Our spooky October prompt posits a trio of scary critters. Do what you will with them!
As always, your entry can be prose, poetry, play, fiction, nonfiction.
For this month, I'm sharing with you an excerpt from my short story, Snow Leopard. It's the first short story I ever wrote, so be kind to the newbie. :)
Log line: A young woman's vanity is exposed in a reversal of fortune. What happens when wealthy, fur donning humans are kidnapped and scalped for their own manes?
~ * ~
Theresa’s heart quickened and her stomach lurched. A humanoid looking snow leopard and a similar creature with the markings of a Bengal tiger, approached, their tails swishing about. Neither of them appeared aggressive, but Theresa remained guarded and pulled her limbs closer to her body.
The cat-like creatures, both on their hind legs, walked upright and past the humans. The leopard's fur, white like new fallen snow, was speckled with tiny black spots. A deep orange fur covered the tiger with large, black lines cutting back and forth across its furry canvas.
The spotted cat held a clipboard and both large felines wore white nylon coats. Theresa could only make out the name tag on the snow leopard's lapel, Dr. Fiona Lynch. The creature's head donned a long, cascading mane of blonde hair flowing down its back like human hair, and its forehead, covered with skin rather than the white speckled fur on the rest of its face. Black eyes brightened when they glared back at Theresa.
"That's the latest find?" the voice was soft and feminine when the snow leopard questioned the tiger, her tail swishing back and forth, but not as vigorously as before. Theresa understood the words.
"Yes, it's the rare one for Han, of the Western Amirs," the tiger said, his voice low and raspy, but also feminine. "I understand they paid a great ransom."
Theresa strained to hear but their voices became faint.
"He wanted that color and length. I think he'll like it.” The cats behaved much like humans, with the exception of the swishing of their tails.
The snow leopard brought her attention back to the table beside her and lifted the tarp. She wrote something down on her clipboard, "Looks ready for the transplant room, Franz," she said and smiled at the tiger. "Good work."
The leopard and tiger moved to walk out, the tiger pushing the tarp covered table on its wheels.
When they approached the humans, the snow leopard retrieved a syringe from her pocket, kneeled beside Theresa, and pulled the human's arm away from her body. The feline sank the needle deep into her bicep and pressed hard on the plunger until the clear liquid emptied from its barrel.
"What's that?" Theresa heard the slurring of her own words when she spoke them, but she went under quickly and did not hear the reply from the snow leopard, "You won't feel a thing sweetie."
orion_mk3 - (link to post)
Ralph Pines - (link to post)
ishtar'sgate - (link to post)
skunkmelon - (link to post)
pyrosama - (link to post)
julzperri - (link to post)
dclary - (link to post)
BBBurke - (link to post)
Sweetwheat
MsLaylaCakes
Angyl78 - (link to post)
No comments:
Post a Comment
I welcome feedback, so please leave your thoughts.