“Death becomes you, my dear…”

Her whispered words were cold against my cheek; her embrace a steely grip wrapped in cashmere. She stepped away, still holding my shoulders in her iron talons. Her cherubic face tilted as she regarded me, the ghost of an enigmatic smile tugging at the corners of her lips.

Blinking, I tried to clear my head and the world seemed to flicker and shift before me: rosy cheeks replaced by pale and shadowed hollows; blue eyes flashing black; loose waves tamed in a tightly drawn bun; soft woollen coat and scarf gone and in their place a fitted suit, so black it seemed to suck light from the air around us. And behind her, where before there had been only empty air and softly falling snow, there rose giant, black-feathered wings, gleaming almost blue in their darkness.

All this in the space of a blink and then it was gone. She stood before me once more, petite and smiling sweetly. I couldn’t tell if her vicelike grip was pulling me from life or the only thing pinning me to it.

Her whispered words were cold against my cheek: “…and now you become Death.”

***

“You’re a storyteller. Dream up something wild and improbable,” she pleaded. “Something beautiful and full of monsters.”

Strange The Dreamer by Laini Taylor

Inspired by Erin Morgenstern’s Flax-Golden Tales, I have decided to embark on my own creative writing blog series, “Wild & Improbable Tales”, as a way to write more freely and more frequently. At least once a week, I will choose a card at random from The School Of Life‘s ‘Small Pleasures’ box and use the image and/or writing on the back to inspire a short piece of creative writing. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.