The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!
Syncope in a Fugue State
by Ashley Davis
My name is Elizabeth. My face is the wrong shape now and I don’t know why. I recognize recognition, but I don’t see the truth in it.
The shadow birds follow me, but not my eyes. Sometimes they’re two and sometimes they’re one, but I know they’re really the same thing. Always changing form. But we’re safe inside the house. I don’t know how I know that.
They want me to go to the water. I can fly with them under the water. I won’t. I don’t know if I’m dreaming. The sand is made of silicates and the birds aren’t really birds. The sky is dark and the waves are too loud, but I don’t know where it is. My feet are the only things that feel real. I know I’m at home but reality feels like a ghost now.
Fiction © Copyright Ashley Davis
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com
Poetry by Ashley Davis can be found featured in the fall 2017 issue of
The Horror Zine
Spreading the Writer's Word 
I like the intense emotion here… nice post!
Very creepy, loved it.
Thanks for the replies! At least two more in this series are coming soon. They’re written from a dissociative state I go into after neurocardiogenic syncope episodes from my nerve disorder. It’s not dangerous and it’s not dissociative personality disorder, just a little trick of the hippocampus allowing me to be two people at once. Fun neurological phenomenon!
That’s so cool! And reading your comment makes it all the more interesting!!
Gorgeously lyrical!!