Flash Fiction: Population Control

February 1, 2018, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story that features something black and white. It could be a nun in a zebra monster truck, a rigid way of thinking, a bird in a tuxedo — be imaginative and go where the prompt leads.

Population Control

I knew the time had come when I began to see the black crows landing in the snow outside of my house. No one knows how they know but they always do. Death was coming for one of us.

People turn on each other and the mystery of who will die is solved very quickly. Then the body would be wrapped in a white cloth while the rest of the family adorns the traditional black garb.

I decided to close the curtains before anyone else saw crows, letting what was inevitable happen naturally. But death never came for us. (99 words)