PHOTO PROMPT © Sandra Crook

“Oh, crap.”

Jeremy had been surprised when he was given Dad’s house in his will. They hadn’t even talked in ten years. Then he visited the property and found out why.

“You died on Christmas and are making me deal with your junky place for New Years,” he said.

The backyard pond was not only filled with trash and frozen over, but something was strange.

“What is that, plastic mesh?”

He kicked at it with his shoe and it grabbed back.

“No! What?” Jeremy was pulled off his feet as something cold and hungry sucked him into the small abyss.

It’s Wednesday and time again to participate in Rochelle Wisoff-Fields’ 9 January 2026 edition of Friday Fictioneers.

The idea is to use the image above as the prompt for crafting a poem or short story no more than 100 words long. My word count is exactly 100.

I had to get up especially early so my brain isn’t fully engaged. The frozen plastic mesh looked like a reptile’s scales to me and thus my monster was born. I spun my wee tale off of that.

To read other stories based on the prompt and to post your own, visit inlinkz.

Promotional image for the anthology “Ruins.”

The science fiction anthology Far Futures Four is now available for purchase in Kindle or paperback formats. It features my military SciFi short story “Awash on Titan’s Shores.”

Next there’s:

Across the vast expanse of space and time lie the remnants of civilizations that reached for the stars—and vanished. Silent cities carved into asteroids. Derelict megastructures drifting between galaxies. Temples buried beneath the red sands of dead worlds.

This book contains 13 bold tales of humanity’s encounters with these cosmic ruins.

That’s how the narrative for the Kickstarter for “Ruins: A Space Opera Anthology” begins. The anthology contains my short story “Sunrise.” The kickstarter is at 70 followers now and growing. Please consider contributing to this effort or even passing the information along.