The deafening roar of an approaching minecart echoed around them, drowning her screams of terror before she passed out. He caught her before she fell to the ground, and when she awoke, she heard another loud, continuous roaring; they were now behind a waterfall.
#hbp121 (cont. from #hbp114)
He disconnected the jackhammer from the meter-long shaft that linked it to the engine driving it. The strikes of the drill tip had grown dull. Caution was now essential. He wouldn’t have been the first worker to fall into the endless expanse of the Flux after a breakthrough.
#hbp114 #Arcpunk
I nodded, not wanting to acknowledge the part she’d left out before crossing the entrance; if we ever did.
9/9
#hbp114 #ollyfic
The jar spat out the last of its essence leaving my words the only thing hanging in the air.
She chuckled.
“Time and a place, Harry,” she said. “Let’s talk about it when we get back up, okay?”
8/9
#hbp114 #ollyfic
We waited in awkward silence as the newly prepared runes spread out around us and the strange noises of the caves ebbed into the background.
“Would formally taking a position as my research partner be so bad?” I blurted out.
7/?
#hbp114 #ollyfic
“Oh damn,” she said, as I appeared beside her at the secondary cave entrance, “did I hurt your feelings that bad? Or are you having a sulk for some sensible reason?”
I cracked open a protection jar and placed it on the ground between up.
6/?
#hbp114 #ollyfic
My own pack was in the store where we’d left them the night before and I trudged after her, keeping in the glowing lines of runes and trying not to think of the tormenting I was going to get when we headed back up to the surface.
5/?
#hbp114 #ollyfic
“Come on, we’ve got work to do. Ancient ritual sites don’t find themselves,” she called back along the tunnel.
I pushed myself to my feet, dusting dirt and the few unlucky flakes of snow that had followed down from my legs.
4/?
#hbp114 #ollyfic
I stayed where I was, knelt & shivering from the cold which was starting to seep up my legs.
The ground was icy cold here, the depth of the shaft making little difference to the artic climate we found ourselves in. My embarrassment was keeping my face warm at the very least.
3/?
#hbp114 #ollyfic
“You’re an idiot, you know that, right?” she said. I watched her walk away, picking up her gear bag as she went. “There’s a time and a place, Harry, and this ain’t either of those things. This. Is a mine shaft. Christ.”
2/?
#hbp114 #ollyfic
“Really? Really?! Here? You’re doing this here?” she shook her head and glared at me.
The forced brightness of the floodlights made the whole thing feel even more unnatural as I stared up at her from the floor.
1/?
#hbp114 #ollyfic
A cry, like a breath, soft in the still air, coming from 'the hole'.
The kids drop their stolen cigarettes.
It comes again.
Wide-eyed, they crawl to the edge, gaze down.
Yellow eyes gaze back. Whiskers, tail, soft on the rocky bottom.
Ten-year-olds again, arms swing down:
"He's mine!"
#hbp114
my mother's house was a mineshaft of a Foster Home — an ill-advised & foolishly labelled "safe haven" for kids who either needed a place to stay a few days or weeks, or who had parents who'd gotten in trouble.
my bedroom, then, was the bottom of that mineshaft since I never got to leave.
#hbp114
"It's the mineshaft monster, ma'am!" one of Bailey's soldiers shouted.
Bailey glanced at the bottom of the mineshaft. "What the hell did I say about messing with the wildlife? It took Davis!"
"Couldn't Cosmo use alien powers to save him?"
"Alien powers can't be the solution to everything!" #hbp114
The earth swallows whole
what it cannot bear to carry.
In the slow, breath-heavy dark.
No past. No future.
The press of time settles—
layers of stone. Of time. Of names.
The hush of soil holding itself still.
To be here is to be between.
A womb if you wait.
A grave if you don’t.
#hbp114
#hbp114 #prompt #flashfiction #flashlit #writing Written by Eric Montgomery (mrericmontgomery.com) A food delivery app glitch accidentally sends a biker deep into the mineshaft to deliver a pizza to "The Foreman." When he arrives, the place seems abandoned—until a group of exhausted, soot-covered miners insist he’s "the new guy." The real mystery? The Foreman is a massive, humanoid figure made entirely of coal, and he’s waiting for his meal. Do you give a cursed mine spirit extra cheese?
"Give it to me straight," said Bobby to the four men foreman.
"It's Boston, sir. They're losing 4-1... to Montréal!"
"Oh geez! But what about the mineshaft?"
"Oh that?" said the four men. "That's just the boys watching Die Hard with Phil Esposito."
4/4 #hbp114
precious medals he had earned over his illustrious hockey career. None of that mattered—well, except the gold medal. Now, word had surfaced from the lower mine levels: a cave-in? A gas pocket? Union talk?
"Bobby, it's bad, really bad," said the four men who took turns as supervisor.
3/4 #hbp114
still had his copy of Die Hard. He was determined to find out what was going on in the mine, and to get that movie back before xmas season.
For years, Orr’s Ores had been a goldmine, figuratively and literally.
The glint of gold, silver, and bronze could be seen around Bobby's neck,
2/4 #hbp114
Bobby Orr—72% owner, 100% legend—stood at the entrance of Shaft #4, helmet tilted, gaze sharper than a new pair of Bauers. Something was bruin at the base of the mineshaft. He could feel it in his skates—well, work boots, but old habits die hard—which reminded Bobby that Phil Esposito
1/4 #hbp114
They'd been so in love! What was his was hers! Tad only wanted her to be happy, which was why they'd moved to this awful little coal town. They were happy, weren't they?
Lying at the bottom of the shaft, he moaned. This wasn't what he'd expected when she finally said "What's mine is yours." #hbp114
A mishap with the Cosmic Cube of Roobic left pan-galactic punks Peach Schnapps & the Poltergeists #displaced in Tim, time, and/or space and stuck at the bottom of a mineshaft on Gangue III.
Drummer Skiff Tugboat, shrugging: Well, you can't beat the acoustics..
#vss365
#hbp114
"Where have you taken me!?" She could just barely make out the rough surface surrounding them. Perhaps we're in a cave, she thought.
"We're at the bottom of an abandoned mineshaft," his grim voice broke through the deafening silence. "Don't bother screaming - he'll never find us here."
#hbp114
Throats and lungs foretold the air slowly poisoning them. Dull thuds of rescue efforts from the other side of the rockfall could be heard, but nothing would change.
‘There’s an old man…’ they sang, voices breaking with emotion. Not all got to the end.
The rest sat quietly, waiting.
#hbp114 #vss
Just another day older and deeper in debt, he thought, as he strode from the elevator that deposited him at the bottom. Not sure why I keep doing this day after day but here I am…again. A job is a job they say but everyday I wonder when the cave-in will occur-hopefully not today :shrugs:
#hbp114
*klik*
*klik*
*klik*
“See Bobby? No matter what size rock I toss in this hole, they all make the same sound!”
“Well dang Jimmy, sure is weird, what ya reckon they hittin?”
“I dunno Bobby, maybe…..”
“Y’AINT HITTIN BOYS, I’M CATCHIN’ Y’BEST DUCK NOW…”
Two days later, they found the bodies.
#hbp114
#hbp114 #writingprompt
Drew rolls the colonel's body over the rocky lip of the cavern. After several agonizing seconds, it finally hits the bottom of the mine shaft with a hollow thud. He pauses, listening to the wind whistle a lonely tune through the starry dunes. Then he rolls after the corpse.
It’s a delicacy.
…
Not meant to be here?! We are sought people, not found ones! You ARE meant to be here. Now, stop crying. Tears make them way too salty.
Anyway, it’s nice to meet you, love. Welcome to Shaft 13!
2/2
#hbp114 #fiction #writing #horror
“See” is not a word we use down here. A right of passage in our passage is to remove your eyes.
…
Ahh…fear not! You can still feel with your hands, hear with your ears, lick & taste with your tongue… but we eat the soft jellies of your orbitals for protein.
1/2
#hbp114 #fiction #writing #horror
