The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

The Grillitch
by Rie Sheridan Rose

“And when it’s dark and rainy, like tonight,” Connor murmured, in a sepulchral voice, “the Grillitch roams the countryside looking for souls to eat.”

Peter glanced around the tent, brown eyes wide, wringing his hands. “What does it look like?” he whispered, his voice a mere breath of sound, nearly inaudible under the susurration of the rain.

Connor rolled his eyes. “Baby! It won’t come in here. Not with the lantern going. He likes the dark.”

“But what does he look like?”

“That’s what makes him so wicked,” Connor said with a smirk. “No one alive has seen him. No one can describe him. He moves through the shadows, striking like lightning!” He lunged forward.

Peter screeched, falling off his camp-stool and crawling away from the other boy like a crab.

Connor laughed until tears rolled down his cheeks. “Oh, my god! I think you wet yourself,” he hooted, pointing.

Peter’s head came up. A curious light gleamed deep in his eyes—eyes that were now a bilious green, with pupils like a cat’s. His face began to shift—planes moving forward, slipping back.

Connor stopped laughing. His brow furrowed as a puzzled frown bloomed. “What the—?”

Peter rose to his feet, towering over the older boy. “You should be grateful,” he said, as thick blue fur sprouted on his face and hands. “You get to see the Grillitch for yourself.” Quick as a firefly’s blink he grabbed Connor by the throat. “Too bad you won’t be able to tell anyone what he looks like.”

Fiction © Copyright Rie Sheridan Rose
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from Author Rie Sheridan Rose:

Skellyman

“I have always preferred the supernatural in tales of horror, the knot between life and death. Rie Sheridan Rose’s Skellyman is cool and creepy. Her first horror novel is a chilling read.” — Charlee Jacob – Stoker winner, Best novel, “Dread in the Beast”

Brenda Barnett is trying to cope with raising her four-year-old daughter all alone after an accident tore her family in half. As she and Daisy go for a much-needed treat, the little girl spots a Skellyman on the corner.

This pivotal encounter leads to a wave of mounting terror as Brenda’s life begins to come undone around her. Who is the Skellyman? Why does he keep appearing? Can the sympathetic policeman Brenda turns to stop the madness before it is too late?

And why does Daisy insist that her dead brother is trying to tell them something important?

Available on Amazon!