The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Blackouts of Venice
by K. Soriano

The lone gondolier smiles at passing gondolas filled with patrons. A chill fills the air—the kind of chill that runs down one’s spine and whispers turn back. He ignores the feeling, continuing to glide across the water. 

He must have been in a daze as it appears night has fallen. The sun was setting from what he recalls of his last memory. 

The water relaxes me far too much, he thought. 

Still rowing, he misses his stop. Solitude soothes the gondolier as he traverses the waterways again. 

Such a beautiful evening.  

He reaches the nighttime hotspots of Venice only to feel that chill run down his spine once again. 

Slowing his gondola, he takes in the sight in front of him: red. Red everywhere. 

Blood. Bodies artfully woven one on top of the other.

He looks for someone—anyone—for help. He frantically scans the area. Gondolas float nearby, but no one was in them. 

How odd…

Cautiously rowing closer to the one nearest, he notices more blood. 

What is going on? 

Drifting further down the canal, he finds more of the same. Blood. Bodies. Death.

How can this be? How am I still alive?

He stops the gondola and sits down with his head in his hands. Feeling a warm, tacky liquid drip from his fingertips, he panics, dropping the oar. The lone gondolier stares at the blood staining his flesh. Feeling his heart pounding through his ears, his breath quickens.

Just when I was starting to really like it here, I’ve done it again…

Fiction © Copyright K. Soriano
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from author K. Soriano:

Surviving Love, Life & Her

Surviving life on your own is challenging enough. Include love and heartbreak, and it becomes agony. When you think life couldn’t be any crueler, life threw her back into his life; Unless, she never really left to begin with…

 Available on Amazon!