The Courtyard of Broken Stars
Title: Anterrabae
Word Count: 487
Author's Note: 12 years ago I wrote a horror screenplay for a Creative Writing project called "The Courtyard of Broken Stars", a straight-up horror-fest that I've been meaning to rewrite ever since (the screenplay itself was based on a stream-of-consciousness piece I wrote the year before). The shapeshifter Anterrabae, who is the consort-beast of Mira (the Once-Queen of the Courtyard) is named for the ever-falling God-King of Yr from the book "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden" by Hannah Green.
"Mom?"
The loose stones tipped under her feet, rough bits that had broken away biting into her exposed skin, scraping against her heels and the bottoms of her toes. The wind that whispered through the open space was cold enough that it pulled her breath into a white cloud in front of her and stabbed through the flannel pants and t-shirt she wore. All around her, the darkness was like a living entity that obscured the world from view, leaving her only the smallest pools of visibility around her feet. She hugged her bare arms to her chest, both to ward off the chill and to avoid touching the inky black for fear that it would pull the skin from her bones.
But the whispers, the whispers were the worst part. Disjointed, overlapping, they were like the wind through trees - not coherent, not gender-specific, just anxious and distressed, thousands of them in a chorus that made her head ache with the strain of trying to separate them.
"Mom?" she called again, not expecting an answer. The longer she walked, the more she became convinced there was no end to this place. She wanted to believe she was dreaming, but it was too real, too tangible. The pain in her feet, the ache of exhaustion, the numbness and tingling in her skin, none of it lent itself to a dreamstate.
There was also the fact that she had been here before, but she tried her best not to think about that part.
A low, thick growl radiated out of the darkness to her right, and she froze in mid-step with her breath caught in her throat. Slowly, hesitantly, she turned her eyes in the direction of the sound.
"Hello?" she called, her voice tight and small. The growl sounded again and a whimper escaped her throat - without warning, her knees gave out and she fell to the stones, weak with fear.
It was little more than a shadow itself, the creature that came toward her. Smooth and muscular, it was a massive thing unlike any beast she'd ever seen, like a cougar covered in deep midnight scales. Its eyes were glimmering green-yellow orbs as it moved toward her, its hissing growl a horrible complement to the whispers that grew even more distraught at its approach.
She closed her eyes when it was close enough to touch her, clenching her arms around herself and pressing her forehead to her knees. She could smell its skin, a smoky, copper smell, and when its hot breath caressed her shoulder she gritted her teeth and waited for an attack.
It wasn't like this before, she thought in a panic, feeling a sharp fang drag through the skin behind her ear. Blood flowed down her back as the beast closed its mouth around her neck with aching slowness. It wasn't like this, it wasn't like this, it wasn't -
Word Count: 487
Author's Note: 12 years ago I wrote a horror screenplay for a Creative Writing project called "The Courtyard of Broken Stars", a straight-up horror-fest that I've been meaning to rewrite ever since (the screenplay itself was based on a stream-of-consciousness piece I wrote the year before). The shapeshifter Anterrabae, who is the consort-beast of Mira (the Once-Queen of the Courtyard) is named for the ever-falling God-King of Yr from the book "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden" by Hannah Green.
"Mom?"
The loose stones tipped under her feet, rough bits that had broken away biting into her exposed skin, scraping against her heels and the bottoms of her toes. The wind that whispered through the open space was cold enough that it pulled her breath into a white cloud in front of her and stabbed through the flannel pants and t-shirt she wore. All around her, the darkness was like a living entity that obscured the world from view, leaving her only the smallest pools of visibility around her feet. She hugged her bare arms to her chest, both to ward off the chill and to avoid touching the inky black for fear that it would pull the skin from her bones.
But the whispers, the whispers were the worst part. Disjointed, overlapping, they were like the wind through trees - not coherent, not gender-specific, just anxious and distressed, thousands of them in a chorus that made her head ache with the strain of trying to separate them.
"Mom?" she called again, not expecting an answer. The longer she walked, the more she became convinced there was no end to this place. She wanted to believe she was dreaming, but it was too real, too tangible. The pain in her feet, the ache of exhaustion, the numbness and tingling in her skin, none of it lent itself to a dreamstate.
There was also the fact that she had been here before, but she tried her best not to think about that part.
A low, thick growl radiated out of the darkness to her right, and she froze in mid-step with her breath caught in her throat. Slowly, hesitantly, she turned her eyes in the direction of the sound.
"Hello?" she called, her voice tight and small. The growl sounded again and a whimper escaped her throat - without warning, her knees gave out and she fell to the stones, weak with fear.
It was little more than a shadow itself, the creature that came toward her. Smooth and muscular, it was a massive thing unlike any beast she'd ever seen, like a cougar covered in deep midnight scales. Its eyes were glimmering green-yellow orbs as it moved toward her, its hissing growl a horrible complement to the whispers that grew even more distraught at its approach.
She closed her eyes when it was close enough to touch her, clenching her arms around herself and pressing her forehead to her knees. She could smell its skin, a smoky, copper smell, and when its hot breath caressed her shoulder she gritted her teeth and waited for an attack.
It wasn't like this before, she thought in a panic, feeling a sharp fang drag through the skin behind her ear. Blood flowed down her back as the beast closed its mouth around her neck with aching slowness. It wasn't like this, it wasn't like this, it wasn't -