The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Brothers 
by Marge Simon 

Over the years, it has tried many times to escape, but the walls would not open. Sometimes it finds things to eat, sometimes it chews on itself. It stank, but of course it doesn’t know that, much less care.

Tonight, the moon is visible through a crack in the boards. It hears the barking of a dog, the crunching of boots on leaves. “Yo, brother! Six year’s it’s been. You still there?”  The voice is familiar. It moans and salivates, scratching the wall.

“I figure there’s been enough bad blood between us. Hell, I feel bad about all this. I’ll set you free, if you promise to forgive a few little things I did after putting you in here. Mother hated you, she believed my lies. The mine we co-owned is worthless, I sold the deed to our land years ago, and I killed that whore you fancied.”

 It gives a croak of assent. The latch is rusted, but the lock still holds. His key won’t work, so he smashes it with his torch, breaking the chain.

It snarls, wipes its mouth. With impossibly thin fingers, it grips the door, pushing it open a crack at a time …

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Fiction © Copyright Marge Simon
Image Copyright Rie Sheridan Rose 

More from Marge Simon:

Cast from Darkness
by Marge Simon and‎ Mary Turzillo

Cast from Darkness is another triumphant collaboration between award-winning Speculative poets, Marge Simon and Mary Turzillo.

The poetry includes themes running the spectrum of the speculative genres and forms ranging from the haiku through many nuances of vere libre to the prose poem.

Available on Amazon!