[This week's Fiction Friday was my submission for Scene Stealers #25. Scene Stealers is a fun writing prompt exercise from Write to Done. They provide the first two sentences to be used as written, a specific writing exercise, and it can't be longer than 350 words. Click the link above if you want to give it a try. In the meantime...enjoy!]

Lightning flashed just as he reached the house. Had he been discovered?

Counting on the element of surprise, Charles scrutinized the front of the house. Blinds drawn and curtains unmoving, he was satisfied that the plan was still a go.

He crept up the stairs of the wooden porch and paused to listen at the front door. The sound of distant thunder served as cover while he worked the lock. Easing through the threshold, he was momentarily mesmerized by the long shadows stretching and dancing around the entry from the flickering candles.

The rest of the first floor was blanketed in darkness from the power outage and he could hear her soft tones wafting toward him from upstairs. Hands behind his back, he tiptoed his way to the second floor. Her soft s’s and muffled notes forming solid words as he drew closer. Standing outside the door he heard her reading a story to the children.

They have no idea what’s coming, he thought.

He pushed the door open and his ears filled with satisfying screams and his eyes relished in their startled expressions.

“Don’t move,” he said. “Stay right where you are.”

They did as they were told and it was easy to see their hearts beating wildly in their chests. It took everything in him to suppress the smile fighting its way to the surface.

He pulled his hand from behind his back for the big reveal and they screamed. Just like he knew they would.

“Puppy!” the twins squealed in unison.

His wife, on the other hand, seemed less than thrilled.

Perhaps he should’ve limited the element of surprise to the kids.

[Scene Stealers #25 exercise = Plot Twist]