It worked so well! And I’ve never seen that used to describe anything other than old flowers. Lol. And then I could then smell cleaning out old flowers from a vase and I got looped right in! So good!

Storm Whisperer's avatar

Ooof... Crosswind, do you not want me to sleep at all? This was so eerie. You tell these stories so well. Great read. 🤍

Crosswind Chronicles's avatar

The goal is never to stop people from sleeping.

Just to make family photos feel slightly different afterward. Appreciate you so much, Nerra 🤍

Lauren🕯️'s avatar

The way you built the tension through practical, calm choices like the neatly measured boards on the windows and the mother's exhausted, matter-of-fact tone—made the impossible twist feel terrifyingly real. And that final image of the mother looking away inside the photograph? Genuinely chilling. Brilliant work.

Wendy Cockcroft's avatar

This story is deliciously creepy! It's the mystery that keeps me reading. Great stuff!