Thursday photo prompt – The tunnel – #writephoto
Hosted by the talent Sue Vincent at https://scvincent.com/2017/06/22/thursday-photo-prompt-the-tunnel-writephoto/
THE TUNNEL
By Neel Anil Panicker
Nature’s elements hold sway here, man a mere slave to them, his senses long gone
senseless.
Raghav cocks his ears against the dank walls but hears nothing. He extricates his hands from the folds of his back, towards what he believes is his face.
Nothingness stares back at him.
It was as if he were gone blind, his eyeballs mere black dots surrounded by blacker contours.
Something slithers around his feet. Cutting through the jaggedness and the overall dampness, he feels a slight sensation.
Something, he has no means of knowing what that could be, crawls its way up his ankles.
Furiously, his hands jab out at the intruder that’s worming up through the folds of his baggy shorts.
The effort’s disturbed, as all of a sudden, the feeling disappears, as if by magic.
Mystified, his logical brain warns him there is no such thing as magic. That what he’s experiencing is stark life, unfolding, albeit in slow motion, set to rhythmic music by the metronomic beats of his crazily palpitating heart.
It was then that cold fear envelops him. His eyes stab into the darkness; his senses in full vigil.
He feels a deep, searing despair as if he were an utterly defenceless rabbit, caught by its neck and gasping through the very last breaths of life; its predator, a ferocious fox sinking its sharp as nails teeth deep into soft skin, tearing asunder the delicate fabric of life.
The icicles of his brain scream out one word: death.
©neelanilpanciker2017 #tunnel #thursdayphotoprompt #250words
The fear of the dark… a primal fear…
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Reminds me of something I wrote in a novel. The dark is a killer;
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Thanks for your appreciation. I am glad you found something in my story that resonated with something that you wrote in your novel.
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It’s the same idea. I’m glad others see darkness in the same way 🙂
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Its fun to write about the fears we have of the dark….well done Neel, you created a great sense of tension.
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Yes Michael it is absolute terrifying fun to write about the dark. Thanks for the appreciation.
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It is fun to write about fear and darkness sitting in the full glare of light. The darkness or the absence of light conjures up terrifying images.
I could feel Raghav’s fear in the story.
http://ideasolsi65.blogspot.in/2017/06/tunnel-of-hope.html?m=1
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Yes, darkness brings out our innermost fears. It is very primal. Am glad you appreciated my story, Kalpana. Thanks.
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