3 crows on an old iron fence backed by leafless trees and the outline of a large house, obscured mostly by fog.

The #vssgothic prompt for the week of Dec 18-24 is #midwinter. Should the shiver strike you, use it in a poem or story. Please tag @suzannalundale.bsky.social to make sure I find you!

They meet - the failed suitors -every year at midwinter, yet cawing their grievances o'er the tainted moor.

The geometry of #Treppenwitz Palace was recursive, shifting, and sometimes inverted, depending on where one stumbled next. Sadly, Pandora was inured to its marbled recesses, where her calloused knees bore silent testimony. You may ask, why not try the door? A #plight, indeed...

#vss365 #vssgothic

#vssGothic I left with your kiss, eyes glistening with tears. Safe young men cannot imagine the horrors of war until it is too late. I return to you changed a burden not a man.

Hawthorne’s house stands a memorial to the lies, the witches and too many deaths. Black as night and as empty as a psychopaths soul. #VssGothic #writing #prompts

I stand amongst the grass, watching his blood spotting the green shrouded in darkness of the fading light.

Killing him didn't help. I was afraid of what that would turn me into, but it burns inside me now.

Dusk fades into black, a reflection of my new soul.

#vssgothic #vsshorror

#vssGothic - #thehorror

My constancy an artful confusion,
the horror of multiform failure.
Come to unfruitful fruition
so long ago --

And you:
Thinking me soul-stitched.

Now that I so wish.

#WritingCommunity #amwriting

No one knew when the rumor of its arrival started, but that week at Book Club the ladies openly discussed #The_Horror, and so invited it in—the formless darkness beneath the couch began to twitch and hiss, and Miss Chelsea served it a cup of tea (two sugars, no cream).
#vssGothic

“Is it a good idea? Marrying a stranger you met in the forest?”
Mary glared at Trish. Apparently bring the voice of reason had no place in the #romance novel of her life. “Flynn loves me. He’s promised me the world.”
“To be bought with your father’s fortune, I’m sure.”
#vssGothic

Regina was almost enjoying herself, until she caught sight of the #coat_of_arms on the viscount’s surcoat: a chimera rampant, lion- and goat-heads breathing fire while a snake-head tail spat poison.
“We have to leave,” she hissed at her sister, surrounded by suitors.
#vssGothic

“I’m looking for Crowley’s #Auction.”
“You found it. 'The place to find #demonic delights, for dark stormy nights.' Are you buying or selling?” the proprietor asked, bored—at least until she aimed a pistol full of silver bullets at his face.
“Stealing.”
#vssGothic #vssParanormal

“#Which_way to the Prospero masquerade?” intoned the grim reaper.
“Oh, take a left on Lenore, you can’t miss it!” Mina replied, and off they went. To me she said, “What a great #costume!”
“…I don’t think that was a costume. Let’s skip the party and go home.”
#vssGothic #vssDaily

With a snap of her fingers, all the ghouls drop dead.
With an #admiring glance, the fancy gentleman bows. “Such power you have. Perhaps you’d like to accompany me, witchling?”
She would very rather not. “My mother told me not to talk to strangers. Good evening, sir.”
#vssGothic

“It’s all your fault!” Clara screeched at Bess. “We’ve been #turned_away from every door—even the church! All because of those—bloody—eyes—”
Clara pelted her cursed sister with stones, wishing her dead.
But it was her own cold corpse that was found the next morning…
#vssGothic