Madeline Usher’s Last Breaths

S. E. Wigget
11 min readOct 27, 2024

Now for a short story inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher.”

This image is for Spooky Season, not the short story. Here’s my cat Gabriel Gallop posing with little pumpkins.

Madeline Usher’S Last Breaths

I awake gasping for breath and overwhelmed by the putrid stench of mold and mildew and earth. Utter darkness engulfs me. Continuing to gasp, I reach out… and touch a wooden surface inches above my face. I reach out to my sides and touch the same cold, dry wood. My heart flutters in panic. I attempt to shriek, but my throat’s dryness allows no more than a hoarse croak.

Where might I be? What has happened to me? I lift my hands again and use my palms to slap the wooden surface. Surely this is no more than a nightmare. Yet it feels too corporeal to be a mere dream. The wood feels solid against my back, and the cold seeping into my skin feels too acute.

Alas, I am trapped! But how am I here? Who would have placed me in a crate? I imagine a ruffian loading me onto a ship while I slept.

The fog of my confusion upon first waking drifts away enough to reveal my truly harrowing situation. I must be trapped inside a coffin! Gasping in horror, I begin clawing at the wooden coffin lid to no avail. My heart shuddering, I form each hand into a fist and pound on the wooden slab. I must escape this ghastly tomb!

--

--

S. E. Wigget
S. E. Wigget

Written by S. E. Wigget

Outside Medium, I mostly write fiction, especially paranormal and historical fantasy, under either S. E. Wigget or Susan E. Wigget.🌈 WhimsicalWords.Substack.co

Responses (1)