100 Word Horror Day 2: Prompt - Sour

100 Word Horror Day 2: Prompt - Sour

His stomach rumbled and he curled into himself, wincing at the deep claws of hunger. 

The ground under Len’s feet spun, and then he fell down downdown. 

“Bird-berries,” his mum told him, “are not for humans to eat.” She waved a purple-stained hand in his direction. 

“You’ll grow a thornbush in your tummy. Don’t go eating them now, you hear me?”

Len, lying on the muddy ground, began to writhe, his face contorted with pain. As his head tipped back, he gave a garbled yell.  

Death tasted more sour than the scent of the crumpled lemongrass clenched in his palms.

Day 3: Metallic

Her stomach rolled; the metallic taste of blood filled her mouth. It wasn’t hers, but it would be soon.

He still had a use for her, but she grew weaker by the day, and when she couldn’t stand, he’d replace her, just like he had Tara. 

He’d made them watch, as Tara’s blood splattered every direction. The new girl started to wail, falling silent after a single blow, and she’d envied the girl’s respite.  She would have no such break; not till she was dead.

It was okay though because it wouldn’t be long now, and she could hardly wait.

I think this is an interesting point, like when people say, "everyone gets cancer now"

Yes, people used to die of "old age" or "consumption" or they "took ill" and then they were just dead. if no one else died, and it wasn't contagious, that was the end of it. I am sure tons of those people died of cancer, or other things we can now identify.

On this note, it's like people saying, "cave men didn't eat grain" or "people didn't used to have babies in hospitals". and both true. People also died very young, and often in child birth.

People have this rose colored nostalgia for how great things were, when they were a child, things were simpler, and they only lost the one sister to polio, but it was better then, really.

Not quite there yet, but give me like 10 years, and I will romanticize my childhood the same way. Just because I lived, doesn't mean things were better.

Day Two: Sour

It was too late; he was going to die.  The monitors hadn’t gone off, it hadn’t been detected until he had the sour taste of it on his tongue, a sure sign that that the gas was beyond the lethal limit.

Claire smiled at him through the plexiglass, but it wasn’t her usual sweet, I love you smile. It was sharp, satisfied, and he knew that this hadn’t been an accident. It would look like one though.

He felt drowsy now, eyes drifting shut as he wondered how long she’d known about the affair. He had always hated unanswered questions…

100 Word Horror Challenge October 2023

Day 2

Weekly Prompt: Taste

Daily Prompt: Sour

“Sour grapes,” I scoffed as I prepared the Waldorf Salad. They need to be sour to complement the flavor, I thought, as I stirred in the apple seeds.

what other ship went canon in a bisexual threesome then went canon again in an alternate timeline bottle episode and then went canon a third time in an episode that merged that alternate timeline with the main timeline and explicitly posited gay love as a motivating force in conquering your own demons and gaining the courage to overcome self-loathing and shame