May 6, 2018
The Possepticeye meet Chase Brody. Another one for the May Contest. @sarcastic-pasta-games @therealjacksepticeye
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The Possepticeye meet Chase Brody. Another one for the May Contest. @sarcastic-pasta-games @therealjacksepticeye
Ekphrastic Fiction Contest Winner (May 2020)
The winner for this month’s contest is @wemitodd! Congratulations!!! You can read the winning submission below and then make sure to check out @wemitodd‘s page to see more work from this writer!
This writer was also the winner of my December 2019 contest. If you would like to see their previous winning entry, click here! There is also one Honorable Mention that will be posted later today.
As a reminder, this month’s feature is an untitled digital piece created by @muraokamiart. This artist has some incredibly interesting original art and fan art, so if you like this piece as much as I do, I hope you’ll visit this artist’s Tumblr page and also consider browsing through their work on this art shop!
Missing: Two Boys Vanish at Sea
Lain and Mike Nickles went out yesterday morning on their father’s fishing boat. They were meant to come back home in time for dinner but they never made it back to shore. Their father borrowed a neighbors boat and went to bring the boys home but found his boat abandoned in the middle of the water. Investigators have launched a lake wide search.
May’s Honorable Mentions
I was truly impressed by the variety of unique stories that were created using this month’s piece by @hydraart. First, I would like to thank Virginie Juteau for allowing me to use another one of his pieces for this contest. I hope anyone who sees this will take a few minutes to read the stories below and appreciate the incredibly different perspectives writers can have on a single piece of art. That is, after all, what this contest is all about.
As a reminder, this digital sketch is titled, “Nightmare Fuel.”
(These entries are presented in the order I received them and do not represent any type of ranking system.)
Untitled
Contributed by: Emily Elizabeth Fowl @emilyelizabethfowl
The darkness held none of its usual comfort.
Instead it resonated with guttural growls following the monsters as they circled their prey. “We shouldn’t have came here!” Derek whispered furiously, correcting his grip on the slipping sword. “Going towards suspicious sounds at night is never a good idea!”
Shane didn’t respond. His eyes were focused on the three beasts and nothing more, his leather gloves squelching loudly.
One of the monsters turned around, snarling at them threateningly before going back to their prey.
“Please, let’s just leave,” Derek took a step back, but the shining orb above their heads didn’t move. Usually having a mage provide the source of the light was advantageous, but not when said mage refused to move.
Neither Shane nor the beasts paid him any mind, instead focusing on the bloodied creature lying in the middle of the clearing.
The mare was clearly dying.
“Monsters,” Shane grunted through clenched teeth. “Murderers.”
The growls rose in volume and frequency.
“Let’s go before they murder us!”
The growls cut off with no warning, as if sliced with a blade. The beasts turned around and left with not a single glance back.
“Come on,” Derek tugged at Shane’s arm. The monsters obviously weren’t going to leave their prey laying in the middle of the forest.
They would come back for it, and Derek wanted to be very far away from the clearing when that happened.
“I will finally avenge my mother,” Shane grunted, ripping his arm out of Derek’s grip. “I’m not going to allow them to continue killing everything in their sight!”
“They didn’t kill you,” a new voice said from behind them.
A witch pushed past them before they could turn back, going straight to the mare.
“And they won’t get another chance!” Shane took a step forward. “I won’t let them-!”
“I’d rather you didn’t kill them.”
That was enough to bring Shane’s temper down somewhat.
“My father saw them kill my mother. And we just saw them kill that mare! Are you saying they shouldn’t pay for their crimes?”
“Did you really?” the witch looked at them and tilted her head, her hand never stopping petting the horse’s mane. “Or is that what you want to believe?”
“We followed the noises and found a bloodied mare being circled by three beasts. What else could it have been?”
“Did you see them attack?”
“No,” Derek offered. “But the mare was dying, we saw its last breath.”
“Or did you?”
The mare’s eyes opened.
Slowly, it stood up, stumbling a little.
It neighed quietly, shook its head and trotted away, leaving only blood and crumpled grass behind.
“But... My mother?”
“Sometimes the wounds are too grave to heal in time,” the witch stood up and dusted off her knees, walking back in the same direction she came from. “But no matter how monstrous they may seem, the unicorns will always try their best to help.”
Untitled
Contributed by: @shydragonrider
They could smell it, their natural enemy. Its rancid scent filled the nostrils of the collective pack. The Guards hissed in dismay, and circled around the pregnant Queen. A much deeper growl reverberated through the otherwise silent night. Their enemy was still in the shadows, invisible, with its dark hide. The lead guard snarled, and a subordinate reluctantly stepped forward, hissing and whining, another bark from the guard and it lunged into the darkness. There was the sickening sound of flesh ripping, but it was quickly drowned out by a gurgling scream. The scent of blood mingled with the stench of the assailant, the remaining guards readied themselves as the very embodiment of terror stepped into the range of their night vision…
“On The Back Road, Watch Out For Traffic”
Contributed by: @evanthenerd83
“Don’t worry,” Jeffrey heard his father whisper. “They won’t hurt us.”
The boy sighed, and released his grip on the door handle. He was relieved. And a little embarrassed.
It should’ve been obvious. While they were big, large enough to dwarf the truck, cowhelians were also herbivores. They had no interest in the dealings of humans. A field of bladdelions, maybe.
Fallen tree limbs, sure.
But not a six-year old boy and his father.
“In fact,” his father continued.
Jeffrey could see the creatures in the eerie glow of the headlights, their eyes like moon-dishes, and smiled.
They were chewing.
Staring, dumb and impenetrable.
Just then, a billowing cry split the silence of night. The sound echoed through the darkness. It slipped between the trees. And Jeffrey felt it in his bones.
But the cowhelians felt it in their souls. They stopped chewing. They dropped gnarled twigs and turned away, their great hoofs batting the Earth like a drum. A stampede.
Jeffrey only wished that he could’ve gone with them.
He glared at his father, fully prepared to wring him dry. Why the horn? Why didn’t he just turn the headlights off?
But he stopped.
And he felt that shock from earlier, that fear of teeth and blood and the black sweeping gulfs of death, resurface.
His father had his hands on the wheel.
But not on the horn.
Not on the…
Outside, the sound came, it came close and closer and closer.
The crashing of trees.
Untitled
Contributed by: @coin-sith
I can hear something in the woods behind my home. It’s been there for days now, a low whining that almost sounds like an engine, or perhaps some strange bird.
But it is not, I know. I have seen them, eyes reflecting the shine of my torch before blinking out of sight again. They slink back into the forest as soon as light touches them, melting back into the darkness like the shreds of a bad dream.
I am not afraid of them. I have sturdy walls and locks on the cat flaps. And afterall, animals are always more afraid of you than you are of them. But I keep a gun beside my bed. Just in case.
Tonight was another such night. The strange whining woke me in the early hours after midnight. Involuntarily, my heart beat faster. They were so quiet. Carefully, I got up from my bed, carefully I tiptoed over to the window, lifting the blends just a crack. Afterall, I wasn’t afraid.
They were stalking around the edge of my barn, sniffing and whining in that awful pitch. Thankfully, I had barred the stable doors that evening, but I could hear the horses shifting nervously in their stalls, even from across the yard. One kicked its walls, and alm the creatures froze. They had this strange way of moving in sync that was incredibly unsettling to watch. But it didn’t scare me.
After a moment, they began moving again, noiseless as ever. The whining seemed to wind to a higher pitch, until one crept forwards from the rest, staring as if inspecting the door.
And then, to my horror, it reared up on its hind-legs and grabbed the heavy beam across the barn doors. Two more came to its aid, and it went thudding to the floor with a dull thump.l, and they went rushing inside.
The first scream unfroze me. I grabbed the gun leaning beside my bed and rushed out of my door towards the stables, hastily loading cartridges. In my mind, the frantic thump of my heart held rythm with my frantic thoughts. They were just animals. They shouldn’t be able to do that. Right?
As I approached the open barn doors, they were there, nearly bowling me over and dragging the limp corpse of a grey colt. For a terrifying moment, I saw sharp fangs in an oddly horse-like face, pale hairless skin, and hands so very like a human’s, before they were past me, leaving only a dark bloody trail leading into the forest.
I was lying when I said I wasn’t afraid.
Untitled
Contributed by: Peculiur @peculiurperennial
"Hey, Lucy? I think I found your horse. Looks like something else might've found it first, though..."
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