Seedless
- Matthew Walker
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
A free-to-read flash fiction from the Retinue of House Walker. Originally written and published online around 2016 with the title, Seedless. Trigger warning, this story could be described as a creepypasta. That means that it could contain all of the things that makeup a scary story.
That is why it now has a home in our archives along with other recovered and salvaged works from the era written by Matthew C. Walker under the pen name Clarence W. Matthews.
Seedless, is a short fiction story about the domestic horror and consequences of even just a momentary lapse in supervision.
This story is free to read. If you enjoy it, the best way to support the Retinue is to subscribe to our channel on YouTube, join the email list, or follow along on TikTok and Bluesky.
About the Work Seedless
Title: Seedless
Work Type: Flash
Length: Approximately 500 words
Status: Free to read
Releases:
Website- Free to read! (.pdf editions are available for stories that break the 5,000-7,500 word mark)
Content Note: contains mature themes and child harm.
Read Seedless
Move the cleaning supplies somewhere high enough that curious hands cannot reach them. Put gates at the top and bottom of the stairs. Anchor the furniture to the wall. Keep plastic bags up high. Check the batteries in the smoke detectors.
Cut their food, especially hot dogs, everyone knows about hot dogs. Never give a toddler a whole one. Never even slice it into little round coins. A piece of hot dog is almost perfectly shaped to block a child’s airway. Nature’s ambush predators, always lurking for their next victim.
Cut it lengthwise first, then cut it again. Quarter it into those weird little triangle shapes. Make the pieces small enough that if a child forgets to chew, laughs while eating, or just swallows wrong, the food cannot completely block the throat.
You learn these things. You learn to inspect toys for pieces small enough to swallow. You learn that children can reach farther than you think. You learn that silence is suspicious. You learn to put dangerous things where they cannot get them.
But eventually one child becomes old enough to open doors. Not old enough to understand why some doors should stay closed, just old enough to reach the handle. Four years old is plenty old enough to open a refrigerator. Then, once the refrigerator is open, the bottom shelf is not very high at all. Neither is the produce drawer, or the open bag of grapes.
Green. Seedless. The older child liked them. So did his little brother. They too would get halved and quartered before they were served, just like those hotdogs.
He was two, maybe the four-year-old was sharing. We had been working on that skill lately. Maybe he took one for himself and his brother reached into the bag. Maybe he even just dropped a few and the toddler picked one up from the floor.
It doesn’t really matter. Grapes are soft, they are fruit, they're healthy. They are also almost perfectly shaped to block a small child’s airway. Some are nearly twice as wide as the opening they need to obstruct.
Choking does not always sound the way people imagine it does. There may be no coughing, no cries for help. No noise at all. Screaming requires air.
The refrigerator door was still open when they noticed. Cold air spilling into the kitchen along with a few of those green seedless grapes scattered across the floor.
The bag had fallen beside the refrigerator. The four-year-old was elsewhere in the house. His little brother was on the floor. By then, all of the cabinet locks still worked. The outlets were still covered and the furniture was still anchored.
Months later there would be paperwork explaining exactly what had happened. An obstruction of the airway. Accidental choking. A single grape recovered during examination.
Green.
Whole.
Seedless.
A seedless cause of death.
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