𝔸𝕟𝕒𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕞𝕒. [WRITING PROMPTS]

#6

Mary, Mary, Had An Axe

"Shit." Click, click, click.

Alicia's voice was laced with fright as it reached my ears through the darkness. "Is the battery out you think?"

The thin strand of moonlight coiling through the window illuminated James' exasperated grimace. "I put batteries in the stupid thing before we left."

"Just shake it a little," offered Benji.

James shot him a look, jaded hazel eyes glimmering in the pale, luminous moonlight. "I don't think it works like that." 

"Well, you can try," Benji replied defensively, and even in the dark I knew he was crossing his arms.

James sighed. "Fine," he murmured, then shook the flashlight. Something inside it jangled, and when he fingered the switch again, a cone of startling yellow light flooded the circular space between our folded legs.

James' eyebrows crept up his forehead. "Well, I'll be damned."

"Told you," said Benji smugly.

James just rolled his eyes, before taking the flashlight and setting it upright in the middle. It illuminated swollen rolls of dust flecks suspended in the air, setting the wooden beams high above us awash in dim, ominous light. 

Looking around, the faces of my friends were carved out in choppy blackness and soft, luminous lighting, eyes glancing fretfully to one another but refusing to voice their palpable worries. The darkness encroached on all sides almost like a living thing, musty and sour-smelling, with a vast, lumbering body that creeped on silent paws and draped around us like a frigid blanket. The unreliable flashlight was our only source of warmth and light, within all the labyrinthine bowels of the abandoned house. It creaked and moaned softly beneath the rough caress of the shrieking wind outside, like cackling voices pounding on the broken and yellowing windowpanes. They rattled tinnily, banging cobwebby bodies against the lose wood panelling.

Alicia's eyes flitted around our small group, wide and watery blue underneath the curly bangs of her long, purple hair. It clung to her flushed and trembling cheeks, her black lipstick smeared across thin, nervous lips. 

"So..." She wrapped the unzipped sleeping bag tighter around her shoulders. "Who goes first?"

James' sharp gaze reached mine. "Matt?" He cocked an eyebrow questioningly, and his eyes took on a soft, reproachful look as they grasped for mine.

I shook my head. "No," I said, my voice nothing but a whisper licking at the fitful and restless night. 

He just nodded, the sharp, fragmented look of his hazel eyes faded slightly. His eyes then fell upon Benji, who released a cocky grin, the light shining through the gap in his crooked front teeth. His gray eyes gleamed mischieviously as he leaned forward, corkscrew curls trembling in the faint draft. "I'll go."

James rolled his eyes once more, face a mask of fond irritation. "Fine."

Alicia's forehead crinkled. "I feel like yours is actually gonna be scary."

"Um, of course it's gonna be scary," Benji exclaimed, putting a hand across his hoodie-clad chest and feigning offense. "Why do you think we're here?"