The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Ravages of Time
by Bailey Hunter

“Amy please, shhhh” Charles held his whimpering daughter close. “You have to be very quiet, baby girl,” he whispered in her ear, pulling her tighter to his chest.

Charles had already moved his family four times in the last eighteen months, but the hunter had found him every time. She had already stolen his parents, his brother, his wife and his son. Amy was all Charles had left.

When the Time Thief first began to feed on his family, it was slow and easily chalked it up to age. Parents get older, they die. Then his brother contracted a mystery illness that within a few short months took him. It wasn’t until Charles first locked eyes with the Time Thief stealing years from his beloved Trina that the real horror was revealed. His wife aged five years in a matter of moments that night.

Charles went days without sleeping trying to keep watch over his wife, to keep her safe. In a desperation, he gathered his family into the minivan and ran. He could never run far enough. His wife never made it past the second move. The thief found them only weeks after the third move, and sucked the time out of his first born, Marcus, turning a vibrant teenage boy into a withered old man over the course of a few days.

Charles ran with Amy the night Marcus died. How could he save her from this thing that hunted them? She was relentless and Charles was powerless against the ravages of time.

Now only days after the last move, Charles was huddled in the darkest corner of the apartment bedroom, his young daughter wrapped in his arms. He listened as the Time Thief’s deliberate footsteps moved closer, even like the ticking of a clock, metering out every second he had left. Charles pulled his daughter in tight, kissing the top of her head. Taking in his final breath, he whispered, “Daddy loves you,
baby girl. I only wish we had more time.”

Fiction © Copyright Bailey Hunter
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from Bailey Hunter:
Bailey is a publisher with Dark Recesses Press.

Staking Cinderella

Gavin’s got a serious problem. A “praise Jee-sus,” rich-bitch caught him fanging—and banging—his Halloween date. Now she’s playing Holy Vampire Killer, and it’s ticking him off.

Since then, Gavin’s found someone better to occupy his mind and heart. Isolde—in bed, on the couch, in the shower. She has a thing for Disney princesses, but he’s willing to overlook it. Women like her only come around once or twice in five hundred years. He knows.

When Isolde is kidnapped to bait a deathtrap for Gavin, he’s torn between two truths…abandoning Isolde is unthinkable, but rescuing her could mean death for both of them.

DarkRecessesPress.com