Write an opening line for a story that includes this delightfully creepy image–contributed by author Kate Flora.
Jessie: Clara glared into the pond. When she had thrown Harvey’s weighted-down body in a week earlier she felt sure she’d never have to think of her brother’s favorite phrase ever again. But Harvey had had the last laugh. You really couldn’t keep a good man down.
Julie: “You’ll have to pry it out of my cold, dead hand,” she said. She lied. Even then she wouldn’t let go. Story of our life, and reason for her death.
Edith: Marge, having just graduated from what she privately called Detective School, thought, So that’s what a drowning victim’s hand looks like. But why is it still clinging to the rope? And where did its fingertips go?
Sherry: No one loved a good Halloween prank better than Bert but Midge guessed he wasn’t laughing now.
Barb: “It’s just an old glove,” Carol thought, rowing closer. “Protection for a fisherman’s hands is all.” Then she dipped the oar into the water to free it and…
How about you, readers? Give us your opening lines.
The Wickeds 
This might not be the best place to swim, children.
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? 😉
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Slowly it emerged from the mist, groping for the rope it knew was there.
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Eerie! It fits the photo perfectly!
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“It wasn’t until I reached to grasp the rope that I realized I was so overdue for a manicure.”
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Oh, thank you for the morning laugh.
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Some people just don’t know how to let go.
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Another morning laugh!
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“It was months later when we remembered that the last thing we’d heard Gladys say was ‘I’ll catch the bride’s bouquet this time, or die trying.'”
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Ha!
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My comment exactly.
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Love it!
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I’ll never let go, Rose. I’ll never let go.
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Laughing!
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“We bury our dead alive, don’t we?”
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Ha!
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That’s the opening line of my work in progress. Seemed to fit your picture.
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“‘Try the rope swing,'” she said. “‘It’s fun,’ she said. Well, look how far that got me. “
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Good one, Shari.
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When Eliza had asked Roy to give her a hand tidying up around the old pond today, this is not what she had expected.
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Laughing!
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The pond was exactly as I remembered it, complete with the rope across it. The hand grasping the rope was new, however.
(I’d been thinking recently it was time for one of these again!)
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Fun! I can see that line going somewhere good.
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Bernie stared at the macabre scene before him. A lifeless leathery hand clung to the rope, protruding from the murky depths. Throw me a lifeline, he thought. Too late.
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Love it!
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