Life is a bit rock-and-roll this week, and so please forgive me if I'm listing Tuesday's story three days late.The new story is called "The Stain," inspired in equal parts by a vintage doll head with a curious coffee-colored stain and "The Juniper Tree" by the Brothers Grimm
It's my entry to the European Street Team's creative challenge, "Back to Childhood." The challenge is being hosted by FebystanDesigns, and she's got a list of the other great entries over at her blog.
And I have to mention: I think that this is the goriest book I've made so far. Children being eaten, oh my!
The Stain
by Apol Lejano-Massebieau
They left her to die under the juniper tree—
the child born with a stain on its face.
The townspeople prayed trembling to their twin gods:
“Save us from this terrible prophecy! Take the cursed
being and let us be done with it,” they beseeched.
The child survived longer than anyone thought it
would, its cold, hungry wails forcing the villagers to
sleep with pillows over their ears for a fortnight; until
at last the wild beasts of the grey forest took pity and
ate the little creature out of its misery.
In the morning, when the villagers came to look, all
they found left of the child was a strip of blue shriveled
skin. The mothers and the fathers of the village heaved
a collective sigh of relief.
But: The wild beasts had thoroughly enjoyed the taste
of heretofore unknown child-meat. They had left not
even the bones of the child under the juniper tree, for
those had been soft enough to eat.
In midnight raids they came, the beetleowls, the
bullbears, and the crocodilesnakes, over a fortnight picking
out the villagers’sons and daughters one by one. They left
not little bones nor even square of skin to grieve over.
Thus, the prophecy came to pass.
10 commentaires:
gosh..a horror story! very sad...
it is like E.T.A Hoffmann in a shory story...when I read him in the bathroom, I was afraid to go out of the bath..now I am afraid to go out as well :-)
Goosebumps all over, I love the oldfashioned fairytale where real horrors happen and no one has brushed and polished to make it better for imaginary sensetiveties. Please keep writing these and give me a little smirk every time!
Holly smoke! Pomme:)))
yes!
errrkkkkk total goosebumps from that one !!!
There's a line in the TV series 'Deadwood' where Calamity Jane says to the Doctor, 'you sure do got a dark turn of mind Doc', and so do you Apol! I think the dark themes running through your three latest stories are incredibly powerful. They definitely have a bit of Grimms in them but they're so relevant to today with their ideas about selfishness, not appreciating what you have and fearing differences in others. In fact there was a piece on the news last night about Albino children in Burundi being hunted down and killed and their bodies used for black magic rituals - so your story 'The Stain', although gruesome, is incredibly pertinent.
Keep it up - your fairy-tales for the modern age are fantastic.
Love it pomme ! both the story and the booklet !
love it, but I have always turned towards the dark side of things. And I love to read the origional Grims fairy tales, the red dancing shoes always freaked me out when I was little that they chopped her feet off.
Oh my... this is scary. I feel myself in it, Pomme. Scary...
Be careful what you wish for...Love it!
Thanks, girls! Scared you, didn't I ;)
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