Better Off Alone by VS Stark

Welcome to the Quarterly Story Time Blog Hop, I’m hosting a story by VS Stark. Enjoy the story and make sure to check out all the other members of the hop. Links below the story.

Better Off Alone

Phyllis sighed, reading the latest entries on the mystery writers’ forum. The forum provided most of her social interaction since the Covid19 lockdown.

They were discussing everything now, not just writing, not anymore. Many of the writers had day jobs, or had had them before lockdown, and weren’t doing well with the isolation. It didn’t bother her. Phyllis was glad to be alone.

“No, I’ll be fine.” she wrote “I bought a big freezer just before we started hearing about Covid19.”

Mata Harry wrote “Is your back any better?”

Phyllis wrote “Some, thanks. I’ve been doing some stretching every day and using heat and ice. The NSAIDs help.”

A squabble broke out about whether NSAIDs made you more vulnerable to Covid19 or not. Phyllis didn’t read it. Nobody really knew yet and she wasn’t leaving the house, anyway.

Gumshoe wrote “Are you ok about the breakup?”

She grimaced. She was not ok. “Glad he went before all this. It would be awful to have him still here.”
Apparently, this sparked an idea for Magnus PI, who started a new topic thread. The topic was body disposal during the Covid19 lockdown. Phyllis clicked on it.

Magnus PI wrote “What about using vacuum seal bags and a freezer to buy time?

Holmie wrote “Not likely to have the equipment to take a body apart in the city. In the country, why not just bury it with quicklime?”

StephanieK wrote “Most people aren’t emotionally equipped to take a body apart, even if they knew how.”

There was a fair amount of discussion on how to make quicklime and how quick it really was for the purpose of body disposal. None of it was something she could actually use. Her characters were dealing with a murder on a space station.

Phyllis sighed and rubbed her eyes. She needed something to eat and then she would do some stretching before she tried to write again. Going out to the garage freezer was the new “going shopping”. Opening the freezer, she stared into the baskets. There was an array of Indian, Chinese, Mexican, and Italian meals waiting to be microwaved. She chose a box of ravioli with a side of green beans and took it to the kitchen.

The box rotated hypnotically in the microwave. She decided that she had made progress. At first, she had pulled out the baskets every day to see if it had really happened. Later, it was to make sure his body was still solidly frozen. Now, though, she didn’t even look. She would figure something out.

Be sure and check out the other stories:

1. Trail Of Carnage by Jemma Weir
2. A Phoenix In Hell by Sabrina Rosen
3. Friends Of The Deep by G. Craddock
4. Collateral Damage by Nic Steven
5. A Ghost’s Life by Barbara Lund
6. A Startling Revelation by Bill Bush
7. A Hiding Place by Gina Fabio
8. A Family Reunion by Katharina Gerlach
9. A Day In The Life by James Husum
10. Nothing To Show by Elizabeth McCleary
11. Super Grammy (Radioactive Breakfast Cereal) by Vanessa Wells
12. Bone Killer by Juneta Key
13.One More Time by Karen Lynn