The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Imprints of Time
by A.F. Stewart

Which one to choose?

The box presented a Pandora’s choice of possibilities. Fading photographs, outdated snapshots of time, some scratched, some with crumpled edges, most black and white, others with snatches of colour. My fingers itched to hold them all.

Only one at a time. That’s the rule.

I winced. His voice always caused a sharp pain in my head. Rubbing my temples, I obeyed, and sorted through the pictures, deciding on one of a mother and child. An edge of the yellowed paper curled, but the washed-out sepia showcased a clear image; a smiling woman in a flower-print dress holding the hand of her chubby-cheeked boy.

Such a picture-perfect parent.

Grimacing, I nodded in agreement. “Why should they get happiness? I didn’t. No motherly, indulgent smiles for me. No happy family portraits captured on film.” All I received was the back of her hand and a scowl. “That’s the one. Target the boy.”

As you wish.

Intoning the spell, I groaned as the constant aching pressure in my head abated; swirls of charcoal smoke and the reek of sulphur flooded the room as the demonic presence inhabiting my body left, reforming beside me. He chuckled before fusing into the photograph and time itself. As I eagerly watched, the photograph altered, the little boy’s face morphing with a crooked, disturbing smile, staring at me with my demon’s eyes.

I whispered, “Kill the mother. Make her suffer. The same way we made mine suffer.”

The little boy in the photograph nodded.

.

Fiction © Copyright A.F. Stewart
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

 

More from A.F. Stewart:

Visions and Nightmares

Tragedy spares no one… and takes no prisoners.
In the twilight shadows, secrets are revealed past the whispers of madness.

Wander into the realm of the old gods with Elenora, where humanity and marriage are a prison.
Step through a looking glass of dark horrors with an Alice you never knew.
Join with Zenna to seek the truth as her death by magic grows closer.
Journey with Olivia as she crosses paths with a monster of the forest and runs for her life.
Watch Isobel summon the faerie to solve her problem of an unwanted husband.
Shiver as Doctor Killbride experiments with corpses to create life from death.
All that and more await within the pages.

Ten stories. Ten women.
Who will survive? Who will fall? And who will succumb to their inner evil?
Find out in Visions and Nightmares.

Warning: This book contains disturbing scenes that may be upsetting to some readers.

Available on Amazon!