This photo’s so quirky, I won’t even try to introduce it. All I can say is this one should fire up quite a few imaginations! Sky’s the limit here – horrific, whimsical, factual, symbolic, allegorical – you name it, it could happen. Heck, I bet some of you brilliant VisDare regulars (or newcomers!) could put a romance spin on this one!
So – try it out! Check out the Visual Dare tab for more info, if you’re new. Otherwise – put your 150 words in the comments and let’s see what you come up with! You’ve got one week…..good luck!!
(PS: As of this posting, I have not yet left comments on the “Devious” entries. Those are forthcoming tomorrow, I promise!)
Angela Goff 
March 16, 2016 at 11:11 am
Back to posting at the Cave 😉 Here’s a link to my 118 words:
http://starvingactivist.com/blog/2016/03/16/visdare-129-browsing/
March 16, 2016 at 9:06 pm
Here’s mine 🙂 “Cribs: Serial Killers Edition” http://www.agincourtdb.com/2016/03/cribs-serial-killers-edition.html
March 18, 2016 at 10:10 am
Not the Hoover salesman — noooo! 🙂 Very interesting take, David. Would love to know, as the responder on your blog mentioned, who is the MC talking to, what magic does Miranda offer, and if the story had continued, what would we learn about the two facing skeletons?
March 18, 2016 at 5:19 pm
We all mustered for the morning brief before heading out to the field. The Chief had told us it was a standard background check.
“You know what to look for,” he had said, “memberships in subversive organizations, criminal records, unanswered questions, general skeletons in the closet.”
I think I hit the mother lode!
“Simmons, can you call The Chief? I think he needs to see this.”
March 20, 2016 at 10:25 am
This made me smile. If you’re looking for skeletons in the cupboard/closet then this is truly a great find.
March 22, 2016 at 10:02 pm
LOL! “The mother lode” — I should say so! I just hope the culprit isn’t lurking around the corner, waiting to add to his (or her) collection!
March 20, 2016 at 9:37 am
“Inhabiting a body is the next step. You finished your preliminaries. Getting through the Seven Terraces isn’t easy. I heard you received honors for contumacy and free will. Everyone has their strong suits and you found yours. They stay with you when you go corporal. It’s up to you what you do with them.”
I subdued a smile. I was proud of my achievements.
“Now it’s time for you to pick the bones. We have plenty to choose from.”
“I don’t know. They all look alike.”
“Well, yes, at this stage they do. They’re in great shape, not a joint missing. The differences are subtle, but they will become apparent as tissue and blood course through. It’s true what they say. You all will become individuals, some short, some tall, some good, others bad. Life is like a cave of rocks, each stone is different and some will shine.”
March 20, 2016 at 10:27 am
Loved your take on the prompt Jill. My favourite line was, “Now it’s time for you to pick the bones. We have plenty to choose from.” Wonder where this supply comes from?
March 22, 2016 at 10:01 pm
This is a wonderful spin on the prompt. The idea of someone making the transition to a corporeal body, and able to shop for that body, and the delicate process of “building” a new and functioning body to inhabit – it’s a marvelous idea. Though of course, now I wonder where they got the bones…and how (and under what conditions) they are recycled….!
March 20, 2016 at 10:23 am
I thought I would try something different this week. This is an Etheree poem. The idea is that line one has one syllable, line two two syllables and so on. I’ve gone up to ten and then ten back to one. Hope you enjoy.
***************
So
many
to choose from.
My darling wife,
a cheat and liar,
or maybe her lover,
found dead with her in my bed.
Neither very good at haunting.
Failed miserably on their last outing.
Too few rattles and not enough shrieking.
For this job I need someone with panache,
a skeleton with that evil streak.
A being whose long fingers
can reach deep inside you,
tearing at your heart.
Whom shall I choose?
My daughter
or my
son?
@mj51day
word count – 78
March 20, 2016 at 6:10 pm
Said it on your blog, but I’ll say it here too: this poem format matched the subject perfectly and enhanced your always excellent storytelling.
March 22, 2016 at 9:58 pm
OOF. Wow. What a beautifully chilling entry! And to fit it within such a specific poetic structure is especially impressive. Very well rendered, not to mention the awful, slow realization that the real villain is the one who holds all their bones, and their souls….!
March 20, 2016 at 10:30 am
Victor opened the closet and looked at the specimens to see which one might work this time round. He had hoped for a higher success rate but they weren’t taking to the skin grafts as well as he had hoped; the blood made it slippery and less adhesive, and waiting until after ignition was proving to be too late – hence his return for a new specimen.
Victor thought about his approach: maybe he shouldn’t strip them down for storage; maybe he should consider getting a cold room and leaving them intact. It would mean missing the income from the black market organs, and risk them being identifiable.
He had spent years refining his modus operandi. Jack the Ripper was running circles round the police, who had no idea what they were doing. He needed to maintain the deflection just a little bit longer, until he could get this right.
@PurpleQueenNL
Words: 149
March 20, 2016 at 11:19 am
A great take on the prompt Miranda. Poor Victor, ‘strip them down and make money on the organs, or keep them intact and have more success with the skin grafts’ – such a dilemma!
March 22, 2016 at 9:56 pm
O wow. Now THAT is an idea…that Jack the Ripper was actually a distraction from something far more nefarious. Now THERE’s a story idea I could get into! Yikes. Chilling and brilliant!
March 20, 2016 at 6:03 pm
Three years working at the emporium proved overwhelming to Mrs. Spencer and her delicate nerves. In her thirty-seventh month, in a fit of pique, after being challenged by a customer on the legitimacy of the incantations contained within ‘Esmerelda’s Spells for Lasting Love’, Mrs. Spencer grabbed her pocketbook from behind the counter and sprinted out the front door. Unfortunately, her agitated departure coincided with the hurried arrival of Bus 144 from Poe Square. Mrs. Spencer was laid flat out in front of the shop.
Howard, the ever-faithful administrative assistant, looked after the gory details, as always. So much paperwork to be completed. But in the end, Mrs. Spencer took her rightful place in the wardrobe turned display case. with the other dead associates, at the back of the shop. Her relatives were unable to extract her posthumously from the iron-clad employment contract language that included both ‘life and post-lifetime’ commitment.
March 22, 2016 at 9:49 pm
Oh, wow. Somehow this one grew even more chilling at the end, though no clear details of the contract are mentioned….now I need to know what other business the emporium transacts? WOW. Great one, Jo-Anne!
March 20, 2016 at 6:09 pm
There’s a punctuation error (one, perhaps more!) in my attempt to participate this week but please put that down to my noggin still not being recovered from the flu. Still, 150 words on the nose! :))
March 22, 2016 at 9:50 pm
O my. I am so sleep deprived right now that all my tweets are some quasi-English jibberish so I will not cast stones!! I’m so tired right now, in fact, that I’m not even sure I see the error…..
March 21, 2016 at 4:51 pm
Storage Problems.
“Do you remember the organ man, Joe?”
“Wasn’t he the guy who sold human organs to medical research? I think he dug up the bodies from the cemetery.”
“That’s the man. He carved them up, sold off bits but they never found him or the rest of the bodies, as I remember.”
“That’s right. Wonder what he did with the bones.” Joe thought for a moment. “I suppose he could have burnt their bones to make ash.”
“What would he want ash for?”
“It’s good fertiliser for fields and gardens. What brought this subject up, anyway.”
“Just something, that young lad said when he was sacked by you last week. He said ‘we should look in your locker for a key. He said, you have skeletons in your cupboard.”
“And you believed him? Sour grapes that’s all.”
“Don’t think so Joe. The Inspector is looking at the evidence right now”
@fae_fielding
150 words
March 22, 2016 at 9:55 pm
BAM. Joe just got pwned. Now the question is, is the interrogator now in danger of having his organs harvested? *bites nails* Great entry!