Today I'm playing along with a blog hop: The Storytime Blog Hop and finishing my 31 Days of Halloween. Participants are asked to post a speculative fiction story less than 1,000 words quarterly.
I've been writing horror and Halloween-themed flash fiction all month for Bliss Morgan's Nightmare Fuel, so here's one of my favorite stories of the thirty-one I wrote this month. If you'd like to see the other stories, you can view the collection at this link. I enjoy writing these short horror pieces each October and I hope you'll enjoy reading!
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Starving Artist
At first, she wove thin silken death for small foolish creatures, like the others of her kind. Subtle work, invisible unless you stood in right place. Intricate, delicate, effective.
It didn’t satisfy her. She wanted more. Something lasting.
She raged each time one of her creations was destroyed. She rebuilt over and over, until finally she decided it was time to move someplace more secluded.
She found an abandoned house and spun it throughout with masterpieces which hung glittering with condensation in morning light until the house glowed as if filled with gems. It made her heart full with delight for a while, but this too became not enough.
Wind blew through broken windows and snapped the edges, flinging her work aside. Frustrated, she fumed in cold silence, her heart turning chill with anger. Even here, alone, it was not enough.
Then she noticed the thick white ribbons of frost that streaked across a window. Inspiration. She sucked in great gasps of frigid air to fuel her. When she spun again, the strands were thick and soft and beautifully white. They glowed in moonlight and sun alike.
No insects disturbed their cold beauty, but hunger was nothing in the face of such creations. When she died, resting in the middle of a unbroken lattice of white snow, she had never been happier.
Be sure to check out the other stories in this blog hop. Happy Halloween Reading!
Snow White Tabloid Style, by Fannie Suto
The Halloween Dance, by Barbara Lund
Her Majesty, by Katharina Gerlach
Chris Bridges Posting Storytime Blog Hop. Give her shout out and say Hello!
Black Moon, by Lauren M. Catherine
Poe's Heart, by J. Q. Rose
Hanks A Lot, by Joe Bouchard
In The Gray Lake, by Karen Lynn
The Right Honorable Brotherhood of Spirits, Poltergeists and Ghosts, by Vanessa Wells
Life of a Pumpkin, by Bill Bush
Why Should I?, by Gina Fabio
Reaper, by Juneta Key