A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words @SamieSands

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It started with a writing challenge - 1,000 words based on a random image. 18 authors took on the task all in aid of PKDcharity.org.uk and here are the results!

From demons to lost loves, from unsolved mysteries to spooky supernatural happenings read what came out of the imaginations of Jaclyn Ann Lee, Lila L. Pinord, Rob Shepherd, Andy Lockwood, L.H. Davis, James Bryant, Anthony V. Pugliese, Kevin S. Hall, Rick Eddy, Max E. Stone, Dave J. Suscheck Jr., Vered Ehsani, J. Cornell Michel, Michele Jones, Lizzie Wachter, Linda Jenkinson, Kally Jo Surbeck and Samie Sands.

Never will you find such an eclectic collection of stories in one book, but which such a varying collection of writers, what did you expect? All the pictures that inspired these stories can be found at samiesands.com/pictures. Buying this book will not only entertain and amuse you, it will support a hard working charity and might even lead you to discover your new favourite author!

A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words Sample

Ghost Hunter by Samie Sands

As Mary stared at the rundown shack standing in front of her, she couldn’t help but feel disappointed. She had spent a lot of her life traveling to alleged haunted sites—places she found online that promised terrifying experiences—and had never found anything like what she was looking for. This excursion was shaping up to be no different.
“At least this place is kinda pretty!” She huffed to herself, disenchantment etched across her face. She sat down on a rock near the small waterfall that lay next to the old ruins. Admittedly, she had been to some dreadful places ghost hunting—but what else could she expect? Hauntings don’t tend to occur in brand new shopping malls. That was probably what had attracted her to this particular place. At the very least, she knew that she would be able to get some picturesque photographs for her Facebook page.
She let out a deep sigh as she let her eyes take in the smashed windows, the crumbling brickwork, and the overall creepy demeanor. She wondered how she let herself get suckered in once more. After the abandoned airfield disaster, she thought she was going to stop. Yet here she was, doing it all over again. She knew the answer, of course—Andrew.
Much as she didn’t like to think about him, memories of their brief time together flooded her mind. They met in college and fell in love almost instantly. He was obsessed with the supernatural and she had quickly gotten caught up in the magic of it all. They had actually been planning their first trip, just like this one—to a fabulous ancient house built upon a graveyard—when he was hit by a bus, killing him instantly.
At first, Mary had been numb, acting on autopilot, unable to really function. Then, on the day the trip was supposed to start, she found herself at the airport, as if something else had taken her there. Getting away from all of the direct memories had done her the world of good and something—an unhealthy need to carry this on—made her continue to do so. It had been 10 years since Mary lost Andrew, but for some reason, she just couldn’t let him go.
“You’d have loved this one, Andrew.” She spoke aloud, just as she always did when she was at these sites because she felt much closer to him than normal. “Even if it is just another old building with nothing in...”
Something, a spark of a shadow in one of the old windows, caught her eye and stopped her in her tracks. Mary stood slowly, moving towards the building. Her heart was pounding ferociously and her breathing became labored. Suddenly, she was gripped by fear, unlike anything she had ever experienced before. She didn’t know what had her so afraid after all, she had experienced supernatural possibilities before. But for some reason, this felt...different.
She stepped closer to the building, taking in a large gulp as the soothing sound of the rushing stream suddenly became something much more sinister. The realization hit Mary hard that she was in the woodlands—a place where animal noises should be commonplace. But all she could hear was a piercing silence.
She pondered upon what this weird building, next to a waterfall and surrounded by trees, had been in its heyday. It seemed too small to be a house but bigger than the average shack. Of all the things she had learnt in her research—the terrifying young girl ghost that supposedly haunted the place, the fact that you allegedly wouldn’t survive if she got too close to you, the legends of the many people that had gone into these woods and never returned—she had never actually bothered to find out what the hell this place had been.
As she tentatively peered in through one of the bottom windows, a piece of glass fell through with her fingers. The shattering noise it created sounded so much louder to Mary’s blood pumping ears. She jumped backward violently with the shock of it and struggled to get her breath back.
After looking around the outside of the ruins as far as she dared and giving herself satisfactory confirmation that she was in fact alone, Mary turned back to grab her camera out of her backpack. All she wanted to do now was take some photographs and get as far away from this place as possible. But, she quickly noticed that something was off. Her bag, she knew exactly where she had left it, but now...now the rock was empty.
“He—hello?” Mary called out, unable to keep the shakiness out of her voice.
The wind whistled, but nothing else followed. Mary was frozen stiff. Something about this experience suddenly felt much more petrifying than anything she had ever been through before.
“Who...who’s there?” She called out once more, desperately hoping that the deadly ghost girl wouldn’t appear before her. Maybe all those people really did die—and it was this petrifying feeling that had done it!
Mary slipped slightly on a wet mossy area next to the waterfall as she moved. Her heart was now thumping so loudly that she couldn’t concentrate. Did she need her backpack? Could she just run? No—her money, her passport, all her vital belongings were in that damn bag. No, she was going to have to get it back no matter what.
“I...I don’t know what you want, but I really need at least some of my stuff back.” Mary said, letting out a noise that was supposed to be a laugh, to show that she wasn’t scared at all, hoping that confidence would deter whatever was out there—but the end result just made her seem more afraid than ever.
Abruptly the ground started to shake beneath her feet, almost knocking her to the ground.
An earthquake. It had to be an earthquake.
Mary gripped the rock beneath her tightly as she waited for everything around her to steady.
Still, even after the tremors, Mary couldn’t hear any animal noises. That wasn’t right, was it? Shouldn’t birds be calling out at the very least? Dread caused Mary to make a snap decision, she would leave immediately. Belongings could be replaced—her life couldn’t!
Her eyes fixed on her feet as she quickly walked, her brain focused on the floor beneath her, so much so that she didn’t realize what she was about to come up against until her head smacked against it. Her eyes widened in surprise as her sight traveled upwards.
Whatever she had been expecting, whatever supernatural phenomenon she thought she might find, it certainly wasn’t this. She never, ever even considered this monster as a possibility, and now here he was, holding her bag which looked tiny in his oversized, beastly hands.
Mary’s heart stopped beating as her brain finally deciphered exactly who she stood in front of; the one who she was certain was going to kill her.
“Bigfoot...”