Horror Prompts’ Gillian Church is hosting a horror drabble challenge this January: 31 prompts for 31 creepy tales throughout January that clock in at around 100 words.
The Prompt: Soup
The Submission: Chrissie balked when her mother slid a steaming hot bowl of chicken soup to her.
“Go on,” she said, handing her a spoon. “Eat up.”
Chrissie sniffed and rolled her eyes. What was there to eat? It was a bowl of bubbling liquid, not a roast beef sandwich. “Do I have to?” she whined, her voice nasally.
“Don’t start with me, young lady!” her mother snapped. “If you want to get better, you need some chicken soup now get it down you so you can take your pill!”
Chrissie huffed and reluctantly began spooning the dish into her chapped lips. The soup was hot and gooey; it reminded her of gravy, another dish she couldn’t stand, but she’d been getting progressively worse ever since her stomach had first churned and she’d spent the morning puking so hard that streams of blood were laced in her bile.
“That’s my good girl,” her mother smiled, the small bottle of rat poison hidden behind her back.
What did you think to the prompt for today’s drabble challenge? Did you submit anything for it? Have you ever written any flash fiction before? I’d love to know what you think to my snippets and writing prompts, so feel free to sign up and let me know what you think below or leave a comment on my Instagram page. You can also follow Gillian Church to take part in her Weekly Writing Prompt challenge.
Horror Prompts’ Gillian Church is hosting a horror drabble challenge this January: 31 prompts for 31 creepy tales throughout January that clock in at around 100 words.
The Prompt: Carnivorous
The Submission: Deep beneath the bustling aisles of the supermarket, red lights strobed; a klaxon wailed; and the shredded bodies of scientists and technicians were strewn across the narrow hallways. The clinical white of the walls was streamed with blood, etched with claw marks, as the hulking, salivating, carnivorous thing brutalised its path to freedom. Its claws, long and powerful, rendered flesh from bone; its jowls, leaking acidic slobber, growled lowly as it turned its many pulsating red eyes towards the cylindrical elevator. Somewhere, at the back of its primal mind, beneath the agonising urge to devour, it knew this was the path to freedom and it charged ahead in a mindless rage, shrugging off bullets and taser shots from the few remaining guards. One dropped in a heap, steaming intestines spilling on the floor, and the last the creature launched into the pod, crushing his skull and tearing his spine out through his back as the elevator dinged. The door closed and the monstrous patchwork chimera of a beast stewed as the lights blinked past faster and the smell of fresh meat grew stronger…
What did you think to the prompt for today’s drabble challenge? Did you submit anything for it? Have you ever written any flash fiction before? I’d love to know what you think to my snippets and writing prompts, so feel free to sign up and let me know what you think below or leave a comment on my Instagram page. You can also follow Gillian Church to take part in her Weekly Writing Prompt challenge.
Horror Prompts’ Gillian Church is hosting a horror drabble challenge this January: 31 prompts for 31 creepy tales throughout January that clock in at around 100 words.
The Prompt: Cats
The Submission: My submission for this prompt was to perform a reading from Chapter Five of my short story Cat’s Eye, which is available as an ebook and in the collection Whispers from the Black. What follows is the excerpt that I performed on my Instagram page…
Anna hated thunderstorms; it was probably the one thing in the entire world she was afraid of. And yet, after I had done my best to console her in bed, she had slipped off into her usual deep sleep, and had still been dead to the world when I’d jerked awake shortly after midnight.
Suddenly wide awake thanks to the dual cacophony of the falling rain and Anna’s snoring, I flipped over onto my front and loaded up the camera app to check on Bert.
He was sitting on the windowsill and staring out the window at the rainswept garden beyond, seemingly transfixed by the tumultuous raindrops. He barely moved but for small twitches of his ears and shoulders but seemed intensely agitated. Poor little guy, I thought, and considered heading downstairs to let him in. Surely one night wouldn’t hurt, after all…?
A flicker of lightning briefly illuminated the screen, followed swiftly by the crackling grumble of thunder, and Bert flinched noticeably. His ears plastered back against his head, and he started crying at the window, then he reared up and pawed at it furiously.
At first, I thought he was trying to attack the raindrops; I’d seen him try a similar trick before, but he’d always grown quickly bored and it had never been so…intense. He hunched down and hissed, scratched and scrabbled at the glass, and paced along the windowsill, his ears still flat against his head. He dropped to the floor and seemed to be oddly concerned by the back door. He sniffed at it and then suddenly jerked backwards, as if burned. He hunkered down, his thick, fluffy tail wagging to and fro, and looked ready to pounce. He batted furiously at something I couldn’t make out on the camera’s limited visibility, and then he padded backwards, back arched, and I’d seen enough.
With Anna still snoring away, I swept out of bed and downstairs as the thunder rumbled outside. I switched on the lights and grabbed the keys off the kitchen hook, disturbed by Bert’s frantic growling and hissing. It was like a long, low moan that unsettled me almost as much as his odd behaviour.
I pulled open the conservatory door and flicked the light switch; a dim, orange light flickered to life and illuminated the conservatory, and Bert gratefully dashed past me and into the kitchen. I’d shut the door into the rest of the house behind me, and he padded before it anxiously; his cute little face seemed to be swallowed up by his large, black irises.
“Mwrr!” he rumbled.
“Bert…” I soothed, bending slightly as I tentatively approached him. “What’s up, eh? What’s the matter, little man?”
I reached my hand out to him and he nuzzled it with some reluctance…and appreciation. I stroked his warm, soft fur both to comfort him and to check for any kind of injuries, but he seemed fine. A little riled up, but not hurt as far as I could tell.
I looked back into the conservatory, now bathed in an orange glow; the raindrops were viscous splatters on the windowpanes, and I could see a small amount of water had once again leaked in the corner of the pitiful extension.
There was a slick, black streak on the faded linoleum tiles.
Immediately, I cast an accusatory glance down at Bert; it wouldn’t be the first time he’d left his droppings on the floor, after all. He seemed to find the entire business of relieving himself to be uncouth, and often walked away before he was properly finished.
However, he simply stared up at me innocently enough. Wasn’t me! his face seemed to say.
I rose up with a wince as my knees popped and grabbed a handful of kitchen roll to clean up the mess, only to feel a sickening squelch as my bare foot came down on something slimy and sticky.
I looked down, sure that I had just stepped into Bert’s shit, and gagged as one of the other gross droppings slowly curled up.
Slugs! I heaved. Fuckin’ slugs!
There were two…no, three!…little black slugs slithering across the tiles, leaving a gooey slime trail in their wake. One slopped down from the bottom of the door and I could see that they had apparently managed to slip in through a small crack in the frame.
…and I’d stepped on one of them!
I uttered a disgusted cry and launched a frantic kick; the dirty little mollusc splattered against the door and began to slither down sickeningly. A shiver ran through me as I backpedalled into the kitchen, desperately rubbing my foot on the door mat to wipe off that revolting, slimy feel, and snatched the salt container out of the kitchen cupboard.
“Oh, you little fuckers!” I spat as I snapped open the spout and began indiscriminately dousing the slugs with table salt.
I hated slugs. The only things worse for me were frogs and toads, which were thankfully in short supply in built-up towns like Northward. Slugs and snails, though, those bastards were everywhere, especially in the wet spring months. My hatred of them stemmed back to my childhood when one nasty little bastard at school had first waved a gooey, chubby snail in my face and then thrown it at me. Luck was with me that day as the mollusc had hit my shirt, but I still remember the appalling feel of its slimy body through my top and the nauseating browny-yellow stain it left behind.
Ordinarily, I would retreat inside and have Anna take care of this problem, just as she would seek me out for comfort against the storm, but I didn’t want to wake her and I felt I needed to extract a measure of payback against the viscid monsters so I went at it with the salt, which basically dissolved their rancid little bodies on contact.
Soon, I stood there surrounded by five or six haphazard piles of salt, the shrivelling bodies of slugs bubbling beneath them. I tried to ignore the utter revulsion I felt at the sight (and feeling the residue on the bottom of my foot) and concentrated on watching for signs of any more of the little bastards. I spied a number of cobwebs up near the lightbulbs, the trapped corpses of flies wrapped up in stringy webs, and the dropping of leaking rain, but no more slugs to pit my salt against.
I uttered a shaky sigh and turned to grab Bert’s food and water – there was no way I was letting him sleep in here tonight after that – when a flash of lightning spooked a gasp out of me.
It lit up the dark, rainswept garden for the very briefest second, but a cold dread washed over me as I caught sight of something impossible amidst the splattering rain drops.
A face, scowling and leering, seemed to glare at me in place of my terrified reflection. The eyes were hollow, the features a mere suggestion through the rain, and yet I would swear on my mother’s life that it was the glowering face of something malevolent.
When the thunder rumbled in the lightning’s wake, the face appeared to snarl at me.
What did you think to the prompt for today’s drabble challenge? Did you submit anything for it? Have you ever written any flash fiction before? I’d love to know what you think to my snippets and writing prompts, so feel free to sign up and let me know what you think below or leave a comment on my Instagram page. You can also follow Gillian Church to take part in her Weekly Writing Prompt challenge.
Horror Prompts’ Gillian Church is hosting a horror drabble challenge this January: 31 prompts for 31 creepy tales throughout January that clock in at around 100 words.
The Prompt: Cannibal
The Submission: Trapped, with nowhere else to go, I hunkered down in the rusted shell of a battered Ford Escort and clamped by trembling, clammy hand to my mouth. Tears leaked down my hot, sweaty cheeks as I peered, wide eyed, through the shattered window.
The hunchbacked grotesque shambled over to a workbench littered with saws, tools, and other implements I could only vague guess at. Dad lay strewn across it, one arm hanging limply over the edge, a steady trickle of blood coming from the head wound he’d received.
The wretch grunted, slobbering, as he brought a massive, dull machete down onto my father’s limp body with all the grace and poise of a drunken lumberjack. The sound, the sickening crack of bone and squeaking snap of muscle, frayed the edges of my sanity and I had to dig my nails into my face to keep from screaming out, or coughing up bile.
It was when the malformed brute brought my father’s severed arm to his drooling, misshapen mouth that I finally looked away. I dropped to the footwell of the car, stifling my vomit and my cries, as the mutated cannibal gorged himself on my father’s remains…
What did you think to the prompt for today’s drabble challenge? Did you submit anything for it? Have you ever written any flash fiction before? I’d love to know what you think to my snippets and writing prompts, so feel free to sign up and let me know what you think below or leave a comment on my Instagram page. You can also follow Gillian Church to take part in her Weekly Writing Prompt challenge.
Horror Prompts’ Gillian Church is hosting a horror drabble challenge this January: 31 prompts for 31 creepy tales throughout January that clock in at around 100 words.
The Prompt: Hush
The Submission: Gaunt, weak, Richie lay in a mess of his own filth. Half-eaten rats were strewn across the filthy stone floor; his ankle, twisted and malformed with sickening grey-red bruises, throbbed, worsening the fever that ravaged his scrawny, sore-ridden body.
When the door creaked open and his captor wandered in, his naked skin glistening with sweat, his sausage-like fingers stroking his nether regions, Richie could only moan lowly. His breathing was shallow, clear bile dribbled from his cracked lips, as the man sauntered over to his feeble from.
“Hush now,” the drooling sadist cooed. “It’ll be over soon, I promise.”
Richie gulped, half choking on his own vomit, as a long, corroded needle pierced the skin of his neck and flooded his veins, bringing a nauseous grey to his blurred vision and numbing him to the feel of his captor’s oily touch.
What did you think to the prompt for today’s drabble challenge? Did you submit anything for it? Have you ever written any flash fiction before? I’d love to know what you think to my snippets and writing prompts, so feel free to sign up and let me know what you think below or leave a comment on my Instagram page. You can also follow Gillian Church to take part in her Weekly Writing Prompt challenge.
January sees the celebration of two notable dates in science-fiction history, with January 2 christened “National Science Fiction Day” to coincide with the birth date of the world renowned sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov, and HAL 9000, the sophisticated artificial intelligence of Arthur C. Clarke’s seminal 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), being created on 12 January. Accordingly, I’m spending every Sunday of January celebrating sci-fi in all its forms.
Story Title: Total Recall Published: May 2011 to August 2011 Writer: Vince Moore Artist: Cezar Razek
The Background: Total Recall (Verhoeven, 1990) was the blockbuster adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s 1966 short story, We Can Remember It for You Wholesale. Though an extremely expensive production, Total Recall was a critical success and widely regarded as one of the greatest science-fiction/action movies of all time. Total Recall’s success led to a number of adaptations, including a videogame and even a somewhat-tangentially-related television series, Total Recall 2070 (1999). While Minority Report (Spielberg, 2002) began life as a sequel to Total Recall, we wouldn’t see an actual follow-up to the sci-fi classic until over twenty years after the film’s release when Dynamite Entertainment acquired the license and produced this four-issue miniseries that picked up immediately where the film ended.
The Review: As mentioned, “Total Recall” begins right where the movie left off with no question about whether the film’s events were real or a delusion of hero Douglas Quaid; Mars is now home to a breathable atmosphere, effectively turning it into a smaller version of Earth. Quaid still struggles a bit with his sense of identity and self, since everything that has transpired is exactly as specified by Rekall, Inc., and, while he is grateful to be alive, he questions what is next for him now that his “Ego Trip” has reached its conclusion. While Mars administrator Vilos Cohaagen dead, his forces are still as loyal as ever and not only open fire on Quaid and his love interest (and member of the rebels), Melina, but also launch an all-out assault on the rebels of Venusville. There, they reunite with fellow rebels Thumbelina and Tony, that latter of which remains frosty and distrustful of Quaid (whom he continuously calls “Hauser”) and tries to attack him for his part in the death of the rebel leader, Kuato.
Quaid overcomes his identity crisis by becoming a mediator for peace.
Tired of all the fighting and discord, Quaid opts to go against Tony’s advice and dive into gunfire to appeal to Captain Everett in the hopes of brokering a truce between the warring forces. While Everett reluctantly agrees to stand his troops down on the proviso that Quaid can convince the rebels to do the same, he also reveals that, with Cohaagen and Kuato both dead, anarchy is breaking out all over Mars and that Cohaagen’s two children, Milos and Vila, are set to arrive and act as the new administrators of the planet. Milos and Vila vow to continue the mining of “Turbinium” (or “Terbinium”; both spellings are used at various points) and to improve the quality of life on Mars while still supporting the war effort back on Earth but it doesn’t take long before the killing and terrorist acts flare up again and the two are reinstating martial law across the planet. Additionally, the mutants of Venusville are suffering from an inexplicable, fatal disease of sorts that claims the life of Eva, the young mutant girl who told Quaid’s fortune in the film and who mutters, with her dying breath, a warning that “the Martians are coming”.
Mars gets new administrators, but conflict is rife as Quaid uncovers more Martian tech.
Tensions flare between Tony and Quaid once more over Eva’s death and the unexplained deaths of other mutants all across the Martian colony, which Tony is quick to pin on the Cohaagens. Quaid, however, speculates that Mars’ new atmosphere may be responsible and resists Tony’s rallying call for the rebels to take up arms against the administrators. Quaid’s pleas fall on stubborn, deaf, and frightened ears, however, and Mars is once again thrown into bloody and violent conflict, which only escalates when the Cohaagens respond by cutting off the water supply to know-rebel areas of the planet. The result is many people protest at being tarnished with the same brush, many other die, and the Mars military relentlessly hunt down and kill or arrest any rebels and mutants they come across. Quaid is, however, able to buy the rebels of Venusville time to get them to some kind of safety by pleading with one of the army’s sergeants (who know that Quaid, the muscle-bound action hero who never reloaded his gun once, was such a diplomat?) Still, Quaid is preoccupied with the continued warning about the “Martians” and heads back to the Pyramid Mines in hopes of finding some kind of answers.
The arrival of the Martians throws Mars into further chaos!
There, he discovers another gigantic, ancient Martian machine and a mutant named Q’d, who bares a striking similarity of Quaid and keeps repeating: “The Martians are coming. I must prepare the way”. Fearing what the machine could unleash if activated (much like Cohaagen in the film, it has to be said), Quaid attacks but is soundly overwhelmed by the man, who activates “the second machine” to “[preserve] the Mar on Mars” by covering it in vegetation and, in response, the Martians return to their planet. The Martians’ arrival causes a great deal of fear and concern amongst everyone on both Mars and Earth; still, M’s’s, the enigmatic spokesperson of the Martians’ assures them that they come in peace and that their intentions are to help humans and mutants alike find their place on Mars. Milos, however, is concerned that the moss is a threat to their position of power on the planet and his desire to seek revenge against Quaid for killing their father, with all the fighting and bloodshed merely being a minor concern against that goal and the mining of Turbinum. Vila, however, doesn’t share this same sentiment and actually conspires against her brother’s machinations in order to make the most of her inheritance.
Richter makes a surprise appearance…only to be defeated almost immediately.
Quaid is largely nonplussed about the appearance of Martians (which is a bit odd and contradictory considering he was so dead-set on finding out what Eva’s warning meant just a few pages earlier…) as there are lives at stake from the mysterious fatal affliction striking down the mutants. Tony, however, remains unconvinced about his intentions and desire to track down the root cause of it all, and mass rioting breaks out, forcing the Cohaagens to turn to Quaid for help regarding their common interests. Although Quaid is able to track down Q’d, believing him to be the key to solving all of the recent problems on Mars, he is once again bested in combat and then ambushed by Richter! Having somehow survived his plummet, and his sporting mechanical arms, Richter chokes Q’d and then attacks Melina in revenge for her part in Lori’s death. However, Richter allows his emotions to get the better of him and is easily dispatched when Quaid rams into him with a digger and sends him plummeting down a canyon, wasting all of our time in the process.
The mutants recover from their illness just in time for the military to prepare to destroy the colony!
However, Quaid is unable to stop Q’d from activating the final Martian machine, bringing water to the Red Planet and causing both Martians sudden appear all over the planet and, in the process, mass panic. The illness that had crippled and killed the mutants suddenly has the opposite effect, imbuing them incredible physical strength and vitality, although M’s’s states that this as an unintended side effect as the Martian machines weren’t built to consider their effect on mutants. In response to the Martian “invasion”, Admiral Nimitz of the Northern Block assumes command of the Martian colony and orders the army to open fire on the Martians. Using psionic powers, the Martians are able to shield themselves from harm but many innocent people are killed in the fracas; this time, Captain Everett refuses to listen to Quaid’s pleas and the two brawl before Everett is ordered to cease his attack anyway. Much to the outrage of the Cohaagens, Nimitz plans to attack the colony with the Reagan space weaponry platform in order to cleanse the aliens in one move.
Quaid once again saves Mars from destruction and commits to his perception of reality.
Enraged at having his birthright taken from him, Milos ventures out with a gun to kill M’s’s and, when he saves the Martian’s life, Quaid. Luckily for Quaid, Milos is a terribly shot and Quaid is easily able to disarm him, though Milos refuses to co-operate with him. Vila, however, is much more co-operative and allows Quaid to take their private shuttle to the weapons platform to shut it down before it can fire. During all that drama, M’s’s drones on and on to Melina about how the Martians foresaw everything that transpired in the film (and this comic…though apparently not the mutants…?) and set in motion everything Quaid would need to bring life to Mars as recompense for the Martians’ previous destructive ways. Joined by Q’d, Quaid and Melina fight their way through the space station’s marines all while cracking jokes and quips. Still, Quaid manages to hit the abort button and save Mars once again. In the aftermath, the Cohaagens remain in control of the colony (and Milos begrudgingly abandons his vendetta against Quaid), the beginnings of co-operation and communication are forged between the military and the Martians, and the story ends with Quaid not really caring if it had all been a dream and just making out with Mileena.
The Summary: As I mentioned in my review of the film,Total Recall is one of my all-time favourite movies; it’s action-packed, thought-provoking, and features some of the most impressive practical effects ever put to film. The film’s complex themes of identity and reality are matched only by how elaborate he sets and animatronics are and the film is almost the perfect balance of action, humour, and intrigue. I could honestly watch it every day and talk about it for hours and never get tired of it; the nostalgia and influence of it is that strong for me.
The comic’s pacing is all over the place and bogged down by exposition!
It’s a shame then that this comic book continuation is so mind-numbingly dull and boring! For a comic that is a follow-up to Total Recall, there is so much exposition crammed into every page, every speech bubble and text box, and even during fights! Exposition and world-building was delivered at an easy-to-digest pace in the film but, here, characters go on and on and on about basically nothing and it’s much more a tale of diplomacy than an action-packed thrill-ride. Quaid, especially, suffers from this; given that he (somewhat…) resembles Arnold Schwarzenegger, it’s really weird trying to imagine the Austrian Oak spouting as much dialogue as his comic-book counterpart does. His speech patterns are so not-Arnold that it’s almost to the point of parody and I never pegged Quaid, a man who was bored by his mundane existence and relished the idea of being a secret agent, to be the voice of reason!
Melina gets very few moments to shine and may as well not even be in this mess of a story…
Other returning characters equally suffer; Melina may as well not even be in the story since she does so little and Tony’s animosity towards Quaid, while somewhat understandable, is comically exaggerated to the point where he dismisses any suggestion that isn’t all-out war. It was a nice surprise to see Richter make a reappearance but it was an absolute waste of time and effort as he basically has no impact on the story at all (his role could easily have been fulfilled by an extended fight sequence with Q’d). As for the introduction of Martians…I mean, what? Obviously the film hinted that Martians existed but actually seeing them was a bit jarring, as was Q’d’s inexplicable resemblance to Quaid (that I don’t think was explained…?) and the fact that they, too, basically did nothing. Again, it would have been a lot easier to have them be a long dead society whose technology is appropriated by humans, or the Cohaagens, or whatever rather than having them wander about making speeches and disappearing for huge chunks of the story.
Quaid often gets his ass handed to him in the comic’s few fight scenes.
It’s a shame as there are some glimmers of enjoyment to be had here; when the action actually picks up, it’s pretty fun and exciting but a lot of it eventually falls flat because the art really isn’t very good at all and Quaid is constantly being bested in combat. I suppose this has some resemblance to the film as Quaid did struggle when fighting Lori (Sharon Stone) and Richter (Michael Ironside) but I would argue that was mainly due to him being attacked when he was unprepared. Here, he often has the upperhand against much smaller foes, like Milos, and still struggles to hold his own; many of his fights end anti-climatically as a result and the whole thing just feels like a massive waste of everyone’s time as it does a pretty terrible job of continuing Total Recall’s story or paying homage to one of the greatest sci-films of all time.
My Rating:
⭐
Rating: 1 out of 5.
Terrible
Have you ever read Dynamite Entertainment’s Total Recall comics? If so, what did you think to them? Did you feel like the story was a good way to continue the movie or, like me, were you disappointed at how boring, clunky, and unappealing it was? What did you think to the introduction of Martians to the plot and Richter’s sudden reappearance? Do you think the events of the film, and the comic, were all real or were they just Quaid’s delusion? Leave your thoughts about Total Recall, whatever form it takes, in the comments below and check back in next week as Sci-Fi Sunday continues.
Horror Prompts’ Gillian Church is hosting a horror drabble challenge this January: 31 prompts for 31 creepy tales throughout January that clock in at around 100 words.
The Prompt: System
The Submission: “Don’t interrupt me!” Jordan barked, the rusty scalpel glistening under the burning lights. “I have a system, okay? I need silence!”
Todd shrugged and backed away from the grimy operating table. He watched, silently, as Jordan went back to work, humming as he went. After a few minutes, Todd’s patience paid off and Jordan began narrating:
“You gotta do quick, gently slices, like when you shave? Don’t just start hacking away, you see how it ruins the meat? Just nice and slow, strimming away each layer. Ah, now, you see here? Don’t worry if this happens; you’ve just nicked a vein, is all, but it’s fine; just fix the clamp to it… like… that… and, there, that should stem it. You don’t want them passing out or bleeding out, after all. Now, hear that? That’s bone, and this is all tough muscle so you’re gonna want to switch to something a bit sturdier… hand me that bone saw, that’s it, the curved one. Now, just… press firmly and you’ll get through that. See how the tendons dangle? Try and be as smooth s you can, you don’t want bone chips in the meat. Now, what’s next…? Ah, yes, this is where I like to work on the groin so just grab your drill attachment and get positioned right near the opening…”
What did you think to the prompt for today’s drabble challenge? Did you submit anything for it? Have you ever written any flash fiction before? I’d love to know what you think to my snippets and writing prompts, so feel free to sign up and let me know what you think below or leave a comment on my Instagram page. You can also follow Gillian Church to take part in her Weekly Writing Prompt challenge.
Horror Prompts’ Gillian Church is hosting a horror drabble challenge this January: 31 prompts for 31 creepy tales throughout January that clock in at around 100 words.
The Prompt: Cough
The Submission: It’d started with a cough; nothing major, just a tickle at the back of Sly’s throat. He’d popped some pills, assumed it was allergies or the sniffles, and carried on with his day; those reports wouldn’t run themselves, after all.
By mid-day, he was hacking away almost uncontrollably. Worried glances started turning his way and he had to excuse himself multiple times to try and get it under control, and Sly had grown more and more concerned when he’d steadily escalated from coughing up phlegm to globlets of blood.
In the end, Sly had excused himself, much to the relief of his co-workers, he headed home. It was a half-hour drive, one made all the more difficult by his constant coughing, the raging fever that burned through his veins, and the maddening itching at the back of his neck.
Sly was so desperate to get home to bed and a bowl of steaming hot chicken soup that he didn’t notice the army vehicles troubling past him, the cars pulled over at the side of the road, their occupants heaving blood-filled bile onto the grass verge…
What did you think to the prompt for today’s drabble challenge? Did you submit anything for it? Have you ever written any flash fiction before? I’d love to know what you think to my snippets and writing prompts, so feel free to sign up and let me know what you think below or leave a comment on my Instagram page. You can also follow Gillian Church to take part in her Weekly Writing Prompt challenge.
Horror Prompts’ Gillian Church is hosting a horror drabble challenge this January: 31 prompts for 31 creepy tales throughout January that clock in at around 100 words.
The Prompt: Beard
The Submission: The four girls sat around the board, giggling; their fingertips were pressed to the planchette and they chanted, drunkenly, gibberish in hopes of calling forth spirits from beyond.
Sophie had found the game hidden at the back of the loft earlier that day; it had been stuffed in a box of her mother’s things, so she hesitated to take it and didn’t dare ask her father about it.
Instead, she’d simply spirited it away to use with her friends, part of her wondering if her mother would make contact and part of her convinced it was all an urban legend popularised by bad movies.
However, when the candles flickered out and the room grew unearthly cold, Sophie’s fears grew. First, she heard the sound of slow, plodding hooved feet; then a gangly shadow shambled from the darkness, two red eyes glared, and wispy beard drooping from a grotesque visage of pus and sores.
“Who summoned me…?” it growled, one gnarled talon curled in rage.
What did you think to the prompt for today’s drabble challenge? Did you submit anything for it? Have you ever written any flash fiction before? I’d love to know what you think to my snippets and writing prompts, so feel free to sign up and let me know what you think below or leave a comment on my Instagram page. You can also follow Gillian Church to take part in her Weekly Writing Prompt challenge.
Horror Prompts’ Gillian Church is hosting a horror drabble challenge this January: 31 prompts for 31 creepy tales throughout January that clock in at around 100 words.
The Prompt: Break
The Submission: James crouched low in the bushes outside of Lily’s house; the porch light was on, but the only light on inside came from her bedroom. He knew exactly which window was hers; he’d been up there enough, after all. From where he crouched, he could see her silhouette perfectly cast behind her curtains; she as combing that long, flowing red hair and getting ready for bed. Keeping low, he sidled up to the house, careful to stay in the blind spot of the security camera on the front door, and clambered up the ivy-clad trellis that stretched up the back wall. It wasn’t the first time he’d done it; she had delighted when he’s snuck up there after hours, the feel of his tongue, the sensation of her orgasm as he explored her every orifice, her moans stifled by her cushions.
James was determined that Lily would feel it again. She’d said she wanted to take a break, that things were moving too fast, but he knew exactly what that meant. She wanted more; more excitement, more games, more of a chase. As he carefully slid open her window and stretched a leg into her bedroom, James flexed his hands with excitement, eager to give her exactly what she wanted and take that which she had coyly kept denying him despite the obvious longing in her eyes.
What did you think to the prompt for today’s drabble challenge? Did you submit anything for it? Have you ever written any flash fiction before? I’d love to know what you think to my snippets and writing prompts, so feel free to sign up and let me know what you think below or leave a comment on my Instagram page. You can also follow Gillian Church to take part in her Weekly Writing Prompt challenge.
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