The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Forest of Sticks
by Nina D’Arcangela

In a forest of sticks, three wait while the fourth summons. Eleven cycles have passed since the calling was last performed. The youngest breaks the silence; patience not yet a virtue she can claim. Eager to know what will come, she inquires. The eldest cautions a quiet tongue while the chant continues. As the moon crests to its zenith, the mantra ends and an eerie stillness falls. Even the young one stands in awe of the thrumming current that churns the air. The caller turns, beckons the last of the three to stand with her sisters. As the Kaiju rises, the winds cease. The girls tilt their heads upward in reverent worship. A snort stirs their hair, whirls their skirts; stings their nostrils. A tinge of fear sets in, the youngest is not the only child to begin squirming. The feline halts their retreat with a slash of her glittering eyes before leaping to the ground below. Perched upon the brittle limb, the children unknowingly offer the blood of the innocent to ensure survival of the village. The Rule of Three now satisfied, the cat begins to sup then preen as it erases all evidence of the offal left behind.

Fiction © Copyright Nina D’Arcangela
Image courtesy of Christina Sng

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!