The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Ground Zero
by Amanda Worthington

She sips and reflects:

Full-bodied; rich

With the subtlest notes of despair.

.

Smooth and elucidating,

The perfect brew.

.

She is one of those creatures for whom

The making and drinking of coffee

Is a religious experience.

.

She stares, transfixed

Eyes to the horizon

Where soon Earth’s sun will appear

.

Destruction from far enough away

Is experienced as light

It makes things grow

And mature

And rot as it shines.

.

Her kind takes pleasure in disrupting this cycle

And she thinks of the screams at each grinding

How the spark goes out of them then

Until they are made dust

Like the gods these walls contain.

.

The Elders mixed in the mortar

And dissolved in the paint

Whisper their lone edict –

Eradicate.

Earth is theirs to claim.

.

So long has she traveled the stars

That the very concept of terra firma is absurd

She came here because her programming dictated one thing –

Surviving.

.

Arriving took days

As her mind struggled to catch up to her body

And a cup was thrust into her hand

And she drank obediently when they demanded

.

She still drinks each morning

So they will not know

What she is planning.

.

Tires on gravel.

She hears the car door open

And the rhythmic crunching

As the boots press the rock flat

.

A tourist.

.

Tall. Dark. Strong.

Even from the porch she can smell his cologne

She imagines the aroma that will waft

As he is poured.

.

She rises to greet him.

.

“Long live Bellemort.

I trust the Elders are safe”

.

Her mouth falls open at his words

She could have sworn she had been the last

Almost an entire Earth-decade has passed

.

An adherent come to profess his faith.

.

Collecting herself, she utters her line,

The script flashing crimson in her brain:

.

“Come in then, Weary Traveler

And speak to the walls the Elder’s Law

And we shall see if you drink the Fallen

Or join them

In their thrall to Bellemort’s supremacy.”

.

The stranger nods slowly in the growing light

As secretly she thinks,

Either way I’ll burn it all tonight.

***

The day is darkening when he emerges, shaken

His eyes speaking what his voice cannot:

I drank.

.

She had almost forgotten that pain.

.

She reaches out, takes his hand

.

Unscripted.

.

“We’ll succeed where the humans failed

The Elders shall tell us soon what we must do

Drinking is the initiation

For what comes next.”

.

The stranger looks perplexed, she sees

Her lie did not land, she thinks

But he sighs and a smile

Comes slowly to his lips.

“And for this wisdom

I give thanks.”

.

He bows, turns on his dusty heel

Yawns deep.

The day’s brought awakening

Now he’s ready for sleep.

.

She understands.

***

The matches are a weight against her thigh

As his footfalls fade, she seeks her ancestors to say goodbye

.

They must chart their own path now.

Death is too steep a price for assured salvation, she decides

Even as doubt creeps in

.

But from the right perspective,

Is death not light?

.

Stop.

.

She drowns the voice in kerosene and watches as the past ignites,

Trusts in the process

.

Yearns for the moment

When it will all be dust.

.

Fiction © Copyright Amanda Worthington.
Image courtesy of Pixabay

Wicked Deeds: Witches, Warlocks, Demons and Other Evil Doer’s

Sometimes wicked people do wicked things simply because they can… The twelve stories in Wicked Deeds tell tales of witches and warlocks with ill intent, devilish demons bent on destruction, and other doers of evil who make the world a terrifying place. What is a mother to do when her daughter is gifted but lives under the thumb of her fanatical preacher husband who will brook no talk of the supernatural? What of a demon so desperate to free himself of a trap that he will force another to repeat his atrocities and condemn a young boy to his demonic fate? Or maybe the story of a crotchety old witch with a score to settle against the town she lives in is more to your liking – what evil will the seemingly harmless town-crazy call upon when faced with an ultimatum? If you’re looking for wicked people with supernatural abilities doing wicked things, this is the collection for you!

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