Dorsal
450 words
Theme: All Saints
In Edgar Allan Poe's horror classic, The Black Cat, the narrator is seized by impulses beyond his control and cuts out his beloved cat's eye with a penknife and, subsequently, kills it by hanging. Feeling remorse for his behavior, he domesticates another pet.
"For my own part, I soon found a dislike to it [the cat] arising within me. This was just the reverse of what I had anticipated; but -- I know not how or why it was -- its evident fondness for myself rather disgusted and annoyed me. By slow degrees these feelings of disgust and annoyance rose into the bitterness of hatred. I avoided the creature; a certain sense of shame and the remembrance of my former deed of cruelty, preventing me from physically abusing it. I did not, for some weeks, strike, or otherwise violently ill use it; but gradually -- very gradually -- I came to look upon it with unutterable loathing, and to flee silently from its odious presence, as from the breath of a pestilence."
In 450 words or less, write a story where an act of fondness inspires the opposite effect (annoyance/disgust/loathing) for a person, place, or thing. Set the story in the present.
Share your story with us by pasting it into the comments or sending it to Pandemoniumpress@gmail.com
