Secrets Flash Fiction

Torches on the wall lit up as Ronan walked down the dark hallway.

He finally got to the end of the hallway and was presented with three doors. He had to pick the correct door. He chose the door on the right and opened it. He entered a room with hooded people huddled in a circle.

One of the people stepped forward and pulled back their hood. Under the hood was an average woman. “Welcome, traveler. You have discovered the secret lair of the Hiddens. And now that you know where our secret lair is located, we must–”

Another member of the secret society whispered into the woman’s ear. “I mean we must initiate you into our society by–”

Another member brought over a chalice to the woman. “You must drink this blood to show your allegiance to us.”

“Alright, I don’t want to get — ” Ronan said before the woman tipped the chalice up so it would pour into his mouth. He opened his mouth and swallowed. “Wait, this is–tomato juice?”

The members of the society ran off and Ronan knew he couldn’t follow them. He was afraid he would get killed.

He walked out of the temple, rushed out of the woods, and ran into his house. He slammed the door shut. Am I in their secret society now? What do I do? Should I go back there?

A few months passed.

“Ronan, a letter came for you in the mail!” Ronan’s mother shouted from downstairs.

“A letter? Who sends letters anymore?” Ronan said to himself. “I’ll be right down!”

Ronan rushed downstairs. It is from the secret society? How did they get my address? I’m sure they have their ways.

He snatched the envelope from his mother’s hands and rushed back upstairs to read the letter.

He skimmed the letter for any death threats from the secret society, but he none. It just stated that they wanted to see him at the temple next week at 4 pm.

A week passed.

Ronan told his mom he had to go to a club meeting after school, but instead, he rushed to the outskirts of town and into the woods.

He found the temple again and slowly walked inside. The door slammed shut behind him and the torches lit up. He followed the torches until he reached the end of the hall.

“Welcome back, young Ronan. We have a task for you,” the woman with her hood down said.

“But I have so many questions–”

“There’s no time for questions. We need you to–” she handed him a picture of a man with red X drawn over it.

Ronan took a closer look at the photo and realized it was his science teacher. “What do you want me to do, kill him?”

“Yes, will that be a problem?”

“No, but why do I need to kill him?”

“He discovered our temple and has come back a few times. He hasn’t entered the temple and we don’t want him telling anyone about it.”

“Okay, I’ll do it,” Ronan said with nervousness in his tone.

“You have until next week to complete this task.” She handed him a gun.

Ronan shoved the gun into his backpack and left the temple. He rushed back home in the dark. I’ve never killed anyone. What am I gonna do? What if I go to jail for this? How am I gonna kill my science teacher? And if I don’t kill him, they might kill me.

He found out where his teacher lived. He lived alone, so this would be easy.

In the middle of the night, he got dressed and slid down the tree outside his window. I have to do this. He walked to his teacher’s house and found the front door already unlocked. He walked in and heard a creaking sound. The creaking got louder as he walked upstairs. He pushed the bedroom door open and found his teacher’s corpse hanging from the ceiling fan. A note lay on the floor and he picked it up. He thought it was a suicide note, but it read:

Dear Ronan,

You took too long to kill your beloved teacher, so we killed him for you. We made it look like a suicide and that’s how it’s going to stay.

Now we have a bigger task for you to prove your loyalty. We want to infiltrate our rival society and poison them. That will be your last big task, for now.

-The Hiddens.

Ronan gulped. Now I have to kill a bunch of people instead of one. Wouldn’t thank make me a mass-murderer or something? I have to get out of this, but how? What if I tell the police? They won’t believe me. I better figure something out and fast.

He put on a blond wig and infiltrated the rival society. He joined as a member of the cult. He met them in a house downtown.

While everyone was mingling and talking to “The Father”, Ronan slipped the poison into the punch bowl, but he noticed the liquid had floating chunks in it. He still poured the poison into the bowl.

“My children, please join me in this ceremonial drink of your savior,” The Father said as he held his glass in the air. He scooped his glass into the punch. “This sip will bring all of you to nirvana.”

They all took a sip, passed out, and died from the poisons.

As everyone passed out, Ronan poured his drink into a potted plant. It wilted and died. He ran out of the house, but The Father grabbed him by the hood of his white robe.

“You didn’t–want to reach nirvana? Drink up,” The Father said as he tried to pour the juice into Ronan’s mouth.

Ronan slapped the glass out of The Father’s hand and Ronan’s wig fell off.

“So, you’re an informant. I knew they were sending someone. Tell your boss, ‘The deed is done’.”

“Alright, I will?” Ronan replied in confusion.

Ronan left the house and returned to the temple to tell the members that he finished the task.

“The deed is done,” Ronan said to the unhooded woman as she stepped forward.

“Wonderful. Now, we need you to do another task for us.”

“I–don’t think I can do this anymore.”

“What? You must or we will–” She covered her mouth with her hand.

“What? What are you going to do, kill me? Do it. It’s better than killing or almost killing other people.”

“What do you mean almost killing? We killed the teacher. We know the cult members died. What else are you not telling us?”

“Nothing.”

“Out with it.” She whipped out a gun from under her robe and pointed it at Ronan.

“Alright, I poured the poison into the punch bowl, but I think there was already poison in it. It might have been a part of a ritual.”

“You don’t think we knew that?”

Ronan shook his head in disbelief. “Then why did you ask me to poison them?”

“We weren’t sure ‘The Father’ would go through with the poisoning. You see, those people were all conspirators trying to take down our society, so we gathered them in one room and killed them. We told them to call this man ‘The Father’ and play along or we’d tell the police about their crimes.”

“This sounds nonsensical, why would you go through all this trouble to kill a few people?”

“Because we can, we’re a secret society after all.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“Hey, don’t speak out of turn.”

Another hooded member walked up to the woman and whispered in her ear.

The un-hooded woman whipped out a mind-wiping device and pressed a button on it to activate it. Ronan passed out and two members carried him outside. They threw him out. The temple disappeared.

He bumped his head and regained consciousness. He held the back of his head. “What happened? Did I fall while I was on a hike? Since when do I hike?”

He walked back home.