Summer Slaughter Series: Chapter 5
Warning, make sure you read PART 1, PART 2, PART 3, and PART 4 before continuing…
“Mom… don’t you smell it?” I whispered, my voice cracking in anger.
She shook her head and rattled Frankie’s rotting arm in her hand. “There’s nothing here, Aiden. Frankie’s fine.”
Flecks of foul flesh spackled the dried grass and dirt. Black and red specks sprayed her blouse and skin. I nearly vomited as I got caught in the spray myself. Frankie hadn’t said a word, he seemed to be unconscious. The violent jerking of his arm had no effect on him.
I started crying. Mom glanced at me and I didn’t recognize who I was seeing, she seemed different, somehow. I didn’t know why.
She picked up Frankie and began to walk toward the boat. I still sat in the dirt and grass, confused. I watched her walk off in silence.
It was then I noticed her ankle… putrid blackened rot seemingly creeping up her leg, under the leg of her capri pants. I took a harried and grasping stumble backward on all fours as a thick layer of deadened skin sluiced off her leg and onto the dirt.
“Mom! Are you okay?”
She paused with Frankie in her arms. She turned her head ever so slightly, not looking at me.
“I’m fine, Aiden. You need to calm down. Come on the boat.”
Not sure what else I could possibly do, I followed. I was still crying, and I wiped tears and snot from my face as I made the trek to the boat. I had been walking slower than I had thought because Mom had taken Frankie on board already. I saw her standing toward the bow… Dad was there, too.
I made my way up the small ramp and trudged my way toward the front in silence and dread. I felt the boat rock slightly, but the water looked too still – it looked thick. Silvery. I heard nothing but lapping waves – thick, chunky slaps against the wood. No birds, no splashing. I was shattered by the past few minutes already – the silent stillness just made it worse.
As I approached the bow, I saw that Mom had Frankie on the deck. Frankie was silent and still. Dad stood there, fishing rod in hand, looking down at Frankie like he was a catch that puzzled him.
As I crept closer, I noticed the drips and splatters on the deck… rotting flesh. I followed the trail with my eyes to my mother’s leg – the whole foot, now, was beginning to slide off the bone. Within a moment her ankle snapped in a spray of gunk and she hit the deck, hard. She said nothing. Dad stood there, in silence.
I stood, shaking, and watched her pick her body up enough off the ground to climb up on her legs with a struggle. I saw her rest her weight on the mashed stump as though nothing had happened. She stood lopsided and had I not been so frightened it would have been strange. Now, it simply terrified me.
I approached my parents and my younger brother. The smell of rot grew stronger the closer I got.
“Mom? Dad?” I whispered.
My Dad looked at me and I could see how that his left hand had become an oozing curtain of rotten skin. He smiled as though nothing had happened.
“Looks like Frankie is really tired, huh?”
Mom stood, lopsided and wobbling, staring at Frankie. Frankie’s hand was now starting to resemble my father’s.
“Oh, Aiden,” Dad smiled and gestured toward me with a finger, “you’ll like this. Your dad is quite the fisherman.”
He gestured to the cooler chest behind him. I leaned to look just past him at his catch, already knowing what it was. The chest was full of shimmering, coiled jelly. A twitching tentacle hung over the side, slapping idly at the plastic.
“Who knew your father could catch something so big, huh?” Mom chirped.
“Frankie is going to love it when he wakes up,” Dad added.
So here is our last installment of our AI journey exploring the idea of Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad wolf being one and the same. All of these are based upon the AI generated art and prompts using NightCafe and then created as posters in Canva. Feel free to check out Part 1 and Part 2 of this exploration if you missed them.
A non sequitur I know, but I couldn’t resist. If you picked up where we left off you’ll get it.
Seriously?! Again with the cropped off head cop out…
Finally! That was a journey. And not even worth the result, in my opinion.
Anyway, here is a bonus montage I made out of a bunch of additional Red Riding Hood prompts for an article that never happened…
Prompts for Montage:
1.) What if Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf were one and the same being?
2.) Her wolf face peering out of her red cloak, fangs dripping with the blood of another victim, lost in the forest and never found.
3.) Little Red Riding Hood closes in for the kill, lunging from her red cloak, her wolf fangs dripping with blood.
4.) I am Little Red Riding Hood. I am the Big Bad Wolf. I am coming for you.
5.) Howling within, the rage sears forth from the red cloak, discarded in the deep woods. Red Riding Hood succumbs to the lycanthropy.
6.) Heaving breaths. Dripping blood. Red Riding Hood is not what she appears. She is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
7.) Her red cloak masks the fangs hidden below the surface.
8.) It starts with a long sighing breath. Waiting. The wolf within stirs.
9.) Red Riding Hood trembles. She succumbs to the lycanthropy.
10.) The wolf bursts forth from within. It takes over Little Red Riding Hood’s mind, her body, her being.
11.) Red Riding Hood howls. She is ravenous with hunger for blood. The wolf within has taken over. Mind, spirit, body. She feasts on the blood of the moon.
12.) Big Bad Wolf Red Riding Hood ravenous blood moon feast
13.) Blood moon beckons. I. Little Red Big Bad Riding Hood Wolf. Freedom howling night curse.
14.) Beware. Bewolf. BeRedRidingHood. Betwixt. Beyond.
15.) I pad quietly as the forest dissolves around me. Red Riding Hood and Wolf, one and the same.
16.) Wolf within howling dark recesses of the mind, Red Riding Hood lost
17.) Red Riding Hood HOWL wolf bane true existence polymorph within-and-without.
18.) Red howl Riding Wolf dark existence brooding within
So thank you for joining us on another AI art journey. You can still catch the last AI art journey on Haunted MTL here. To see more such devolutions into AI generated art, check out the Will the Real Jennifer Weigel Please Stand Up? blog.
Continuing our AI journey from last time exploring Little Red Riding Hood herself as the Big Bad Wolf… All of these are based upon the AI generated art and prompts using NightCafe and then created as posters in Canva.
How very… Phantom of the Opera predatory… this is definitely not what I had in mind. Maybe something more cutesy?
Ugh. Maybe not.
Wow, that seems like such a cop out, cropping off the head so you don’t have to depict it. And I don’t want to lose the Little Red Riding Hood reference completely.
So no surprise there, I knew that was too many references to work.
And we continued to devolve, join us again next week for the final installment to see how this ended… And again, if you want to catch the last AI art journey, you can find it on Haunted MTL here. To see more such devolutions into AI generated art, check out the Will the Real Jennifer Weigel Please Stand Up? blog.
And as promised in Big Bad Poetry, we shall embark on our next AI journey, this time looking at Little Red Riding Hood. I had wanted to depict her as the Big Bad Wolf one and the same, although maybe not so big nor bad. But it just wasn’t happening quite as planned. All of these are based upon the AI generated art and prompts using NightCafe and then created as posters in Canva.
So I actually like this even better than my original vision, it is playful and even a bit serene (especially given the Sinister style). The wolf is just being a wolf. It’s quite lovely, really. But it wasn’t what I had in mind, so I revisited the idea later to see if I could get that result…
Well, that’s not quite right…
Yeah more of the same…
And as you can see this is starting to devolve quickly. Join us again next week to see how this continued to develop… And if you want to catch the last AI art journey, you can find it on Haunted MTL here. To see more such devolutions into AI generated art, check out the Will the Real Jennifer Weigel Please Stand Up? blog.
