The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

The Scorge
by A.F. Stewart

We fled the city of bones in an attempt to survive. Blindly running through the desert to escape. I fear it won’t be enough. Already some of us have fallen behind, caught by the scourge.

My daughter was one.

I saw her screaming, captured body when I glanced behind us. Her flesh shredded, feeding one of the newborns. The thing grew a human-like form from its roots, the likeness of my daughter’s face sprouting from its bark. Soon there will nothing left of my child. Only the mockery they keep, the images they steal from us.

I cannot mourn, I cannot stop running. The newborn’s roots will soon be strong and will race through the soil snatching at our numbers while we flee. The rest of the scourge will follow. Snatching us one by one, stripping off our flesh to increase and feed their numbers. Soon our bones will bleach in the sun as we become part of the scourge.

Fiction © Copyright A.F. Stewart
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from A.F. Stewart:

Ghosts of the Sea Moon 
(Saga of the Outer Islands Book 1)

In the Outer Islands, gods and magic rule the ocean.

Under the command of Captain Rafe Morrow, the crew of the Celestial Jewel ferry souls to the After World and defend the seas from monsters. Rafe has dedicated his life to protecting the lost, but the tides have shifted and times have changed.
His sister, the Goddess of the Moon, is on a rampage and her creatures are terrorizing the islands. The survival of the living and dead hinge on the courage and cunning of a beleaguered captain and his motley crew of men and ghosts.
What he doesn’t know is that her threat is part of a larger game. That an ancient, black-winged malevolence is using them all as pawns…

Come set sail with ghosts, gods and sea monsters.

Available on Amazon!