One of my ongoing series is about villains and creating the scariest, most evil of all bad guys. A friend showed me this concept somewhere else so I thought it would be nice to break up the NaNo-age with a bit of a trip to the dark side.
Two sentences… make em as scary as you can… Here’s mine:
Millie’s scream always made my skin crawl, it was a mother’s instinct. I looked at Mike; he’d heard it too. Millie died a year ago.
Once again, I broke my own rules and wrote three sentences! I’m so bad at my own word games! but it was two lines at least… I’m claiming that as counting! It wasn’t the best, but then I’ve never written horror!
Now to last weeks writespiration, and your six word stories. There are some cracking entries, so many I was utterly blown away, so thank you to everyone who took the time to participate.
An author’s life is all write!
***
Screaming, suffering, sweating…beautiful baby born.
***
Take a letter. Then another. Then…’
***
A gale blew. I adjusted sails.
***
Sarah B gives 6 for 6
Hungry? Have a few pomegranate seeds.
I learned the truth at fourteen.
Aliens dissect humans. Discover no heart.
Dieting = refusing pizza, eating chocolate cake.
Tell me. Does it get better?
It gets different. Sad but true.
***
In my dreams, I am alive.
I wake. Morning brings the shadows.
Death disconnects us, but love endures.
***
Leaf-gold falling, geese calling, winter’s coming.
***
He left. Never came back. Never!
***
To be with you is eternity.
***
“Tortured by love, awakens the phoenix”.
***
Hubby’s business trip means lonely nights.
Little granddaughter’s hugs warm Grammie’s heart.
Though miles apart, mom’s love endures.
Doggie kisses bring laughs and giggles.
***
Busy with grandchildren, slept very little,
Can I manage six coherent words?
I nod, bleary-eyed, wasted and grumpy,
A six-word memoir. Piece of cake:
Tears, smiles, ashes. Biography without annotations.
***
Birth, child, teen, marriage, children, requiem
***
Glen Hefly submitted a whopping 16 entries!
Definition Forever: Six weeks, if lucky.
Death. It wasn’t forgivness, but enough.
She’s cheating. Didn’t bother to hangup.
You’re a character. My character. When?
All this time. Good-Witch my ass.
Want to hear a secret? No.
Everyone’s dead. They don’t know, yet.
Rain hammered the widows. The baby!
We should be better strangers
Saved people surrounded my gallows, cheering.
Oh no! The King is pregnant!
Save me? Yeah, about that Jim.
Wait, ferries don’t run at night…
Heart-drive full. Delete Past Lovers?
She wrote milk, he read gasoline.
She breathed her last into him.
***
Kate my lovely friend from work who secretly loves to write, finally after being berated by me, joined in! (thank you work wife!)
“Hug?” “But I have no arms.”
“There’s always tomorrow.” “Tomorrow I die.”
For Sale; weeding dress. Never worn.
My only true love. My abuser.
ten fingers , ten toes, our everything.
She pressed the button and ran.
Ignition, clutch, gear, throttle, freedom.
***
Last but not least, Stephen Swartz submitted an entry via twitter for last weeks romance story. I felt it so brilliant I had to post it. Thanks Stephen
They met and had a frantic two day affair, sniffing and licking each other with delight. Until the dogcatcher hauled Pugsly away.
Too funny, breaking your own rules! I love how you support others with your series, Sacha! 🙂
Haha, thanks Erika, if you stick around long enough you will see how awful I am, I can’t remember the last time I managed to follow my own rules! lol.
LOL… you know what? That makes you human and very lovable 🙂
A traditional rhyme that always makes my skin crawl;
As I was going up the stair
I met a man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
I wish that man would go away.
Oooh thanks so much for participating Gordon 🙂 Cracking rhyme
What a spooky rhyme!
Here’s mine…
It started with the little things; objects moved, disembodied shrieks of laughter, a lone chair balanced on one leg and wildly spinning, the menacing thud of an intruder’s slow steps in the next room, but that’s not where it ends.
In the dark of night, I am woken by the weight of a body settling in the bed beside me, although I live alone; my eyes snap open and I am confronted by a shadowy face on the pillow only inches from mine, so close our noses almost touch, his yellow eyes, so full of malice, staring deep into mine…
disembodied shrieks….. eek, skin crawling.
oh man… I would literally shit my pants if this happened! thanks Ali, as always a bloody awesome entry.
Actually, its based on something which a very close friend whom I trust completely really experienced. Well, not the yellow eyes, and not the other things, but the face on her pillow.
Now that is proper horrifying
Yep! But the spinning chair thing, I think I may have seen that in a film or something, although I once knew people who could balance objects, which was rather strange to say the least.
Ali, that second one creeps me out.
Fantastic, Sacha! What a success, so many entries, well done!
Here is one inspired by Edgar Allen Poe: Persistent furtive tapping, echoing up from the eternally dark basement, drew me down into the abyssal dankness. Now I wander lost in this subterranean vault, haunted by the unceasing touch of a thousand spectral fingers searching for my soul.
or H. P Lovecraft, I guess. If you replace fingers with tentacles.
Wow what an eerie shudder inducing story. Thank you so much for participating 😀
Ooh, I like all of these, Sacha! And you are so good, creating your Writespirations while undergoing NaNo as well 🙂 Thinking cap on for this one…
Thanks Helen, I know I actually had to try REALLY hard to think of an entry only wrote it last night – the rest of my posts though… I cheated and didn’t write any fiction in October was cramming post scheduling in! Im not that great! and Ive only managed 10.5K in NaNo too. 🙁 sigh.
10.5K is pretty good, especially with everything else you’ve got going on! And I’m still available if you need a hand with a guest post 🙂 Back from holiday now so can get on with writing again…
Ah yes. Don’t worry about it now, I managed to get enough scheduled that I haven’t abandoned the blog – HOWEVER… I would still love a guest blog anyway if you ever fancy it 😀
Thank you! And the same to you too 🙂 I’m just sorry I couldn’t get one done for you before I went away. Are you doing Adultland for your NaNo?
Ah don’t be silly it’s not a problem besides u can do one anytime you like ?
Yep I am. I’m now at 24.5k for Adultland can’t believe how much I’ve written! I still don’t really know how it’s going to end – I have an idea but I thought I knew before and it changed when a new character decided to barge in! So I had to stop and go back and write them into the beginning! I’m trying to stop and do major edits in the first draft but that’s hard in NaNo! But necessary for my sanity! You’re not doing NaNo are you?
No, not this year. I had an idea last year and the words just flowed. I do have another idea hanging around, but I’m concentrating on Ambeth book three at the moment. And nearly half way done already? Awesome! Characters do tend to show up like that, especially when you’re in flow 🙂
Ah no it will end up about 70-80K I imagine a proper novel length. Only written 10.5K of those in NaNo I won’t hit the 50K mark for NaNo I’ll maybe do 30K this month, but that’s ok id rather not spew out total shit anyway!! Just more to edit.
How’s book 3? Is this editing or writing?
Absolutely! Like so many things I think NaNo is more about the journey than the goal – whether you get there or not you have still spent a month writing intensively, which is a good thing 🙂 Ambeth is coming along well – this is an edit of book three, but I need to revisit books one and two to make sure I tie up all the loose ends, plus I have a new cover design to work on. It’s exciting though, the story is really taking shape, you know how that feels.
I’m writing a horror short story at the moment so this prompt appealed to me Sacha.
Here’s my entry for the two sentence horror story:
The hilt of the knife moulded with the dark shadow’s skin, he thrust it, slicing an evil rip into the night sky, uncaring who or what it came in contact with. He had work to do, no one would dare encroach upon his approaching shadow.
Thanks Marje, a right horror you have written too <3
Thanks Sacha !
Have you noticed how many participants you get when the challenge is to produce about half a dozen words? What does that tell you about writers? Bloody idle buggers 🙂 I think I’ll have a go at this week’s…
Pahaha I actually have! It’s one of the reasons I was considering doing several 2 sentence ones! Nice and quick. Maybe not idle… Just busy?!… Am I being too nice! Haha ? thank you for the reblog
I know I like the opportunity to take a break from the biggie to wrestle with just a few lines of something completely different. That’s why these tiny challenges are so good.
Reblogged this on Jane Dougherty Writes and commented:
While we’re in writing challenge mode—how about this one?
Thanks for the reblog Jane, one of these days I will pick up enough courage to attempt your poetry challenge, I am just beyond pants at it!
I think we all say that to begin with. Have a go. Anyone who spends all her free time playing around with words should be able to write the odd poem 🙂
Hmmm! I’ll have a go after NaNo. Promise ?
Ha! Broken the rules again. I almost didn’t read this when I saw the word “horror” in the title. But I read it and survived. Well done. What fabulous 6-word stories too. Brilliant work there. 🙂
There you go.
In the dream, she lay in bed, facing the dimly-lit window, paralysed, feeling the displacement of cold air, the presence in the doorway behind. In terror, her eyes snapped open to the palely moonlit room, her pounding pulse accelerating as the presence stroked the back of her neck.
with the pic https://janedougherty.wordpress.com/2015/11/12/two-sentence-horror-story/
I am hating reading all these! Im sat in the dark crapping my pants now! lol
You sensitive soul, you 🙂
The switch at the top of the stair,
did not light washer’s basement lair.
My heart beating fast,
my whole life flashed past,
when the cat jumped into my hair.
@the_release_101
I couldn’t resist …
He felt her cold, dead lips press down on his own, stifling a moan as a maggot attempted to crawl into his mouth. So this was the true meaning of undying love.
Horrifying image!
Thank you, I think!
agreed!
WHAT THE F….. I don’t know whether to scream or shudder or cry! Im grossed out as well as slightly terrified!
The switch at the top of the stair,
did not light washer’s basement lair.
My heart beating fast,
my whole life flashed past,
when the cat jumped into my hair.
Hi Sacha, I thought of one, and here it is:
‘Hmm, that’s nice,’ I murmured, half awake, my back arching under his touch.
‘I’m not touching you,’ I heard him whisper, as the hands moved to my throat.
🙂
Makes me want to scream!
Reblogged this on Suffolk Scribblings and commented:
If you’re looking for a writing prompt, you should visit Sacha Black’s blog. She’s always looking at creative ways to get the writing juices flowing and this was one I couldn’t resist. How about you have a go, too?
Thanks again for the share Dylan 😀
You’re more than welcome
Lots of great entries from last week, and some good ones going for this week’s theme.
I think the shorter the challenge the bigger the range of stories which is bizarre given you would think fewer words meant less range! I love them 😀 Thanks for reading
What a grand if grim range of entries, Sacha.
Millie let the shop door close behind her, her smile hidden in the flowers. She bent to kiss Amy’s head but the pushchair stood empty, accusing.
ooh shit, that is actually terrifying. god I hope that never happens to me!
Some spooky stories!
Mine’s a bit long, but strictly speaking, there are two full stops, so two sentences!
My chest ached from lack of oxygen, my legs trembled with exhaustion, and my hand shook as I pushed the key into the lock, kicked the door open, and threw myself onto the safety of my worn carpet.
Minutes later, I stopped panting and looked up, ‘Did you think there was only one of us?’ he asked.
I love it when someone bends the rules! 😀 <3 love the twist too, I had no idea where it would end up awesome ending
Some great entries here! Here are mine:
There was a delicious morsel of bacon wedged between her back teeth. He prised open her dead mouth to taste it.
The Surgeon’s voice was hushed, as it always was when the moment came to call the Time of Death. ‘Tomorrow at noon.’ he said.
The body was battered and torn, open now, spilling its contents. The children all agreed it was the best Pinata ever …
He’d unglued his eyes on the way home. They stared at her, white as scar tissue, staying open as she kissed his sewn-up lips.
“How about some scrambled embryos?” She made the same awful joke every day, but when I saw my plate I knew she’d taken it too far.
“Lucy lost my yoyo, but she helped me make a new one.” The boy smiled, unspooling the wet thread of ganglia and the bloodshot blue eye.
She joked that she’d turn into a pumpkin at 12. She didn’t, but I still carved her a new smile and filled her eyes with candlelight.
The twins asked to be Freddy Krueger & Pinhead for Halloween. Their mother blowtorched the girl’s face and hammered nails into the boy’s skull.
Some of the med students took notes about the exposed, bisected brain. The others just wished the patient would stop screaming.
I thought the little redhead girl had a spray of freckles upon her nose. Until I saw the empty crib and the fine blonde baby hair in her teeth.
Look who’s here! I looked up quickly and saw “spray of freckles” and thought “hey, I know that horror writer!” 😀 *waves*
Haha! *waves back excitedly* 🙂 You know me, Sarah, I’ll always find the Horror … unless it finds me first! Bwhahahaha! 😉
Ugh! You know…I “liked” this before I saw what you wrote. My mistake… You are wicked. Gross. (What do you have an antenna out for “horror”? You’re everywhere horror is… Hmmm… 😈
OMG….. you are like some kind of superstar pro at horror. These are like… gross and scary and *shudder* thank you so SO much for participating 🙂 <3
Haha! Not at all, I really enjoyed it and also reading through the other participants! Thanks for doing this, and for your very kind comment 🙂
A worm slithered from his cuff, then another, before he loosened his tie and started unbuttoning his shirt. “I guess it’s time to show you who I am, love.”
*mwah*
Oh, the worms! I love this! 🙂
EWWWWWWWWWWWW>…….. WHY???? WHY DID YOU DO WORMS. I actually can’t bear it!! can you imagine though? gross gross. I love this entry although i will most definitely have nightmares tonight!
Eek! Sorry. Didn’t know… (Would have done it anyway so… #SorryNotSorry) 😉