Friday Fictioneers – Sacrifice

~ neilmacdon
rivington-st-shul-roger-b
PHOTO PROMPT © Roger Bultot

Everything about that building was wrong. Bastard amalgam of a hundred ages mixing turrets and pediments—a temple to some chimaeric deity, part saviour and part destroyer. The one terrible eye looked down on you from its riveted socket, like the porthole of a ghost ship.

And heavenly Marie Celeste it was, for I never saw its shuttered doors open to worshippers or supplicants.  Silas said god lived in the cabin perched atop the roof, winching his vittals up from street level. I disagreed, believing the tenant was a deaf hunchback, and dreamed of being sacrificed to the creature.

 

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

 

60 thoughts on “Friday Fictioneers – Sacrifice”

  10. Fabulous description; wonderful blending of the imaginary and the real. I love the ‘one terrible eye’. This would make a cracking opening for a longer piece – even a novel. All the elements could return again and again in a variety of guises and functions. Super stuff, Neil!

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  11. “Everything about that building was wrong.” I liked this great opening line. It was an apt summary and foreshadowing of the numerous changes and building’s use over time. The explanation of a hunchback being sacrificed to some fire spouting deity could be given in an afternoon lesson at Hogwarts. Colourful and enjoyable read, indeed.

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  23. I like the imagery, Neil, that old building like an island with its links to past deities and present old loners. Something in your language makes the building feel like a damned place. Cracking read

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