Black Mamba

They fear me. Of course they should fear me, for I am a dread inducing creature. My very nature is to cause panic in the other creatures around me.
                I can kill creatures that are half my size, because I am dangerous and deadly and this is why they fear me.
               

It’s night time and I slither through the grass looking for my next meal. I sense each smell waiting for the waft of something yummy. That’s when I feel something bigger than me come closer. Instinctively I go into defense mode. I hiss at the creature that is only a few feet away from me. Still the creature does not get my message; it keeps getting closer to me.
                My next instinct is to lash out and bite and that’s exactly what I do. With a quick snap my fangs sink into flesh, injecting my venom. I withdraw and slither back into the bushes, waiting for the creature to die.

“FUCK! A fucking snake just bit me. Shit..Oh my god. Oh my god.”
                “Dude calm down, just calm down. How bad is it? Where did it go?!”
                “I don’t man..Oh dude I don’t feel so good..I-I-think I’m gonna pass o-“
                “Jason? JASON?! SHIT DUDE WAKE UP! WHAT THE FUCK? Oh my god where did it go. Fuck man..Jason?!”

                I  sense another creature near the first one that I had bitten. I hope that the second creature takes it as a message to stay away from me. They are too big to devour so I slither on into the grass looking for something easier to digest. They should have known to fear me.

Challenge #85

Hello everyone!

The challenge for this week is to write a story from the point of view of a wild animal.

If you would like to join us for this week, please send us your own work, be it a short story, poem, or some piece of art, to inkedfeathersfink@gmail.com for Fan Friday!

See you all on Wednesday!

Without You

                All the boxes were packed up, boxes and boxes all stacked up in the corner of the room. I stood there and just stared at them. I wiped the warm tear that fell down my cheek. I just couldn’t believe she was gone. Here in her room was all her stuff, but she was gone. I took a deep breath as the thought that had plagued me played over and over in my head. She was gone and I was still here.
                “Liz, are you okay?” Benny came up behind me, laying his hand on my shoulder. I already felt more comfortable just by having him there.
“Yeah it’s just..tough you know?” I said, wiping another tear that had escaped. Benny came around to face me. He smiled at me, just wide enough to make me smile back.
“Trust me, I know. I’ve been there.” He said. I laughed some before sitting on the hard wood floor. He joined me by sitting down in front of me.
“You know it’s gonna be okay right? It’s gonna get better.” He said. I looked down at my hands sighing.
“I don’t think it really does Benny.” I said.
                Benny looked around the room before he spoke. “You know I don’t know much about this whole life and death thing. But you know what I do know? You are strong Elizabeth, and I know you will see Aubrey again. It might not be today, or tomorrow, but I promise you that you will see her again. I’m not gonna say she’s in a better place, because I don’t know exactly where a better place is. But she loved you so much.” He said. I couldn’t hold it in any longer. The tears came rolling now, my whole body shaking as I began to sob. Benny reached his hand out, almost touching mine.
                I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself. “Benny, I just don’t understand.” I spoke through my tears, my voice almost cracking. “My big sister is gone, what am I going to do without her?” I said breathing deep. “I have to lose her. Just like I had to lose you!!” I sobbed. Benny looked down now. “Yet here you are, but where is she Benny? Why can I only see you?!” I asked.
                Benny was my best friend and more than that. He wasn’t just my boyfriend, he was my soulmate.  Two years ago he passed away in the hurricane that hit our small town. Three days after it happened, long after I had heard the news I found him in my bedroom. He was there, alive and well and standing in my bedroom. I thought I was just seeing things, that it was some kind of joke. Turns out it was a joke, because Benny wasn’t really alive, only his soul was. He drifted in and out, showing up when he could. It was hard every time he came and we still couldn’t figure it out. Two years later and I still can’t believe he exists, when I didn’t even believe in ghosts in the first place.
                Then there was Aubrey. My wonderful amazing older sister who had helped me get through everything. She got on the back of that damn motorcycle. With that stupid guy I told her was just a phase, a phase she needed to get rid of. I tried talking with her, tried telling her that he meant no good and that he was no good. But she didn’t believe me. She had rose colored glasses and all they could see was him. I remember a time when I was like that with Benny.
                We got into a fight that night and she stormed out of the house. I remember telling her that I loved her, but I couldn’t stand seeing her with him anymore. I was going to cut her out of my life that night, and then I got the call. She passed away that next morning.
                Benny drifted in and out and I wished so bad that he could’ve held me in his arms. Sometimes I swear I can feel him, but most times it just feels like cold wind brushing against your skin.
I waited and waited, thinking that maybe if I could see Benny that Aubrey would come too. But five days had passed and she still hadn’t shown up. I asked Benny, but he was as clueless as I was. Benny couldn’t really keep a memory; this afterlife wasn’t something you just figured out right away. It was something that we couldn’t understand or comprehend.
                “Liz, I told you..this life..if you can call it that. You wouldn’t want to wish that on her. I promise you that.” He said. I looked up at him and wished so badly that I could kiss him, to comfort him.
“I’m so sorry Ben. I’m so glad that I can see you, but I just wish you could move on. I want you to be happy. I’m so sorry!” I started crying more. My whole life felt like one big mess. “Why can’t you go?” I asked. Benny stood up and I could see that his image was starting to become fuzzier. “I’m fading again.” He said simply. I stood up stepped closer to him. I could almost see behind him as his image became less clear and his body became more transparent. “I love you Benny. I love you so much. If this is the last time I see you I just want you to know that.” I said. Benny gave me a kiss on the lips. I couldn’t feel it, but I knew it was there. He could no longer speak at this stage, but I knew he meant the same for me.
                “If you see her, tell her that I love her too and I miss her. I miss you both so much.” I said. He gave me one last smile before finally fading completely away. Again I was left alone in a room full of boxes and sad memories. 

Deception is the Game

            Rushing through the doors, Alice sprinted down the casino’s hotel room halls. Turn after turn, she found herself trapped in a maze of never-ending red and gold hallways, the thumping sound of her heart matching pace with the thumping of feet behind her. Five black suited men ran after her, threading swiftly through one hall and into another, knowing the building better than she did and laughing inside at the scared little rabbit.

            Finally reaching an elevator, Alice slammed her palm against the button. Over and over again, she pressed the button, looking behind her and seeing the men get closer, smirks on some of their faces and grimaces on the others. Seeing the slow climb of the elevator from floor eleven to floor twenty-seven made her shake in fear and anxiety. She looked at the fire exit and made a move towards it, only to be grabbed by the elbow and thrown onto the ground by one of the black suited men.

            The carpeting stopped her head from making a cracking sound against the floor, but it didn’t stop her shoulder from snapping out of place. Once they had dragged Alice back into the hotel room, they threw her into a chair and stood around her, waiting for the boss to come and demand the quarter million back from Alice McCade, one of the best thieves on the West Coast.

            By the time the boss had come in, Alice was convinced that she would be skinned alive. She had lost the jewels by believing her friend Cat would hold onto them while she made plans for their escape out of Vegas to Spain. Sadly, Cat was a two-faced sociopath and Alice had a tendency to believe in the wrong people.

            The boss, whose name was Aleksander Greaven, sighed, looking down at Alice, already knowing what had happened to his money because he knew what had happened to Cat, since he had been the one to make Cat’s body disappear in the desert. He was light hearted and happy on the inside, finally able to have a thief under his control. It would be easy enough to accomplish, now that Alice had had her life in his hands, and someday, he would have her body and heart as well.

Challenge #84

Hey guys!
The last genre for the genre challenge is going to be Drama. So we are going to be writing stories with the drama genre in mind.

If you would like to join us with your own work that fits this theme, please do! Just e-mail it to us at inkedfeathersfink@gmail.com for Fan Friday!

See you on Wednesday!

The Haunted Basement

              "Jamie we shouldn't be doing this." Laurie said. The two girls were making their way to the basement doors of the abandoned toy store.
"Oh come on don't be such a baby." Jamie said. The two of them had heard stories about the basement that was supposedly filled with old porcelain dolls.  As if that wasn't creepy enough, it was also rumored to be haunted.
             When they reached the basement doors Jamie took a deep breath. Laurie was shaking so hard with fear that the light from her flashlight jumbled all around.
"Okay are you ready?" Jamie asked. Laurie gave her friend a look completely full of fear, but just nodded.
If they didn't do this, everyone would make fun of them come Monday morning. That's the deal with bets and dares, especially when peer pressure is added to the mix.
The door to the basement wasn't even locked, which seemed strange to them. Wouldn't they want to keep it locked up so kids just like them wouldn't go messing around? Soon those thoughts quickly dissipated as they walked down the steps. Laurie's heart began to race as a sense of dread filled within her. It was a feeling she couldn't quite place, but it was also mixed with the feeling of someone watching you. Or a thousand someone's watching you.
               They scanned their flashlights around the room. All sizes and assortment of dolls stared back at them with cold unblinking eyes. The two girls grabbed each other's hands.
"We should go." Laurie said, not wanting to venture any farther into the basement.
"No we can't go yet, we have to take one of the dolls as proof." Jamie said, swallowing the lump of fear in her throat.
"Fine then just take that one!" Laurie whispered, pointing to a small doll in the corner who wasn't as creepy.

"No we need to find the one doll that Tyler told us about. You know the one with one eye?" Jamie said.
The girls began moving slowly through the basement, their flashlights continually moving  as they kept their eyes on the dolls. "He was probably just making that up." Laurie said.
               Some dolls looked newer than others, but most of them were quite old. One doll was so old the paint from her face had faded away leaving only a white blank face. Almost all of the dolls had cobwebs in their hair, and every single one of them seemed to be covered in dust. Except one of them, a doll far away in the corner near the basement window. It wasn't covered in any dust, as if it had been moved several times. It was a fairly large doll, and the face was horrifying. It had a smile that seemed almost too happy, with wide green eyes.     Laurie couldn't take her eyes off it. Out of all the dolls in the room this one was the scariest. Her heart beat faster and faster the longer she stared at the doll, and her uneasy feeling only intensified.
"Jamie, I want to go. NOW!" She said. Jamie turned to see what was wrong and almost gasped seeing the doll by the window. "Oh my god that one is...so creepy. It's perfect, we should take that one."
"NO! We are not taking that one, we are not taking any one! I'm getting the hell out of here." Laurie said turning around and heading back for the door. "Wait, hold on." Jamie said following her friend. Laurie was almost running now, trying to get away from the creepy feeling that sent goosebumps up and down her arms. Jamie followed close behind her. "Laurie just hold on!" Jamie said. But Laurie didn't stop until she was outside, breathing in the crisp night air. 

                  "I had to get out of there..I just..I just couldn't take it anymore. And that doll, god that doll was so fucking creepy." Laurie could just see the face of that doll, like it was burned  into her brain forever. "Well what are we gonna tell everyone? We don't have any proof." Jamie said. Laurie started to walk to the car.
"I don't care!" She said.
"Well I'm going back, I need to get at least one doll." She said. Laurie whipped around. "What?! You can't go back in there!" She said grabbing her friend's shoulder.
"It'll only take a second, I'll be fine. It's not like it's really haunted. Laurie please tell me you don't really believe in that crap?" She asked. Laurie didn't really think she did until she was down in that basement, and the feeling of panic that came over her when she saw the doll by the window.
"Just hurry, please...just hurry. And do not grab that fucking doll by the window." She said. Jamie looked at her friend with knitted eyebrows. "That's the second time you've cussed tonight, you never cuss."
Laurie sighed. "Yeah well, that's what happens when your best friend drags you down into a creepy haunted basement full of porcelain dolls! Now go! I don't want to be here any longer than I need to." She said. Jamie just laughed before running back towards the building.
                   Laurie watched as her Jamie disappeared and walked closer to the building, hoping her friend wouldn't take long. She stood there watching the building when a glimpse of light caught her eye. She turned to right to look, and there she saw the basement window. Glancing in she saw the figure of the creepy doll. She shined her flashlight in, hoping to see Jamie. But then suddenly the head of the doll turned completely around to face her. The wide green eyes now moving to meet Laurie's, and her smile widening even further. The last thing she heard was her Jamie's blood curdling scream. 

                  

Incognito

            “I ran through the dark woods, the moon making the world blue in hue. The trees entangled me and snarled my hair, and I heard the growling up ahead and ran towards it, even though my brain screamed at me to run away from the noise. But Joshua was ahead, my cousin and best friend was ahead of me and I had heard him screaming before I had heard the growling.”

            “By the time I had reached the growling, I could hear a wet noise, like slurping, and looking up into the trees, towards the noise, I saw legs dangling from one of the tree’s branches. The swayed like leaves in the wind from the movements of the black thing on top of the body. I screamed, it lifted its head and it’s eyes glowed white, like the eyes of an animal when caught at night in a headlight. But there was no light, save for the moon in the sky that glowed down on us.”

            “It was silent, it was massive, and it moved towards me. It was on four legs, it was furry, it was the size of a mastiff and it made my heart feel like it was going to explode out of my body. And then I wake up. Right when I can see it smile at me with its bloody maw,” Alexandria took a deep breath. Her story, the story that she had been telling everyone since she had been found in Tanknuck Woods, covered in blood, was finished. Some of the group members stared, some giggled, some shook back and forth while scratching their heads in irritation from the imagined bugs crawling inside of them.

            The Everfrost Psychiatric Facility was Alexandria’s home. It had been for seven years, and she had always refused to believe that she had been the one to kill her cousin. Until today. Her breath quickened, her eyes teared up, and she couldn’t believe that she was going to say something she didn’t believe just so that she could get out of the facility and out into the real world.

            “And I know now that it was just a dream. It wasn’t real. It was in my head. It was the monster inside me that I created to hide what happened. I know I did it. I know I killed him.”

            Doctor Monroe nodded, making a note on her paper and asking Alexandria some questions about the revelation, asking the others in the group if they had any comments. A few months later, after making sure that Alexandria had actually recovered from her delusions, she was released.

            “I saw it again. I followed it to Dr. Monroe’s home. I knew it would kill again, and I wanted to stop it. I wanted to avenge my cousin’s death. So when I saw the beast lumber out of the shadows on my way back from the grocery store to the motel, I knew I had to follow and kill it. But I couldn’t.”

            “I was too late. I heard Dr. Monroe scream, and the world turned blue from the moon. I ran to the door, already smashed open, I followed the growling upstairs, into the study, and heard the wet slurping. Her legs were shaking like tremors from an earthquake from under the table and I saw it’s black furry tail run from under the table out to the edge of the rug, a good four feet. I stepped slowly towards it, it’s tail stopped in mid sway, and it lifted its massive black head to look at the intruder. To look at me.”

            “And then I was it. I looked at the empty doorway, I looked down at the ground. Blood was all over me, and her body was on the floor. A round mirror reflected the beast. It reflected me. It showed me my true face and the face I had hidden from the world. I am Death. I am The End.”