Ladies of Horror Flash Project – #Horror #author Rie Sheridan Rose @RieSheridanRose @Sotet_Angyal #LoH #fiction

The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Brief Awakening
by Rie Sheridan Rose

Warmth.

It was what she sensed first. A heat almost liquid in its embrace. It called to her, and she blinked eyelids heavy as boulders. Those lids fluttered open at last to find herself standing in a grove of trees. Around her stood others, frozen in mid-stride, reaching towards an uncaring sky. Their limbs were covered in scaly bark, their faces grotesque masks.

 She looked upon her own skin—it was smooth as marble, a litter of bark at her feet. What was she? How came she here?

At her feet was also a fallen trunk, reaching upward with one exquisite hand. Sensual, perfect, as yet unmarred by the transformation.

She frowned. She knew that hand…

Kneeling slowly, she read much in the fallen form. Victor…

Her own hand bore his ring. What had brought them here together? What had felled the others?

She took his hand in hers. Folly or chance had awakened her when all the rest lay transformed.

She could flee while she had the chance—go from this place of death and into the world to start anew…

But how could she live without him? He was her life.

She placed his hand upon her shoulder, kissing it, even as the bark began to spread. It crept upward from him like a vine, and she felt her senses clouding once more.

So little time to feel the sun…but without him, it was no treasure. The bark began to cover her skin—melding them into a single entity. Soon, they were one.

And the grove again was empty.

Fiction © Copyright Rie Sheridan Rose
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from Author Rie Sheridan Rose:

Skellyman

“I have always preferred the supernatural in tales of horror, the knot between life and death. Rie Sheridan Rose’s Skellyman is cool and creepy. Her first horror novel is a chilling read.” — Charlee Jacob – Stoker winner, Best novel, “Dread in the Beast”

Brenda Barnett is trying to cope with raising her four-year-old daughter all alone after an accident tore her family in half. As she and Daisy go for a much-needed treat, the little girl spots a Skellyman on the corner.

This pivotal encounter leads to a wave of mounting terror as Brenda’s life begins to come undone around her. Who is the Skellyman? Why does he keep appearing? Can the sympathetic policeman Brenda turns to stop the madness before it is too late?

And why does Daisy insist that her dead brother is trying to tell them something important?

Available on Amazon!