The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Dead-light
by Alyson Faye 

She runs through the dusk-drenched corridors, a shadow amongst many, half-awake, half-asleep, knowing only that she must escape, but from whom or what? She tries to remember – images pluck at her, a child crying, a violin cracking, a man snarling abuse . . .

Run, flee, hide …

The ball gown streams behind her; her heels tap out a staccato rhythm :- help, hide, hush hush baby, don’t cry . . .

The moon is the only light. Every room she passes is empty, each door barred, the outside world glimpsed but unreachable.

‘Ma-ri- ia . . . where are you?’ A man’s voice, deep, echoing.

Maria? Is that my name?

Her hands touch the silk of her dress, feeling a tacky substance, and she knows in that moment – blood. She wipes her fingers on the floors, on the doors, smearing wild stripes, in a viscous tarry ink.

‘Maria, I am coming . . .’

Somewhere ahead of her a violin wheezes into life, out of tune, screeching. A child cries out. ‘Momma!’

Her chest constricts, her head aches and fear owns her. The corridor twists to the right, a door creaks open, grey dead-light seeps out – a man’s shadow filling the doorway.

‘Maria, you have to finish your recital.’

‘Momma, where are you?’ The boy’s voice cracks, just as the violin reaches its nerve grating crescendo.

And Maria stops running.

She pushes open the door, feels the brass handle slip beneath bloodied fingers and inside she sees – Lukas – my son.

The boy cowers behind the hunchbacked sofa, the man looming above him.

Don’t hurt him! Maria cries out, but hears only a whisper.

The violin smashes into the table, glass shards strew the carpet, the pictures hang at crazy angles, the darkness of the night is here in this room, with the three of them – hungry, avid.

‘You will never leave me, Maria.’

And she knows what she must do.

Run Lukas, run.

Her son lurches to his feet, dashing for the door, collides with her but breaks free  . . . Maria picks up the silver letter opener, and runs towards . . .  Matthias. How had she forgotten the name of her late husband? She lunges at his chest, aiming for the heart though she knows there is nothing inside him but emptiness.

Matthias, swaying above her, florid with drink, fuelled by fury, but still flesh, and bone. The blade slips in, slim and brutal, slicing into his heart.

Maria keeps stabbing, at his neck, face, torso. Blood spurts from arteries, onto her silk gown, her expensive designer dress. Her hands slick with it.

‘Momma?’ Lukas stares at her from the doorway, ‘is that you?’

Maria does not know how to answer. Her son turns from her and flees.

No, wait, it’s your momma. I love you.

She runs after him, down corridors lit by a waning moon, in a blood-soaked ball gown, heels tapping – help, hide, run, hush hush baby boy . . . but Lukas eludes her, she cannot catch him, she cannot hold him tight, she cannot breathe . . . she can only run . . .

half-awake, half-asleep

one more shadow amongst many –

Fiction © Copyright Alyson Faye
Image courtesy of Pexels.com

More from Alyson Faye:

The Lost Girl & Spindleshanks

The Lost Girl
A nailed-up door. An inheritance which comes with a ghost. A missing girl. A fifty-year-old mystery. Parapsychologist Berkley Osgood is hired to investigate. What he uncovers reveals secrets the living want to hide and the dead will never forgive.

Spindleshanks
Adam is having nightmares about a skeletal shadow figure, who he calls Spindleshanks. Soon his whole class are sharing the same nightmare. Adam’s dad, Rob, knows that Spindleshanks can’t be real. But is he? One terrible night Rob has to face his son’s nightmare creature and fight for his son’s life. What would you sacrifice to have your child back safe?

“A decent two-for-one. Alyson Faye brings the engaging and eerie in equal measure.” CC Adams – horror / dark fiction author

Available on Amazon!