Friday 11 February 2011

Lily's Friday Prediction

Caught up with some British noir and very American vampire last night so the dreams were an interesting blend, I have to say. May have to jot a few ideas down in a mo. before they disappear forever, especially with the lingering mist outside on this murky morning and crows cawing (at me, only at me) from chimneys. All good fabric.

Before I select this week's Prediction words a big congratulations to Melenka for winning last week's challenge with her powerful, mythical entry Tribute. Beautiful and disturbing. Well done too to R.S. Bohn and Pixie J. King for running up with A Prickly Issue and If The Crime Fits... Stunning entries from everyone, I felt.

And so to the usual business, Here are today's three words. Ravage them as you will:
  • Nerve
  • Shape
  • Drag

Rules
:

The rules are: 100 words max flash fiction or poetry using all of the words above. Please add your entries in the Comments box below. You have all week until 9pm UK time on Thursday 17th February to enter.

Winner will be announced next Thursday or Friday. If you can, please tweet about your entry, using the #fridayflash hashtag, and blog if you feel like it.

Got me some mean ideas with these words already. What'ya gonna do about it?
___________________________________


55 comments:

  1. This week it will be a multiple attack to make up for missing a week and my lame effort last night. Here's the first.

    Delicious.

    “You’ve got some nerve! I want to roll you in flour and look for the damp spot, isn’t the best chat-up line I’ve heard.”

    “What? I like a big woman with a bit of shape to her. Sorry.”

    “It’s ok, I suppose. What do we do now then?”

    “How about my place, for a bite to eat?”

    “Yeah, OK.”

    * * *

    It took some effort to drag her dead body into my lock-up.

    “Now,” I fired up the gas hob, “that bite to eat. A bit of thigh rolled in flour, flash fried to seal in the juices. Delicious!”

    ~End~

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  2. In The Shadows

    There it was again, a shape moving in the shadows. Peter pressed his nose to the apartment window, a nerve twitching in his eye.

    “Please use the front door and not the back,” he said to himself, dialling his girlfriends mobile.

    Peter held the phone to his ear, watching the shadows. He saw the shape a bit clearer now. It was trying to drag something.

    “Come on, Debbie. Answer, please!”

    * * * * *

    Outside a phone rang. The thing stopped dragging the dead woman and found it. Pressing buttons, it heard a voice.

    “Debbie! Debbie! You there?”

    ~End~


    (I've just realised I've offed 2 women in my stories. I don't apologise in the least, as there have been a fair few blokes killed off round here just lately!) Hahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!

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  3. Somthing a little different for my second week:

    Gravity

    Helward crawled out of the airlock, every nerve ending and piece of flesh quivering with fear, and faced the enemy. Their hideous deformed bodies bore no distinct shape except for three rows of pointed teeth and he wondered what devilish force held them together – was it the drag of a higher gravity?

    He visualised how it would feel to kill one and stand triumphant over its shapeless body. But there where too many. He laid down his weapons and bowed his body before them – a pose of subjugation – and prayed to the Gods it would be swift and pain free.

    The End

    (The name Helward was taken from John Hadleman's The Forever War, which I recently read and recommend as a must for sci-fi lovers)

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  4. Edgewise



    Yes, dear. I DO have a lot of nerve, spending the day watching the game and swilling beer while you cook and clean for me. You're right, dear… I AM a fat slob from too sedentary a life style. Oof! But I'm not the only one!"

    I keep up a running commentary as I drag her body to my car. My first chance in twenty years to get a word in.

    She was right, though -- I AM out of shape. I feel something give out in my back as I lift her into the trunk.

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  5. Double David works wonders...

    Delicious is what it is. You're scrawling in my world with this. I love it. I've been trying to write something for indiehorror.org's Cannibal Cookoff but it's not quite coming together. Maybe you could expand this and send it in?

    I was very pleasantly chilled by In The Shadows. What is the thing? I visualise a winged, leather-skinned ape-like creature. Brilliant.

    Oh Ellie, Alien hell! I'd be subjugating on my knees with Helward, coward that I am. Gravity is really well-written, and yes, very different for The Prediction. A riveting read.

    Hur hur Mimi, Edgewise had me giggling my rather fluffy socks off. Feels as though they both got their come-uppance. Great fun.

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  6. David, great work in both. I imagine these are the same guy? Debbie's about to become dinner? I think Lily's right. Think about expanding it and submitting to Cannibal Cookoff. They're both just about perfect as-is, but why not?

    Ellie, I think I'd do the exact same thing. Sometimes, you've got to know when there's no way out and just pray it's quick and easy. But on the other hand... maybe this enemy will take pity and transform him into one of them? Ooh, could be interesting! (or he's an alien's dinner, either way)

    Mimi, you bad girl. I do feel a bit of frustration poured onto the page with this one. This is the sort of thing I'd print out and let the DH find.

    :-)

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  7. Carnal Dox

    They twist and they crawl.
    Spiral shapes in thrall
    as she bares her all
    on the old main drag.

    With a sailor’s raw nerve
    he grabs at her curves,
    thrusting with verve
    on the old main drag.

    Paid with pox and with shilling
    she justifies the killing.
    “No Sir, I weren’t willin’ ”
    On the old main drag.

    Cut clean from the gallows
    she’s thrown to the shallows,
    embraced by shadows
    on the old main drag.

    She twists and she crawls.
    A spiral shape in thrall.
    Haunting them all
    on the old main drag.

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  8. Lily! I LOVE IT! I'm practically incoherent, I love it so much! Can you give yourself the win? You should. (btw, I just edited that, because I wrote, "Can you give yourself the wine?" to which the answer is undoubtedly yes)

    Also, I've been working for an hour on mine, and your three words spawned 1500 words of smut. Goodness. !!!!! Don't know what I'll do with those.

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  9. Why thank you Rebecca, I do indeed have wine. Cheers! Looking forward to seeing what you come up with - including the full 1500 words of smut. Oh yes!

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  10. Ellie - Very nice piece. I'm thinking this story could well be expanded on. Well done!

    Mimi - That just made me laugh out loud. A couch potato getting knackered stuffing his wife in the boot of his car. That was great!!

    Lily - You know how much I enjoy your poetry and this one delivered on all levels! I'm no aficionado on poetry but to me you hit all the right marks. Loved it!

    Wine and smut?? Count me in!!

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  11. Upon re-reading my entry I realised I've made an embarrassing error. The second line of the second paragraph should read: But there were too many.

    That will teach me not to hurry.

    David - I really enjoyed both entries and you should definitely enter the Cannibal Cookoff - the first is baked to perfection!

    Mimi - I couldn't stop laughing and loved the way she was right, even when dead. A great story!

    Lily - I'm speechless. As a non-poet, I have to say your poetry is astounding.

    Now did someone say wine and smut?

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  12. The Night Hind

    Faithful night arrives once more, along with the glass. I drink it and fall, nerveless, into a dream of antlers and men shaped like things that hunt. In the morning there is no glass, only sunlight from a window too far to drag myself to, too far to haul myself out, out into the freedom from a locked room and a day spent waiting for the moon to rise. I lie in bed, counting the pricks, and wonder: am I still a girl, or something else? And who visits me after the glass is empty? His scent is crushed moss.

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  13. Hmmnn, dreamy Rebecca. The Night Hind reminds me so much of Charles de Lint - primal in the modern world, a spiritual parallel.

    The scent of crushed moss is a wonderfully earthy evocation. I have an essential oil I bought in India - it is earth and green growth in a tiny bottle, and very precious.

    This is a beautiful piece of writing and I would gladly immerse myself in a full-length novel, glass in hand.

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  14. David - Love both these tales, including the twist on the old "dipped in flour joke" (I'd say that's in bad taste... hey hey!) Super and fun.

    Ellie - This reminds me a little of the video-game "Dead Space", which is essentially Resident Evil in space. However, you've got a style and flair here that exceed those little diversions.

    Mimi I love stories of ages long resentment finally come to a head, and you've done it with such great dark humour.

    Lily Awhile back, you gave me the wonderful complement on a poem of mine that you "wanted to embroider and hang on the wall". Well, Ms. Childs, the day has come to return that compliment. Loved. This.

    Rebecca I'm not sure what is stronger here, the sensual fantasy, or the fragile awakening of your speaker. Excellent writing.

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  15. Scratch

    Monday morning, there was an unpleasant itching in my forearm. I thought I'd slept on it. By afternoon, it had settled in to become a deep electrical thrum of discomfort.

    ...slowly now, careful, drag with the flat of the razorblade...

    Tuesday morning, it felt as if a colony of termites were setting up house near my elbow. The skin was corrugated and raw from ploughing with my fingernails.

    ...there it is...a tender spider-web...it is the shape of agony...

    Wednesday I bled a lot.

    ...lapping up red copper to clear the view...I bend tooth to nerve

    I'll eat myself well.

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  16. Lily, that essential oil sounds divine. I have a little box of vials, and sometimes I just open it to smell the entire box, and sometimes to just pick out a bottle to sniff. Tonight was a sniff of patchouli and vetiver.

    Chris, not only is this extraordinarily well composed and written, but I was genuinely horrified. The growing fear -- and repulsion -- smacked into a wall there at the end. If I say, "Yuck," and curl into a little ball, please take it as a compliment.

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  17. OK, catching up -
    David, Delicious is what it was, Shadows, great read!
    Ellie, almost myth like!
    Mimi - love it, these domestic ones are so good!
    Lily, love the poem. Nothing else to say. It is so good.
    Rebecca, poetry in prose
    Chris, true horror.
    Forgive me for brevity of comments, there are a mass of flashing lights between me and the screen right now ... not a lot of fun, but even that doesn't stop me having my share of the Friday Prediction and the FFF which is making this month endurable!

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  18. Don't know where my mind is at the moment, but here's another strange one.....

    A Broken Promise

    I’m tired. I’m exhausted. I’m only seventeen!

    Every part of my body aches: muscle, sinew and nerve.

    I have to drag his old arse off the couch every night. I carry him upstairs and wash him. His shape disgusts me. Then, and this may disgust you, I have to perform on him before bedtime.

    It’s part of the “promise”.

    Yes, he’s my husband. Yes, he’s turned me into the silicone princess that I am.

    The thing is, the “promise” hasn’t been fulfilled. The old bastard still refuses to pay for my gender reassignment.

    ~End~

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  19. David, what you've done here is set up a fascinating dynamic with two unique characters. This could easily be a short story, exploring their relationship as the "silicone princess" becomes more and more unhappy with the situation.

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  20. Prelude

    The shape of deception toiled in the strained expression in the window.

    The silence of the moment dragged across her nerves, tore a hole in her senses as the sticky residue of rationality dribbled from an overloaded mind.

    Behind her, a figure lay beneath the covers, untainted by such burdens.

    Emotions bubbled beneath the surface. They neither made sense nor soothed, but they forged a path through her resolve. She’d given in to temptation.

    Cold neon reflections flashed across her face.
    Her wedding ring glinted. Guilt clung to her reverie.

    And still the blade in her hand sang to her.

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  21. Rebecca - The antlers and hunting part conjures pictures of the heather clad hills that surround where I live. And then the scent of moss. Wonderful, poetic and beautiful all rolled into one.

    Chris - Superb piece of writing. I itched my way through that due to the imagery your writing gave. Great work, mate!

    AJ - Prelude indeed.....and certainly not to a kiss. This piece has scope for another episode or two. A well written piece, Ally!

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  22. Another great collection this week. You guys are awesome!

    Meanwhile, this weeks' three-word predicition inspired me to somethng else, perhaps not dark and lurid and sadly way off topic for this challenge - but what the heck - here you go!


    NIGHT SHIFT


    If I don’t go soon I’ll lose my nerve. I could murder a stiff drink but I’m on duty. Damn, these shoes hurt, but I have to admit the five-inch heels sculpt my calves into something almost shapely.

    Colin nods towards me and releases the catch, easing open the van door. He blows me a kiss earning him a scowl as I step out into the darkened alleyway.

    As I cross the road and walk away I know I’m being watched. I hope they’re ready to act. It’s no fun being the decoy, especially when you’re in drag.

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  23. AJ -- I should've know, what with that line there in the beginning, "...untainted by such burdens." Oh, yes, no more burdens. This is dark and gothic and well done.

    Sue -- Love the language and tone of this! Perfect for your narrator, and nice little twist at the end.

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  24. Chris, Scratch reminded me very clearly of when I lived in France in a very old, unconverted house. We had no insulation for a year and slept beneath the bare eaves. One morning I awoke to an agonising itch in my arm - and a red thread several inches long creeping up it. I jumped out of bed to find a massive dead spider squashed beneath me - I think it had tried to bite its way out.

    I love the dual voice in this; it's highly intriguing and I totally, and utterly want to know what happens next.

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  25. Half Breeds

    Pine needles crunch under Ashton's feet. All is darkness beneath the pines, but the one who's waited smiles. Waving a broken branch, he conducts shapes cavorting in a dance of misshapen creatures. He watches Ashton's eyes drag in fearful starts.

    "W..who's there?"

    A demon flickers, an allusion of horns and ember eyes, and disappears. Ashton screams with nerve-wracking shrillness. The forest burns with handsome devils. Ashton flees.

    Fog wisps coalesce in the tree. "You shouldn't tease your brother."

    "Didn't do nothing."

    "Nothing?" Amber eyes glimmer, his mother's magic better than his.

    "But -- he won't admit he's one of us."

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  26. David, I was enthralled by A Broken Promise. Initially I thought it was a boy caring for his father, then a boy with his male lover. But is he? Husband - in words or in reality? This is absolutely brilliant, camp and twisting non-stop.

    AJ, oooh, very dark indeed. Beautifully written, my lasting memory is of the glint from her ring and the blade against the "cold neon reflections". Is this adultery? Has she disposed of her husband - or her lover?

    Sue Ha! I know you've been following Peter James' incredible research 'trips' around Sussex lately. Is Night Shift inspired by this? I loved it; such a vision inspired by that last line. Fantastic writing.

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  27. Aidan, you snuck in whilst I was commenting there!

    Half Breeds is captivating. Loved "The forest burns with handsome devils." and the repetition of ember eyes, amber eyes is really clever. There is so much mystery in this vignette it could spawn a history. Wonder-ful.

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  28. David: Delicious, love the opening line, that although weird felt innocent. Until the baser appetites are revealed. Shadows, I find his hope intriguing. Promises, I'm drawn in with the youngness of the protagonist and the aches.

    Ellie: you masterfully set this drabble with the airlock opening. Loved the image of multiple rows of teeth.

    Mimi: I had a friend who was out of shape and dug holes for fenceposts and pulled out his back so he was left helpless on the floor. I think that might be a proper payback for this protagonist ;)

    Lily: I'd love to hear that set to music. Beautiful; I love the craft on this one and the story underneath tinges this with a sad tone.

    Rebecca: interesting world you've created here. I want to know more about it.

    Chris: enjoyed the images of ".lapping up red copper to clear the view...I bend tooth to nerve". This reminded me of a RadioLab episode.

    AJ: loved the images this evokes and the masterful way they are crafted to all hang together (stained windows (I see blood on them for some reason), dribble, sticky residue, and bubbled).

    SueH: chuckled at "murder a stiff drink"; I find this character intriguing.

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  29. My dear friend Melenka said I should give this a try!

    Don't Look Now

    The shape of her mouth was a cruel red slash, reflected back at me, seconds before her breath caressed my ear.

    “Hurts, doesn’t it? Watching it happen to someone else? Like hitting an exposed nerve with tin foil, yeah? ‘Cept here, in the gut…and here.”

    I felt Anya drag the knife slowly across my belly, then heard the hard smack of her closed fist against her own chest, as she whispered the last two words.

    Then I watched him. A familiar shape seen through the steamy window of a hotel bathroom.

    I watched my lover kissing Jonah.

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  30. Stock in Trade

    “Not your night.” He takes a long drag.

    I shrug. “Dreamers got the mark first.”

    “You’re slow.” It’s a warning.

    Can’t let my nerves show. “I’ll get the next one.”

    “Best had.”

    I follow the stench of copper. Iron, too. Ahead, a boy pushes a girl up against the wall. She doesn’t resist. I wrap myself around them, my shape their shape, their breath my breath. They topple, fall.

    I hold their essence in my mouth until Shadow arrives.

    “Girl tasted bitter.” He knows I swallowed the boy.

    “Girls always do.”

    He smiles. “Only some.”

    Definitely not my night.

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  31. and even more wonderful stuff to read!
    David, clever twist here.
    AJ, turn that into another full length story immediately! but keep that killer last line!
    Sue, you stole my idea, well, the drag bit anyway, and did it better than I was going to! Back to the drawing board for me...
    Aidan, what can anyone say about Half Breeds? Stunning
    Ravenways, good to see you here with a lovely involved piece, a lot being said in so few words.
    Melenka, setting up mysteries, who why and how and so it winds into the brain and you keep thinking about it - the way all good pieces should be.
    Still gotta work on mine. Been involved in a long (for me) story about Halloween. Got to be finished, driving me mad!

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  32. Welcome to The Feardom, Ravenways! Wow - Don't Look Now is an excellent write, hard-hitting and cruel. " Like hitting an exposed nerve with tin foil" is one of the most sensation-evoking lines I've read in a long time; it genuinely made me wince. Very well done.

    Melenka, I am just loving Stock in Trade. From the play on words in the title to the extraordinary scenario. The wrapping of shadows, draining the flavours out of the erotic encounter is sublime.

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  33. Lily said: whatcha gonna do about it?
    Well, this ...
    Mistaken Identity

    The eye opened slowly, revealing a blood filled cavity. If there was a nerve left whole, the mouth would be making the shape of a scream. Instead there was silence.
    Blood is such a drag, is it not? Clings, stains, mars everything it touches, but every human is full of the stuff. It leaks when they’re cut.
    Oh but he asked for this. He begged for it – not that he knew it – when he took me and held me that way. Poor deluded man. He had no idea; do they ever? what a shape-shifter can do. And did.

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  34. Sue - That was great. You had me thinking it was a woman being put on the street by her pimp and then that ending was superb. I remember dressing as a woman once and......I've said too much!! :-)

    Aiden - Loved Half Breeds. I want to more of them when Ashton admits he's one of them. Great job!

    Ravenways - I'm glad you took Melenka's advice. A smart debut. Dark and intriguing. Well done!

    Melenka - Love this piece. Great imagery!

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  35. Antonia - Shape-shifters! That was excellent. Another bloke bites the dust. Hmmmm!! :-)

    Hope you're feeling better soon!

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  36. anyone would think I was anti-men, wouldn't they? I think what I'm doing is writing out frustration with the males of the species. Like:
    (me) have you printed the DVD covers I needed?
    (partner) Yes. I'll go cut them to size for you.
    (me) Thanks.
    (Partner) Here's your DVD covers.
    (me) Brilliant. (insert said covers into DVD boxes.) Going to the house now with the DVDs.
    (partner) What DVDs?
    (we work in a summerhouse in the garden, we spend all day trekking back and forth. I cannot count how many times he has arrived with a coffee, and not one for me...)

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  37. I'll be back this evening to add more comments. In the meantime, here's another one:


    Stellar Song

    All that she was, was his. Her shape – moulded from the deepest night sky hung ebony blue from his arms. He wound her galactic hair around strong fingers, dragging her face towards his waiting mouth, and kissed her until winter.

    Beneath the molten glow of his skin, veins and nerves surged to make mountain ranges. He cried out loud, capping the peaks with snow. When he dared to look, her smiling countenance stared up – not at him – but into the celestial womb beyond.

    With a silver tear he released her. Not even the Gods can control the stars.

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  38. The Shape Of An Angel

    Every nerve in my body screamed.

    They had told me it would be painful but the pain had now gone, apart from that which filled my heart.

    I watched as the priest gave the eulogy.

    “...you leave, in the shape of an angel...”

    Tears streamed down the face of my wife, my daughter held tight to her chest, unaware of what was happening.

    I reached out to touch their beautiful faces. They needed me; they needed a strong, reassuring arm around them.

    Then it happened. I felt the drag towards the bright light that appeared above my coffin.

    Good bye!

    ~End~

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  39. Lily - That was beautiful. So much imagery in so few words.

    "...He wound her galactic hair around strong fingers, dragging her face towards his waiting mouth, and kissed her until winter..."

    I knew you had a soft, slushy side!! :-)

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  40. Rebecca - beautiful and dreamlike, like poetic prose. Who will visit her? I wonder.

    Chris - a terrifying tale, which had me squeamish in all the right places. I won't look at my elbow in the same way!

    David - at first I thought it was a child caring for their father and then the wife. But you still managed the surprise ending with the gender re-assignment! Genius.

    AJ - a murderous tale, indeed. I loved it.

    Sue - another piece that managed to surprise me; I never guess at the ending.

    Aidan - I really enjoyed Half Breeds; it could be turned into something much longer.

    ravenways - yay for Melenka's suggestion. I dark piece of writing that had me wanting more.

    Melenka - loved it. Great imagery and I'm fascinated by the characters you've introduced.

    Antonia - shapeshifters! Genius idea. I loved the characters voice and intrigued as to how the man asked for it.

    Lily - stunning imagery, especially 'he wound her galactic hair'.

    David - so full of emotion. Beautiful.

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  41. Antonia - I love a good shape-shift, it comes in very handy. Brilliant opening - and closing lines. Really enjoyed this.

    David, I read The Shape of an Angel just I was leaving the house yesterday and this is the first chance I've had to comment. I've been thinking about it ever since because it broke my heart. I was really taken by surprise that it was the father who had died - I thought it was another child or one of his parents. Beautifully crafted and so sad.

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  42. Lily, Stella Song resonates, it's the only word for it.
    David, no words other than simply incredible and sad.
    Everyone, thanks for giving all of us an absolute feast of gory beautiful heartwrenching 'stay with you' words.

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  43. Hello! Another terrific batch of writings again this week. Lovely.

    My offering.


    Brazen

    With brazen nerve she bent down and grasped the unmoving shape. Her only option was to drag it across the park in broad daylight.
    Passersby turned to gawk.
    “It’s alright,” she called gaily with a shrug of her shoulders. “Too much wine,” she giggled for good measure.
    The staring couple nodded and turned away, snickering.
    The smile dropped off her face as she continued heaving. Stupid cumbersome bugger, she thought.
    She had to get him back to the car before the blood seeped through.

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  44. David - Excellent, fantastic offerings! All excellent and well written, good stuff.

    Ellie - another super offering. Looking forward to your third week! Well done.

    Mimi - Aaw! I say the old git is going to miss the running commentary and it'll serve him right when he tires of talking to himself!

    Lily - Fantastic poetry here! I love 'paid with pox and with shilling she justifies the killing' What a line! And I agree, you should win and give yourself a good slurp of wine.

    Rebecca - 'antlers and men shaped like things that hunt' - that's quite a dream! I really liked the pace and flow here, well done.

    Chris - Ugh! I'm itching now. Freaky!

    AJ - Fabulous! I want to quote each line as my favourite bit but truth is I love all of it. Excellent stuff.

    Sue - Well done! I enjoyed this, left me wanting more. Great twist, I wasn't expecting the 'in drag' bit.

    Aidan - ooh. 'A demon flickers, an allusion of horns and ember eyes...' What an image this conjures up! Utterly fantastic, well done.

    Ravenways - Excellent! Well-written, I especially loved the opening line.

    Melenka - Chilling! I went back and re-read this. Mulling it over. I can only echo what Lily's already said, sublime.

    Antonia - Wow! Incredibly vivid. What an image. I'm disturbed, awesome!

    Hope I haven't missed anyone.
    :0)

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  45. Susan, I love this - a true killer last line!

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  46. Susan - That was great. There are so many unanswered questions here. I have scenarios going round in my head. Did she? Was she? I'll make my own mind up. Well done!

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  47. Apologies, Kook won't rest at the moment.

    Revelation

    As Alan lay in the half-light upon his bed the shadows began to move and take on a familiar shape, in fear he tried to drag the sheets over himself like a shield. Like a child, believing his bedclothes would protect him from the might of his celestial visitor.

    “Oh Master!” He cried. As his nerve gave in so did his sphincter, bathing himself in something more than the glory of Uriel.

    As the visions began to fade, he drifted into a fitful medicated dream, where his next victim would come to him, and beg for tender deliverance from sin.

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  48. Susan, those cumbersome buggers are a right pain! Loved this! Very visual. And 'brazen' - I'm sure everyone will be shocked at - is one of my favourite words (along with flesh, bawdy, slattern and the French 'libellule'.)

    Lovely.

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  49. Dear Mr Davoll, methinks Me Kook is going all the way! There is so much to him - here is a tiny vignette, a glimpse into the madness of his existence. Seriously - this is a full-time character.

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  50. David - (1) Great story. Full of emotion, and an aptly twisted ending! (2) Holy crap, sir. Shape of an angel is stunning. You just let the top off the inkwell this week, huh? Great work all around.

    AJ - there's something delightfully enigmatic going on here, and I love the noir-ish touch of the neon lights.

    Sue H - I bet Don Johnson never had days like that. Great sense of humour, and told in a really fun voice.

    Aidan - Admit it, you've got a half dozen novels in the works, and you're dribbling out little excerpts for us here. There has to be more to all these stories - there just has to be, because I need to read more of this. "...an allusion of horns and ember eyes" - love that image.

    Ravenways - this really evokes a scene in so very few words, and there is an ambiguity that makes us want to read more!

    Melenka - nice, fresh approach to the feeders of the night! Even they have a bad day sometimes...

    Antonia - gruesome imagery, and a pissed-off shapeshifter - what's not to like?

    Lily - I love this imagery, " the deepest night sky hung ebony blue from his arms". Word painting at its best

    Susan May - dark humour abounds this week, and in daylight yet! Nice work

    William - you've got yourself a great character here - "bathing himself in something more than the glory of Uriel." Nicely gross detail, that.

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  51. Ok - stuffed m'self with spag bol, and rushed out a hundred words ...

    Appearances can be deceiving

    Those shape-shifters have got a nerve! I spend the whole day getting ready for full moon, you know, shower, shampoo, brush me fangs and polish claws, and they just turn up and, well, shift.
    They’ve got no finesse, you know. They just stand there and become whatever they like. But it’s not real, oh no. It’s all done with magic. A quick snap of the fingers, or paws, and they’ve changed into something else.
    You know what they say, Jack of all trades … and all that. The last one was more of a poodle in drag than a werewolf.

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  52. Poodle Kim? Ah, sorry - that was me. Got the soft-rock hair thing going on for a 80s crap-music party later. Promise I'll come back as Snow White at midnight.

    Nice write - made me chuckle.

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  53. Pushing for time, I know....eeeek!

    ADIEU

    Nerves flutter around my veins, hidden within the shadows, poised.

    I smiled as I watched you, the darkness soothing me.

    I see your figure, a shape against the wall. You snore loudly, it makes me chuckle.

    I raise my bow and arrow; a tiny prick is all you’ll feel.

    Silence fills my ears, yet a distant ringing can be heard.

    My army of fairies are out there, waiting to drag your body.

    My fingers hold the bow, tension begging to be released; arrow dripped in a sedative.

    You humans stole our friend.

    I’m stealing your life.

    Adieu bâtard...

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  54. One minute to go - blimey Pix! Big challenge next week, you get one day less.

    The fairy army makes its return, takes its revenge. Lovely last line.
    ******************************
    No more entries please. Thanks.

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  55. That's okay Lily, I've got half term! :)

    And yeah....kinda left it on the edge...

    :)

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Lily Childs is a writer of horror, esoteric, mystery and chilling fiction.

If you see her dancing outside in a thunder storm - don't try to bring her in. She's safe.