The bright blue eyes are watching, always watching. They are her eyes. But she’s not in them.
Music: “Witches” by Nicholas Jeudy
Video description
Video Description: “The Lamplight Apparition” Trailer. Duration, 45 seconds. “Witches” by Nicholas Jeudy. Digital drawing. A human-like figure facing forward with head tilted to the left. The figure is hazy and translucent except for the eyeballs, lips, arteries and veins leading to the heart. At upper left is a bright light that extends to the shoulders and fades into black. Title card with the words “Short Story” and “Genre: Horrific Fantasy,” is displayed at center. Tagline is displayed at bottom. It reads: “The bright blue eyes are watching, always watching. They are her eyes. But she’s not in them.” Title card and tagline fade. A watermark of the word “storyfeather” appears over the image. Lines from the story appear in sequence: “She wobbled closer and closer. She leaned down. I opened my mouth but my throat caught. And my lungs had no breath to give force to any sound. My sight dimmed at the margins. I saw only shadows. I felt hot, too hot. I closed my eyes. I remembered something touching my forehead. A soft pair of lips.” The image starts at center and slowly, subtly zooms out. Site URL appears at bottom center throughout and fades at end. As the last line disappears, the image blurs and darkens, the story title appears at center, and a text card appears at top that reads “Available to Read Now storyfeather.com.”
Welcome to Year 9 of Storyfeather
Every year’s short stories (mostly) follow a theme. This year, I will turn the Wheel of Fiction to help me decide what to write. There are thirteen spokes on this wheel. Eight are occupied by the eight themes from the previous years of stories. One is a prompt to turn the wheel again. One is a wildcard (hmm…curious). And three are covered only in question marks. I suppose I’ll find out what’s beneath those questions as we go along.
Welcome to the WHEEL OF FICTION
The Wheel of Fiction landed on Challenge. That refers to the original challenge to write a short story every week. The theme of the first year for the last story of the ninth year. How fun. So since I’m already doing that (writing a weekly story), I added another challenge on top. That challenge was to write a story that was unsettling (rather than spooky or scary). So I started with an unsettling image, one I drew for the art challenge I’m doing this month (October 2022)
Video description
Video Description: Duration, 8 seconds. Choice wheel made on the Spin the Wheel application. Thirteen spokes or slices in various colors, labeled as follows, clockwise from the top: Objects of Power (the “of Power” is not visible), Prompts, Definitions, Turn Again, Elements, Creatures, S.T.E.A.M., Wildcard, Revisitation, Music, Challenge, Draw!!!, Traveler. The title at top reads “The Wheel of Fiction V4” and below that the words “Spin the wheel.” Below that is a label on left, “Spin date: 10/8/22,” and a label at right, “Story: 10/23/22.” At top left corner is a flag icon labeled with the letter “F.” This represents a function of the application which interferes with true randomness by reducing the probability of receiving the same choice twice in a row. The wheel turns and lands on CHALLENGE. As the wheel stops spinning, the apparition from the story’s featured image appears faintly and covers the wheel.
Genre: Horror, Fantasy, Mythology
Tags: Apparition, Blue, Body, Death, Eyes, Ghost, Heart, Lamplight, Linger, Specter, Street Lamp
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