It’s purple. Not like a bruise but like an emperor. What’s it doing on my drive?
Perhaps it’s a swarm of rare butterflies on their elusive migration. The Purple Emperor avoids flower nectar and seeks out rotting flesh. Maybe what’s in my cellar is attracting them. With a shiver of revulsion, I try to brush aside the fear.
But too late. Already lepidopterists are gathering under my trees, armed with nets and small packets of Stinking Bishop cheese. I rush to bolt the door but two have taken up station with field glasses in my kitchen.
Friday fictioneers is a weekly challenge set by Rochelle Wisoff Fields to write a 100-word story in response to a photo prompt. You can find other stories here
Neil MacDonald Author 
Let the battle begin.
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This one may last aeons
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Dear Neil,
You sent me looking up the Purple Emperor butterfly. I’d say his goose is about to be cooked. Good one.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Thanks Rochelle.
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Butterflies are grand.
Don’t blame those who are chasing them.
Home is in demand 🙂 Best wishes!
Interesting story.
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Thanks, Anita
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Clever take on the photo prompt, Neil. Enjoyed it very much.
Susan A Eames at
Travel, Fiction and Photos
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Thanks so much, Susan
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Good take – and I think an uncomfortable situation might just be turning into a nightmare for him.
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Yup. Lepidopterists in the lav. As long as he can keep them away from the basement, he’ll be safe
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Nicely done Neil, the contrast between the swarm of beautiful butterflies and the horror of what they are pursuing in the cellar is a striking one.
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Thanks so much, Iain
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What an original take on the prompt, Neil. I loved it.
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Thanks so much Dale. I looked at the prompt and said “what the f^*% can I do with that?”. If it hadn’t been purple, I’d still have been scratching my head
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Ha ha ha! I love it!
You went way out there, which is fabulous.
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Damned collectors! Hand me the ethe! Well done.
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Thanks so much, Joshua
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Okay, I got stuck on the odor of rotting flesh coming from the cellar. Don[t think I’d want to be his neighbor!
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That was the most important bit
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Not too much longer before everyone knows where the bodies are buried.
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Yeah! Damned butterflies!
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A very creative take, Neil, on the prompt and an intriguing story to boot. Will the Purple Emperor butterflies give him away? I didn’t know they fed on rotting flesh and I had to look up what a lepidopterist was. Love to learn something new. Great stuff!
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Purple Emperors are now very rare in the UK
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That’s very sad…
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Love this.
Maybe time to pin a few lepidopterists to a wall…
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What a great idea
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How wonderfully imaginative!
🙂
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Thank you so much
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Doomed.
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Yup
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I hope the two in the kitchen don’t notice the stench from the cellar…
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Chances are they will, and then all will be lost
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Maybe the two in the kitchen can give company to the one(or more) in the cellar…permanently? 🙂
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That is becoming increasingly likely
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Very clever take on the prompt, full of hidden possibilities and meanings.
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Thanks so much
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What do you have in your cellar – honey or wine?
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Corpses
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Love butterflies, love Stinking Bishop and really like your unusual take on the photo!
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Thanks so much, Keith
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I guess his secret will soon be out.
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He may have to take extreme measures
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He’s in real trouble if the butterfly hunters check out the basement. My imagination is at work on it. and it’s dreaming up something dreadful. A good story and well written, as usual, Neil. 🙂 — Suzanne
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Thanks so much, Suzanne
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A very interesting dilemna… great story.
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Thanks so much
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The best laid plans and all that…
I do like a nice piece of Stinking Bishop!
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So do Purple Empererors
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Isn’t nature wonderful and how it seems to attract all sorts with their binoculars and nets. the ornithologists are just as enthusiastic as the lepidopterists, once you have seen one surely you have seen them all.
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Don’t get me started on trainspotters
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let’s hope that the there are no polices with knowledge of butterflies… who is the body?
The absent wife I guess.
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Thanks, Bjorn
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Ooooo what is in the cellar ? Sounds like hunting for a butterfly without a net… great take on the prompt
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Thanks so much, Laurie
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I like it but I don’t understand it!
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If you liked it, at some level you understood it
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What a way to get found out! Delightful!
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Thanks so much, Andy
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A great use of the colour in the prompt to get down to one one gory cellar,
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Thanks, Michael
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Interesting take on the prompt.
Good read.
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Thanks so much, Dawn
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Clever take with so much intrigue.
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Thanks so much, LIsa
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Clever and creepy. A great mix of beautiful, butterfly imagery, crawling lepidopterists and the thing that rots in the cellar. Nicely done, Neil
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Thanks so much, Lynn
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My great pleasure
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