It all started with a nosebleed.
A minor one. Just a straight streak of red below her right nostril, marking Hailey’s skin down to her top lip. She wiped the blood away with a bent finger, confused. She never got nosebleeds.
Her sister, Kelsey, peeked into the bathroom from the hallway and saw her sister examining herself in the mirror. Kelsey rolled her right wrist, her hand making a figure eight in the air.
Blood spewed from both of Hailey’s nostrils. It landed on the mirror, the sink, the faucet, her fingers. Her breathing ragged, she grabbed a hand towel and pressed it against her nose. Tears leaked from her eyes. Just because.
“What the hell?” she mumbled into the towel.
Kelsey rolled her wrist again.
Hailey felt the towel warm in her hands. She looked in the mirror and saw the tan towel become bright red and heavy with fresh, wet blood. Soaked, she dropped it into the sink. It landed with a thwunk sound.
Blood poured from her nose in two steady streams. She simply bent down and let it flow into the sink, all over the towel. What more could she do?
Hailey looked to the shower and saw her bath towel hanging on a hook on a wall beside the shower curtain. Ignoring the fact that she was going to get blood all over the floor, she darted from the sink, over to the towel, grabbed it, and pressed it hard against her face.
Kelsey rolled her wrist again.
Within minutes, the bath towel was soaked, and Hailey sat on the floor, lightheaded and nauseous.
She screamed into the towel.
Kelsey entered the bloody bathroom and stood before her sister.
That’s when Hailey knew…her sister was the reason for her massive nosebleed.
Hailey rolled her right wrist, her blood-stained hand making a figure eight in the air.
Laura Shell has been published in NUNUM, Maudlin House, Typishly, Big Whoopie Deal, and many others. Her first anthology of paranormal stories, The Canine Collection, was released in 2024. She’s a prolific writer and submitter of flash fiction and the Editor-in-Chief of the Flash Phantoms site. You can find more about her work at https://laurashellhorror.wordpress.com.