Keeping Secrets

by Adam J. Whitlatch

She's staring at me across the table with those guilty eyes, and I can already tell my evening is ruined; suddenly this pizza sitting between us doesn't seem quite so appetizing anymore. After a couple false starts she finally manages to find her voice (although shaky and nervous) and after I reassure her that she can tell me anything says, "I love you... and I don't think there should be any secrets between us, so I have a confession to make." My throat tightens when she says, "I kissed another guy at a party last week, but it was nothing... I swear!" I lean back in my chair and sigh, this simple action is probably what saves my life, because I can just barely see the Horde troopers an instant before they crash through the pizzeria's plate glass window and open fire, laser bolts turning the quaint little establishment into a war zone, complete with mozzarella rain and cheese shaker grenades. I quickly overturn our table and drag her behind it with me and she screams as a red blast of laser fire takes out a chunk of the table's edge next to her head. I reach behind my back and draw the laser pistol concealed underneath my jacket and – meeting her panicked and trembling gaze – say, "Honey, there's something I've been meaning to tell you, too."

6S

Adam J. Whitlatch is the author of numerous horror and science fiction short stories. He lives with his wife and two sons in southern Iowa where he continues to work on his second novel "E.R.A. – Earth Realm Army." (He hates when war breaks out during dinner, but his wife is slowly getting used to it.) His work has also appeared in New Voices in Horror Magazine. (Adam's full 6S catalog can be found here.)