I did it again! I entered a 250-word microfiction contest hosted by #nycmidnight in October and was given the following parameters to use in my story:
Genre: Ghost Story
Action: Whispering into an ear
Word: Escape
5486 writers divided into 115 groups with approximately 48 writers per group participated in the first round. The top ten in each group move on to the next round, so that means there are about 1150 writers left in the competition, with 4336 already being eliminated, if my math is correct.
I am pleased to announce that my story “Body Snatcher” came in fourth place in my group! I am moving on to Round Two!
Tonight at Midnight EST I will be placed into a new group and given a new genre, action, and word. Then I will have 24 hours to write a new story! I am going to be busy tomorrow!
If you would like to read my winning story, here it is:
Body Snatcher by J. H. O’Rourke
I watch with wonder the vivid glimpses of her childhood memories. Those of her teenage years, her young adulthood.
Fascinating, these recollections. They had always eluded me. But now that she’s dying, they’re so, so strong.
As her new husband carried her over the threshold into the house that had always been and will always be mine, I roused from my dormant state and escaped from the confines of the shadows to become One with her.
As I had done with so many others in the past.
But I was not the only soul possessing her body. The Other was not a spirit but a fetus growing in her womb. I knew instinctively I would need this Being some day, so I allowed it to stay, to be born.
I’ve made her do things she’ll never recall, simply by whispering in her ear. Like the time she bashed her husband’s skull in and buried him in the rose garden.
Throughout the years, I’ve fed on her emotions. Especially her overwhelming love for her daughter.
I’ve been content here. But, alas, the time has come to move on.
I will not return to the shadows.
I make her summon her daughter.
As the young woman enters the house, I leave the body I’ve lived in for a quarter of a century and become One with her daughter.
A delicious chill trickles down my new hostess’ spine as she places a protective hand over her swollen belly.
I’m home.
