Ladies of Horror Flash Project – #Horror #author Sheikha A. @Darc_Nina #LoH #fiction

Posted on June 28, 2022 by Ladies of Horror

The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Ishtar
by Sheikha A.

to giving Venus a body

She lays tracks with strands of her hair –

white-pall, pallor of her eyes silvery veins;

her bearers will arrive soon – death on gale –

her amethyst sleep-spell like streaming sash.

Figurines on gust, their invisible footsteps

coming for her: legion rising from myth

when she falls, she strikes smooth

splitting a night in neat halves

her weapon within her – cold shadow –

watching through her teeth when she opens.

The tracks she lays will bring them to her,

her nightmares in their dreams fast fading,

she is ageless moon – web on ghoul –

silky wisps of heat on surface of void

how she glides sends rings of shivers

into light; her claws a tight eagle grasp

They travel fast, wings on speed, yet distant,

yet flurry of rage, tides of spinning planets

flashing their flags; the black hole mouths

its cry. Her face tilts in half smile. This fury

of noise: empty echoes of wasteful energy;

they have never landed on her thick veils

she is trap: waterless venus lotus,

her teeth graceful tines of katana

her fields are spiralling crescent cones

of magic and delusion. She is rising Lilith.

Fiction © Copyright Sheikha A.
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com.

More from author Sheikha A.:

Nyctophiliac Confessions:
Poems by Sheikha A. and Suvojit Banerjee

“The night is cold enough to inspire poetry,” says Sheikha A. in her poem, “Reading My Bones.” This is the basis of Nyctophiliac Confessions – poems that are introspective and luminal, poems that require a certain amount of silence and space to be fully formed and appreciated. Reading these poems, I imagined that they were the kind of poems that assert themselves unbidden during a bout of insomnia. (A nyctophiliac being someone who loves the night or loves darkness).

Nyctophiliac Confessions is the 17th installment of Praxis’ chapbook series and contains twenty-six poems written by two poets, Sheikha A. and Suvojit Banerjee, interspersed with abstract paintings by Robert Rhodes.

Available Here!

Posted in Authors, Dark Fiction, flash fiction, FREE, Horror, Ladies of Horror, Writing Project | Tagged author, fiction, flash fiction, Horror, Ladies of Horror, picture prompt, Sheikha A., Women of Horror, Writing Project | 3 Comments

Ladies of Horror Flash Project – #Horror #author Loren Rhoads @MorbidLoren @darc_nina #LoH #fiction

Posted on June 28, 2022 by Ladies of Horror

The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Riders on the Storm
by Loren Rhoads

When she looked up from the book she’d been immersed in, something in the air felt wrong. Alondra put the book down open over the arm of her chair as she stood. Then she drifted from room to spacious room in the borrowed mansion, trying to get a fix on what had gotten her hackles up.

She stopped in one of the second-floor bedrooms to stare out at the view. The Rockies rose in the near distance, their snowy peaks usually brilliant white in the sunshine at this hour. Today, they stood against a sky as blue as a bruise.

Alondra opened the window and drew a deep breath. The pines surrounding the house had a stronger aroma today, heavy and resinous. A blustery wind brought her the scent of dust. Things were so incredibly dry now.

She circled the house’s central atrium to check the view in the East. In anything, things were worse. The Eastern sky had gone dark as wet concrete. The clouds flared with sheet lightning. Thunder rumbled across the valley. She tasted ozone.

Colorado needed rain, was desperate for it. Unfortunately, if the lightning preceded the raindrops – if even a single bolt found a tree – the tinder all around her would explode into flames.

Alondra closed the window and hurried down the stairs. She swung through the kitchen to grab the fossilized bone Rene had purchased at the gift shop in Estes Park, a hunk of petrified wood that served as a bookend, and the turkey vulture feather she’d picked up beneath the trees yesterday. From there she opened the doorwall onto the back patio.

The wind moaned through the pines as the storm clouds drew nearer.

Alondra hurried outside. She set the rocks down, pinning the feather safely in place, and cranked the cover from the hot tub.

A small lizard stared up at her as the cover peeled back. Alondra paused to give the lizard time to run, but it only tilted its head to look up at her.

She tried to remember all that Rene had told her about the native lizards. This one was long and thin, striped, its tail three times the length of its body. Alondra thought it was a checkered whiptail. Rene said they were all female, reproducing parthenogenetically, the egg-hatched infants exact clones of their mothers.

“Hello,” Alondra said. “I’d be glad for your help.” She continued to open the hot tub’s cover, but her thoughts were racing.

Water wasn’t Alondra’s element and she didn’t have any favors she could call in from them. She didn’t have anything she was willing to sacrifice beyond the items from Rene’s collection. She knew that if she pulled moisture from the sky, somewhere else was going to suffer. But if she let the lightning fall, she – and every living thing in the valley – had no way to escape the firestorm.

A second lizard had joined the first. While Alondra watched, a third raced up the side of the hot tub to join the others.

Alondra took that as inspiration. She scooped water from the hot tub and sprinkled it in a circle around them all. She washed the fossil, then the petrified wood, setting them in the cardinal corners. She dipped the vulture feather and flicked the water from it in the four directions. Some of it blew back into her face.

Another lizard joined the others.

Alondra discovered a forgotten pottery cup beside the hot tub’s base. She rinsed it in the tub, then filled it from the tap nearby. She set it near the lizards – there were a dozen of them now – and stepped away so that they could drink.

Then she watched the sky between the pines. Something enormous lifted off from one of the mountain peaks. Stirred by its wings, the clouds swirled, trailing it as it approached the patio where Alondra stood.

Winds cooled by snow shivered over Alondra’s skin, driving back the humidity of the onrushing storm. A moment later, hail bulleted down around her. It stung where it struck her bare arms, but Alondra stood her ground.

It was a race now: would the rain fall before the lightning struck? Alondra couldn’t tear her gaze from the massive creatures swooping overhead, one with wings like fire, one with wings like leather. One of them crowed with a screech louder than thunder. The other answered as it slammed into the first, talons outstretched…and the rain flooded down, warm after the hail. Lightning exploded overhead.

Something sharp stabbed the top of Alondra’s foot. She looked down to find herself surrounded by the lizards, two dozen or more of them. One had fastened herself onto Alondra’s bare foot.

The others rushed at her. Without thinking, Alondra scrambled over the lip into the unheated hot tub, carrying some of the boldest lizards into the cool water with her.

She sucked in a deep breath and settled to the floor of the tub. The unprepared lizards, forced to choose between biting or breathing, released their holds on her. Ribbons of her blood followed them as they floated upward.

Alondra surfaced long enough to splash the lizards from the tub on waves of water. The overflow washed the waiting lizards from lip surrounding the pool.

Another sheet of lightning exploded nearby, already moving off toward the plains.

Alondra felt grateful her sacrifice had been enough today. Next time, though, she wasn’t inclined to be so generous to the lizards. Next time, she was wearing her boots.

Fiction © Copyright Loren Rhoads
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from Author Loren Rhoads:

Alondra’s Experiments

Alondra DeCourval travels from San Francisco to Prague to Olso, encountering magical creatures and searching for the limits she will go to for love.

Available on Amazon!

Posted in Authors, Dark Fiction, flash fiction, FREE, Horror, Ladies of Horror | Tagged author, fiction, flash fiction, Horror, Ladies of Horror, Loren Rhoads, picture prompt, Writing Project | 4 Comments

Ladies of Horror Flash Project – #Horror #author Sheri White @sheriw1965 @darc_nina #LoH #fiction

Posted on June 27, 2022 by Ladies of Horror

The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Little Miss Purple Girl
by Sheri White

After the tent fire at the Under the Big Top Circus was extinguished, after all the spectators were evacuated, after the wounded were taken to hospitals, after the bodies were laid out at the city hall, and after those bodies were claimed over several days by their families, one body remained.

A little girl, only nine or ten years old, now lay alone in the hall. Earlier, when mothers tearfully looking for their children, hoping not to find them here but in the hospital, remarked that the girl appeared to be sleeping. No flames had licked at her flesh. No soot discolored her face.

For records purposes, the coroner, Dr. Murphy, identified the girl as Little Miss Purple Girl 1565, but he called her “Purple Girl” when he talked to reporters. The name fit—she wore a dark purple dress dotted with light purple flowers. Purple lace rimmed her white anklet socks. Purple ponytail holders and purple ribbons adorned her blonde pigtails.

Dr. Murphy sent her picture to media outlets for everyone to see and hopefully someone would recognize the little girl.

Do you know this child? Please contact the Hartford County Police Department with any information you may have.

Local women would often visit the city hall to look at Purple Girl, sad nobody had claimed her.

“Her mother must be so worried!”

“Maybe her mother abandoned her. Got out of the fire and figured her little girl died in there.”

“I think the mother died in that fire.”

“That makes no sense; she would have been brought here with the others.”

Speculation and rumors grew as the days passed. The coroner checked on her every day, in between performing autopsies on the other victims.

Why isn’t she decomposing? he wondered. There isn’t even an odor of decay around her.

People from out-of-state began to visit Purple Girl in the guise of looking for their missing child. They brought flowers, all of them a shade of purple. Soon violets, lilacs, petunias, hollyhocks, and lavender covered the girl, so many they fell to the floor around her.

Five days after the deadly fire, the coroner met with the town officials. Dr. Murphy directed his comments to Andrew Glass, who served as mayor.

“It’s obvious that nobody is going to claim this girl,” he said. “I think it’s time to let her go.”

“What do you mean,” Andrew asked.

“He means we need to bury her. She’s going to start rotting soon, right? We can’t have that.”

Andrew glared at the man who spoke. “Jeff, there’s no reason to be so crude and disrespectful.” Jeff served as city clerk when necessary, city asshole the rest of the time.

“He’s right, though,” said Dr. Murphy. “Even though we’ve been keeping the room as cold as we can, we should at least see mottled skin at this point. I have no idea why the process hasn’t begun, but it will. We also need to close the hall to visitors. If someone were to claim her, it would have happened by now.”

They announced a funeral the next day and prepared for a massive crowd at the cemetery.

“I’m going to stay with the girl tonight,” Dr. Murphy said. “Since everyone will know soon this is her last night, I want to protect her from freaks who might want to break in and see her or even try to steal her body.”

***

Dr. Murphy sat at a desk he had moved into the room for the night, catching up on paperwork from the week’s disaster. The only light in the room was from a small lamp on the desk, casting shadows on the walls and ceiling. Something moving caught his eye across the room. He hoped nobody was trying to get in and cause trouble. He stood up and looked around, but he was alone in the room.

Before Dr. Murphy could sit back down, he heard an odd sound. A buzzing fly? No, the sound was too soft for that. He stood perfectly still and silent, hoping to identify the sound. He felt a chill run down his spine when he realized what he was hearing.

Whispers.

“Whoever is in here, you should not be here! Show some respect.”

Nobody responded. The whispering continued.

Dr. Murphy walked around the room, even though he knew nobody could hide in the mostly bare area. As he got closer to Purple Girl, the whispering grew louder. He began to feel heavy, his legs Jell-O by the time he got to her side.

Purple Girl’s lips moved quickly, as if she were praying. Although Dr. Murphy could hear her, he couldn’t understand what she was saying. He backed away slowly.

Yeah, fuck this, he thought.

The dead girl’s eyes snapped open. They had no color, only white. She turned her head, neck bones cracking, and stared into the doctor’s eyes.

Come closer.

Her lips still moved, but he heard the command in his head.

“No,” he whispered. He tried to turn around and walk away, but his feet wouldn’t move.

Come closer.

“No.” This time he kept his voice firm. He still couldn’t move, and now Purple Girl’s lips stopped moving. She chuckled, a low, threatening animalistic sound. Then she stretched her mouth into an impossibly wide and sinister smile.

NOW.

Against his will, he moved right to her side.

Listen.

Dr. Murphy bent down so his head was close to hers.

Her lips moved once again. Whispering, whispering.

***

At 6:00am, just after the sun rose, Mayor Glass arrived.

“Are you ready, Dr. Murphy?” asked the mayor. He checked his watch, then looked up. “Oh my god!”

A police officer who had accompanied him to the building rushed in. “Mr. Mayor, are you all right?” Mayor Glass didn’t answer, he just stood with his hand over his mouth and his eyes wide. Officer Gleason looked in the same direction and gasped.

Dr. Murphy sat beside the cot, legs stretched in front of him, arms limp by his sides, surrounded and covered by purple flowers. His hair, now stark white, stood almost on end. A purple rose adorned each eye socket. His eyes lay in his open palms. His mouth was frozen in a silent scream of terror.

“Jesus,” said Officer Gleason.

“I don’t think Jesus had anything to do with this,” answered Mayor Glass in a shaky voice.

Purple Girl was gone. Only the impression of her body on the cot showed she had ever been there.

Fiction © Copyright Sheri White
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from Author Sheri White:

Don’t Turn Out the Lights: A Tribute to Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Featuring stories from R.L. Stine and Madeleine Roux, this middle grade horror anthology, curated by New York Times bestselling author and master of macabre Jonathan Maberry, is a chilling tribute to Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

Flesh-hungry ogres? Brains full of spiders? Haunted houses you can’t escape? This collection of 35 terrifying stories from the Horror Writers Association has it all, including ghastly illustrations from Iris Compiet that will absolutely chill readers to the bone.

So turn off your lamps, click on your flashlights, and prepare—if you dare—to be utterly spooked!

The complete list of writers: Linda D. Addison, Courtney Alameda, Jonathan Auxier, Gary A. Braunbeck, Z Brewer, Aric Cushing, John Dixon, Tananarive Due, Jamie Ford, Kami Garcia, Christopher Golden, Tonya Hurley, Catherine Jordan, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Alethea Kontis, N.R. Lambert, Laurent Linn, Amy Lukavics, Barry Lyga, D.J. MacHale, Josh Malerman, James A. Moore, Michael Northrop, Micol Ostow, Joanna Parypinksi, Brendan Reichs, Madeleine Roux, R.L. Stine, Margaret Stohl, Gaby Triana, Luis Alberto Urrea, Rosario Urrea, Kim Ventrella, Sheri White, T.J. Wooldridge, Brenna Yovanoff

Available on Amazon!

Ladies of Horror Flash Project – #Horror #author Melissa R. Mendelson @melissmendelson @Darc_Nina #LoH #fiction

Posted on June 27, 2022 by Ladies of Horror

The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

She Washed Away
by Melissa R. Mendelson

They had no idea that I was there. I slipped along the rocks like a shadow, watching them, watching her. My body was resting somewhere that did not belong here, and my mind slipped through like a waterfall. I actually thought it was a dream until I found the same place in my waking world, and there, it was not so beautiful. Here was different, and so was she.

She reached for the waterfall, letting her hands disappear beneath the water. She glanced over her shoulder. Did she see me? Did she know that I was there? Her eyes moved along the jagged rocks, a pebble kicked out from underneath her shoe. Satisfied that she was alone while her friends searched the caves, she slipped her hands back and forth beneath the waterfall. If only it were that easy.

I thought I was being punished, stuck watching her from where I was, but as I watched the water pour over her skin, I wondered. Was it that easy? If it was, then would I miss the life that I would leave behind? No, I would not, so I waited.

I could feel my body back there, where it did not belong here, turn cold. I was running out of time. It was me or her, and there she was again, sitting by that waterfall, watching her hands disappear beneath its surface. Only this time, I was strong enough to grab hold, pull tightly down on her wrists, and she screamed. But her friends were too far away, too busy with their discoveries to hear her, and I pulled again. She fell beneath the waterfall, slipping down, all the way down into the cavern below, followed by a soft thud.

“Are you okay,” traveled along the caves to the waterfall.

“Yes.” I stepped out of the waterfall and took her place sitting beside it. “I almost fell in.”

Fiction © Copyright Melissa R. Mendelson
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com.

About Author Melissa R. Mendelson:

Melissa R. Mendelson is a Horror, Science-Fiction, and Dystopian Author. Her short stories have been published by Sirens Call Publications, Dark Helix Press, and Transmundane Press. She also has a variety of short stories and poetry available on Medium.

Posted in Authors, Dark Fiction, flash fiction, FREE, Horror, Ladies of Horror, Writing Project | Tagged author, fiction, flash fiction, Horror, Ladies of Horror, Melissa R. Mendelson, picture prompt, Women of Horror, Writing Project | 3 Comments

Ladies of Horror Flash Project – #Horror #author Rie Sheridan Rose @RieSheridanRose @darc_nina #LoH #fiction

Posted on June 26, 2022 by Ladies of Horror

The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

One Last Ride
by Rie Sheridan Rose

There is a hush now in these once vibrant lands. The rail goes straight as an arrow through the remains of verdant fields. Nothing grows here now. The trees are gray skeletons with leaves like groping fingers…

I was an engineer my entire life—riding the rails from dawn till dusk. It was an easy and peaceful life. I expected to end my days so. But God had other plans.

It’s six weeks now since the plague descended. Everything ended so quickly. By the end of the first day half the people in the valley were dead. Most of the others followed by the end of the week. As far as I know, no one else remains. All are dead. I am the last.

Tomorrow, I will stoke my engine one last time, and guide my old companion to the end of the line. There was once a bridge there, but it was old, and recently repairs were begun. They’ll never be finished now. That suits my purpose.

I will build up the steam and fly off the end of the rail. In this way, I will hold onto my own destiny. This end will be of my own choosing. I will not fall to the plague.

One last ride. It’s all I ask.

Fiction © Copyright Rie Sheridan Rose
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from Author Rie Sheridan Rose:

Overheard in Hell:
Dark Poetry

Poems exploring hell and damnation. Tales of sorrow, vengeance, betrayal, and redemption. Ghosts, ghouls, and demons stalk these pages. Don’t read in a lonely house…in a darkened room by a single candle…

…unless you like the touch of an icy finger up your spine.

Available on Amazon!

Posted in Authors, Dark Fiction, flash fiction, FREE, Horror, Ladies of Horror, Writing Project | Tagged author, fiction, flash fiction, Horror, Ladies of Horror, picture prompt, Rie Sheridan Rose, Women in Horror, Writing Project | 3 Comments

Ladies of Horror Flash Project – #Horror #author Ela Lourenco @ElaLourenco @darc_nina #LoH #fiction

Posted on June 26, 2022 by Ladies of Horror

The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Arisen
by Ela Lourenco

.

For eons I slumbered

Moulded into the rocks

Civilisations came and went

I cared not

Unintelligent cattle, forever waging wars

Killing and decimating each other

I didn’t even deign to open an eye

At their pathetic antics

I slept so long

My scales become one with the Earth

Until

Until the day the very core of the planet

Shook in fear.

The once lush green now ash

Skies of smog and grey

The Earth crying in pain

And so I rose once again

To cleanse the Mother

Of this vermin called man.

Fiction © Copyright Ela Lourenco
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com.

More from Ela Lourenco:

Dragon Born: Book Three
Awakening

The Royal tournament, the Karnac, is fully underway. But there is deception and betrayal at every turn. Unseen dark forces are at play, both within the school grounds and out with. Even the Gods are unable to help when a new threat looms over them all.The very existence of Azmantium depends on Lara fully becoming the Child of Fire and casting aside the Shadows lurking in every corner of her beloved planet.Can she overcome the challenges that await? Will the Shadows cover the world in darkness? Only Lara and her friends can change the fate of Azmantium.

Available on Amazon!

Posted in Authors, Dark Fiction, flash fiction, FREE, Horror, Ladies of Horror, Writing Project | Tagged author, Ela Lourenco, fiction, flash fiction, Horror, Ladies of Horror, picture prompt, Women of Horror, Writing Project | 3 Comments

Ladies of Horror Flash Project – #Horror #author Alyson Faye @AlysonFaye2 @Darc_Nina #LoH #fiction

Posted on June 25, 2022 by Ladies of Horror

The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

No Shrinking Violets
by Alyson Faye

‘We named you Violet, after this vibrant flower,’ Papa pointed with a manicured hand at the fragile petals.‘Your mama and I were in our ‘purple passion phase’,’ he added, chortling into his beard. Mama, as usual, said nothing.

Violet, nearly sixteen, ground her teeth, bony shoulders hunched up to her ears. She’d heard this story of Papa’s too many times to find it quaint or charming. Besides this was his public face, she know his other side far too well.

Elias Fox, Senior, threw back his head and roared with laughter. ‘Oh my goodness, sir, my lad here, is a lucky chap to be gaining you as his father-in-law.’

Violet seethed. Bootlicker, she thought. She cast a jaundiced eye upon her intended, Elias Jnr., a scrawny, beak-nosed specimen, who reminded her of a heron.

To her surprise the lad bent down and plucked the deep mauve flower from its stem; blushing, he offered it to his fiancee-to-be with a bow.

Violet froze in shock. Her father, likewise but in horror at this unprecedented mutilation of his beloved exotic African Violet, Elias Snr., stared in stupefaction and Violet’s mother fanned herself, hectically. It was quite the tableau if anyone had been there to paint it.

Seconds ticked by, a bird trilled, then Violet reached out and accepted the bloom.

‘Thank you, kind sir,’ she murmured, eyes cast down, as was proper. Her mind busy whirring.

* * *

After dinner, the betrothed couple perched in the front parlour, chaperoned by Violet’s silent mother, making painfully shy conversation. They both knew their fates were sealed, their engagement would be announced that week in ‘The Times’, an elegant soiree would be hosted.

Violet noticed her mother’s head nodding over her embroidery. She tugged at Elias’s sleeve, pulling him towards the garden doors, outside into the June summer evening, which smelt of candy and perfume.

She took her intended’s damp palm in her own. ‘Come with me,’ she whispered.

Elias’ eyes bulged with mixed emotions and trepidation. Violet led him deeper into the bowels of the landscaped gardens, past herbaceous borders, topiary bushes trimmed into the shape of animals, and chess pieces, past the orchard and beyond into the woods. In the moonlight her face was chalky- skinned and determined.

She found the plant she was looking for, growing in the hollow of a tree stump. She outlined her plan to Elias, whose Adam’s apple bobbed, in anxiety, as he learned more about his bride-to-be than he’d ever expected from that evening. He eyed her with new-found respect and also admiration for her courage.

* * *

‘Oh Violet, where are you my sweet?’ Papa’s drunken words reached her ears even from the end of the corridor.

He’s coming.

Her stomach turned over, her heart beat faster. Tick tock, make it stop. She stirred the hot toddy she’d prepared for him, blending the whiskey, adding extra honey to sweeten the bitter taste of the plant toxoid.

Papa always came at this time. Whilst Mama, slept like the dead, and was about as much use as a corpse to her only daughter.

Violet stood shivering in her night chemise, chin up, hair down. Hate seething in her gut. Bastard.

Her father lurched into the room, trousers undone, shirt flying open. ‘Beloved, darling Violet, come to me.’

Violet edged instead towards the table, and offered the hot toddy, steaming in a sliver flagon. ‘A nightcap, Papa?’

Behind her the curtain twitched’ a pair of booted feet peeked out.

Her father stroked her cheek, then downed the drink in one, belching and falling onto the bed. ‘Violet, my exotic little flower, come to Papa.’ He was slurring his words, his eyelids drooping.

A lanky figure erupted from behind the curtains. Elias crossed the room fast, and grabbing the feather pillow pressed it over his soon-to-be father-in-law’s face.

Drugged, the man hardly resisted. Violet weighed in with flurries from her fists, pounding on the feather pillow.

Together, the fiancées finished the job, one on either side of the freshly-deceased. Over his corpse they joined hands, and swore their own marital vows -‘to lie, deceive, mislead and obfuscate until our dying day; we are tied together by this act, and from each other we will never stray.’

***

And they didn’t. Violet and Elias Fox were wed for fifty years, and friends and family often remarked on how they never argued, and how loving and devoted to each other they were.

More from Alyson Faye:

The Lost Girl & Spindleshanks

The Lost Girl
A nailed-up door. An inheritance which comes with a ghost. A missing girl. A fifty-year-old mystery. Parapsychologist Berkley Osgood is hired to investigate. What he uncovers reveals secrets the living want to hide and the dead will never forgive.

Spindleshanks
Adam is having nightmares about a skeletal shadow figure, who he calls Spindleshanks. Soon his whole class are sharing the same nightmare. Adam’s dad, Rob, knows that Spindleshanks can’t be real. But is he? One terrible night Rob has to face his son’s nightmare creature and fight for his son’s life. What would you sacrifice to have your child back safe?

“A decent two-for-one. Alyson Faye brings the engaging and eerie in equal measure.” CC Adams – horror / dark fiction author

Available on Amazon!

Posted in Authors, Dark Fiction, flash fiction, FREE, Horror, Ladies of Horror, Writing Project | Tagged Alyson Faye, author, fiction, flash fiction, Horror, Ladies of Horror, picture prompt, Writing Project | 8 Comments

Ladies of Horror Flash Project – #Horror #author Alina Măciucă @darc_nina #LoH #fiction

Posted on June 25, 2022 by Ladies of Horror

The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

The Drowned Ones Belong to the Earth
by Alina Măciucă

Their souls flow and cascade with the water, faster or slower

Than their bloated and disgraceful bodies. They caress rocks, and

Moss and tree roots, each soul broken into myriads of pieces

Entwined with bits of other souls: a drunken millman,

A bunch of suicidal young women in their early twenties,

Some kids who went diving in the wrong spots,

Lots of people who were already dead by the time they

Ended up floating down the stream, buffalos, horses, cats and dogs,

And birds and fish pouring into the earth, and blessing

All riches that belong to the Lord of the Underground.

There, in cemeteries, and forests, and under the cities,

They meet the ones that died on land, and even

A few of those that died in the air, resting in caskets,

Or random places meant never to be found,

A good percentage burned and then sprinkled into a crevasse,

And merge into everything that will ever be.

More about Alina Măciucă:

Alina Măciucă enjoys reading, writing, buying odd trinkets, and taking photos of beautifully decaying buildings. She has formally studied religion and hermeneutics at the University of Bucharest, and really has a thing for the Greco-Roman mysteries and Gnosticism, as well as for Renaissance magic. She lives in Bucharest with her very supportive boyfriend, their two cats, and an ever-expanding vinyl and book collection.

Posted in Authors, Dark Fiction, flash fiction, FREE, Horror, Ladies of Horror, Writing Project | Tagged Alina Măciucă, author, fiction, flash fiction, Horror, Ladies of Horror, picture prompt, Women in Horror, Writing Project | 3 Comments

Ladies of Horror Flash Project – #Horror #author R.A. Clarke @RAClarkeWrites @Darc_Nina #LoH #fiction

Posted on June 24, 2022 by Ladies of Horror

The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

The Blue Tie
by R.A. Clarke

Just up ahead sat a railroad tie, painted blue to mark salvation. Beneath it lay a key to safety—to Orion—one of humanity’s last surviving strongholds in the area… maybe the last one. We’d lost radio contact with the others a few days ago, fearing the worst.

Four of us set out on a scavenging raid early this morning—my sister, Kathy, two friends, and I. Now, as dusk claimed the sky, my gut ached knowing I’d be the only one returning home.

Though something else seemed determined to come along.

The Takers first arrived two years ago. Strange bio-mechanical pods had rained down from the sky, bearing countless skittering beasts. Insectile legs supported fist-sized tapered thoraxes, their very skin fused with chrome-like shards. They swarmed, penetrated our bodies, then withered… leaving remnants behind to transform their new hosts.

I glanced over my shoulder down the long-overgrown tracks. In the distance, appeared a lithe female form. The same pursuer who’d been tracking me ever since we—I fled Craten, Orion’s closest town. Her silhouette appeared shrouded by mist, giving her the eerie appearance of a risen spectre. Exhausted and hungry, my eyes blinked hard against the failing light, wanting to believe it was only an illusion. But I knew better.

That creature following me was no ghost or hallucination. I had to move.

Crouching low over the tracks, I dug my fingers into the ground on one end of the blue railroad tie. The horizontal wood plank supported the parallel steel beams, its face pitted and cracked. Pushing rock and dirt aside, I ignored the sweat dripping off my brow as I searched. Finding nothing, I swiftly switched to the other end. Please let it be here. It has to be here. A grimace twisted my expression. Unless someone else got here first…

Keeping one eye on my pursuer, I dug with renewed vigour. My fingers wrapped around something soft. I pulled it out, brushing the dirt away as I stood. Yes, I said a silent prayer, clutching the tiny pouch within a white-knuckle fist.

I took off down the track.

The figure was much closer now, her wide eyes staring after me with determination. But she’d never catch me. She walked in my direction with her head tilted and strides sloppy as they tended to be so soon after the taking. At least until they built their own infrastructure within the body.

She was still alone—a blessing.

Soon, I’d be out of reach, locked safe behind the tunnelled gates of Orion.

Sweeping through several abandoned yard sites, a facade for a cult commune before the invasion, I targeted the home with blue cracked paint bearing our mark: an “H” surrounded by a ring of circles. It represented how humanity banded together with one goal: survival.

I entered the structure, ran down the stairs, and pulled back a rug concealing a hatch on the basement floor. Hidden beneath lay a sprawling network of underground tunnels. After prying the pouch from my hand, I pulled out the silver key, a copy of the one Kathy hid when the Takers ambushed us.

Unwanted images flashed before my eyes. Takers surging from the treeline. Scott and Jerry getting dragged off. The resolve in Kathy’s sea-blue eyes as she pushed me away, sacrificing herself so I could escape. Her screaming face before a Taker’s mouth clamped over hers, transferring one of its metallic parasites. It happened so fast—too many in one place. A trap…

I couldn’t fail her now. Someone had to warn Orion the enemy was coming. Somehow, the Takers knew where and when we’d be scavenging. I worried it had everything to do with our other strongholds falling silent… If they’d been infiltrated, the Takers would’ve absorbed their memories.

I had to save Orion—to preserve what remained of humanity. I had to try. My sister would’ve tried… A tear slipped down my dirty cheek as I twisted the key into the lock.

Click.

I descended the steps, pulling a string to move the rug back over the top as the hatch locked behind me. With my flashlight on, I proceeded to the bottom, then crossed a small room. A sturdy metal door sat at the far end. I rapped my knuckles over the rusted surface five times fast, then let out a low whistle.

No response.

I repeated the signal, but still nobody answered. There should be an Orion guard at the door. Where’s Gavin?

Icy fingers of fear clutched at my core.

The muted slam of a door reverberated overhead. Someone was in the house.

No, no, no.

I rapped and whistled, louder.

Something scraped at the hatch. But they don’t have a key. That fact bought me some time. But not much.

“Come on, answer!” I hissed.

Finally, a single knock sounded from the other side of the door. The hefty lock clunked open, and the door swung wide.

Gavin stood there, and I smiled, relieved. But he didn’t smile back. He stared at me with determined eyes, his head tilted. Then he lumbered forward, a mucous covered parasite already straining through his lips.

“No!” I slammed my flashlight into his head and pushed the door shut. I spun, pulling out my knife, knowing I’d have to fight my way back through that hatch.

I can do this…

But my bravado fizzled as quickly as it flared. There, at the base of the stairs, stood the lithe figure who’d been following me. The woman’s sea-blue eyes bore into mine as three more Takers followed her down the steps. There were too many.

She dangled a silver key from her fingertip. No.

The door creaked open behind me.

“Please don’t. This isn’t you…” I begged.

My sister’s head tilted further, her body twitching violently. Then she lurched forward with mouth open wide.

More from author R.A. Clarke:

Oh, That’s Good…

Plucked from the mind of multi-genre short fiction author R.A. Clarke, these original speculative fiction prompts are sure to inspire and spark your creative flame. From dark to light, quirky to horrifying, there’s a little something here for everybody. You’re cordially invited to sift through the pages; take your time, pick and choose… or, if you’re feeling brave, take the 52-Week Challenge. Just spin, switch, expand, elevate, and transform these concepts into your own, then jot down those shiny new plotlines in the handy note sections provided. Oh, and don’t forget to have fun while you’re at it. So, are you ready to dive in and write that next great story?

Get your copy here!

Ladies of Horror Flash Project – #Horror #author Michelle Joy Gallagher @Aphelia @darc_nina #LoH #fiction

Posted on June 24, 2022 by Ladies of Horror

The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

The Fog
by Michelle Joy Gallagher

Darlene tried to follow the doctor’s instructions, but the light he’d shone in her right eye made her immediately tear up and want to blink. Whatever the answer was for her recent spate of migraines, it wasn’t this. The light felt as if it pierced her, sending a spike of pain toward the back of her head, making her wince.

The doctor wrinkled his forehead then blessedly turned the light off.

“There’s nothing I can see that’s of concern, at least in terms of the health of your eyes. There’s a medication I can give you that you take at onset of one of these migraines and the symptoms can be reduced or stopped altogether.”

That sounded just fine to Darlene. The migraines had become interruptive to her daily life, causing bright spots in her vision and incapacitating her. They hit out of nowhere and lately the effects on her vision were worsening. Sometimes her vision was clouded completely, as If everything was covered in a grey mist. They affected her emotionally as well, causing her strange sensations of doom or panic. She’d try just about anything at this point. She thanked her doctor, heading downstairs to fill her new prescription. She wanted to be home in bed feeling sorry for herself.

That’s exactly where the next one found her. Laying in bed trying to read and relax, a pinpoint of light started at the center of her eyes and grew until she had to put the book down. She pulled the new bottle of

pills from her nightstand and dry washed it, hoping to stop the bulk of it from happening.

Darlene laid back and hoped for the best. Slowly the visual disturbance abated and her vision went back to normal. She was able to finish the chapter she’d been reading with no further side effects. No spike of pain, no foggy vision, just as the doctor said was possible. She was immensely relieved.

The next morning as she dressed for work she was hit with a spike of pain first, which was unusual. The visual symptoms usually heralded the start of it all. She doubled over from the pain and sat down hard. She reached blindly for her pill bottle but it rattled to the ground and rolled under the bed just in time for the foggy vision to set in.

She closed her eyes and that familiar feeling of doom crawled across her skin. She felt as if she wasn’t alone. She cursed under her breath. Then sensed movement.

She tried to scream but nothing came out. Instead the thick grey mist enveloped her, pouring into her mouth. She choked. Was this real? How could side effects from a migraine be so intense? She scrabbled for her bottle, feeling blindly under the bed. She finally secured them and popped the lid open, pouring one into her mouth. The fog lifted, and though she was shaken, she continued her day as normal.

She managed an entire workday without any symptoms, which was a huge relief. She got home, cooked herself a meal and then showered. When she walked into her bedroom, it was as if the fog from that morning had been waiting for her. No preamble pinpoint of light, no sharp pain, just an all encompassing fog.

She sensed movement again, the flapping of some gigantic thing’s wings. Hot breath and a foul, rotting smell that she could almost taste.

“This can’t be real!” She screamed, trying to ward it off. Maybe it hadn’t been migraines all along, maybe she had been losing her mind and here and now she’d lost the last of it. She stumbled to her bed by feel and threw herself into it, sobbing. She had her eyes closed as tight as she could. When she opened them the fog had again disappeared. She heaved a great sigh in relief.

From above a great scaly mouth opened, baring it’s teeth.

More from author Michelle Joy Gallagher:
Disremembering
Welcome to Blackhawk, Colorado. Blackhawk has always been strange. Natural disasters. Disappearances. Murders. High strangeness is a part of daily life. We can’t hope to explain it, but we can chronicle its past. Learn from it. Fear it. Blackhawk is an experimental fiction series set in a shared universe, written by a variety of talented authors. It is the brainchild of David M Brown (Plague Doctor, Modern Animals) and Carl D Smith (Moleb the Giant, Darkness Out of Carthage). Each story will contribute to an organic, evolving mythology as diverse as the voices behind its tales. For fans of True Detective, Lost Highway, Twilight Zone, and The Terror. This is Volume Two of the series and contains five stories by five different authors, each in tune with the specific strangeness Blackhawk has to offer. NOTE: For fans of Lake Lord Publishing’s prior horror titles, be warned that Blackhawk will contain content that is perhaps more disturbing and mature.