A Misplaced Justice

Schlink...

This short story was written for the Writing Battle Fear Pro challenge of 2025.

Rules: Create a 1000 word story in the genre, using the character and the object.

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Trading the blade for the noose made for an easier duty, even if the act itself would haunt a man. Finn relished his early morning breakfast, gazing off into the hazy pre-dawn with the taste of salty pork sausage on his mouth. The job didn’t readily haunt this man.

He touched fingertips against the curled scar tissue that was once his left ear before lowering his hood. It was bad luck otherwise, so he repeated the movement twice for good measure.

Aisling Byrne was his charge—bright blue eyes, wavy hair the color of spring carrot, and a damn shame. The law claimed she strangled her ill mother after being driven into poverty at the Byrne patriarch’s death. Some said desperation made her do it. Others, a lover asked her to. Rumor was, she didn’t do it at all. For Finn? He wasn’t sure either way; needing the payout, but wanting forgiveness for his role that day.