The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!
The Hour of Death
by A.F. Stewart
Between the Tarot
and the hourglass
the shifting shadows dance
in the everlastingly music
of the reaper’s final blade
The cards on velvet never lie
Oh, they divulge your sordid tale
Of the blood and the misery,
of your secrets unrevealed,
and corruption in your soul
I hear the pale screams
in the echo of the sand
Across the telling cards
the ghosts convey their pleas
Yet, you smile at their pain
Whispers from the Tarot,
see, written on the cards
The hourglass has run its course
and your time, it has come
Your fate is in the shadows
The reaper waits for you
I smile at your leaving,
and watch the shadows move
Between the Tarot
and the hourglass
Death will take its due
Fiction © Copyright A.F. Stewart
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com
More from A.F. Stewart:
Abandoned: 13 Tales of Impulse, Betrayal, Surrender, & Withdrawal
To act with abandon, in any sense of the word, is human. Whether it’s the sudden, strong urge to do something, either good or bad, or the act of betraying someone you love, we make choices that forever change our lives. Do you give into something or someone completely, or withdraw wholly into yourself? These thirteen stories run the gamut of emotions and express horror as you’ve never imagined it.
The story of a woman alone at the end of the world and the small lifeline she hopes will prove humanity still exists challenges the search for anything left behind after the death of a child. What if you hid a secret you’d thought no one else knew? Would its revelation spark the monster hiding within? A downward spiral into madness juxtaposes the ultimate, but impossible, (re)birth. Would you choose the frigid winds of winter over the warmth and safety of your lover’s arms?
Abandon hope, all who enter here…
