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From the Horror Bites website:
So I hope you had fun with the last challenge and are raring to go with this next one. I realise that some of you will be taking part in NaNoWriMo this month but maybe you need a break. Or maybe this image will help inspire your opening sequence.
At any rate here is the next challenge, picture kindly provided by a lovely friend who is in Aberdeen. It is a rather great picture of the Sir Duncan Rice Library, where she seems to spend most of her time as she is currently studying to be a teacher.
Slightly different rules this week just to keep you on your toes.
- Post your horror short or a link to your website in the comments.
- I’ll give you a bit more leeway this week – 250-350 words.
- For this tale I’d like you to include a reference to a book or to reading.
- Due to me taking part in Nano I’m going to keep this one open for two weeks – 10th Nov is close date.
And so, here is my entry for this round of Horror Bites...
A Little Reading At The Library
"Certainly, Mr. Pavouk. You should be very proud of this new library. Your design is striking. It's an inspiration to so many that you haven't allowed your handicap to stop you from doing great things." Pavouk smiled as the wheelchair bumped along the sidewalk. "I'm sure the people of this city will enjoy their time here, reading books and doing research. Where did you come up with the idea for the exterior?"
"It's rather complicated, and yet quite simple in purpose, Brad. Think of the entire library as the biggest eBook of all."
"The building is a book?
"In its own way. It provides information. The design is made of thin metal, which is a conductor, of course. This, along with connected structures within the building, forms the circuit of an immense passive transmitter. If a radio signal of suitable frequency, even a very faint one, should strike it, the circuit responds with another signal on a slightly different frequency."
"The building transmits a signal? That's incredible! But what purpose does that serve?"
"It's a beacon, of course, for the others to follow. The signal can be read from quit far away."
"A signal? To whom?"
"To beings like me," Pavouk replied. He pulled off a glove to reveal a thin, leathery hand. The claws at the end of his fingers dug into Brad's leg whose uncontrollable spasms indicated the poison was flowing into his body. He released his grip when the twitching slowed.
Pavouk removed the blanket from his lap. Four spindly legs stretched out from their confines. "Handicap, indeed! The only handicap I have is the irritatingly strong gravity of this silly planet. As the inhabitants often say about such things, it's a bitch." Pavouk pulled a small box from his pocket. The three lights on it flashed in sequence. "It shouldn't be long now." He looked to the sky as Brad's body fell to the sidewalk. "Not long at all."
331 words without the title...
Previous Horror Bites:
Unfashionably Late
© 2016 K. R. Smith All rights reserved
I;m never going to be able to look at the library in the same way again, brilliant.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Looks like Brad's going to have a late charge...
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