A little bit of happy news on a cloudy day

My prize package for my tiny story in Katherine Harbour’s Hallowe’en contest just arrived. If you haven’t read her work, Katherine writes deliciously dark folklore-infused books, and I won a signed set along with some other goodies. Pictures below!

I wrote a hundred-word story about a painting she did using the five terms she stipulated, and I’m posting it here. (Writing that short was a fun challenge!):

When the poison sank into his bones, he gasped at the mirror. She had drawn on him, scrawled secrets, all graceful loops and fine lines. Hers was a venom no less deadly than truth; she’d shaded and cross-hatched until half his skin dissolved, revealing another’s rich brown flesh.

Another time, another life. Him. He remembered now—her virtuous nature, his restless heart. Hands knotting, he collapsed onto the cold checkered floor.

Across the hall, the Scarlet Scourge smiled. “You wanted to know who you are. Once you loved me. Then you left me. Now? Now you, too, break in half.”

(picture by Katherine Harbour)

(a sparkly butterfly mask, a Fata flower wreath headband, an original art print, a fortune-telling game, a complete signed set of the Night and Nothing trilogy, and a lost short story/chapter from the first book, Thorn Jack)

What a lovely pick-me-up on a gray, cold day! Thank you, Katherine.