Eight Minutes Of
Eight minutes of, the gala was in full swing. Women adorned in their finest gowns, men in their spats and tails. All twirled the dance floor with inebriated glee.
Seven minutes of, the lights dimmed, the glass baubles above took on an amber glow as heads lifted in wonder and delight.
Six minutes of, the largest crystal began to gleam, none could draw their eye from it; they froze entranced.
Five minutes of, the bloom grew blinding: the skin around each reveler’s eyes began to darken and crack; to ooze brown rivulets as they gazed beyond the light. Slack of jaw, their lips began to curl exposing desiccated gums. Teeth clattered to the floor as sockets shrunk and tongues retreated to withered husks.
Four minutes of, the first horn emerged from the starburst, followed languidly by the enormous beast – it struck the marble with a resounding crack as it landed upon cloven hooves and bent claw.
Three minutes of, the aberration stalked among the paralytic ensemble. The men it had no use for – it sought only breeders. It sniffed, it tasted; it rent the unworthy to pieces. Gold and silver damask rippled through the air as it discarded one female after another.
Two minutes of, it chose a single sheep, a prize in grand finery festooned with shimmering gems.
One minute of, the creature stepped back through the starburst having seeded its offspring. The assembly of revelers fell to the polished slab; their flesh dusted the air upon impact, what clothes remained lay poised in eternal waltz.
At the stroke of midnight, the brilliant glimmer of the seven pointed star diminished to the chandelier’s soothing glow as a single scream ushered in the new year.
~ Nina D’Arcangela
Nina D'Arcangela
Sotet Angyal 
January 3rd, 2018 at 5:23 pm
Great piece, Nina!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
January 3rd, 2018 at 5:59 pm
Thank you, Joe!
LikeLiked by 1 person
January 3rd, 2018 at 11:00 pm
Love this piece! I enjoyed the focus on the countdown to midnight. It jabbed at me along with the visceral storytelling!
LikeLiked by 1 person
January 4th, 2018 at 10:38 am
Thank you, Lee! I enjoyed writing this one. It was a challenge to whittle it down from a more verbose piece to something streamlined and tight without skipping key details. I would have liked to use seconds not minutes, but alas, fiction and reality found themselves too far apart to support that idea. 😀
LikeLike
January 5th, 2018 at 3:12 pm
Visceral it is! Chilling to the bone in your graceful style with descriptions that captivate; none of that outright gross horror clunkiness I see in so many dark fictions (and poems) today. The ballroom scene and the devil’s appearance conjured a similar one from the series “The Magician” — I think it was on Acorn. Bravo! Only one thing –what became of the sole woman that is now carrying the child of this monster?
LikeLike
January 5th, 2018 at 3:16 pm
Hi Marge! Thank you very much for reading and enjoying my piece. I haven’t seen the series ‘The Magician’, but I’ll have to look for it. As to what happens to the woman, who’s to say? The reader can create whatever ending they’d like, or dislike the most. 😉
LikeLike