Day 75 Writing Short Stories

Property

She believed in ritual sacrifices—the good ones. Ones with all the blood and human flesh. With the right kind of ritual, the world would yield to her will. No one had ever dared to tell her she might be wrong there; that with a lot of smiles, chatting, and cooperation, the world might work easily in her favor without all the hassle of kidnapping, dragging, and stabbing someone. A ritual was a full-body strength workout with cardio built in. She continued living in her fantasy, as most of her so-called acquaintances thought she gave them the willies—even the ones who worked under her as estate agents.

She knelt on the ground, feeling the tremors of her target. She had her eyes set on a nice new property and was willing to do whatever it took to obtain it. Her usual demon needed a virgin as payment this time around, and she had no qualms about the price. And she had the perfect woman for that. An annoying blond runner who kept posting about her fabulous virgin life for anyone willing to hear. She despised women like her, who thought their merit to the world was their perfect skin, hair, and lifestyle. She had been stalking her online habits and was pretty sure that the claims of virginity were real. At least she was honest. If she weren’t, the demon would get an appetizer, and the world would be free of a selfish blond. She would find someone else. Not a child, though. She drew a line there.

Anyway, the woman deserved what was to come. She had read her comments and all the little snipes she took at her friends in her high-minded jogging, blond, virgin superiority, and she was pretty sure she was doing a favor not only for herself but for the blond’s friends. Oh, yes, they would mourn and shed tears after her, and do all the other fuss when someone you know dies suddenly, online — but underneath all that they would think good riddance.

She stood up and brushed mud off her knees. She took her ritual dagger out and waited for the blond to arrive at their meeting down the trail to the spot where the huge old scary tree was. The blond had mentioned the thing on her running blog, telling the tree gave her the willies, and she couldn’t help but think that destiny was a funny, twisted thing.

The blond came into view, her ponytail popping from side to side as she sprinted down the trail. She had her headphones on and was mouthing the words of the song as she kept her pace steady.

She stepped just out of her view and readied her dagger, wondering why all her ritual sacrifices were always blond, good-looking women. She dismissed the fleeting thought. She shouldn’t have. If she had dared to push a little deeper, she might have found the aha moment that defined lives. But as she didn’t, there would be a body.

She jumped behind the blond, swinging her dagger down her back as the woman jogged past the scary tree. The dagger never landed. Instead, she got her wind knocked out by the blond woman, who swirled and swung her right leg in an arch against her. The blond woman was on her before she knew what was happening, and the ritual dagger that had swung from her hand on the wet mud was now coming forcefully down on her chest.

“Caught you,” the blond said, before the world turned dark and warm, really warm, the hell kind of warm.

—

Oh, I don’t do the image justice. There could have been so many other amazing stories written about the image—so many without sacrifices and blonds, but writing is an odd process. It rarely lets you arrive at the solution and situation you want, like with today’s prompt. I had an idea for a necromancer, maybe situating the story in my Necropolis, and making it funny and twisted in another way, but this was what came out. Sigh. I’m not saying this is bad. I had fun writing the scene and delivering justice in the end, but this was not what I set out to write with a perfect setting. What I got today was a voice-driven comic fantasy written in the omniscient third person. Maybe tomorrow there won’t be ritual sacrifices and blonds.

Thank you for reading! Have an imaginative day ❤