The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Their Turn 
by Lee Mitchell  

“Always alternate the eucalyptus and sandalwood.” Joselyn demonstrated as she instructed their most recent addition. “It burns more evenly, and it doesn’t get too hot that way.”

Alex nodded. The scent of burning wood wasn’t quite as intoxicating as it had been before his emergence, but it still brought the young man some joy. He studied the clay pots that remained lined up along the constant glow of embers. “I was in one of those?”

“We all were, once.” Joselyn tended to the next fire, poking the cinders and piling on fresh pieces of wood.

“But they’re all so small.”

“These are the new arrivals. We keep them warm, speak kind words to them, help them grow, and then they move on to one of the larger pots in another room.”

“I don’t understand how we got here. And why do we start out like this?” Alex gestured again to the line of small, covered pots.

Joselyn stood and clapped the sawdust and soot from her hands. “Someone had to’ve explained to you back when you were still regenerating. You really don’t know?”

Alex shook his head.

A bittersweet smile crept along the corners of the young woman’s mouth. “We’re the souls who spent our lives being taken for granted. The scapegoats. The black sheep. The beautiful yet invisible.”

“Okay…”

Joselyn found a nearby broom and got to work on the soot and ash that had accumulated along the service path. “Never truly being seen eventually takes its toll on a person. It reduces us to nearly nothing, taking us nearly to the brink of nonexistence. Each of these pots holds the spark of a soul. It’s our job to help those sparks become more once again.”

“By cooking them over fires and talking to them? And then what? This isn’t my idea of finally finding peace.”

“I’ve seen others move on from this job. Each of them had a look of delight and satisfaction on their face as they burst into explosions of light and then drifted off in all directions. Like diamonds shimmering in the sky. So beautiful.”

Alex frowned. “That sounds awful.”

Joselyn grinned back. “You’ll be ready when it’s your turn. For now, you can pick a pot and start talking.”

“But I don’t want to.”

“If you don’t work, you’ll be stuck here forever.”

“And my alternative is to explode into a billion bits and fly away in the wind?”

“You make it sound like something violent and unpleasant,” said Joselyn. “It’s how we move on.”

“To where?”

The young woman shook her head. “Somewhere better.”

Alex’s voice rose to match his frustration. “How do you know that?”

Joselyn opened her mouth to speak, paused for a moment, and then turned to the recent arrival with uncertain eyes. “My keeper told me.”

“And who told them?”

“I… don’t know. But it has to be good.” Joselyn’s smile faded. She looked up at the sky, eyes now uncertain. “Doesn’t it?”

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Fiction © Copyright Lee Mitchell.
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from Author Lee Mitchell:

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!