The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

The Powers of Belief
by Marge Simon

In the tunnel under the Great River, Mikal runs for his life.

“There is no escape. Protestors will be shot. Repair to the nearest exit to be counted.” The voice from the wall speakers is flat and impersonal. Twenty minutes ago, a shot hit him between his shoulders, knocking him to the ground. Only a moment to regain his senses, and he’s up and running again, his violin case bumping against his back.

He is needed, only that fact drives him on. When he gets to the other shore, he will find his family and friends. With his music, he will bring their people together, to unite against the enemy. Even to heal the wounded, for his sister swore his talent had such power and he’d grown to believe it. Townsfolk laughingly called him Mikal the Magnificent. But they were always kind to him.

The tunnel proves much longer than he’d thought. When his legs refuse to move another step, he continues in a crawl. Suddenly, a waft of sweet fresh air, the opening at last! He rises and steps shakily out into a pile of rubble. Glancing upward, he sees the heavens, breathes in the crisp cool air. Distant flames glow along the horizon. Quickly he unbuckles the case and opens it, already thinking of the melody he will play first. It must be urgent, high and penetrating. Surely it will be heard for miles, such is the silence. But something is very wrong. He gasps, sitting back on his heels. Before him is a mass of splintered wood and strings. The shot had found a mark after all. There would be no heroics, no convoking notes.

Despite the fires, it’s very still. No sign of a living soul; the eradication the enemy had threatened was complete. All this way he’d come, carrying a parcel of useless wood and believing he could make a difference. He slumped over the crushed remains in the case and wept. Finally, he slept. A soft wind stirred his hair.  “You made a difference to us, Mikal. We believe in you.” It was his sister’s voice coming from a very long way off. When he woke, he felt much better. He told himself he was still needed, so he would survive. First, he must get a new violin somewhere. Surely if he walked far enough, he would find one. Yes, that’s what he must do.

And the night wind rose to soothe him. And the distant fires burned on.

Fiction © Copyright Marge Simon
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com 

More from Marge Simon:

The Demeter Diaries
by Marge Simon and‎ Bryan D. Dietrich

‘The Demeter Diaries’ is a record of love and longing and the inevitable horror that arises between the minds of Mina Harker and Vlad Dracula as they court one another in waking dreams. The dialogue, written in both poetry and prose, imagines a psychic connection that develops between the two even before Dracula arrives in England. As Dracula makes his way from Transylvania to Whitby on the doomed ship Demeter, the two would-be lovers transmit their thoughts across the waves and lands that separate them, alternately wooing and terrifying one another with the idea of love eternal and all the dark delicacies necessary to ensure it. Front cover art by Wendy Saber Core, interior illustrations by Luke Spooner.

Available on Amazon!

The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

The Red Cap’s Passenger
by Marge Simon

On a Pullman train in the olden times, a dark-skinned man in a red cap is at work. Wearing immaculate white gloves and a beautiful smile, he helps a woman on board. She flaunts a ratty fox stole, her eyebrows plucked and penciled on a powdered canvas of wrinkles. Through lips firmly pursed in a perpetual scowl, she calls him boy.

 In the dining car with white tablecloths and shining cutlery there is an extensive menu with elegant service by a personable brown man. But none of it is to her liking: the knives and forks aren’t clean enough, there are crumbs on the carpet, her soup is too hot, her tea too weak, and in a strident voice she calls the waiter boy. In the smoking car, where passengers engage in convivial conversations, she intrudes her opinions, drinks too many Manhattan’s and calls the barman boy. When she chokes on a cherry pit, no one comes rushing to her aid. A voodoo spell, a shaman’s curse? There’s no evidence to tell, but her time upon this mortal coil expires.

A Redcap lays her body in a birth. He buttons up the heavy curtains, respectful of the newly dead – a woman damned to dreams of serving churly passengers with unaccustomed smiles.

Fiction © Copyright Marge Simon
Image courtesy of Rie Sheridan Rose. 

More from Marge Simon:

The Demeter Diaries
by Marge Simon and‎ Bryan D. Dietrich

‘The Demeter Diaries’ is a record of love and longing and the inevitable horror that arises between the minds of Mina Harker and Vlad Dracula as they court one another in waking dreams. The dialogue, written in both poetry and prose, imagines a psychic connection that develops between the two even before Dracula arrives in England. As Dracula makes his way from Transylvania to Whitby on the doomed ship Demeter, the two would-be lovers transmit their thoughts across the waves and lands that separate them, alternately wooing and terrifying one another with the idea of love eternal and all the dark delicacies necessary to ensure it. Front cover art by Wendy Saber Core, interior illustrations by Luke Spooner.

Available on Amazon!