The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Time To Play The Game 
by Kendra Smart  

The night had come, the die ready to be cast.

Four weary, but excited, warriors glory and conquest. 

Accolades and spun stories of courageous deeds were what names were attributed to. 

The bards sang the songs, the tavern girls danced and swayed, temptresses after blokes with no clue. 

Incense lit to fill the room, goblets for the wine. 

Notepads at the ready, these ethereal beings were ready for their time to shine. 

Their journey had already spanned for months on end.

But what is time but memories and moments best spent with friends?

A campaign written painstakingly, with the utmost care and research. 

An adventure to end all adventures, the warriors approached their individual perches. 

The table had been laid with care, attention to detail, lots of flair. 

A curtain cloaks the reason they are here, the end of the journey a gamble, nay a dire dare. 

Familiar boom as the voice beckons them to sit, fates sealed. 

Decisions made, world shifted, battered and bruised but enemies left far worse…closer ever closer to the reveal.

Hours passed, the moon now high, a foreboding anxiety settling as before the cloak our warriors arrived. 

The room barely lit by the sparsely placed candles, but the smoke thrived. 

A warning in the form of a tale, the lost heirloom now rightfully restored with a buy.

A Totem passed down, meant to test the heart, held breathes, not even a sigh. 

But all warnings now given, a flourish of the hand. 

The cloak now gone, but nothing there, a gasp of a grasp to try to understand. 

But foolish beings, both foul smell and acrid breath fill the air. 

The warriors knees made audible knocks, undeniable fear.

For what had once been slightly heavy, feeling made of wood. 

Now stood over twelve feet high and its maw smelled sour, like Dogwood.

The first warrior shifted too soon. 

Scared, he ran, but torn asunder became like a cartoon cowboy using a spittoon. 

Hard to deny, a reality playing out before your eyes.

But as survival instincts kicked in, “Run you guys!”

A gambit of the worst kind. 

What is real is far harder to slay than those imaginary creatures of the mind. 

Being able to escape together, complete and utter folly. 

No longer a united front, real characters shown without a breath for “I’m sorry.”

Hearing screams, the final warrior made it outside. 

No time to waste, he turned through the back rooms and back alley way, “I’m alive…”

The last thing in his vision, the brick split by freedom. 

But the family heirloom had a debt, unpayable by card, and our Dungeon Master now faced his family’s demon. 

“Choose wisely your words, our ancestors mapped our bones. Tsk, tsk you are never alone.”

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Fiction © Copyright Kendra Smart
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from author Kendra Smart:

Just Emotions:
A Gothic Bite Magazine Anthology

A collection of poetry.

‘Just Emotions‘ is exactly as it states, a group of writers who had feelings they wanted to express in poem form. Inside, there are a range of emotions to explore. Each writer has given a bit of themselves to you, each in their own way.

We hope that you enjoy these writings and that among the poems you may find some thing you can identify with or relate to. Thank you for giving us this chance to open the catacombs and share with you.

Available on Amazon!