The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Little Red Vette  
by Alex Grehy

The thing with songs is that they always sound new, as if 

the singer believed they had invented music and words

and love and sex and lust and passion, and murder.

.

Red has always been the colour of luxury and reckless speed,

champagne the sparkling precursor to seduction, some things 

never change, a rich and powerful man, a girl’s head turned.

.

A ride to a lonely, private place – pleasant glade or seedy motel, 

the setting less important than the outcome – a foregone conclusion, 

the vile desecration, the frenzied attack, the death, the shallow grave. 

.

Blinkered carriage horses, sight narrowed, like a carnivore’s, 

the tang of blood a fear in their nostrils, witnessed, distaste 

voiced only by the restless stamping of their hooves 

.

Not unlike the horseless carriages that came later, unspeaking 

witnesses. The only concession to modern times, the velocity

of the vehicle carrying the hapless victims to their doom. 

.

Whether the rhythm is set by drumming hooves, an engine’s roar, the

soft whoosh of tyres on gravel, the song goes on, the melody 

of abduction, the evil beat, the eternal orchestra of sin.

.

Fiction © Copyright Alex Grehy
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from author Alex Grehy:

Spread: Tales of Deadly Flora

Green Thumbs Beware!

Plants are beautiful, peaceful, abundant, and life-sustaining…

But what if something sinister took root in the soil, awakening to unleash slashing thorns, squeezing vines, or haunting greenery that lured you in? Perhaps blooms on distant planets could claim your heart, hitch a ride to Earth on a meteor, or simply poison you with their essence. Imagine a world where scientists produced our own demise in a lab, set spores free to infect, even bred ferns to be our friends only to witness the privilege perverted. When faced with botanical terror, will humanity fight to survive, or will they curl and wither like leaves in the fall?

Read ten speculative tales ripe with dangerous flora to find out.

Available on Amazon!