The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Coastal Lights
by A.F. Stewart

Warm Mediterranean breezes stirred the waves against the coastline while the village lights flickered colours over stuccoed houses. A blue sky melded into the azure sea, welcoming the velvet touch of twilight. Popular cafes smelled of espresso and pasta as tourists enjoyed a meal, while smaller eateries embraced the newest gossip and the quiet laughter of lovers. A symbiosis of tradition and modern sensibility, a paradise set in rock.

Yet what paradise is without shadows?

For here, among the merriment and the merchants, the night unfurls whispers caught between worlds, a world drifting beyond simple tourists and friendly locals. A world of unremembered ghosts.

What would the people say if they knew? Would they scream, stare, shout as the phantoms swirled around them, eternally caught in a singular moment of existence?

What would they think of ancient Nanas clucking at their grandchildren, young swains smiling at blushing young women, married couples walking hand in hand? Would the living understand that the tick, ticking of the clock held no sway in that ethereal world? That time marched forward leaving the spirits in limbo. They were but wraiths lost in death, forgotten past the shrouds, and the doctors, and the scourge of plague.

Would they pity those echoes of life spinning among the coloured lights and the gentle waves?

The shadow on their paradise?

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Fiction © Copyright A.F. Stewart
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from A.F. Stewart:

Visions and Nightmares

Tragedy spares no one… and takes no prisoners.
In the twilight shadows, secrets are revealed past the whispers of madness.

Wander into the realm of the old gods with Elenora, where humanity and marriage are a prison.
Step through a looking glass of dark horrors with an Alice you never knew.
Join with Zenna to seek the truth as her death by magic grows closer.
Journey with Olivia as she crosses paths with a monster of the forest and runs for her life.
Watch Isobel summon the faerie to solve her problem of an unwanted husband.
Shiver as Doctor Killbride experiments with corpses to create life from death.
All that and more await within the pages.

Ten stories. Ten women.
Who will survive? Who will fall? And who will succumb to their inner evil?
Find out in Visions and Nightmares.

Warning: This book contains disturbing scenes that may be upsetting to some readers.

Available on Amazon!