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A Stranger’s Danger

Nancy's Notes 🖊️♬

Written for Fandango’s Story Starter

Image by Me & ChatGPT

As the sound of a gunshot echoed in the hallway, a woman pushed open the door to my apartment and jumped inside.

She slammed it shut behind her, chest heaving, back pressed flat against the wood like she could hold the whole building up with her shoulder blades alone.

“Lock it,” she gasped. “Please. Lock it.”

I didn’t move. I was still holding a mug of coffee I’d poured four minutes earlier, and it had gone cold in my hand without my noticing, the way things do when your evening splits cleanly into before and after.

“Who are you?” I asked, which felt like the wrong question, but it was the only one I had.

“There’s no time,” she said, and there was blood on her sleeve, dark and spreading, though she didn’t seem to know it was there. Her eyes kept cutting to the door, to the thin strip of hallway light beneath it, waiting for a shadow to break it.

I set the mug down and crossed the room, securing the chain and turning the deadbolt. My hands were steadier than I expected.

She exhaled like she’d been holding her breath since the shot.

“They’ll check every apartment,” she whispered. “You have to help me …. please!”

Footsteps passed in the hall, unhurried, and stopped just outside my door.

She looked at me, and in that instant I understood that whatever came next, I was already part of it …. that a stranger’s danger had simply walked into my home and, without asking, made itself my danger, too.

NAR©2026
#FSS

Fandango’s Prompt: As the sound of a gunshot echoed in the hallway,
a woman pushed open the door to my apartment and jumped inside.
 
This is  “Saturday Night Special” by Lynyrd Skynyrd

Fandango’s Story Starter #254

Everything on The Elephant’s Trunk was created by me, unless otherwise indicated. Thanks for your consideration. NAR©2017-present.



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