The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!
Demon Tower
by Lee Mitchell
.It’s taller than it looks, and every bit as steep. They say that if you can climb the taller spire—with no equipment and no help—and stand on its peak, then you can make a wish and be sure it will come true. I don’t know anyone who’s gotten farther than the wider landing, just beyond the halfway mark, but I intend to try.
Nearly there…
My lungs ache and burn, laboring to draw in each breath. I suppress a cough. The fits have been getting worse, and sometimes it’s all I can do to remain upright when they really get going. I’ve been coughing up more and more blood these days, so it’s probably now or never. I’m not sure how much more time, or strength, I have left.
They say this place calls to you when you’re at your most desperate. That might be true; it is for me, anyway, but what do I have to lose? My fingertips are raw from the jagged rocks, and my muscles ache. There isn’t much to cling to, especially this far up. My right foot slides from its groove, and my fingers strain to keep hold. I tell myself not to look down.
I look down anyway.
The world spins, and I lose all sense of my place in it. A light cry escapes me as I lose my grip. I see sky for a moment, and then the air is thrusted from my lungs as I feel the bone-crushing thud of my body hitting the rocky ground. I try to inhale, but the muscles in my back spasm against it. My head throbs, and I’m fairly certain that the cold, wet rush I feel against my hair is blood. My eyesight grows dim.
Please, no, I beg. Give me the strength to get to my feet and try one more time. Please give me my miracle, a chance to make my wish. Please, please, please… I. Don’t. Want. To. Die.
Fiction © Copyright Lee Mitchell.
Image © Copyright Alex Grehy
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.
