Today on Drabble Wednesday, I take you past
barriers, through gates, and moral boundaries...
Execution of
Duty
What if you were trained from birth to do
one thing? One immoral act?
You’d be me.
I’ve been trained to kill someone. One
particular man. And now I sit in a carriage on the way to fulfill my duty. I
thought I’d be nervous, assumed I’d have reservations about committing the
deed.
I don’t.
I watch the scenery pass by until we finally
stop at the city gates, hailed by the sentries. My driver informs the guards we
are expected.
The great gates swing open, followed by a
shout, “Welcome and enter. The king awaits his bride.”
I smile.
~*~
Decision
She summoned the creature on the tangential
edge of the forest, under the fading amber reflection of the day. Yesterday her
small happiness vanished, swallowed by circumstance and horror, yet here she stood
hesitant to act. To speak.
The voice asked again, “What would you give
for vengeance?”
She stared into the raven rift, a tear
slashed through light and air, and this time she answered, “Everything. My
life, my soul, whatever the price. I
want this world destroyed!”
“So be it. Step through the portal, and you
will set me free.”
She nodded and walked into darkness,
releasing annihilation.
~*~
What Lingers
High on the hilltop, crumbled walls and
broken stone remained, and the archway that once housed magnificent ironwork
gates. The closing glint of sunlight fell on the ruined fortress and the
unbounded wind converged with the lengthening shadows.
They await what is coming. What always
comes at twilight.
Rising from the netherworld viscera of
yesteryear, and the howl of bloody death, they surge into the mortal world. The
great and fearsome army of the fortress. A phantom cavalry charging down the
hillside, dead and screaming, all ephemera weapons and snorting horses. Their
last battle, their only loss, forever their fate.
© A. F. Stewart 2016 All Rights Reserved
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