A d’Verse prosery prompt
“Yours is lighter than the breeze,” she rasped, “You couldn’t possibly understand, you blighter.”
“My what?” the lad asked fearfully, but the crone continued speaking, her eyes and mouth twitching, as the child fought against his rusty shackles.
“I’d just as well never have anything to do with you brats! Most of the time, the damned beast is content to just lumber about or nap, and she leaves me in peace; but sometimes the great bones of my life feel so heavy… that’s when these infernal spasms start. You think I asked for this, Boy?”
“Please…”
“Stop struggling. It’ll be over snippety snap! She feeds on weightlessness; and she’s quite ravenous. Usually, she swallows them without even chewing!”
As the hag’s voice grated, the terrified schoolboy suddenly noticed her unearthly, inky shadow looming impossibly high above her, rushing toward him of its own accord.
It’s prosery time at d’Verse. The rules are simple:
- Use an assigned line in the body of your prose. You may change the punctuation and capitalization, but you are not allowed to insert any words within the line itself. You can add words at the beginning and/or at the end of the line; but the line itself must remain intact.
- Your prose can be either flash fiction, nonfiction, or creative nonfiction. YOU CAN NOT WRITE A POEM for this prompt. AND, your prose should be no longer than 144 words, sans title. It does not have to be exactly 144 words. But it can be no longer than 144 words.
The assigned line was:
Sometimes the great bones of my life feel so heavy
-Mary Oliver, ‘Spring Azures’ (a poem)
The Skeptic's Kaddish 🇮🇱 
A frightening tale!
Dun, dun, dun! 😉
-David
Reblogged this on Love and Love Alone.
great horror tale and dialogue … I don’t do either of those well 🙂
You totally drew us in
💗
Shades of Baba Yaga, the crone stealing children and doing away with them. A fearsome creation. You tell the story as a story should be told, just the right story-teller tone.
🥰
I love the way most of this tale is in dialogue, David, building up to the horror of the final paragraph. I was torn between horror and laughter when I read: “Stop struggling, Boy, it’ll be over snippety snap! She feeds on weightlessness; and she’s quite ravenous. Usually, she swallows them without even chewing!”
Thanks, Kim❣️
In truth, I feel like using dialogue is taking the easy way out with prosery prompts – because characters can say anything in any-which way, depending upon their intelligences, characters, backgrounds, dialects, etc…
-David
This is a wonderfully imaginative take on the prompt. I hope the boy managed to get away somehow!
Me too 🙂
Oh, wow! Frightfully bewitching.
❤
Oh my goodness, this is so visual I felt the prickle of fear myself.
Thank you 🙂
-David
Most welcome🙂
A scary hair raising tale! That spider coming down is a real nightmare! Well done David!
Thanks, Dwight❣️
You are welcome.
Too depressed to read and comment this evening, just saying hello – be back when I am repackaged.
Much love.
Very engaging
🙏 🙏 🙏
This is such an awesome concept.
I think so too – I’m totally into it 😁
Thanks, Mica!
-David