December 26, 2017

A Very Bad Ending

By Kat Myrman

img_9064

A Fairytale with a Very Bad End
Once upon a times are supposed to have happy ever afters, but this is not one of those tales….

Every 7 Years, the people of a humble village made the treacherous journey to The Scarlet Temple to bring alms, ensuring another 7 years of bountiful harvests.

On one such pilgrimage, the people had an Unavoidable Encounter with a demon known as Shadow Puppet. He lured the entourage off the well-worn path making the trip, that would normally have taken only 3 days, an Ineffable 30 days! The people became weary, parched and Famished: An Unrelenting Silence enveloped them.

Shadow Puppet whispered from the center of the throng, “The Scarlet Temple has no magical powers. In fact, it has a Cracked Facade. Your alms mean nothing. It is only your own toil and labor that brings forth bountiful harvests year after year.”

Word traveled swiftly. When the murmuring mumbling reached a feverish pitch, Shadow Puppet cleared his knobby throat and declared, “Why should you give your precious harvest to The Scarlet Temple with a Cracked Facade when you are starving and parched?”

“He’s right,” a voice echoed from their midst, “we are going to die of hunger and thirst. I propose that we keep these alms for ourselves. It is our right!”

The people hailed the idea, distributing equal rations of the putrid, Festering Roots amongst themselves. A great feast was prepared. Everyone celebrated, filling their bellies with the rotten tubers.

The next morning people became gravely ill. One by one they died until no one was left.

That’s right. There were no survivors. As a result, there was no one to give alms to The Scarlet Temple with a Cracked Facade…and ultimately, no more harvests.

“I” is an Illusion.

The End

~kat

I couldn’t choose one, so I used them all! This tale for MindLoveMiserysMenagerie Sunday Writing Prompt inspired by this prompt:
Choose one or more of the titles below and fashion a poem or story around it =)
A Fairytale with a Very Bad End
The Scarlet Temple
Shadow Puppet
An Unavoidable Encounter
Cracked Facade
I is an Illusion
Famished: An Unrelenting Silence
Festering Roots
7 Years
Ineffable

 

 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 26th, 2017 at 12:34 am and tagged with , , , , and posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, Flash Fiction, Under 300 Words. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

19 responses to “A Very Bad Ending”

%d bloggers like this: