Ladies of Horror Flash Project – #Horror #author Lydia Prime @LydiaPrime @Sotet_Angyal #LoH #fiction

The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Lost and Found
by Lydia Prime

“Let’s just go already.” Serena whispered.

“We cant go, we haven’t found her yet.” replied Yasmin.

“Look, if Katya wanted us to find her, she wouldn’t be…” Serena’s sentence was cut short as the girls heard twigs snapping in the distance. Out in the woods alone they searched for their young cousin.

“What the fuck is that?” asked Yasmin, pointing towards an abnormally large bird. It stood before them, and appeared to be staring directly at them.

“No fuckin clue dude. What’s in its mouth?”

The girls stayed as still as possible. Dangling limply from the bird’s beak was a human eyeball. He stretched out his wings and cocked back his head before spitting it towards them. Attached to its left leg appeared to be a tiny scroll; neither girl wanted to go anywhere near it.

“You do it, you’re the oldest.” prodded Serena. Yasmin sighed, she was right, and if she had listened to Serena when she wanted to leave, they probably wouldn’t have met the bird. She crept slowly, tip-toeing to him. Every now and then he would hop a little closer to her. This fuckin’ guy.. she thought. At last she was close enough to get the paper attached to his leg; he spread his wings and turned his head while she did. After collecting the scroll the bird cawed loudly and took off.

Katya is mine now. Turn back or suffer the same.

F.J.

Yasmin and Serena stared blankly at the paper.

“Who’s F.J.?” asked Serena.

“Pretty sure I know.” Yasmin replied, crumpling the paper. “It’s time for you to go home now.”

“What? Abso-fuckin-lutely not! Some mystery bird drops an eye and a cryptic message and you want me to leave you alone out here? Yeah. That’s super likely.”

Yasmin admired Serena’s loyalty, but this was no time for bullshit, she needed to go home. They didn’t all need to die. “F.J. is the woman of the forest, the one everyone whispers about. I encountered her once as a child and she let me go. Adults do not have the same luxury.”

Serena was quiet for a long time. “Well… what do we do now?” she asked.

“Guess we go find Katya.” As Yasmin turned in the direction the bird flew off in, her heart sank into her stomach.

“Found me.” Grumbled a rather decayed looking Katya. Bent over backwards, one eye missing, the other putrefied and oozing black liquid, Katya was a few feet away from her cousins. The bird raised up behind her. As more black liquid trickled out and around her face an other worldly voice echoed from his gaping maw, “You made your choice, now you will join us for supper.”

Fiction © Copyright Lydia Prime
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More about Lydia Prime:

Lydia grew up in a small, ‘Mayberry,’ sort of town, in New Jersey. She thoroughly enjoys gummy bears and laughing through the darkest depths of life. More often than not, she writes about demons and monsters, however, being a recovering addict tends to turn inner demons into fearsome foes to be fought beyond the constraints of the mind. ‘Sometimes,’ she states, ‘what’s inside, is scarier than anything reality throws at you.’

Please visit Lydia on Facebook for more info.