The Autumn of Her Fall

Short Fiction By J. Iner Souster

You can purchase Written Tales Magazine in print or digital format or become a paid subscriber and download your favorite editions. To view our upcoming stories & poems, please visit our publishing schedule calendar.

---

Elethea needs rest. There is no peace, no repose in this prison of her soul. Pain comes from within—suffering comes from living without. It's all around her, inside her. A single tear falls from her burning eyes onto her cheek. Speaking words, no one will hear or know how it feels when dreams fade to gray. All she wants to say becomes lost in the distance of time.

She was looking for a place to hide and found it. A good deal of space inside the umbrella, so she lay there with her face turned towards the light. She cannot help but dream as she admires the firefly-lit lantern from the lamppost on the corner. Above all others, it is virtuous in golden light. Down, down, down into the darkness of the silken parasol. So it goes as she settles in her bitter bed. Several people walk by, uninterested in her. None of them bother to look in through the silk.