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Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

By the Light of the Moon 
by Lee Mitchell  

Feels like I’ve been running in circles forever. Has time stopped, or have I lost all sense of its movement? If I didn’t know better, I’d assume that I’ve slipped into some impossible realm, one where the darkness is perpetual and the moonlight is my only beacon for navigating this cold, misty expanse. The laws of reality no longer seem to apply, but how can that be? Time and space don’t simply break, do they?

I am alone. The wind-swept tree branches rake at my arms and legs—reaching, stretching alongside the shadows, which contort and give chase as I rush by. I consider the possibility that this is just a vivid nightmare. That’s always possible. But then again, I remember every turn that led me here. Maybe I’m in a coma, and I’ve been here too long to remember my exile? But would a place that existed solely in my mind feel this real? And why would I put myself in such a torturous scenario? Does my self-hatred run so deep?

Or might I have landed myself in Hell somehow? Could the shift between life and death be so seamless? I think back through all I have ever done, searching for anything that might warrant such a hefty sentence, but nothing comes to mind.

The reason for this endless run might forever elude me, but the circumstances remain: The trees whip and tear at my body, the icy shadows close in on me at every turn, and no matter what I do or how long I follow the moonlight, I cannot escape this darkness.

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Fiction © Copyright Lee Mitchell.
Image Copyright Rie Sheridan Roae

More from Author Lee Mitchell:

The Divine Darkness

Alisha Brown led a mundane life until the day monsters started trying to kill her and random strangers began to shy away from her in awe.

All hell broke loose, quite literally, after Randy Thomas turned right on Main for Honey’s instead of making a left for home and then murdered his beloved wife in an unusually gruesome way. Escaping police and stopping traffic in New York City with a gas-spewing tentacle erupting from his mouth, his fears are confirmed: That one small backslide would serve as the final tipping point for all mankind, inviting in a timeless destructive force that would lead him to the frontlines of the war to end all wars.

A growing population has succumbed to their worst fears, some transforming into dreaded fictional monsters—leaving the streets flooded with vampires, werewolves, spontaneously combusting humans, and other horrors—while others have become angels and demons determined to fight in the holy war they believe is upon them.

Questions soon arise as Randy’s and Alisha’s roles in this bizarre apocalypse become uncertain. One is a professed sinner, the other an asexual virgin. Each has been touched by the hand of fate, and each believes they are humanity’s last hope. But belief can be a funny thing…

The Divine Darkness is the first installment of The Divine Darkness apocalyptic horror trilogy.

Available on Amazon!