Every night the sisters crept from darkness, their sharp words raking the air like claws. They sang up sneering shadows, their taunting voices, cold as death. Sleepless, we cowered in corners. And then one night, they vanished, a cackling flurry down winding stairs. Their absence was all that remained.
We woke to ice on windows, glass cracking and contracting in wooden frames. Condensation dripped down frosty walls. Frigid air hung heavy … waiting. Furniture loomed slick and sheer, a solid glacial blue. A grating crunch, and we pried the door, running for the stairs … lost under thick drifts of snow.
***
For Sue’s photo prompt, The Stairs.
The Sound of What Happens 
Wow! Powerful stuff, there,,Éilis! I loved it. What an atmospheric piece of writing!
Thanks so much Ali! I’m so glad you enjoyed reading it. Atmospheric, indeed. It was pretty creepy dreaming about it. 🙂
So it was a dream? Interesting…
Yeah… I’ll try not to think too hard about what it meant… 🙂 And it seemed a perfect story to tell with Sue’s snow stairs.
It did indeed!
I like this very much, Eilis – I think it captures the mood of Sue’s photo perfectly!
Thanks, Helen! That’s awesome that you think so, I still don’t know what the picture really looks like, I just was captivated by her mention of snow stairs and got the feeling from her associations with it that there was something kind of sinister about the photo. 🙂
Of course! Well, you’ve done splendidly – the image is of snow covered stairs leading to a stone archway, with evergreen trees above. There’s sort of a shimmer in the air, which is just like your frosty magic 🙂
Oooh, I like the archway, it makes me think of a portal, like descending through a gate into another world. 🙂
Yes, it seems full of possibilities. I started writing about it today and it took me to a very dark place, for some reason…
The worst kind of nightmare. Very unsettling piece of writing. Loved it 🙂
Thanks, Jane! Oddly enough, it was actually a nightmare. It was part of a dream I had last week. The only thing I changed was adding snow on the stairs at the end. 🙂
It was a great addition. The photo could have been taken for your story.
A dark and icy piece, Eilis! Thank you, I love it 🙂
Thank you Sue!😀
Thanks, Sue! 🙂
🙂
Nightmarish, indeed!
BTW, it was fabulous.
Thank you!
Yes… I’m quite grateful it is physically impossible…