{"id":611,"date":"2010-04-01T17:03:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-01T17:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=611"},"modified":"2010-04-01T17:03:00","modified_gmt":"2010-04-01T17:03:00","slug":"new-flash-fiction-jennifer-stakes-is-watching-shadow-puppets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/new-flash-fiction-jennifer-stakes-is-watching-shadow-puppets\/","title":{"rendered":"New flash fiction: Jennifer Stakes is watching shadow-puppets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><meta name=\"Title\" content=\"\"><br \/>\n<meta name=\"Keywords\" content=\"\"><br \/>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><br \/>\n<meta name=\"ProgId\" content=\"Word.Document\"><br \/>\n<meta name=\"Generator\" content=\"Microsoft Word 2008\"><br \/>\n<meta name=\"Originator\" content=\"Microsoft Word 2008\">\n<link style=\"font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\" rel=\"File-List\" 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Courier New,Courier,mono;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font size=\"2\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font size=\"2\"><span style=\"color: black;\">The flames burned high, lending a<br \/>\ntremulous luminescence to the paper screen.<span style=\"\">&nbsp; <\/span>On our side all was darkness.<span style=\"\">&nbsp; <\/span>My baby sister\u2019s hand was hot in mine; she drew comfort from<br \/>\nmy soon-to-be-married status, which banished monsters as surely as daylight.<span style=\"\">&nbsp; <\/span>Her head moved next to my shoulder as<br \/>\nshe crunched through the bag of banana chips I had given her.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font size=\"2\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font size=\"2\"><span style=\"color: black;\">Drums rumbled.<span style=\"\">&nbsp; <\/span>A silhouette goat was lifted, legs<br \/>\nkicking, and my sister gasped as its throat was slit with a long motion.<span style=\"\">&nbsp; <\/span>The Village Elder puppet-shape raised<br \/>\nhis leather arms as the drums thundered and the goat was dropped, head askew,<br \/>\nblack blood running.<span style=\"\">&nbsp; <\/span>Cymbals<br \/>\ncrashed and were silent.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font size=\"2\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font size=\"2\"><span style=\"color: black;\">The outlined villagers drew back and we<br \/>\nheld our breath.<span style=\"\">&nbsp; <\/span>My sister\u2019s hand<br \/>\ngrew clammy with horrified expectation.<span style=\"\">&nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/span><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font size=\"2\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font size=\"2\"><span style=\"color: black;\">The rebab strings whined in sympathy<br \/>\nwith the audience\u2019s tension, warning us of an approach.<span style=\"\">&nbsp; <\/span>My sister cuddled close and buried her<br \/>\nface in my sleeve. <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font size=\"2\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font size=\"2\"><span style=\"color: black;\">The Jenglot-shadow entered, inching its<br \/>\nmummified body across the screen towards the crowd of villagers.<span style=\"\">&nbsp; <\/span>Its delicate, skeletal head moved this<br \/>\nway and that, sniffing, searching.<span style=\"\">&nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/span>The villagers huddled behind the goat, praying its blood would satisfy<br \/>\nthe creature.<span style=\"\">&nbsp; <\/span>The Jenglot loomed<br \/>\nhuge on the screen as it hovered over the broken animal.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font size=\"2\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font size=\"2\"><span style=\"color: black;\">Then it turned.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font size=\"2\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font size=\"2\"><span style=\"color: black;\">The Jenglot\u2019s thin shadow-flicker<br \/>\nplayed across the audience, its long hair seeming to brush each of us in<br \/>\nturn.<span style=\"\">&nbsp; <\/span>The drums rumbled with<br \/>\nhunger.<span style=\"\">&nbsp; <\/span>The shadow grew, engorged,<br \/>\nthen shrank and faded, and the screen villagers bowed in relief as the creature<br \/>\nslid away, satiated with blood.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font size=\"2\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font size=\"2\"><span style=\"color: black;\">My sister\u2019s cold fingers lay still in<br \/>\nmine and terrified dark tears slid down my glassy face still staring at the<br \/>\nscreen, too afraid to look at her.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font size=\"2\"><span style=\"font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">* Jennifer Stakes<\/span> is orginally British but now lives in Washington DC where she writes flash fiction, poetry, short stories and culture articles. She is currently working on a dystopian novel and blogs about her writing adventures at <a href=\"http:\/\/writerinthewildreness.blogspot.com\">http:\/\/writerinthewilderness.blogspot.com\/<\/a><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-family: Courier New,Courier,mono;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><font size=\"2\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p><!--EndFragment--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Living Shadows &nbsp; The flames burned high, lending a tremulous luminescence to the paper screen.&nbsp; On our side all was darkness.&nbsp; My baby sister\u2019s hand was hot in mine; she drew comfort from my soon-to-be-married status, which banished monsters as surely as daylight.&nbsp; Her head moved next to my shoulder as she crunched through the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}