One Winter Evening

candles

PHOTO PROMPT © Susan Rouchard

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Soren basked in the candles’ glow as he had for so many years during this season. He neither celebrated the Hanukah lights nor the birth of the “Light of the World,” mercy forbid.

The presentation “Artwork by Candlelight” was a centuries old family tradition and he must leave soon. Explaining his presence would be awkward.

“Hello.”

He turned to the doorway. She couldn’t be more than five. “You are Daphine, the Baron’s granddaughter.”

“Who are you?”

He stared, considering a light snack, but then declined. The vampire came to honor his family’s legacy, not to dine on a distant cousin.

It’s Wednesday and once again time to participate in Rochelle Wisoff-Fields’ 15 December 2023 edition of Friday Fictioneers. The idea is to use the image above as a prompt for crafting a poem or short story no more than 100 word long. My word count is exactly 100.

Last night, I received a submissions call by email to create a story for the third installment of the “Shoot the Devil” series (I’ll explain in a minute), so “darkness” was on my mind.

Susan Rouchard’s photo evoked a sort of sinister darkness, but I had to consider the artwork and the plastic chairs as well. So I created the vampire Soren, a bit of a stereotype as a centuries old member of a minor royal family somewhere in Europe. He likely was familiar with these paintings while the artists were still alive.

I inserted an encounter with a child, both to show menace as well as mercy. I set the event in December and used the “light” metaphor. Legend says a vampire cannot enter a residence unless invited, but since he may have been born there long, long ago, I felt that wouldn’t be necessary.

Happy Hanukah and Merry Christmas from the other side of the veil.

To read other tales inspired by the photo, visit Inlinkz.

ginger

Screenshot from the internet.

I have a short story called “The Heavens Declare His Glory” in the second Christian-based anthology Shoot the Devil 2: Dark Matter. Like the original, the stories all show the struggle of good over evil with good triumphing, only this time in space.

It received a very nice review including a mention of my story at the horror-centric blog Ginger Nuts of Horror.

Please have a look.

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