Aim To Engage Prompts - 2019

Gothic Lit Prompt - Black Blood

Day 10,799 on board the Space Voyager heading towards Proxima Centauri.

Things are starting to get weird aboard our home, the doctors decided to implement a new blood system due to a string of unusual deaths. My mother calls them murders.

Everyone has impure thoughts, which darkens their blood slightly. Then there were those who steal and are unfaithful, their blood is even darker still. But there are those who hurt people, and even worse, those who take someone's life; their blood is as black as the space surrounding us.

Space travel is difficult for those who spent most of their lives with their feet pressed firmly against the hard rock of Earth. They feel lost and alone, according to my mother who was born on Earth. I on the other hand have nothing to compare too. I've lived on this ship for the twenty years of my life, the stars are my oceans and the hard metal is my grass.

I've seen many pictures of Earth, with its bright colors and blinding sun, unlike the gray of the ship.

"Hey Capella." Arti calls me from across the bridge.

Arti is my closest companion, or as the Earth-bound folk would call him, my 'best friend". We do everything together, and have since birth.

"How was your spacewalk?" I ask him as soon as he is close enough to hear me without shouting.

"Amazing, you should see the way the stars glint against the ship." He says excitedly as we walk towards one of the many eateries along the board walk.

"Only a few more days of study and I will be out there with you!" I smile up at him.

We sit down at a table at my favorite place, they serve the best vegetable lasagna here.

As we sit down, Arti watches a tall blonde girl walk towards the back of the eatery, his eyes raking up and down her body. I roll my eyes at him and his hormones. He looks back at me, his eyes glinting with amusement.

"Hey, I'll be right back." He smiles at me. I love his smile; it always brings my moods up whenever I'm starting to get space blues.

I order both our meals, waiting for Arti to return. After what feels like forever, I get up from our table and look for him in the back. Maybe he has gone to the toilet?

I walk towards the automatize doors which hold the bathrooms. What I stumble across turns me into a statue.

Arti is leaning over the dead blond girl, her brownish blood is all over him, like splattered paint. He looks up at me, black blood dripping from the deep scratch marks down his cheek.

I back away from him, confused, hurt and afraid.

"I couldn't help it! It made me do it!" Arti cries.

"HELP!" I scream, my heart beating out of my chest.

Arti lunges for me, a furious and murderous look on his face.