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

Posted on July 26, 2021 by Nina D'Arcangela

The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Image_02_July2021

Seed
by Michelle Joy Gallagher

The wind whipping through the field formed a low howl that made Elena think of a wounded animal. She was something wounded too. The blood had been dry on her face and neck for a few hours now, but it felt tacky when the skin moved. She’d taken a break from digging, her hands throbbing with newly formed callous, and leaned the shovel against an old tractor. She took a deep breath and eyed the place she had buried the combine harvester blade she’d found by sheer luck in the old shed. It was rusted and covered in a thin sheen of blood she’d tried to wipe off on the underside of her skirt.  
The hole was about 3 feet deep now and subtly oblong. Not deep enough.  
When Hank threw her down the stairs she lost the baby. She sobbed in a heap on the landing, bleeding through her gown. Hank stomped into their bedroom and slammed the door. When he finally managed to get out of bed the next day, Elena still lay where she’d fallen, too faint from grief and blood loss to move. 
“Get your ass up! Ain’t no seed can grow in a fallow field anyway don’t you know that?”
Elena wailed, and Hank softened a bit.  
“Come on, pigeon. Get cleaned up. We already missed the morning service.” 
She had gone to the shed for a rope to hang herself. The harvester blade was leaning against the back wall.  
“The fuck you doing out here?? Didn’t I tell you to get cleaned up?”  
“I’m sorry, I…” Elena’s hand wrapped around the blade as he interrupted her. 
“I’m sorry? That’s all you gotta say always! If you just did what I –“ 
Elena swung wide. Hank’s tirade was interrupted by the harvester blade biting into the side of his throat. He gargled and spat and reached impotently toward Elena. She stepped backward and let him fall on his face in front of her.  
She smiled down at his body, laying beside the hole she’d been digging. 
“This field ain’t fallow, Hank. You’ll make a fine seed.”
Fiction © Copyright Michelle Joy Gallagher
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

line_separator2

More from author Michelle Joy Gallagher:
blkhwkBlackhawk: Volume 2

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.

Available on Amazon!

line_separator2

Posted in Authors, Dark Fiction, flash fiction, FREE, Horror, Ladies of Horror, Writing Project | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Ladies of Horror Flash Project – #Horror #author Angela Yuriko Smith @AngelaYSmith @darc_nina #LoH

Posted on July 26, 2021 by Nina D'Arcangela

The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Image_01_July2021

The High Price of Art
by Angela Yuriko Smith

The trick she told him
is to stay in your seat and write.
Only when you type
The End can you stop.
He could only blame himself.
He wanted a book.
She promised results.
Life Editor, her card said.
to keep you on task.
Guaranteed results—
I will kill all your darlings.
She had been upfront.
And her process worked.
Fueled by coffee and terror
he wrote for three days.
Her knife at his back…
she was his terrible muse.
The pages stacked up
with his excitement.
The sacrifice was worth it—
a book finally done.
The last page rolled in.
The last paragraph typed out.
His book, accomplished.
He smiled and tapped out
The En . The ink failed! The En .
Then, she ended him.
Fiction © Copyright Angela Yuriko Smith
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com.

line_separator2

More from Angela Yuriko Smith:

Angela Yuriko Smith is an American poet, author and co-publisher of Space and Time magazine, a publication that has been printing speculative fiction, art and poetry since 1966. Together we build a poem as a community each month. Visit “Exquisite Corpse” at SpaceandTime.net to submit.

Catch up with Angela here!

line_separator2

Posted in Authors, Dark Fiction, flash fiction, FREE, Horror, Ladies of Horror, Writing Project | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Ladies of Horror Flash Project – #Horror #author Alex Grehy @indigodreamers @darc_nina #LoH #fiction

Posted on July 25, 2021 by Nina D'Arcangela

The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Image_04_July2021

Did You Ever Wonder…
by Alex Grehy

Did you ever wonder why
it’s always breezy
when you walk between
skyscrapers?
Did you ever wonder what made that gale?
Did you ever wonder why
it’s always cool
when you stand in the lea of
skyscrapers?
Did you ever wonder what brought about that chill? 
Did you ever wonder where
the city’s spirits went,
after death from suicide
and accidents? 
Did you ever wonder where they go to haunt?
Ghosts of jumpers fall,
Fall like eternal rain.
Ghosts of workers rush,
rush like eternal wind.
Ghosts splash on the sidewalks,
Rise and start again. 
Did you ever wonder?
You will now.
Fiction © Copyright Alex Grehy
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

line_separator2

More from author Alex Grehy:

147443997_865719290883677_3441953034998826390_n

After a lifetime of writing technical non-fiction, Alex Grey is fulfilling her dream of writing poems and stories that engage the reader’s emotions. Her work has been featured by a wide range of publications including Siren’s Call, Raconteur, Bookends Review, and Toasted Cheese. One of her comic poems is also available via a worldwide network of public fiction dispensers managed by French publisher, Short Edition. Her ingredients for contentment are narrow boating, greyhounds, singing and chocolate. It is a sweet life, yet Alex’ original view of the world has led to her best friend to say ‘For someone so lovely, you’re very twisted!

Please click here to discover more!   

line_separator2

Posted in Authors, Dark Fiction, flash fiction, FREE, Horror, Ladies of Horror, Writing Project | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Ladies of Horror Flash Project – #Horror #author Christina Sng @ChristinaSng @darc_nina #LoH #fiction

Posted on July 25, 2021 by Nina D'Arcangela

The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!


Image_03_July2021The Carnival
by Christina Sng

The carnival was closed
But the monsters remained—
Sitting in the shadows
Waiting for the stragglers,
The lost, the homeless.
They waited for Yelena
Who stayed out
To avoid her father
Even when her friends
Reluctantly left her
As the sun slowly sank
Into shadows.
She felt safer at the carnival
Than at home,
Even with the monsters,
Even with the shadows.
She stayed quietly
Until she melded
Into the metal plates
That made up the rides,
The fairy floss machines
Rich with rainbow color,
Sugar speckles splattered
Around the enclosure,
Giant stuffed animals
Lined up as prizes,
Smiling, happy,
Exuding sheer joy.
The tarot cards
And the crystal balls
Telling a version
Of her future that shone—
These were the pulsing
Heart of the carnival
While the monsters
Folded between shadows
Were its teeth, its maw,
Its flesh, and its stomach.
Yelena seeped
Into the shadows,
Becoming one of them.
Now, no one could touch her.
No more beatings,
No more screaming.
Here, she was safe.
And here, she was powerful.
Fiction © Copyright Christina Sng
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com.

line_separator2

More from Christina Sng:

A Collection of Nightmares

Hold your screams and enter a world of seasonal creatures, dreams of bones, and confessions modeled from open eyes and endless insomnia. Christina Sng’s A Collection of Nightmares is a poetic feast of sleeplessness and shadows, an exquisite exhibition of fear and things better left unsaid. Here are ramblings at the end of the world and a path that leads to a thousand paper cuts at the hands of a skin carver. There are crawlspace whispers, and fresh sheets gently washed with sacrifice and poison, and if you’re careful in this ghost month, these poems will call upon the succubus to tend to your flesh wounds and scars.
These nightmares are sweeping fantasies that electrocute the senses as much as they dull the ache of loneliness by showing you what’s hiding under your bed, in the back of your closet, and inside your head. Sng’s poems dissect and flower, her autopsies are delicate blooms dressed with blood and syntax. Her words are charcoal and cotton, safe yet dressed in an executioner’s garb.
Dream carefully.
You’ve already made your bed.
The nightmares you have now will not be kind.
And you have no one to blame but yourself.

Available on Amazon!

line_separator2

Posted in Authors, Dark Fiction, flash fiction, FREE, Horror, Ladies of Horror, Writing Project | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Ladies of Horror Flash Project – #Horror #author Sonora Taylor @sonorawrites @Darc_Nina #LoH #fiction

Posted on July 24, 2021 by Nina D'Arcangela

The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Image_02_July2021

The Untended Field
by Sonora Taylor

We’ve all seen the untended field on the side of the road. We wonder if it’s truly wild, or if it’s merely an extension of a long-forgotten farm. We imagine the farmer sitting on their porch, sipping lemonade and watching the sun set over rows of golden grasses blowing in the wind.
It’s easier to imagine the farmer than it is to think the field grows wild and perfect on its own. For if the field can take care of itself, what else can it do on its own?
Can the field till its own soil, be born anew with its fertilizer of choice? Does it close in on people exploring its vastness so that they can never get out, even when they walk in a straight line like their well-meaning elders told them to do to avoid getting lost?
Can a field survive with only rain, sun, and soil? Or does the soil need the bones of any living thing to maintain its flourish? People no longer turn to dust the way they once did thanks to coffins and urns. Maybe the field in its untamed state seeks to tame those who would dare to not follow their end of the bargain.
All it takes is a stone out of place, a hole supposedly dug by a gopher, for people running wild in a field to fall and crumple beneath the golden grasses, to quietly return to dirt and let the grasses flourish in their stead.
It’s all it takes. It’s all the field wants.
But it’s easier to think the field is owned by someone, a benevolent farmer as opposed to the flora that will do what it takes to survive.
Go ahead. Believe it.
The field is waiting either way.
Fiction © Copyright Sonora Taylor
Image courtesy of  Pixabay.com

line_separator2

More from Sonora Taylor:

109145576_574942933170007_3972308087135148283_nSeeing Things

Abby Gillman has discovered that with growing up, there comes a lot of blood. But nothing prepares her for the trail of blood she sees in the hallway after class – or the ghost she finds crammed inside an abandoned locker.

No one believes Abby, of course. She’s only seeing things. As much as Abby wants to be believed, what she wants more is to know why she can suddenly see the dead. Unfortunately, they won’t tell her. In fact, none of them will speak to her. At all.

Abby leaves for her annual summer visit to her uncle’s house with tons of questions. The visit will give her answers the ghosts won’t – but she may not like what she finds out.

Available on Amazon!

line_separator2

Posted in Authors, Dark Fiction, flash fiction, FREE, Horror, Ladies of Horror, Writing Project | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Ladies of Horror Flash Project – #Horror #author K.R. Morrison @KRMorrison2 @darc_nina #LoH #fiction

Posted on July 24, 2021 by Nina D'Arcangela

The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Image_01_July2021

Anti-Muse
K.R. Morrison

She’d found the old typewriter at a dingy antique store in a more questionable part of the French Quarter. The proprietor had let it go for a song. It was one of her prized possessions.
Now she was pounding away at the keyboard, finishing up what she thought would be the Steamy Romance of the Century. No computer for her—she preferred the labor of hitting the keys of her old Royal. Fast enough to keep up with her mind, but not so fast that the keys would stick across the typewriter ribbon. That took finesse.
She was nearing the finish line. After “He ran to her outstretched arms,” however, she had to screech to a stop.
No maudlin, everyday finish would suffice. She got up and went to the kitchen for a cup of tea as she thought about what kind of fantastic finish she would give her best-seller.
Upon her return to her desk, she sat down and flexed her fingers, ready to begin again. A perfect ending had occurred to her somewhere between the teakettle and the hallway, and she was eager to get it down on paper before it could take flight.
To her dismay, however, she saw that the keys had somehow gotten tangled up in the ribbon. She was perplexed; surely, she had not whacked the keys as she had gotten up for her refreshment?
As she gently untangled them, a line of type caught her eye. It was not one she had written:
“And he bashed her head in.”
Her heart leaped into her throat. Who had written this? She looked around the room in alarm.
The doors were locked, the windows were not open. If there was someone here causing mischief, where were they?
“Hmmm,” she thought to herself, “maybe I was just not paying attention, and the anti-Muse kicked in. The one that doesn’t want me to finish this.”
She opened her desk drawer and searched for the typewriter eraser she just knew was in there somewhere. As she bent her head to the task, she suddenly heard something that froze her where she sat.
Tap. Tap. Taptaptap.
She looked up, and could only stare as the keys pounded out a line, slowly and deliberately, on their own. No hand to the board, no presence behind her.
The line read: “Her head came down on the keyboard…,” then the keys stopped their sinister clacking.
A smash against the back of her head, and darkness eternal.
They keys tapped out one more line.
“And then she died. The End.”
Fiction © Copyright K.R. Morrison
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com.

line_separator2

Posted in Authors, Dark Fiction, flash fiction, FREE, Horror, Ladies of Horror, Women in Horror Month, Writing Project | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

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

Posted on July 23, 2021 by Nina D'Arcangela

The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Image_04_July2021Rebirth
by Ela Lourenco

Born of the very bowels of the Earth,
Woken from my slumber near the molten core
By the death throes of mankind above
I inched my way upwards towards the skies
Patient, though my travels lasted a millenia
I am one, I am many – a thousand beings
In one mind.
I rose up summoned by a pain so deep
The very Earth echoed its cries
I broke out of the dank soil
To find… nothing
Nothing but a concrete jungle
Abandoned, derelict
Silence blanketed the Earth
Not a creature remained
And now the only life
Is mine…
Fiction © Copyright Ela Lourenco
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com.
line_separator2

More from Ela Lourenco:

awakeningDragon 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!

line_separator2

Posted in Authors, Dark Fiction, flash fiction, FREE, Horror, Ladies of Horror, Writing Project | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

The Ladies of Horror Flash Project – #Horror #author Suzanne Madron @suzannemadron @Darc_Nina #LoH #fiction

Posted on July 23, 2021 by Nina D'Arcangela

The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Image_03_July2021

In the Off-Season
by Suzanne Madron

She walked along the beach and breathed the salt air. It was quiet now, after the throngs of tourists had fled back to their inland lives. She preferred the abandoned beach and the cold-wind portent of another brutal coastal winter. She liked the hollow sound of her boots kicking over the warped planks of the boardwalk.
The old amusement park was a sleeping skeleton against the sunset, the girders of rollercoaster and ferris wheel dark and silent, along with the screams of fear and joy that usually accompanied the lights. The gaping maw of the funhouse lurked dark behind large teeth and too-wide eyes.
Laura.
She stopped and turned to look back at the funhouse. One of the large hand-painted fingers motioned for her to enter its mouth as the swirling tunnel began to move, though the lights were still dark.
Come inside.
She shook her head but her feet moved her in the direction of the cartoon face until she stood at the steps leading to the spinning entry tunnel. She stared up into the giant eyes, defiant. “I have something to do before I go,” she said. She had to raise her voice over the grinding noise of the machinery moving the tunnel. “The tide is coming in.”
We are hungry.
“I will be back.”
She sighed with relief as she felt the urge to enter the tunnel leave her and she was able to walk away. It was getting harder and harder to fight it, she realized. It would be harder still when the cold frost of winter had settled over the beaches and boardwalks and the buildings lost their lustre.
But not the funhouse. The funhouse was just as pristine as the day it opened in 1900. Her father had run the attraction for decades, feeding tourists into that hungry, laughing mouth until the day he had walked into it to save her from being its next meal in 2016.
Since then, the carnival – the entire town, really – had fallen out of favor with the tourist crowd. Too many missing people and too many drugs. She couldn’t blame the drug users, though. They understood what had been keeping the town alive for 116 years and now the one man who kept the beast in check was gone.
She scanned the empty beach and boardwalk and sighed. She knew the day would come when she would need to walk into that tunnel for the good of the town, but she had been good at finding tourists who would take her place. It was the only way to keep the thing in the funhouse from escaping its bonds and unleashing it on the town.
She removed a letter from her pocket and dropped it into the nearest mailbox on the boardwalk. She hoped her daughter would be able to accept the responsibility outlined in the note and accept that after so many decades, her mother’s time had finally come.
Fiction © Copyright Suzanne Madron
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

line_separator2

More from Suzanne Madron:

For Sale or Rent

The house across the street seems to go on the market every few months, but this time nothing about the sale is normal, including the new owners. No sooner has the for sale sign come down and the neighborhood is thrown into a Lovecraftian nightmare and the only way to find out is to attend the house warming party.

Available on Amazon!

line_separator2

Posted in Authors, Dark Fiction, flash fiction, FREE, Horror, Ladies of Horror, Writing Project | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

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

Posted on July 22, 2021 by Nina D'Arcangela

The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Image_02_July2021His Only Son
by Alina Măciucă

“I’m doing it for her mother,
 And for our only son.”
They were all starved,
And the god was ravenous, too.
He touched his daughter’s cheek
With his lips, briefly, fleetingly,
Almost in a kiss.

“Rain. Bring Rain.”

Crickets chanted to the beat
Of his heart,
On his way back home.
***
“We could sell some of our grain.
Summer’s stil draughty down south.”
She poured her man a pint of beer;
Their only son ate his home-made
Hamburger
With his elbows on the table.
Their daughter,
Shiny and chubby and happy, peered
From a photo glued to the fridge door. 
***
“I’m doing the right thing,
And she knows it.”
The god never bothered
To pass judgement.
“Rain. Bring Rain.”
He squeezed her hand,
He was almost compassionate.
But the god didn’t even
Wait for the farmer to leave. 
“Our son will get out
Of this place.
Our only son.”
***
“Don’t you miss mum?”
Asked their only son.
“I do.” The farmer kept walking.
“It’s just the two of us now.”
“It is.” The farmer knelt before
A monolith which cast no shadow.
“My son. My only son.”
The god crept out and withered
The farmer as the sun withered
Their wheat.
And then the god, fat as a tick,
Crept into his son, his only son,
And took the road down south.
Fiction © Copyright Alina Măciucă
Image courtesy of  Pixabay.comline_separator2

More about Alina Măciucă:

meblurAlina 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.

 

line_separator2

Posted in Authors, Dark Fiction, flash fiction, FREE, Horror, Ladies of Horror, Writing Project | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Ladies of Horror Flash Project – #Horror #author Naching T. Kassa @NachingKassa @darc_nina #LoH #fiction

Posted on July 22, 2021 by Nina D'Arcangela

The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Image_01_July2021

The Demon and Miss Tumblety
by Naching T. Kassa
Gladys Tumblety stomped down the stairs to her basement retreat and lit the candle on the table. The flame flickered to life, casting its azure glow over the room and illuminating the collection of bottles on the shelf nearby. 
Gladys poured the contents of each bottle into the white china bowl on the table. She mixed the mélange of blood, hair, and saliva with a wooden spoon, then poured it into the center of the pentagram she’d painted on the floor. 
“Rise, Azazel!” she shrieked.
A curtain of orange flame rose before her. It hung in the air for several seconds before dropping to the floor, revealing a scarlet-colored, horned demon. His left horn seemed to be shorter than the other and the point had been blunted. He crossed his arms and arched an eyebrow.
“Another bad day at work, Gladys?” he asked.
“Yes,” she replied, pacing before him. “Mr. Roundley demanded I pay him the rent in advance today.”
“Sounds awful.”
“And, if that weren’t enough, he told me he was raising my rent. I have to pay $10 a month more now. That’s $50 a month!”
“Dreadful. Awful.”
“I really despise that man. I wish he would just drop dead.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“Didn’t you hear me, Azazel. I want that man to drop dead.”
“Are you sure this time?”
“As sure as I’ll ever be. Make him drop dead right now!”
Azazel raised a hand in the air.
“Wait!” Gladys cried. “Wait, no don’t kill him. I want him to suffer.”
Azazel yawned. “How?”
“Hot coals on his bottom. I want him to feel as though his buns are burning.”
Azazel raised a hand.
“Wait! No, no hot coals. Something worse. Bad breath. I want his breath to smell like the devil’s own flatulence.”
Azazel stared at her.
“Azazel, what are you waiting for?”
“You. You’re going to stop me.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Yes, you are. I’ll raise my hand to snap my fingers and you’ll tell me to wait. You always tell me to wait.”
“I do not.”
“Yes, you do. I have been your personal demon for over a year, and you never let me do anything.”
“That’s not true. What about Lucy Faversham? I told you to cover her face with pimples.”
“And before I could do it, you decided it was too mean. You told me to stop, and you sent me away.”
“I did.”
“Yes. Just like you did with Chelsea Bellingham, Clara Worth, Jon Hamilton, and every other person on this earth who’s attracted your ire. You’re using me to sublimate, Gladys, and I’m not going to take it anymore.”
“You mean, I haven’t used you for anything?”
“Well, I’ve been a sounding board, but that’s about it. Let’s face it, Gladys. You just don’t have a mean bone in your body. I’m sorry to say this, but you’re a crushing bore.”
“I’m sorry.”
The demon sighed. “You know, this deal just isn’t working out. I’m going to have to return your soul.”
“Oh, no. Please, don’t do that. I’ll find a use for you. I really will.”
“I’m sorry, Gladys. It’s not you it’s me.”
“What am I going to do? I get so angry. Summoning you is the only way I can alleviate my anger.”
“How about we get something better. Not only will I give you back your soul, I’ll also give you this gift.”
Azazel waved his hand in the air and a typewriter materialized on the table. Gladys clasped her hands together, and admired the pristine keys and unused ribbon.
“For me?”
Azazel waved his hand at the shelf of bottles. They vanished, only to be replaced by paper and fresh typewriter ribbon. 
“Sit at the table, Gladys,” he said.
“Alright.”
Paper, white as bone, appeared in the machine.
“This is not your usual typewriter,” Azazel said. “The paper was formed from the bones of Shakespeare, the ribbon is soaked in the blood of Poe. The keys…well…they’re all my own.” He pointed to his left horn and the blunt point.
“What do I do with it?”
“You are a natural storyteller, Gladys. I think you’ll figure out what to do with it.” He turned to go, then halted. “Just so you know, if you decide you don’t like the story, you must burn the page.”
“Burn it? Why?”
He grinned. “You’ll see. Goodbye, Gladys. Don’t take this the wrong way, but I hope I never see you again.”
He vanished in a puff of smoke.
Gladys straightened her skirt and adjusted the cameo on her high collar. She turned to the typewriter and her fingers found the appropriate keys.
“Mr. Roundley was a wicked fellow,” she typed. “Because of this his bottom was scorched by hot coals and—”
A scream sounded from upstairs forcing Gladys to her feet. 
“My bottom!” The male voice cried. “It’s on fire!”
“Oh dear!” Gladys cried. 
“Miss Tumblety! Miss Tumblety, help! I need water! Water right away!”
Gladys pulled the sheet from the typewriter and held it above the candle flame. She paused.
“Miss Tumblety, please! Water!”
“Just a minute, Mr. Roundley,” she said pulling the sheet away and dashing up the stairs. “Perhaps, we can make a deal.”
Fiction © Copyright Naching T. Kassa
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com
 

line_separator2

More from Naching T. Kassa:

ab

Arterial Bloom

Lush. Brutal.

Beautiful. Visceral.

Crystal Lake Publishing proudly presents Arterial Bloom, an artful juxtaposition of the magnificence and macabre that exist within mankind. Each tale in this collection is resplendent with beauty, teeth, and heart.

Edited by the Bram Stoker Award-winning writer Mercedes M. Yardley, Arterial Bloom is a literary experience featuring sixteen stories from some of the most compelling dark authors writing today.

With a foreword by HWA Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient Linda D. Addison, you are invited to step inside and let the grim flowers wind themselves comfortably around your bones.

Available on Amazon!

 

line_separator2

Posted in Authors, Dark Fiction, flash fiction, FREE, Horror, Ladies of Horror, Writing Project | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments