Below is my 100 word (ish) submission to the Friday Fictioneers. Photo prompt this week is courtesy of Björn Rudberg.
I’m back in the writing grove now, so to speak, with hopefully an end in sight for the house move. Fingers crossed for the end of the month. I’ve also finally got my short story piece out and about (Order of Magic – 4.7k words) after a few edits and to great relief. Anyone who enjoys Fantasy Fiction and Magic, feel free to have a read.
Anyway, on with the main show. As always, comments are appreciated. I will try to read everyone’s submission, but with submissions reaching triple digits each week, it’s sometimes difficult to get round to each one. Therefore, I will tend to read those who I follow, or who like / comment my story. And finally, I also try for a random selection from the list.
Finally, just a quick word on the weekly challenge. The Friday Fictioneers are a friendly group of online writers from all over the globe who endeavour to create short but fantastical tales with which to enthral and inspire both reader and writer alike. The genres and styles of writing are varied, so there’s something for everyone to be found within its midst.
PHOTO PROMPT – Copyright-Björn Rudberg
House of Pleasure
“This is it”
Billie’s tone was suggestive as she exited the car, gravel crushing delicately underfoot before she sauntered down the path.
Eager for the night to unfold, Tom walked past, expectation forcing pulse to race as he approached the house. Pleasure of the mind was what he yearned, not crudeness of flesh, and the house might offer what he sought.
Door opening, he heard nothing, the silence was unexpected. Peering through, he recoiled in horror; bodies littered the floor. Nestled among them was metallic terror, tiny robots harvesting victims; tearing, biting and injecting those that lived, indulging some grand experiment of nefarious purpose.
Turning to flee, Tom felt a shove, pushing him to the floor.
“No turning back now”, laughed Billie as she slammed the door shut.
Weltchys Notebook 
August 7, 2014 at 3:43 pm
Ouch.. I wonder if there’s some ghastly cybernetics going on. We are the Borg, resistance is futile.
August 7, 2014 at 4:18 pm
Thanks for stopping by Björn. Most definitely with the cybernetics. You could do a twist on that classic line. Just switch in your name
August 7, 2014 at 3:52 pm
Oh my. This is some scary s****! Great story.
August 7, 2014 at 4:21 pm
Thanks for reading. I fancied writing a bit of sci fi horror and came up with this. Along the same vein as another story I wrote, Slave to the Machine. Touching toward cyberpunk which is an area I feel very comfortable writing
August 7, 2014 at 9:55 pm
Billie’s into some aggressive, weird, robotic gourmet experimental sh*t.
That’s hot.
Pass me a cyber roasted piece of……
August 8, 2014 at 7:14 am
I think it’s case of what ever take’s your fancy. In Tom’s case, I think he might have bitten off more than he can chew. Hrm….. Might be the other way round!
August 8, 2014 at 7:07 am
Quite graphically gruesome, I got a perfect picture of this in my mind. (Repetition of ‘as’ in the first sentence arrested my eye on first reading).
August 8, 2014 at 7:18 am
Hi Sandra. Thank you for reading. Pleased that you could picture this perfectly in your mind. Something every writer wants to hear, I think. Regarding the repetition of ‘as’, I’ve changed the second ‘as’ to ‘before’. I think the paragraph still holds after the change. Hopefully your eye won’t be detained any further 😉
August 8, 2014 at 7:18 am
They’re moving along nicely now, thank you. 😉
August 8, 2014 at 10:18 am
Ha, I really liked the words ‘metallic terror’. That was great.
August 8, 2014 at 10:21 am
Glad you enjoyed the story. Metallic terror seems to describe his thoughts exactly, I thought. Anyway, thanks for stopping by.
August 8, 2014 at 10:45 am
Dear Weltchy,
House of pleasure? Hmmm. Certainly not for the “clientele.” Chilling and descriptive.
Shalom,
Rochelle
August 8, 2014 at 10:47 am
Thanks Rochelle. After last weeks family orientated yarn, I felt the need for a more darker tale, with a bit of sci-fi to boot.
August 8, 2014 at 11:50 am
The sentence that started “Nestled among them was metallic terror…” sent shivers up (and down) my spine. The language choice was superb! Fantastic story!
August 8, 2014 at 9:26 pm
Metallic terror does have a certain ring to it. Thanks for reading
August 8, 2014 at 7:18 pm
Well, shock, horror. And he wasn’t even after sex.
August 8, 2014 at 7:55 pm
It’s the age old story. Girl lures guy. Guy follows girl. Guy gets eaten by robots. Rinse and repeat a hundred times over.
August 8, 2014 at 8:49 pm
well-written piece. the ending floored me. i couldn’t get billie’s last words out of my mind.
August 8, 2014 at 8:50 pm
Thank you for the kind words. Looks like it wasn’t just tom who was floored then 😉
August 9, 2014 at 2:26 pm
Creepy. What really got me was that there were little mechanical robots running all over, but making no noise. Creepy again.
August 9, 2014 at 3:03 pm
Totally agree that tiny silent robots are creepy as you like. Interestingly enough, I had the robots scuttling around at first, but dropped it from the story. Thanks for reading
August 10, 2014 at 1:20 pm
Weltchy, Well that was both gory and creepy.
I just wish I hadn’t read it just before dinner. Well written. 🙂 —Susan
August 10, 2014 at 2:19 pm
Sorry about that. Hope it wasn’t the family Sunday roast. On a similar vein, I’m looking forward to roast beef tonight, a trawl through this week’s stories and then a bit of writing on my book – aiming for a thousand words to get the next chapter going. And finally, thank you for taking the time to read.
August 11, 2014 at 5:15 pm
One man’s pleasure…. I would like to know more about what the robots get out of their nefarious activity, and Billie come to that.
August 11, 2014 at 5:54 pm
You never can tell with robots. I imagine it would be a toss up between a food source, slavery of human kind, fun, curiosity, all of the above or any other unspeakable many. As for Billie, We will just have to wait and see!
October 6, 2014 at 12:19 pm
Graphic and disturbing, now etched in my mind. Well written, not for the feint hearted. 🙂