Jack squinted at the pumpkin that would soon scowl back with its new face. His cousins squawked and made piles of orange mess as they scooped seeds for roasting. No longer would his carvings wilt, disappointed. This year, Jack would redeem his art. With apprehension and resigned curiosity, Jack bit into his first seed, hot from the farmhouse oven. Visions of ghoulish grins and winking hollow eyes shifted and twisted. Bite after bite, the visage refined itself into one both cheery and grotesque. Nana Sally…Continue Reading “Jack’s Lantern”
Shadow the cat looked down on the window, which looked down on everything else. Sun beams chased dust motes chased twitching whiskers and lazy tail. All else was still. All else was quiet. Beyond the paned glass stood a tree, which housed a creature more curious than even cats. The wombat hadn’t moved for hours. Shadow typically admired this propriety in others, yet she felt this was unusual for her greatest of friends. As day faded to dusk faded to starlit evening, Shadow watched with…Continue Reading “Wombat Gifts”
The pretty bones all fit together, pearlescent pieces of a walking puzzle. They tumble across brown grass in a semblance of the living as magic replicates sinew. The air is crisp, almost like the old stories of blue and blue and blue. Tears are too clear, too much like ghosts. If only the bones could grow as they once did. The spirits that once commanded rabbit, sparrow, dog, and fox have passed. Mayhap a new spirit, one still living, might command old bones for new…Continue Reading “Raising Ghosts”
She was taken from her meadow with a wink and sly words. “I’ll make you a Queen,” he offered. “I’m already a Queen, what else is there?” He regarded her crown of flowers, so skilfully woven and with such a perfume as to entice even the coldest of stars. “I can give you the darkness,” said Hades, as he watched the lights glimmer in her golden hair. “I can give you the peace and privacy of the dead, I can hide you away from the…Continue Reading “Persephone”