NYCM Prompts:
Genre: Ghost Story | Action: Buying a cookbook | Word: angle
[Round 2: did not place]
Beware the woods where evil dwells. Where gnarled trees keep malevolent watch; twisted roots seek to trap trespassers; and whispers of the long-dead carry on the wind. Many have been hanged here over the years.
Aysun has walked through this wood a thousand times but never at dusk. In one hand, she wields a freshly cut sprig of sage. No one who lives near here travels without it. With the other, she cradles a thin leather-bound book against her chest – a cookbook which her mother sent her to purchase from the next village. It contains recipes which use herbs to ward against evil spirits. The very same ones which haunt this wood.
A shriek shatters the stillness. Heart thumping, Aysun whirls around, but her foot catches in a creeping tangle of briars. She pitches sideways, both the book and sage jolted from her grasp.
“No!”
Scrabbling, she snatches at the book, dirtied but undamaged. Yet before she can retrieve the sprig, a hard frost races across the ground, parting in a perfect circle around the sage, before advancing upon her. She dares not tread upon that glittering cold; it is a warning of what draws near.
Thick mist drifts through the trees. Wrapping her arms around the book, Aysun shivers, her breath condensing in the freezing air.
“No.” This time, it is a whimper. She squeezes her eyes shut. “Oh, please, no.”
The last thing she feels is the weight of an ice-cold grip upon her shoulder. “Yes.”
C.A. Raine 