Jacob Osterhaus

Hands poked and prodded at him with #expert cruelty. They knew how to hurt, how to inflict shame, and stoke fear, despite their small size. Children’s hands, stolen from the dead so this blind #abomination might touch the world it hated. #horror #vss365 #vsshorror #horrorprompt

Moon light cut through the clouds, painting the valley in silver. Atop the ridge stood a figure surveying the dark trees below. Then it tossed its head back and loosed a wail like the #screams of flayed children. Penny shuddered and kept moving. #horror #vsshorror #horrorprompt

Will’s hand shook as he #wrote his name in the huge, dusty volume. Nothing obvious happened, but something had changed. He could feel it, like being swept up in a strong current. His soul was now inextricably bound to the book, to its fate. For better or worse. #horror #vss365

Their fingers touched but slipped. Paul plummeted toward the singularity, the vessel’s roiling heart. Rita could only watch him drift away, moving slower and slower until he appeared to #stop. And there he’d stay, beyond the time stream, falling forever. #horror #vsstimetravel

Ellen didn’t move. She didn’t breathe. She tried with all her will to not exist at all. The searching guards knew she’d come this way but couldn’t see her through the muck of the #drainage ditch. She prayed and waited for death or salvation. #horror #vsshorror #horrorprompt

Gus stared at the words defacing his business. “Death is the only #peace.” He wanted to be angry, but all he could muster was a bone deep weariness. He unlocked the door and went in. Today would be busy. He had another load of corpses from the front to process. #horror #vss365

The lead empath snarled at its companions and they obeyed, respecting the older sibling’s experience. Blank scopes, but the lead’s nose was never wrong. The pack #fanned out, and soon they all sensed it. Fear. More survivors to wrangle for processing. #scifi #horror #SciFanSat

The duke gave a curt nod and Kane twitched with an irresistible urge obey. Wild energy coursed painfully through his body, #empowering and compelling his every movement. Stinking fae contracts. Kane stood, his eyes sharp as hate, and charged the guards. #horror #vss365

The moon rose like a claw piercing the star dusted fabric of night. Smoke hung like a pall draping the trees. Val stood from the ash heap, a #skinless corpse burned and steaming. She looked down at herself. Apparently, she was a witch after all. #horror #vsshorror #horrorprompt

Fin listened to his companions’ thundering heartbeats. He smelled the stink of adrenaline and envied their shared #anticipation. In every activity, these apes drew strength from closeness. Fin couldn’t even remember what that felt like anymore. #horror #vss365

He traced patterns in the flow to get a #message to somebody, to anybody. But no one inside could see the whole. Their lives were too short and erratic. Years passed. Centuries. Eons. And then came a great darkness as, one by one, the stars burnt out. #horror #vsstimetravel

Jess flexed, her features twisting through an #amalgamation of favorite faces. She settled on that of a sad, old man. A beard sprouted and her hair fell out. She flipped her reversible jacket, exited the alleyway, and disappeared into the city. #horror #vsshorror #horrorprompt

She cackled like a lunatic, the sound reverberating strangely through the trees. Mick and Anne slowed their pursuit to avoid the worse effects of witch #laughter. Besides, Lauren had circled around from the north, and the evil hag couldn’t keep this up all night. #horror #vss365

The mist wasn’t simply drifting, it was attacking him! Bill danced and flailed, but thick curls of fog continued invading his body‘s pores and orifices. He couldn’t hear or breathe, and his eyes burned. His #training hadn’t prepared him for anything like this. #horror #WeirdVSS

Luke flapped a hand to shoo a bug from his ears. He tried to focus on the strange book again, but the buzzing returned. His eyes glazed as the noise filled his skull. After a time, a voice emerged, the barest #whisper, and an imperative took root in his mind. #horror #vss365

Something was wrong. Wes looked up into the stranger’s faceted eyes and gleaming mandibles. He should have been afraid, but he wasn’t. As the stranger’s antennae began inspecting his body, all Wes felt was calm, #sanguine, and a little sleepy… #horror #vsshorror #horrorprompt

The worst part wasn’t even the pain. It was the frenzy. Once Paul started to feed, the bloodlust fully took him over. He was barely conscious. So no matter how good it felt, he was never in control enough to #savor it. And then he was right back at starvation. #horror #vss365

The Archivist watched light from a supernova dance on its hull. One more species gone. One more #story no one would ever read. Even the Archivist’s progenitors were no more. Still, it was good to have a purpose, or at least a diversion in the long eons. #scifi #horror #SciFanSat

He was #striking rather than classically handsome. His skin, eyes, and hair were all the golden brown of a baked chicken. As if he’d been drawn by a kid with only one crayon. Liam knew a proxy when he saw one. The tool of an outer power on earth. #horror #vsshorror #horrorprompt

The main difference between our craft and #alchemy is the power source. Alchemists inefficiently harness the friction of our universe’s unseen gears. Alien. Esoteric. While we far more elegantly utilize life itself. - Practical Necromancy, vol.3 #horror #vsshorror #horrorprompt