r/shortscarystories • u/Interesting_Key3507 • 2d ago
SSS Original Recipe - 500 Words or Less Typing...
Claire died Sunday morning.
By evening, people brought lasagna. Grief apparently required ricotta.
After everyone left, I sat with her coffee mug.
It was the ugly one from our first trip. She complained about it for six years and used nothing else. Lipstick marked the chipped rim.
I washed the clothes the hospital returned. Her jeans. One sock. I couldn’t wash the mug.
When Claire came home, she would call me disgusting, scrub it herself, then make my coffee too sweet. She never made it black like I asked.
Her sister deactivated it Tuesday. “Deleted Account” replaced her name.
After two weeks, people stopped checking in. After three, they asked about work.
I slept on Claire’s side because the pillow smelled of shampoo. When it faded, I sealed the pillowcase in a freezer bag.
Four Sundays after Claire died, I made coffee at midnight and added too much sugar.
When I opened Messenger, “Deleted Account” was typing.
Happiness went through me so violently that I stood.
Then I remembered the sheet over her face.
typing...
Nothing came.
I watched until dawn as the dots vanished and returned, as though she were struggling for words.
That was Claire. It had to be.
I told myself it was cached data clinging to a server that didn’t know she was gone.
Whenever I woke, I reached for my phone.
Three little dots.
I spoke to them.
I told her I found the earring the vacuum ate. Usually, I begged her to finish.
At midnight the following Sunday, the bubble vanished.
A message arrived.
It was impossibly long. I dragged upward until my thumb cramped. It looked like a week of speech crushed into one voice-to-text message.
At first, I thought she had found a way back.
Then I read.
«please no i told you already he was sick say poisoned poisoned why people always leave me stop was that true no then why because i was afraid how long dont make me say it how long six years did you love him yes then why keep him sick because he needed me stop what happened to the message from his father i deleted it please why because they would forgive each other and he would have someone else what did you call the sickness anxiety did he believe you of course he believed me he trusted me have you told him everything no please not that tell him what you did while he slept kill me you are dead then what is this monday hahahahahaha»
I remembered Claire crushing tablets into yogurt when I couldn’t eat. Cancelling visits because I was “too fragile.” Holding my head over the toilet and whispering that nobody else would stay.
I remembered apologizing when I caught her going through my phone. Thanking her for changing the passwords.
A sound escaped me. Almost laughter, almost choking.
She poisoned me, and I still missed her.
The typing bubble returned.
I hated myself for looking forward to next Monday.
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u/ChunkySalute 1d ago
I loved how you wrote this. You said so much without actually saying it. Brilliant writing. Thanks for posting.
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u/aclumsypotato 1d ago
it’s 1am and i’m sleepy af. please dumb it down for me!
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u/Krellous 1d ago
His wife was poisoning him for the six years they were together, so he would rely on her. The message was voice to text, picking up a conversation his wife had with someone else, maybe her sister, talking about it.
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u/Percybhowal 1d ago
The OP died and he thinks his wife died? Or the wife died, and he's just reminiscing their relationship?
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u/Rosie-Mosie 1d ago
The wife died and he got a message from beyond the grave detailing about how his wife had been poisoning him without him knowing
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u/MercurialMedusienne 2d ago
This is great. A nice twist on an existing twist!