Rage of that River by Kellie Scott-Reed

from Seven Deadly Sins: A PUNK NOIR Magazine series

Putting her bra back on, she felt her nipple graze her wrist.

‘Could she keep them?’ She presses the side button on her phone. Nothing. She reaches down to the pile of her clothes folded on the blue plastic chair. Before opening the door, she peeled the corners of her mouth back to approximate an emotion other than utter terror.

Photo by Pilar Rubio on Unsplash

She returns home and waits for him in the dark. After hearing the turn of his key, she launches herself onto his back, in a desperate bear hug. He thought she was messing around and half-laughs as she wraps the blade around his Adam’s apple, like she’s peeling it. She holds him till she feels his body convulse and sputter. With her ear pressed against his back, she listens as their hearts die.

She picks up the sticky blade that lay where she’d dropped it. The handle is smooth and moist, like a river rock. She stands, straddling his body, imagining the rage of that river and the stone’s cruel and destination-less journey from one hard and brutal place to another, like the shit that wears you down until you have no sharp edges left to protect you.

This story appears as part of Seven Deadly Sins, a PUNK NOIR Magazine series, originally published July 2025.

Bio

Kellie Scott-Reed songwriter, writer, AEIC of Roi Faineant Press, and the 1st AD on the TV Series Deep End. Her work can be found in Punk Noir Magazine, Synchronized Chaos, Eratio Post Modern Poetry, Book/Chapbook Reviews in Roi Faineant Press, Moss Puppy, Bullshit Lit, Houghley Review, and short fiction in “The Place Where Everyone’s Name is Fear” an anthology from OutCast/Anxiety presses. She is a 2024 Pushcart Nominee. Her songs can be found on iTunes and Spotify, under the band Fivehead. The press can be located at roifaineantpress.com, where she conducts interviews with authors from all across the world.

---

PUNK NOIR, the online literary and arts magazine that looks at the world at its most askew, casting a bloodshot eye over the written word, film, music, television and more.

Subscribe for a regular dose of hard-boiled flash fiction, straight to your inbox.