An opportunity to bloom

PHOTO PROMPT – © Erin Leary

Rose tottered, tiny hand against the garden fence for balance. She moved with that awkward baby wobble shared by all new walkers.

Beneath the dirt, the ancient intelligence felt her approach like the coming of spring; a warmth thawing its dormant remains, its depleted essence. Sensing its time, its opportunity to bloom, it expended the energy carefully hoarded over centuries, throwing tendrils to the surface, carrying its last seeds of power.

A gift.

An… inheritance.

Rose watched the fungi push out of the ground releasing a cloud of spores. She coughed.

Now the spores waited for their opportunity to bloom.

---

Word count: 100

Here we are back on Friday Fictioneers, and I just have enough time to pump out 100 words of dark fiction. At least, I feel its kinda dark.

This is a clear nod to an old favourite author of mine, Brian Lumley and his popular Necroscope series, where Vampires (the Wampyri) can ‘infect’ the living even once they are staked, beheaded and buried by releasing spores. These days I cannot see mushrooms without thinking of this series. Of course, this doesn’t stop me drizzling them in butter and putting them on the grill…

I started reading the Necroscope series when still at University, and bought book after book after book… until I got a little tired of them actually. Hint to young readers – give yourself an occasional break when you are reading a lot by a single author, particularly if its a single series – you can get author burnout. Still, I have these books, and need to sit down and give them all another read. They were an excellent ‘weird’ Lovecraft influenced horror story.

Anyway, click on this link to the rest of the stories, and let me know what you think of mine in the comments.

Cheers

KT