The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!
Yellow Sky
by Rie Sheridan Rose
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Bwacaw asked Crree.
“Yes. I’ve never seen the sky that color.”
“I have, but not for many years. I was as young as you, fledgling, last time I saw it. Then, we simply fled—able to get out of the area to blue sky and clear air.”
“Can’t we do that this time?”
“Look around us…we sit on these marble pedestals that once flanked a lovely curves stairway…to a house that no longer exists. So much no longer exists. Why do we sit on marble? Because only the Great Tree survives, and no one sits there. No, sweet youth, today we sing our last. Do you feel the heat approaching?”
“Yes, ancient one.”
“Then look to the moon and sing…until the fire’s false dawn washes over us. Our song is all that is left.”
Fiction © Copyright Rie Sheridan Rose
Image courtesy of Christina Sng
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?
Spreading the Writer's Word 
I love this story as much for what is unsaid as what it said – it has a real sense of longing for what has been lost – such a melancholy tale.
Very poignant and excellent.
Good one! Highly successful, Rie.