dark | side | thursday | nineteen

Image | | andy townend

Do you need, desire or crave a new challenge?  Are you open to sharing your dark side?   Then read on.

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Do you have a dark side?

Or, think you may have one. Or indeed worry that you might have one. Or, for that matter, worry that you don’t and would like one? If so,  join me here each week for dark | side | thursday.

Over a period of 52 weeks, I am writing a story. A dark story that will unfold as the weeks pass. Each Thursday, at 13:00 UTC, I will post a new chapter. Each chapter will be exactly 500 words long, and will be accompanied by a photograph. You can catch up on the story so far by clicking here on dark | side | thursday

Share your dark side?

I invite you to join me either by writing your own dark story, week by week, or, if that is too much, by dropping by, now and then, perhaps when the mood suits you or, perhaps, when it doesn’t, and by sharing a photograph, poem or a suitably dark piece of prose. To cross over to dark | side | thursday create your post, tag it dark side thursday and link to it by clicking on the dark | side | thursday badge below, where you can also find all the contributions so far. Or you can simply share your link in the comments section of my weekly post. And, should the mood take you, you can add the badge to your post.

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dark | side | thursday | nineteen

The creature had spat in his face.

He had expected pain, disgust, horror.

But no. A colourless, odourless liquid covered his face, his entire face, much like a cellophane wrapping around fresh food. The liquid film stretched and formed an impervious helmet around his head. Yet still he could breathe. That terrible smell of dark dead things replaced by what seemed to be a whisper of warm spring air.

This was not at all what he had anticipated.  He had been filled with dread.

The creature had transformed.

Its movements had become less frenetic. Its breathing stable, calm. The eyes had cleared, the black viscous fluid no more. The creature’s eyes were a vivid deep blue, shifting, sparkling, full of mischievous intent, feline pupils enlarging as it gazed up at him. The terrible desperate croaking sound had also gone. Replaced by a soft, low pitched growling purr. The dark matted fur had transformed into a sleek tawny coating, soft to the touch. The hideous claws now tucked away out of sight as the creature rolled over in his lap and sensuously stretched its limbs, now sleek, poised, ready.

In one swift leap the creature sprang into the air and landed deftly on its four paws, walked a short distance away from him and turned its head at an angle, looked him in the eye and purred seductively before turning and walking towards the wall at the far side of the chamber.

Not knowing what to do, what to expect, he pulled himself up and followed the creature which now stood with its nose pressed against the dark wall. He saw the creature become one with the wall, or at least seeming to pass into the wall, disappearing as it did so, until with a last flick of its tail it was gone.

He approached the wall, aching for one more sharp shot of slivovitz to warm his belly, and placed the palm of his left hand against the space on the wall where the creature had vanished moments before. He felt a deep shock, as if he had touched a live wire, and felt his arm being pulled against and then sucked into the wall. Terror threatened to engulf him as the wall seemed to devour his body, his face pressed against the stone, protected by the strange helmet that covered his head.

With a sickening feeling much like that when a lift suddenly plummets down, he fell through and into a dark place.

He was floating, the creatures clear blue eyes the only thing he could see for now.

As his eyes grew accustomed he saw bright points of light above and around him. And below he began to make out the lines of a city, streets leading to a square, a large building with a clock tower at its centre. And to the right, a pillar rising from the cobbles of the square. He felt himself dragged down toward that place.

He felt the helmet around his head tighten as his feet touched solid ground.

The portal to dark | side | thursday opened on the twenty first day of may in the year twenty hundred and fifteen and will remain open for fifty two weeks.

nineteen | fiftytwo

37 thoughts on “dark | side | thursday | nineteen”

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  4. Ok Andy, this is getting very interesting. I also felt like saying the every similarity is merely a coincidence. Perhaps I am influenced by the thought of svilovitz, though I never tried it. 😉
    Nevertheless you are leading us somewhere very creepy.
    Am I going to be able to read it, considering that I leave the room if there is a horror movie being played?
    I commend you for keeping me here, and still curious to read next chapters.

    Liked by 1 person

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  8. So maybe there was something in his drink and now he’s gone totally through the looking glass. This is keeping me guessing Andy! And we aren’t even halfway! That’s what I have to keep telling myself….

    Liked by 1 person

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