Robert and Emma lie undetected in the shed beside the town’s garbage dump. Dead for centuries, their spirits are still quite lively. Their love, strong as the day they wed in 1801. They find the stench of garbage more pleasing than their decomposition all those years ago.
Their skeletal rattlings have always scared away the curious. But the night of October 31st 2026, something was different. Hundreds of critters who tunneled into their space as frost took hold, suddenly breathed their last. The dead were settling in under their mud roof and something was shuffling overhead as the wind began to howl. Bats swooped nearby. Children screamed. Witches from the local coven flew overhead, cackling, screaming their names.
Energized, they stood up. Stretched tall. Their phalenges reached out and entwined. They’d waited centuries for the night of the waking dead. Surely this was it.
Written for Prosery Monday on dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe.
Today Kim gives us the line “The dead were settling in under their mud roof and something was shuffling overhead” from Alice Oswald’s poem Body. We’re to use that line, word for word, within a piece of prose or flash fiction that is a maximum of 144 words in length. Extra credit if the story is exactly 144 words in length. Mine is!
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Wow an enduring love story
Much love
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They have endured time for this one night. Great poem for the upcoming Halloween.
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Best first line I think I have ever read! Great tone generating a wonderful atmosphere, leading to a fun read. Thanks for that!
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They’d waited centuries for the night of the waking dead. Surely this was it.
Good close Lillian! Love the tinge of humour in this write-up. Love it!
Hank
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That’s a hook of an opening sentence, Lill, and to think they were dead for centuries! I love the ending so much, especially when ‘their phalanges reached out and entwined’, and the tongue in cheek tone. The night of the waking dead was worth waiting for.
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Truly captures the imagination. Well done Lill
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Love how you weaved the prompt line so seamlessly into your write, Lillian! I’d love to know what happens next 🙂
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The question at the end offers something more, but even so I can muse the next scene, hoping that it certainly was it. Hope even in death.
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