The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Blood Ties
by E.A. Black

15-year-old Jennifer looked out her second story window and saw lights moving slowly along the other side of the swamp. She wondered why cars traveled this late at night.

Then she remembered there were no roads around the swamp.

The lights moved across the murky water until they approached the front porch. Terrified yet riveted to her spot, she watched as the lights stopped at the porch and then traveled up the side of the house. She knew what was coming and she couldn’t stop it. A sickly green glow crept up the wood siding until it reached the wrought iron fence around heer window. Despite her fear, she was unable to move away. She could only stare, quaking in fear at what was coming.

The ghost of her little brother hovered outside the window only a foot or two away from her. His hair floated about his head, caught in the water he drowned in. Bubbles formed near his nose next to the blood against his nostrils. Dried blood caked at the corners of his mouth. He lifted his head and stared at her with a malevolent expression. Worms slithered out of his cavernous eye sockets. He opened his mouth and mud flowed forth rather than a child’s voice.

He raised one arm and pointed a wizened finger at her. She cried out, helpless in her terror. It had been her job to keep an eye on him but she was a big girl and wanted her freedom. She didn’t want to be saddled with a bratty brother while she and her friends explored the woodlands around the swamp. He had followed her that day and vanished, never to be seen again.

Until now.

He picked at the window frame, trying with difficulty to get in. She laughed, triumphant. He couldn’t get to her.

Then she remembered.

She had forgotten to latch the window.

Fiction © Copyright E. A. Black
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com 

More from E.A. Black:

Roughing It

When a strange outbreak occurs at a lakeside campground, Jake Walker and Lance Cameron investigate. Not only are they biologists, they’re lovers who share a passion for science.

The outbreak has locals terrified. Nine campers become sick; four die, and one victim reports an increase in her sex drive so serious, she attacks her best friend’s husband. Is this lustiness caused by the disease? What’s behind the odd rainstorm that falls over a small geographic area and the strange red dust around the cabins? Is this outbreak a new disease or something much more dire?

Together Jake and Lance must find the cause before others are infected … and before they come down with the plague themselves.

Available on Amazon!