The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!
All That’s Left
by Rie Sheridan Rose
The night it happened, we had no warning. A flash of brilliance in the sky—and the screaming began. I hid behind a bush and watched the panic. Men, women—even children—running helter-skelter about the place, like chickens with their heads cut off. But it didn’t matter. The ships…the ships blasted people with the precision of the laser pointers we used to point for cats. They burst into clouds of bloody mist. Even their clothing disintegrated. Nothing remained.
I cowered deeper into the foliage, heart thundering in my chest. What was happening? Was it localized? Would they find me? I watched in horror until my exhausted soul could bear no more, and I slept.
Fate was kind for once. Or was it?
When I awoke, cold and alone under my bush, I searched the skies, but no sign of the ships could be seen. Had they come and gone? I had no way of knowing.
Venturing out of the shelter, I looked for someone—anyone—else who might have survived the night.
All I found was a pair of broken spectacles upon the ground.
Is that an noi—
.
Fiction © Copyright Rie Sheridan Rose
Image Copyright Rie Sheridan Rose
More from Author Rie Sheridan Rose:

Overheard in Hell:
Dark Poetry
Poems exploring hell and damnation. Tales of sorrow, vengeance, betrayal, and redemption. Ghosts, ghouls, and demons stalk these pages. Don’t read in a lonely house…in a darkened room by a single candle…
…unless you like the touch of an icy finger up your spine.
![]()












A dark and fantastic story.