The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Eight Minutes Of
by Nina D’Arcangela

Eight minutes of… the gala was in full swing. Women adorned in their finest gowns, men in their spats and tails. All twirled the dance floor with inebriated glee.

Seven minutes of… the lights dimmed, the glass baubles above took on an amber glow as heads lifted in wonder and delight.

Six minutes of… the largest crystal began to gleam, none could draw their eye from it; they froze, all motion ceased as they stood entranced.

Five minutes of… the bloom grew blinding. The skin around each reveler’s eyes began to darken and crack; to ooze brown rivulets as they gazed beyond the light. Slack of jaw, their lips began to curl exposing desiccated gums. Teeth clattered to the floor as sockets shrunk and tongues retreated to withered husks.

Four minutes of… the first horn emerged from the starburst, followed languidly by the enormous beast – it struck the marble with a resounding crack as it landed upon cloven hooves and bent claw.

Three minutes of… the aberration stalked among the paralytic ensemble. The men it had no use for – it sought only breeders.  It sniffed, it tasted; it rent the unworthy to pieces. Gold and silver damask rippled through the air as it discarded one female after another.

Two minutes of… it chose a single sheep, a prize in grand finery festooned with shimmering gems.

One minute of… the creature stepped back through the starburst having seeded its offspring. The assembly of revelers fell to the polished slab; their flesh dusted the air upon impact, what clothes remained lay poised in eternal waltz.

At the stroke of midnight… the brilliant glimmer of the seven pointed star diminished to the chandelier’s soothing glow as a single scream ushered in the new day.

Fiction © Copyright Nina D’Arcangela
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from Nina D’Arcangela:

Mental Ward: EXPERIMENTS

A dank basement, shadow filled hallways, the deep echo of a metal latch being thrown while faint screams are heard… These are the things you might experience in a place where the unspeakable happens, where conscientious action and moral turpitude turn a blind eye in the interest of advancing one’s own personal pursuits in the most deranged and unjustifiable manner. The type of place where power corrupts, and depravity runs rampant among those imbued with it. A place where the unfortunate are abandoned to the devices of those who convince themselves their actions are in the best interest of science.

Mental Ward: Experiments is a collection of ten short stories that demonstrate the worst of humanity’s ambition in the interest of ‘civilized’ advancement. Step into a world where sanity is left behind, and horror is what the doctor ordered!

Available on Amazon!