The Shadow in the Hall
Spooky Season Bingo Writing Challenge; "All in your Head"
I see you pacing the halls, meandering among the living dead as they are wheeled into these rooms of 'healing'; are you here to save us or condemn us? Within these white walls you hear us moan and scream, wail and cry. Is our lament your fuel - your life?
Won't you turn to look upon us, or shall your feet imprint shadows into the tiled floor? Will the cacophony of our sufferings be your life's epitaph?
As they 'heal' me they say you are only a figment in the firmament of my mind's eye. As they fill my veins with 'medicine' they say you are a symptom of a sickness I have long carried.
Is that not why you are here? To prove to them that you are not the symptom, but the solution to all our mortal woes?
To say unto them that our insanity is a sign of your coming?
To declare: I am the shadow of death, and I have come to lead you to paradise.
________________ . . . ________________
World: ???
Word Count: 170
Spook Level: I see death, do you?
This spooky season I am joining in on some fun community challenges! For this one, the goal is to use the bingo board to create a shape out of the prompts.
A fun tidbit: many of these spooky stories are going to come from my fictional worlds. This one is a standalone with no current ties to any of my bigger novel projects, which you can find other work for in my catalogue.
If you'd like to join in on the fun, check out Marie Sinadjan's challenge below!
Want to start from the beginning? Check out the first spooky story below!
About the Creator
Amanda Starks
Fantasy writer, poet, and hopefully soon-to-be novelist who wants to create safe spaces to talk about mental health. Subscribe to my free newsletter at www.amandastarks.com for updates!
RE:SURGENCE now available for download!
Keep reading
More stories from Amanda Starks and writers in Fiction and other communities.
Seed of Glass
I knew you were different from the moment my eyes of flame met your eyes of glass. They reminded me of the chimes at the market. The way their multicolored surfaces caught and refracted the light would bring such joy to even my most mundane of days.
By Amanda StarksExclusive • about a year ago
The steps to losing a child
Step One: Lose a child. Not what anyone wants to happen and nothing you can do to change it, but you can go through steps to becoming happy again. You can go through steps to loving again. You can go through steps to become a new you because after losing a child you will never be the same person you once were.
By Tabitha Hinkley3 days ago in Fiction
Standing While Falling
Quotation from Friedrich Nietzsche "He who wrestles long with monsters should beware lest he himself become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you. Man is not destroyed by suffering, but by the meaning he makes of it."
By LUCCIAN LAYTH5 days ago in Critique
Comments (9)
Nice work! I like it!
i always new you indeed filled with talents, well done and well written story I enjoyed reading
An intense, thought-provoking piece that lingers in the mind long after reading.
This is stunning. Saw some of it then got distracted lol. D'oh. Then came back and it was Top Story! Fab work. Lots of spookiness and creepiness and tension from virtually nothing, which is always impressive. that last line landed all sinister! Well done!
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssssssss
Amazing!!! Where's the novel!!! Don't keep us waiting to long!!! These Tid Bits are delicious but I want the whole enchilada!!!!
What an amazing and spooky bit of micro fiction. Well done! Congratulations, too, on the Top Story!
Great one
Extremely well-written, Amanda! I love how alliterative it got! A beautiful one to read aloud (and what a spooky one at that)! ❤️❤️