Silver Shorts 2012, Week 19

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Welcome to the Silver Shorts! Every week, we will be giving the Silver Publishing authors a prompt or four to play with and one week to submit flash fiction and short stories to be offered as free reads to our customers. This week's themes are:

"Hey everybody, we're all gonna get..."
"I'm thinking about you, but it's not the same as..."
"Wait a minute."___________ "This story sounds familiar. I could swear...."
"Give me affection, not...."

This week's anthology includes:

Broken Wings, Part 2 by Freddy MacKay

Minuet in Blue, Part 4 by Cherie Noel

To Snare a Fairy, Part 2 by SA Garcia

Excerpt:

Broken Wings, Part 2
Freddy MacKay

Rolling over in bed, Stephen stared at the ceiling, not really seeing it because his room was pitch black, but he looked in the direction of where his ceiling would be. He hated having any light in his room when he went to bed. He couldn't fall asleep if even a minute amount of light sprouted from somewhere. He had blackout curtains for a reason. Turner had always hated the curtains, saying they made the room dreary. Maybe Stephen should have realized something when his partner told him that, not like Stephen would have actually known what he should have gleaned from knowing his partner hated the dark. Turner had plenty of secrets of his own.

He kept Stephen in the dark about quite a few things. Mainly that his lover had been cheating on him... for a while. Stephen's chest constricted, a flare of pain throbbing in his heart, making it harder to breathe. Just like it did every time Stephen thought about Turner's betrayal. He wondered how many times Turner had gone behind his back, how many different men Turner let fuck him in their bed, when Turner had started playing around behind his back, and if their friends had known and never said anything to Stephen. That last thought always drove the knife deeper into him.

Making it so Stephen turned into an open, weeping wound, his thoughts festering. Constantly itching and hurting just underneath the façade Stephen had put on since he left the hospital three weeks ago--after spending a week there to recover--and went back to work. He wore a mask with a pretend smile. His stilted laugh echoed hauntingly in his ears while Turner hovered over him at home while he recovered. He tried to forget Marco, too.

The man had been nothing but kind. But he also scared Stephen. Everything Marco did made Stephen wish Turner could be the one to do it. He even called to check on Stephen after he got out of the hospital at least twice a week initially. Stephen stopped answering the calls. Calls that stopped coming this past week.

Stephen chuckled quietly, sadness ringing in the sound. Things really were in a sorry state. If he considered going to work as a reprieve from his lover, and his haunted moments at home, then he truly was fucked. Home should be his sanctuary, not work.

Home. Stephen cringed. I should have never let Turner take me home.