It Sticks With Me

Writober 2025: Day Three Texture>Response Post

🔗Links in the Table of Contents are Jump links to my responses to each of the challenges
🐦‍⬛This is original work created by Maria L. Berg and this post counts as copyright. All rights reserved.

🎃OctPoWriMo 🦇Writober Flash Fiction 👻Halloween Photography Challenge

Today’s Theme: Texture

These are my responses to the prompt post for Day 3 of Writober Scares Can Get Sticky.

OctPoWriMo

The Shadow Side

Like surprise pitch
on the tree you’re hugging
sticking your fingers together
when you let go.
Like a shiny silver knife
with a strong wood handle
that has dulled
and won’t cut the mustard.
Like the perfect rock
with just the right size and shape
that crumbles to dust
in your hands.
Like a thick knit sweater
that looks so soft
but pokes and scratches
your neck raw.
Like the perfect velvet couch
in the corner at a party
that swallows you, legs flailing
and won’t let you out.
Like the romantic path through the arbor
covered in vibrant fallen leaves
that give way
to a shoe full of mud.

Writober Flash Fiction Challenge

Her Shadow

Ever since Calliope took human form, her shadow had been acting out. Sometimes it would get really long and thin. Other times it was short and fat, just sitting there around her feet. It would lounge on walls and get all rough like bricks. Then on rainy days get all soppy and splash in puddles. It kept copying everything she did, and she was sure it was making faces behind her back. Calliope had forgiven all that: it had been a big adjustment for both of them. But this? Revealing her inner horned form for anyone to see? That was too much. It might be time to cut that shadow loose.

Halloween Photography Challenge

For today’s images, I picked some dill that had dropped its seeds and dried. I put a few pieces on iridescent plastic and used it as a filter. I also played with the shadows of the wires between the lights.