The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Surrogate
by Sue Renol

Every year was the same. October was cold, the night was long, and the stage had been set the way it always had. Olivia knew how it would go as she lit each candle one at a time. The wind would howl, the moon would glow with an otherworldly brightness, and the souls of the dead would rise to greet her.

Sometimes she grew tired of this annual ritual, but it had been passed down to her from generations stretching back as far as time, and she couldn’t let down her ancestors. Not only would it dishonor them, it would be a grave mistake on her part. She knew that someday she’d be among them, and her descendants would perform this same act.

Olivia sat patiently as the clouds moved through the sky without haste. She stared into the darkness of the forest. Beyond the pale trees ethereal figures appeared and gathered as they came toward her.

“Olivia.” The ghost of her mother came forward. “Good to see you.”

“You as well, Mother,” Olivia replied respectfully.

“Have you chosen yet?” Her mother’s form crossed its arms.

“No,” Olivia sighed, ashamed. “But I brought a surrogate.”

Her mother looked to the man gagged and bound, wriggling on the ground at the edge of the candlelight. “I suppose it will do. Do what must be done and send his soul to us. The lineage shall continue.”

Olivia turned to her captive, pulled a blade from her belt, and readied herself for what she had to do.

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Fiction © Copyright Sue Renol
Image courtesy of Pixabay