The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

The Other Shoe Drops 
by Elaine Pascale 

Water water, everywhere/Nor any drop to drink, Colt thought as he peered through the postage-stamp sized window of his prison. He was to serve twenty years, alone on a vessel with only a rope tethering him to shore. A basket was hung daily on the rope, containing his food and water. That was his sole contact with the outside world, the only moment of his day when he felt connected to humanity.

Twenty years was broken into quarters. Not for Colt’s sake, but to make it more fun for his jailors. The first five years he was stationed in the blistering sun of the tropics. The panels of his boat would smolder and the acrid air would scorch his nostrils. He could not rest his feet on the floor or his hands on the walls; heat blisters would develop immediately. He sat on his metal bed, the bedsprings removed so he would not fancy the fabrication of a possible weapon to end his life. That, again, was not for his sake, but for the amusement of his punishers. As Colt sat, he would pray for sunset and some relief from the heat.

The next five years were spent on the frozen sea. Great ice floes would smash against the bow and hull. Colt was grateful when the boat bucked wildly on contact as the movement prevented its planks from being speared. If the wood was pierced, he knew he would be next. Colt had no blanket; only his clothing provided a barrier between him and the icy air. He sat on his metal bed and daydreamed of his first five years for warmth.

Years ten through fifteen were spent on a swamp with an incessant diabolical smell. The water was thick with algae plumes and his punishers had rotting carcasses placed directly beside his vessel. The rank odor entertained his punishers, but the bugs pleased them even more. The covering was removed from his small window to allow the blood suckers access to his flesh. There were few spaces on his skin that were free of swollen bites. Colt sat on his metal bed and wished for a few ice floes and arctic air to put the bugs into a deep freeze.

Colt served his final five years on a deep lake. Colt knew it was deep as nothing bumped the boat’s keel.   The environment was tranquil. It was tepid. He kept waiting, waiting, waiting for the brutal punishment to arrive. Certainly they weren’t taking it easy on him? At no time in the prior twenty years had a thought been spared for his comfort or sanity. He was months away from release when the punishers decided on the final act for their enjoyment. Colt sat on his metal bed praying, dreaming, and wishing for nothing. He could not focus for the sound of the ravenous, gnawing termites. They were making short work of the wood that protected him from the deep water, from the dark, deep water that would absorb him before his sentence was complete.

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Fiction © Copyright Elaine Pascale
Image courtesy of Pixaby.com

More from Elaine Pascale:

The Kitchen Witches

The women of Cape Cod have a story that is dying to be told. If only they could live long enough to tell it.

When Fiona Walker is contracted to write about a party attended by her social circle, her friends begin dying. She captures the competition and misery of the women around her through three different stories.

In Wishes, Melanie Voss discovers a Time Between Time where nothing that happens counts. Initially, Time Between Time is a welcome escape from a life spent watching the clock while doing chores for her family. But something sinister is in the Time Between Time and it is headed straight for Melanie.

Death and Taxes tells the story of Nashville DeCota, the Cape Capo. Nash swears that she is not the Island Impaler, nor the Tooth Snatcher, but she has just as many skeletons in her closet. When her husband, Derrick, is kidnapped, she has to come clean about her crimes if she ever wants to see him again.

Fiona tells her own story in Hazing, where she finds that the real source of evil behind the deaths of her friends is worse than she could have ever imagined.

Available on Amazon!