Time for another Friday Fictioneers entry! The challenge is to write a 100-word story in response to a weekly photo prompt chosen by our host Rochelle Wisoff-Fields. Follow the link to her blog for more information. Thank you to all who take the time to read, like, or comment.

PHOTO PROMPT © Liz Young

Bad influences

Mama never heard the monster, but she saw the results of its tutelage and she wasn’t impressed. She beat him; warned him to stay away from ‘bad influences’.

So he locked the monster up and threw away the key.

Now Mama was gone.

The day she got sick he heard a distant clanging; a rattling of metal bars. The volume increased incessantly until the day of the cremation.

She’s gone, a voice chuckled. But I’m still here. I can protect you.

Just let me out.

He removed the lid from the urn. Amongst the ashes lay a rusty, iron key.