Tag Archive for: dark moments

Paradise Mobile Estates 2016

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by V.A. Vazquez

 

He sat on the secondhand couch in their mobile home, springs prodding into his lower back. Flipping the tab on another can of Bud Light, he watched the moths flutter around the trailer park. One of them, with wings the same colour as greasy pizza boxes, flew a little too close to the bug zapper and then…

Zzzzzzp!

It crumpled onto the patchy grass sprouting in front of their doorstep. As he listened to the radio next door playing música tejana, he flexed the broken wingstalks between his shoulder blades.

“Yeah, bud,” he said, toasting the fallen moth. “Me, too.”

 

V.A. Vazquez

V.A. Vazquez writes urban fantasy and dark romance. She currently lives in Glasgow, Scotland, with her husband and small doggo.
Website: www.vavazquez.com.

Mirror, Mirror

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by S.O. Green

 

The mirror is cracked and the cracks are spreading.

It started when I scratched the symbol on the glass. The one from the book. The one I couldn’t get out of my head.

In every line, I see a nightmare. In every facet, I see a dream. In the centre is a keyhole. Beyond, another world.

It whispers to me in my sleep. It calls to me while I work. I taste its colours and hear its darkness and feel its gentle music on my skin.

My reward is coming.

The cracks are spreading. Now they’re spreading across the walls.

S.O. Green

Simone Oldman Green lives in the Kingdom of Fife with husband, John. Writer, vegan, martial artist, gamer, occasionally a terrible person (but only to fictional people). They thrive on the unusual, which might explain why there are so many cats. Find them at https://thebasementoflove.blogspot.com/.

The Midnight Throne

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by Rowanne S. Carberry

 

Blood-stained lips framed by onyx hair. Her body sculpted by rubies and starlight.

The prince cannot look away.

Drawn to her by magic, they dance until the room blurs.

As midnight draws near, she leans in.

“I must leave.”

Without a thought he follows, tripping as he does, before finding her at the water’s edge, shining in the moonlight.

“Will you join me?”

Taking her offered hand, he trails into the water.

Her consort caught, they sit together on the midnight thrones of the underworld.

All that’s found of the prince on land—a bloody shoe left on the glass stairs.

 

Rowanne S. Carberry

Rowanne S. Carberry was born in England in 1990. Rowanne has various interests but has always had a passion for writing. Rowanne writes in varied genres, but her writing will often have darkness to it. This helped to coin her brand, Poisoned Quill Writing – Wicked words from a poisoned quill.

Everything You Know About Witches

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by Warren Benedetto

 

“Everything you think you know about witches is wrong,” Selena sobbed. She struggled against the ropes binding her to the pole.

Father Hugo stuffed kindling under the logs at her feet. He cocked an eyebrow skeptically. “Everything?”

“Everything,” Selena insisted.

“Brewing potions?”

“Wrong.”

“Casting spells?”

“Wrong!”

Father Hugo lit a match.

“Shapeshifting?”

Suddenly, Selena’s face elongated into a long black beak. Feathers sprouted as massive wings unfolded from her back.

Her raven form lunged, driving her beak straight through Father Hugo’s face.

As Selena returned to her human shape, she wiped the blood from her mouth.

“Okay, maybe not everything.”

Warren Benedetto

Warren Benedetto writes short fiction about horrible people doing horrible things. He has a Master’s degree in Film/TV Writing from USC. He is also the developer of StayFocusd, the world’s most popular anti-procrastination app for writers. He built it while procrastinating. 

Torches and Pitchforks

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by Raven Corinn Carluk

 

Gavin glowered at the townfolk gathered at the base of his tower. Their grumbles had grown in volume as they worked themselves into a frenzy against the wizard within.

Amazing that one escaped experiment could so quickly whip up a mob. It wasn’t like they couldn’t birth more children or rebuild houses.

Thuds sounded from the door below, shouts and cheers rising. He should have exactly enough time to utter the incantation of death and teach the peasants why they feared magic. Gavin’s frown became a wicked grin as syllables of power fell from his lips, a wicked wind whistling.

Raven Corinn Carluk

Raven Corinn Carluk writes dark fantasy, paranormal romance, and anything else that catches her interest. She has authored many novels and can be found in many anthologies. Find out more and enjoy free reads on www.RavenCorinnCarluk.Com

Redecorating Heaven

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by McKenzie Richardson

 

Merlot-hued spatters stain white feathers as I snap the final bone, hanging my newest creation up for display. These heavenly angels have gotten soft in their home of clouds, always so trusting. That was their downfall, my advantage.

I didn’t fall from Heaven—I was pushed. But I crawled my way back up.

I lick the blood from my fingers, surveying the crippled bodies that decorate greying rainclouds. I’ve won the war and earned my right to remake this world. It will be perfect, no matter how many wings I have to break to force it into my own image.

McKenzie Richardson

McKenzie Richardson lives in Milwaukee, WI. Most recently, her work has been featured in anthologies by Black Hare Press, Eerie River Publishing, and Iron Faerie Publishing. She has also published a poetry collaboration with Casey Renee Kiser, 433 Lighted Way, and her middle-grade fantasy novel, Heartstrings, is available on Amazon.

The Old One Breathed

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by Scott Wheelock

 

The people blanketed the ground as numerous as grains of sand upon the ocean floor. Now it stood before them as still and vast as a mountain. The God’s head rose far above their view in the gathering storm clouds, but what they saw was enough. They raised their arms as one, then fell upon their knees in utter submission to their new Lord. The high priest whose people had suffered without end over the centuries raised his arms with them and, with tears in his eyes, said the words. Awakening, the Old One breathed out, and the world died.

 

Scott Wheelock

Scott Wheelock is a painter, writer, and teacher living in Philadelphia. More about Scott and his work can be found at  www.scottwheelock.com

Satan’s Butterfly

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by Shawn M. Klimek

 

Spanning the stems of a prickly cactus, a spiderweb glittered in the morning dew like a sequined doily. When a yellow hornet—actually, a demon—descended nearby, the web’s owner warily revealed itself.

“What now?” demanded the spider (also a demon).

“Just watch.”

Pimples like blackberry drupelets erupted all over the hornet’s body. These bulged into pustules, before mushrooming into tarry lobes, like a smoker’s lungs. These swelled and mutated until the mass resembled a bloated, decomposing manatee drowned in crude oil.

“Strange,” gurgled the transfigured hornet.

“Don’t tell me! Satan said you’d become a butterfly—and you believed him?”

 

Shawn M. Klimek

Shawn M. Klimek is the author of the illustrated, poetic fantasy Hungry Thing, with more than 150 works online, and in such anthologies as BHP’s Deep Space, Eerie Christmas, Bad Romance, Jibbernocky, Passenger 13, and the Dark Drabbles series. He lives in Illinois with his wife and their Maltese.
Twitter: @shawnmklimek

Flames of Betrayal

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by Paula R.C. Readman

 

Martha fed more sticks to the fire. Soon the cauldron bubbled.

She took a deep breath and began to chant. She had to get it right.

First, she added rosemary for remembrance and lavender for love.

Would he appear before her as the old witch had promised?

As the two aromas filled the air, Martha opened her eyes.

Joseph stood there.  All smiles and strong in a foggy haze.

How she wanted him, her only true love.

Through the mist another appeared. Joseph wrapped his arms around her.

To the cauldron, Martha added hemlock, cursing him until his dying day.

R.C. Readman

Paula R.C. Readman learnt ‘How to Write’ from books which her husband purchased from eBay. Now a published author of The Funeral Birds, Stone Angels and a collection of short stories Days Pass Like A Shadow.

Where’s Margaret?

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by Kelly Matsuura

 

When Wizard Qarmel took to his death bed, I didn’t want him to die alone.

“What’s Margaret’s address? I’ll send a letter,” I offered. The wizard’s wife had left years earlier, but no one knew her current whereabouts.

“No need.” Qarmel smiled. “She’s with me, always.”

“She’s gone. Remember?”

“Margaret is here,” he insisted.

He opened his robe. In place of skin, his entire chest had become a window of frosted glass. Light from nearby candles danced on the surface.

As did Margaret’s face.

Her ghostly image rippled and weaved; a prisoner forever trapped under ice.

“See? She never left.”

 

Kelly Matsuura

Kelly Matsuura writes diverse YA, fantasy, and literary fiction.
She is the Creator of The Insignia Series’ anthologies (Asian fantasy themed) and has had stories published with Ink & Locket Press, A Murder of Storytellers, Black Hare Press, Harbinger Press, and many more.