FLASH FICTION CONTEST #3

The explosion burst into the sky, Lewin watched in shock as a wave of heat slammed into her. Standing up she climbed off of her patio, Tuna salad lying forgotten. Her mind went blank as she saw where the explosion happened. Fainting, she fell into her yard. Her eyes blinked open seconds later, she reached for her phone and called the police, as they picked up her panicked breathing became obvious to her.

“The school! The school! For the love of god tell me that was not the school!”

“Mam,” the operator said “You have to calm down. I am sorry for your loss but we have hundreds of other parents who have also lost children, you need to calm down.”

Lewins heart stopped “Wha-what ha-happened?”

The operator sighed “We are not sure, the current theory was a boiler explosion through an act of terrorism hasent been completly discounted. We-”

Lewin stopped listening, this could have been done on purpose, she would never see Lucy again and it might have been done on purpose. Without realizing it she had dropped her phone

As she bent to pick it up she felt something that wasn't pain. Seeking refuge from her own thoughts she fled there and was almost overwhelmed as the surge of rage hit her. Leaving her phone forgotten in the grass she began sprinting towards the school. As she did, memories of her daughter came unbidden into her mind, and tears began spilling down her cheeks.

When she neared the school a sulfur smell filled her nostrils and the tears on her cheeks seemed to burn. She thought she had prepared herself but the pile of char where her daughter had spent her last moments still dropped her to her knees. Police and crime tape draped the entire scene but she ignored them, picking her way across the rubble. Police tried to stop her but she ignored them until she reached the very center of the “school” .

“Who did this!” she called

Silence echoed. Growling in frustration she took a step forwards and tripped on a metal shell. Turning it over she gasped, the shell was a bomb, coated in dust and a little blown up but enough of it remained to make out the faint logo of a beetle on fire. She had seen that logo before.

40 minutes later she climbed out of her car, a backpack slung over her shoulder. Gathering her courage she took a deep breath and walked into the building past a half hidden sign of a beetle on fire. Lucy had seen that, she had loved the game “I Spy”

Lewin was completely taken aback as she entered the building. Both men and women surrounded massive screens and computers, there were beers passing by hand and everybody seemed to be in a completely carefree mood. Lewin let herself have a little smile that was in no way meant to be nice. Slamming the door behind her, everyone's eyes pin pi\ointed on her, they no longer seemed carefree, instead they reminded her of snipers with their scopes pointed directly at her heart.

“Did you know my daughter died today?” Lewin spoke softly, “Someone hid a bomb at her school.” The people in the room's eyes were wide and they kept glancing at each other, “The bomb had a flaming beetle on it.” If possible the people in the room's eyes got even wider. Many of them reached towards their pockets and others started edging around her so she couldn't escape. Lewin didn’t care. “What kinds of despicable people would bomb a school and then celebrate?” The silence in the room continued and she felt a flash of annoyance quickly swallowed up again by the blinding rage. “Well”

“You shouldn't have come here,” said a beefy man near the back.

As the words left his mouth a bullet hit Lewin in the stomach. Groaning, she touched her stomach and inhaled sharply as her hand came back red. Then she did something so utterly shocking that the people in the room visibly stepped back. Lewin smiled, blood began to trickle down her stomach but she smiled.

“I never expected to leave this room alive,” she said. “I just intended to take all of you with me.”

When the words left her mouth Lewin collapsed, and the small bomb she had placed in her bag slipped out. The people around her frantically tried to get rid of it but it was too late, as one of them got it to the door the ticker hit zero.

No one ever figured out why there were two explosions in the cities in a single day. Police still scratch their heads at the strange disappearance of Lewin Stargeta. But people nearby swear they can remember a spirit in the 2nd explosion, and they swear that the spirit was smiling.