• Home
  • Brooches
  • Podcasts
  • Stories
  • About The Casket
  • About Joanna
  • Competitions
  • TubeFlash

The Casket of Fictional Delights

Brooches Podcasts Stories

Steps

by Pauline Yates

Flash Fiction Optimistic, Thought-provoking

The buildings that line the deserted alley cast shadows as gloomy as the drizzle of rain. Jocelyn shivers. Her fear lurks here. If she doesn’t retrace her steps and face the origin of her torment, the trial, the conviction, the year of therapy, would mean nothing. She’ll remain a victim.
Her shoes heels click on the cobblestones. Her red umbrella draws attention; she wants to be seen. She’s hidden in the safety of obscurity for too long. It’s a small step, but a step in reclaiming her confidence to walk the streets alone.
Looking straight ahead, she positions her umbrella so she can’t look over her shoulder.  This step is harder.  When she hears a boot scuff the cobblestones behind her, she holds her breath and quickens her pace. A man draws alongside. Her heart pounds and her legs grow weak. If she stops walking, this alley will plague her nightmares forever. She has to embrace her fear, not succumb to it. Use it to heighten her awareness.  Empower herself. She glances at the man. He wears a suit, not a trench coat. Holds a phone, not a knife. He’s a stranger, but strangers aren’t evil. Evil wears a different face.

She takes another step and matches strides with the man.  When the rain begins to pour, she offers her umbrella.

  •  
  •  

About Pauline Yates

Pauline fills every spare second in her day (and night) working on her stories. Her growing list of publications include short stories with Metaphorosis, Aurealis, Abyss & Apex plus others. She loves the challenge of a writing prompt and is a regular writing contest competitor. She lives in Australia

Pauline Tweets @midnightmuser1


Visit Pauline Yates on the web

You’ve reached the end of this story. Please do explore further. And if you’re feeling generous today, donate to The Casket and help keep the fictional delights flowing. Want to know when more stories arrive? Make sure you sign up for regular updates.

A little tin-rattle

The Casket is a platform for new, fresh and enjoyable short reads. We don’t receive any grants and your generosity helps us provide FREE accessible ad-free content. Any donation is hugely appreciated. If you would like to contribute, donate by PayPal by submitting your name and an amount.

Sending

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

If you choose to leave a comment on The Casket of Fictional Delights, in addition to the comment you provide we collect a little data, including your IP address, in order to check it isn't spam and to publish the comment. Following approval, your comment text, name and website URL (if provided) are visible to the public. To find out how your data is used, check our Privacy Policy

As autumn approaches, we have some cracking great short stories and flash fictions coming up by many of our regular writers including Alyson Faye, James Stark and Susan Carey. And we round off the year with another story featuring quirky librarian Susan Tate.

There are many other short stories and flash fictions available to read and listen to in our Stories and Podcast sections.

Joanna & The Casket of Fictional Delights Team

Stories

Help Keep Us Going

Please consider making a donation to The Casket of Fictional Delights.  All content on the website is free and widely available to audiences worldwide.  We do not receive any grants and all our content is Ad free.  The Casket of Fictional Delights specialises in producing high-quality podcasts which are recorded by professional actors/voiceover artists from around the world. We hope you enjoy reading and listening to the stories and finding out about Joanna’s varied brooch collection.

DONATE

Tweetings

    Follow The Casket on Twitter

    Sign up for our Newsletter

    The Casket of Fictional Delights newsletter delivers the latest story or brooch of the month fresh off the press, and keeps you informed about our competitions and other Casket news periodically.

    No spam, ever - and we never use your details for anything but sending your newsletter. You can change your mind at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in the footer of any email you receive from us.

    View our Privacy Policy

    • Stories
    • Authors
    • Podcasts
    • Brooches
    • Birth of a collection
    • About The Casket
    • About Joanna
    • Liu Xiaobo
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact
    • Donate
    • The Casket on Facebook
    • The Casket on Twitter

    Text & stories © Joanna Sterling 2023
    Stories © various authors
    Editing by Joanna Sterling & Alyson Faye
    Audio by Menna Bonsels
    Brooch photography by Mark Colliton
    Other photography by Rosie Marks
    Maintained by Brighton WebTech