The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Sylvan Transition
by Amanda Worthington

Beauty is only skin deep

But the grub’s appetite surpasses the flesh before it

And it doesn’t mind eating the ugly parts too

Delving into the hidden recesses

Filling itself on this creature’s fat deposits

Testing its limits.

.

It is assessing entry points

When the ring implores it to stop

Gather itself and gaze deep

The onyx surface shimmers like a pool in the starlight

And the insect crawls forward

With infantile expectation barely concealed

Eagerly expecting a meal

To be conjured from its depths

.

The grub vanishes

And with a shaky breath

The woman awakes

There is not much life in the creeping things

But perhaps it is enough to sustain her to the forest’s edge

Where the wizard waits

With his crows and complaint

And answers?

.

She kisses the ring and proceeds

With more dread than certainty

But no – her journey will not end here

No one can escape their fate

And hers lies elsewhere

.

.

Fiction © Copyright Amanda Worthington.
Image courtesy of Pixabay