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Epic. Glad you wrote the whole thing out instead of stopping at 500 words. The muse found you and you followed. Well done.

Thanks @cyemela. Yeah, most of this ending got written (I'd say about 1500 words of it) about 3 days ago then I had to put together a little plot line in my creative diary (I hope it isn't haunted) and wait until yesterday to get the time to finish it off. Glad I just made the deadline and I'm glad you enjoyed it mate :-) lol

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I've been sad since bitcoin took a dump in december :(

I've been sad since spamming gobshites have been visiting my posts spouting unrelated nonsense... but I suppose that's just life!

lol well said.. (I'm printing the story, right now, will read it at work like a forbidden ancient scroll)

Ha ha. I just made one quick edit so that this section:

An electric pulse seemed to thrust Gustav into consciousness, almost like his brain was rebelling against the nightmare. It seemed far too real as he steadied his breath, breathing slow and deep. He shivered all over, sweat clinging skin to sheets. Katia stirred beside him, he looked down at her as she sighed fitfully in Moldova's humid summer swoon.

Is changed to:

An electric pulse seemed to thrust Gustav into consciousness, almost like his brain was rebelling against the nightmare. It seemed far too real as he steadied his breath, breathing slow and deep. He shivered all over, sweat clinging skin to sheets. Katia stirred beside him, he looked down at her as she sighed fitfully in Prague's humid summer swoon.

To show that the action is taking place in Prague. Don't know how I missed that when writing it but I didn't have time for a full proofread yesterday.

A good proofread would require you to forget the papers in the drawer for a bit.. noone has time for nothing, I totally understand you.. this second version makes more sense, u did well ✌️ (p.s. don't forget to vote.. i forgot the space where to doh!)

The ending was worth the lenght of the writing! Very nice!

Thanks marcoriccardi :-)

What I loved the most of this epic ending, as rightfully defined by cyemela is the weaving of the horrors of war with the alchemic, daemonologic theme.
The description of the woman with parchment skin was truly horrific and the whole scene made me think of something coming out from St. John's Apocalypse.
The end was intense and evocative in its climax.. poor Katia!
The faceless child last sentence was particularly spot on, have to say. An authentic demonic yearning reveals in that sentence, at the point that I'm not really feeling at ease to write about it before going to sleep (!!)..And, by the way, a reminder to myself to stay away from your creative diary!

Thanks @f3nix. I tried to do some research for this one but a lot of the scenes just came naturally from my internal landscape. The mingling of war and daemonic influence made me feel really happy when it first came in to my mind and the way that the story incorporated those themes too was one of the things that made me proud of this story. It is also why I just let it off the leash in regards to word count. It is hard to build subtext in so few words or very skillful and I'm not quite their yet ;-)

Anyway, I'm glad it inspired truly horrific feelings. The last sentence by the faceless child actually comes from a dream I had a few months back. I suffer from night terrors, thankful less often than I did as teenager. They can be the most intense experience and I once had to go to hospital as I'd broken my knuckles punching the wall in my sleep but they were much worse when I was young ;-) I now make sure the bed I sleep in is never pushed up against the wall. Anyway, in the dream there was a daemon stalking me and it kept taking the face of all of my friends and loved ones. I was running away from them all and everywhere I turned another friend smiling and sanctuary only to have the face change into that of a daemon. Finally I turned to my friend who died around 5 years ago and his face changed and it spoke a variation of those words.

"YOU ARE MINE. YOUR SOUL IS IN MY HANDS. I HAVE COLLECTED YOU AND EVERYONE YOU HAVE EVERY LOVED."

Fucked up ehh? I got used to these types of dreams many moons ago but they still terrify me for 5-10 seconds after I wake then I can dismiss them quite quickly.

Great material for horror stories though :-)

Great material indeed, Rowan, and you don't know how much I understand you.. mostly when a teenager and in my childhood I suffered from recurring nightmares and I'd say true visions of hell and demons.. My reaction is the same as yours, as I learned with time to recognize them, even within the dream itself. You know, that was a sort of self-defense mechanism, preserving me from when the horror was going to reveal.. At a point, from inside the nightmare I was just "hell no.. this has to stop now, I'm not going through all this". This developed in me some lucid-dream episodes. There are some things I would not write about.. I think they're a bit too much but, generally, all these dives into darkness are a source of inspiration, I agree with you ^_^

This was absolutely worth going over the word limit for. It was engaging from beginning to end and truly unsettling. Pretty sure I'm going to have nightmares now but it's worth it lol.

Many thanks @blueteddy. Ha ha, the nightmares are what keep me coming back to good horror stories. I must admit I was getting shivers down my spine when writing the final paragraphs of this story.... almost like something was writing through me ;-)

Sweet dreams lol

Week #20 emerged from the shadows.. will you be brave enough, storyteller?

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