All I remember is dark eyes. There was a knock at my door. The next day I awoke on the lounge floor, weak and sensitive to the light. I crawled to my bed and collapsed, falling into a black dream. When I awoke again, it was dark outside. I sat up slowly. My neck hurt on my right side. Standing up, the room spun around, but I managed to get to the kitchen where I gulped down water. Then there was another knock at my door and I couldn’t stop myself from opening it. Again, there were dark eyes.
Joanne Fisher
Word count: 99
This was written with the prompt someone dark eyed provided by the Carrot Ranch April 17 Story Challenge.
The old woman caught a glimpse of a hideous evil beast in her mirror. Panicked, she pressed the alarm. As she was a prominent citizen, the police took no time at all to respond. They searched her large mansion, but found nothing.
“We’ve looked everywhere ma’am, but can’t find any trace of this beast you saw.” The police chief informed her. “However we’ll leave a few officers here, just in case it returns.” The old woman nodded gratefully.
Once she was alone, she looked in the mirror again. The beast looked directly back at her.
Joanne Fisher
Word count: 99
This was written with the prompt the old lady and the beast provided by the Carrot Ranch April 10 Story Challenge.
The boat had been floating on the lake for some time now, with no sign of anyone on it. Jeff decided to investigate, for all he knew there may have been someone requiring help on it.
That late afternoon he steered his own boat towards it. When he reached the other boat, he called out, but there was no response. Laying anchor, he then jumped over to it. Again there was no sound of movement.
“Hello is anyone here? Do you need assistance?” Jeff called out. The boat remained deathly silent. Looking around on the top deck, he saw no evidence of recent life.
Opening the hatch to the lower deck, he again heard nothing. He closed the hatch after him and climbed down. There was a scream, and then silence.
Tiffany looked out over the water. She saw two boats floating beside each other. It seemed they had both been there for a while now. Strangeno one has investigated that, she thought.
Some of the larger tomes had runes etched onto their spines. I picked one out and, due to its heaviness, struggled to get it to the table only a few feet away. Opening it, I found it was written in Latin. It was obviously a grimoire of some kind. Somebody had collected spells and written them down in a neat hand. I put that book to one side with the intention for further study.
Another one I picked out had a strange symbol on the spine I had never seen before. All its pages were written in similar types of symbols. I wasn’t sure where this work had come from, though I had travelled far. Using my magic, I was able to interpret some of the symbols. It seemed to be a history of a civilisation I did not know of. On one page was a spell that opened a portal, maybe it led to this lost and forgotten society.
Some time passed while I studied these books. After a few hours I decided to head back upstairs to have a word with the librarian, and maybe come back another day. Once I got back up the stairs, I found the solid black door was locked shut. I was about to knock on the door, when I overheard some voices. One was the old librarian, and the other had a younger and sterner voice.
“Where is this witch now?” Asked the sterner voice.
“She went down to the cellar to look at the grimoires. I’ve locked the door, so she can’t get out.” The librarian replied.
“We need to keep her down there until I can round up all the others. Keep a watch on the door until I return. We need to find out why she is here.” Then I heard heavy footsteps walk away and go out the front door.
I wasn’t technically a witch, so I took offence with that term. My knowledge and power far exceeded what is generally considered witchcraft. I silently went back down the stairs. Once back in the cellar, I conjured up a bag and grabbed the tomes I had been looking at. Sadly I couldn’t take everything, as there was only so much space available and it was inadvisable to store too much in extra dimensional spaces, especially if it was magical. I looked regretfully at all the books still on the shelves knowing it was unlikely I would ever see them again.
Once I was finished pilfering what tomes I could, I went back up the stairs. I said a word, and the door before me exploded outwards. I walked through the doorway to see the librarian looking shocked. He stared at me in horror.
“What are you?” He asked while trembling before me.
Once he was dealt with, I walked to the front door. As soon as I had opened it, I saw a large crowd of people were already there. They saw me and surged towards the door, so I hurriedly closed it again and then barred it. I glimpsed a raised stake in the courtyard with a large amount of firewood around it and guessed what they intended to do with that. There were too many of them to deal with. If I had more time, I could have prepared something, but I was now in a hurry. Already they were pounding at the door and starting to break the windows. I retreated back to the cellar.
There were a combination of spells in the stonework of this building, which meant I couldn’t shift out of here as I intended. So I grabbed the tome I had been looking at earlier, and spoke the strange inhuman words to form a portal. Thankfully it worked, and a green haze began to form in front of me. As soon as I heard footsteps coming down the stairs, I walked through the haze and found myself in a pitch black circular room as if it had been hewed out of obsidian. I looked behind me to see the portal was gone, and so was the book I had been holding. Walking around this room I could find no discernible exit. Any magic I tried reverberated back to me in an unpleasant way. I was effectively trapped. Maybe this is what they had intended for me to do all along…
Not sure how I came to write this story. I think I just had an image of a library with shelves of old books. The main character intrigued me. Someone who may or may not be human who’s able to travel through dimensions searching for magical artefacts. I may write another story about once I’m able to devise a way to get them out of the trap I put them in…
I often go back and forth. One time I found myself in a small town. I wasn’t sure of the name, the country, or even the year.
On the edge of the town I found a mostly abandoned building that apparently was their library. When I walked in, the musty smell of books, and apparently the people that read them, confronted me. All the books seemed old and bound in leather. A few people were perusing the shelves. I went to the front desk. There sat a decrepit old man with long white hair. He looked up at me mystified.
“Can I help you miss?” He asked.
“I was wondering where you keep the really old books.” I stated. He looked at me surprised.
“What do you mean?” His perplexed face became a mass of wrinkles.
“I research the occult, and was hoping you might have something that would interest me.” He started nodding to my words.
“You should have a look in our vault. That’s where we keep those sorts of books.” He told me as he slowly got up. Due to his posture, he was slightly bent when standing. “You must follow me.” I followed and he led me to solid black door. He got out some keys from his pocket and slowly put a large key into the lock, his hands shaking all the while. After an indeterminable time of standing there waiting for him to try unlock the door, he finally managed to open it. Beyond the door were some steps leading down into darkness. He gave me a lantern, and then he went down the stairs, and I followed him again.
The further down we went, the mustier the smell became. He led me into a cellar that was lined with shelves of books mostly bound in black leather.
“Thank you.” I said. I placed the lantern on a table that was in the centre of the room.
“I’ll leave you to it.” He said, then he wearily went back up the steps.
I went over to look at the shelves. Some of these books were ancient. When I touched one, my hand recoiled, for I knew the feel of human skin, even after it had been turned into leather…
“I’ve got to go!” She urgently cried. The bells were tolling. She ran off leaving one of her glass slippers behind. The Prince picked it up and ran after her.
“Wait!” He called out. Unexpectedly, he caught up with her. She stopped and turned around, regarding him with her dark eyes. “You’re the most beautiful young woman I’ve ever seen, why do you run?”
“My stepmother doesn’t let me go to dances, because after midnight is when I feed.” She answered. She suddenly lunged at the Prince and bit his neck. She was so hungry…
“Well Cinders, you’ve really outdone yourself this time. You’ve drained the Prince!” One of her sisters stated once they found her kneeling over the body of the Prince with his blood all down her dress.
“If only you could control yourself.” The other said. She sighed. “We’re going to have to move again.”
Joanne Fisher
This was originally a prompt response, but the story grew too long. I already have another response to the same prompt, which should appear shortly.
There was a knock on my door. I opened the door to find Natalie standing there. I didn’t like her very much. She always did her best to belittle me to make feel like I was completely useless and a lost cause. Still, I had invited her to come over.
“Hi Natalie.” I said with as much enthusiasm I could muster.
“Hi Jane.” she said smiling. “I don’t think I’ve ever been to your home before. I didn’t realise it was so small, but I guess it suits you to live somewhere so simple and plain.” I smiled at back at her.
“Come in.” I said warmly. She followed while looking around for any flaw or imperfection she could comment on later. I led her to the living room. We both sat down on chairs facing each other. She looked out the window to the back garden.
“I see you’ve tried to do some gardening. I guess there’s not much you can do with that small space, not like my place where there’s so much room.”
“Yeah I just let it grow.” I admitted. She nodded her head as though I was admitting I was a complete failure.
“I remember you telling me you lived with a monster. So, have you broken up with them yet?” She asked. “Relationships can be so difficult. I’m lucky really, I’ve been happily married for years now.”
“The monster’s not my partner. I live with an actual monster, you know, large and furry with claws and sharp teeth.” I explained. Natalie looked at me like I had gone crazy.
“I see.” She said slowly. “Are you being serious?”
“Totally.”
“And is the monster here now?”
“They live in the back room.”
“So you’re not afraid of this monster eating you?” She asked.
“Nah, we have an agreement.” I replied.
“I see.” She said disbelievingly while staring at me in case I made a sudden movement in her direction.
“Coffee?” I asked.
“That would be nice.” She replied with a forced smile.
I went to the kitchen to grind some coffee, while there, I suddenly heard screaming come from the living room. As long as I brought the monster something to eat occasionally then we were cool and they let me live here. It was the monster’s house after all…
I found her grave and started digging. Tonight I had decided to exhume the body of my dead girlfriend Amy. I had to know if her body was still in that wooden casket. I had serious doubts that she was…
Last night I had awoken in the middle of the night, and there she was staring at me through my bedroom window. She looked pale, but was smiling. I jumped out of my bed and ran outside, but there was no sign of her. I thought I could have been seeing things, having just come out of a dream, but a part of me was sure that she had been there, it wasn’t just wishful thinking from grief. The next morning I resolved to go to the cemetery and dig up her body. When the evening came I loaded the car up, drove to the cemetery, and waited until it was dark enough.
After what seemed an age of digging, I finally struck the lid of the coffin. I cleared away the dirt and slowly opened it, and found it was empty. I couldn’t believe it. If she wasn’t here, then where was she? I climbed back up to the ground and sat on the edge of the hole I had just dug. I was breathing heavily and felt more tired than I had ever been before.
“Hello my love.” Said a familiar voice behind me. I turned around and there she was looking exactly how I saw her the night before. I felt lost in both bewilderment and wonder.
“Amy.” I eventually said.
“Katie.” She replied, smiling again.
“How did you survive? I thought you were dead.” I asked her.
“I didn’t survive, my love. I am dead.” She told me.
“I can’t live without you.” Once I said that she smiled again and started advancing on me.
“Then join me in death, and we’ll be together forever.” She sat down beside me.
“Okay.” I consented. She put her arms around me and bit my neck. It hurt more than I thought it would. She sat there drinking my blood and I felt my life ebbing away until everything went black.
*
“What do you make of it?” One investigator asked.
“It seems as though last night she dug up the body of her dead partner and then killed herself with a self-inflicted neck wound.” Said the other.
“That must have been a horrible way to go.”
“That’s grief for you.” The other investigator nodded in agreement as they both watched the woman’s body being wheeled away in a body bag.
I smacked him in the head with the baseball bat I had found. He fell over and dropped his axe. His mask, however, stayed in place. I so wanted to lift that mask off to see who it was, but I was also terrified to get nearer to him. So I dropped my bat and ran to the fence instead, then started to climb up. I knew I had to get out of here.
That thing had already killed most of my friends, and I wondered whether I was the final girl who defeats him in the end and lives to fight another day, or was I the one who almost escapes, but doesn’t? It was raining heavily now with occasional bursts of lightning and thunder in the distance. My hands and feet slipped on the chain link fence as I tried to climb up, and then suddenly, I felt his vice-like ice cold hands on my right leg as he pulled me back down. I landed abruptly on the ground, and before I could get up, I saw he was now towering over me with his axe ready to swing…
Joanne Fisher
This was a piece of flash fiction I wrote a while ago. I decided to rewrite some of it and republish it, as I thought it could have been done slightly better. I do have a liking for slasher films….
joanne the geek 