Not Over
Flash Fiction Friday
Prompts for 3 April 2026 from Scoot
Write about a pilgrimage
coin moon
“is it over?”
A character that no one else can see
He was despised and forsaken of men,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
and like one from whom men hide their face
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him
(Isaiah 53:3 NASB 1995).
“Is it over?” Thomas looked up with eyes red from weeping at the shadowed figures in the doorway. It was dark out, blacker than night without stars, and Thomas didn’t recognize the men standing just feet away from him.
“I don’t know,” stammered Andrew. “I…I couldn’t watch. The whole thing was awful. So much blood. So many angry people. We all thought they would come for us, too.”
James looked at his feet. “I think John stayed. He was with Mary the last time I saw Him. She was so brave. I feel so ashamed.”
Thomas stood to comfort his friend. “None of us were there. We all abandoned him when He needed us the most.”
Another figure stepped into the house. He was followed by others. Some sobbed openly. Others seemed stunned into shock at the events of the night before and into the morning. No one noticed when the sun emerged from the darkness outside; they were too consumed with sorrow and guilt for failing to stay with their Rabbi during His suffering.
Hours passed. Each man struggled to accept the events of the day, trying to make sense of how everything had gone so wrong. The Rabbi had raised the dead—how could He be dead Himself? How could His body be subject to the same process of returning to the earth as every other man? Why didn’t He fight back or call down fire from heaven when Pilate ordered His execution? How was it possible that the Pharisees rejoiced at the death of a fellow Jew? No one had answers.
Finally, Bartholomew stood up.
“Brothers,” he said, “we should go find Mary and the other women. I am certain the Master would not desire that we leave them vulnerable to the whims of the evil that has befallen this place today.”
There were nine of them in that house. John, they surmised, was still with Mary. Judas—no one wanted to think of him or where he might be.
James looked around at the group. “Where is Peter?”
Peter had been their de facto leader when the Rabbi was not present, but he was not among them. His desire for justice burned so fiercely that he himself sometimes got burned. But he was faithful. He was the first among them to understand that their Rabbi was the promised Messiah of Israel. The arrest, trial, and humiliation of the Rabbi had to crush Peter’s spirit. Where could he be now?
Philip shrugged sadly. “He will return when he is ready. I heard he may have been near the courtyard of Caiaphas before dawn this morning. Evidently he was recognized by a servant girl of the high priest, but no one saw him after sunrise.”
The men were quiet as they made their way to where Mary and the women were staying for the Sabbath. The night was clear, and the moon hung like a Roman coin in a sky full of stars, but the men didn’t notice. In their grief, they saw nothing beyond their thoughts.
They missed Peter, who was curled under a window, hiding in his despair, waiting to be condemned by the men he had called brothers. He didn’t know where else to go.
New American Standard Bible. 1995 ed., The Lockman Foundation.
I've been looking for other Holy Week fiction (or, maybe, in your case, reimaginings), so thank you for this! Here was my attempt, which centers on the bad guys: https://the17pointscale.substack.com/p/the-best-of-friends