The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

The Books
by Linda Lee Rice

The ancient books are deceiving, lying there as if they are ordinary books. But I hear their whispering in my dreams. Rustling, pages softly rubbing against each other enticing me. But I resist.

I was told by the others that the books would lead me down the wrong path. Take me into place of darkness and heat, a place where there was just a wrongness. So far, I have resisted their siren call.

Tonight, I found myself as if in a trance slowly caressing and almost opening the cover of the ancient manuscript. The scent of dust and mildew mingled in my nostrils causing me to sneeze. I awoke and found myself before them, each title outlined in the lamp, but I refuse to look. Light from a lamp, I don’t even remember turning on, illuminating the dark room.

I fled.

But here again I find myself, reaching out, touching them. I think to myself what harm could there be in a book? Surely the others are wrong? I hear a sibilant whisper calling my name…it’s too much to resist. I’ll just read one page, then shut the door to the study again.

As I reach for the book on top, a layer of debris is disturbed. The lamp is bumped in my slow haste as I pull the dusty tome to lay in front on me. The title was written in gold lettering against the black background. Just what does Grand Grimoire mean?

I opened the first page and descended into darkness as the light faded…

Fiction © Copyright Linda Lee Rice.
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More about Linda Lee Rice:

Linda Lee Rice aka Ruzicka has poetry published in Twilight Times, Dark Krypt, Fables, Descending Darkness, Writing Village, Spine, and Page, Muses Gallery, Bloodbond, Lycan Valley Press Publishers, Alban Lake, Highland Park Poetry, Rosette Maleficarum, The Siren’s Call, Edify Fiction and the June Cotner anthology, “House Blessings” and “Garden Blessings

She has short stories published in The Grit, and Reminisce, Haunted Encounters: Friends and Family, FrostFire Worlds. Plus, a personal essay at Mamalode. She also has various articles and blogs published online as a freelance writer.