Pixilated Kingdom

Kevin didn’t breathe easy until he saw the snow sticking to the ground. Nothing can find me here, he thought. The road leading to the cabin wound though the hilliest, most remote parts of the state. He turned from the window to sit on the grungy bed, looking at the primitive excuse of a kitchen and rickety table that took up the remainder of the one room cabin’s interior.

This armpit of a room, in this dung hole of a town, looked like paradise to him. A two light fixture, two outlet, wi-fi free paradise.  He felt the corners of his mouth pull up into the first genuine smile he had for a week, and lay down, enjoying the sound of nothing but wind.

There was no crunch of foot falls on snow to prepare him for the hammering of fists on the doors. Kevin dove under the bed, hoping nothing had seen him through the window. His hand touched something furry and he suppressed a yelp as he scuttled away from the mummified mouse, its head dislocated in the trap that killed it.

From outside the cabin, the sound of the wind was joined by raspy voices. Low at first, they built up until they competed in volume with the banging of the door. “King. King!”

Kevin couldn’t stand it for more than a few minutes before he started screaming. “Leave me alone! I told you, I’m not your king!”

“Lead us! Lead us!” came the roars from outside the cabin.

“I’m not one of you. I’m human not an actual troll. It’s just what some people call themselves on the ‘net,” Kevin sobbed. “I swear I’ll never touch a computer or cell phone again.”


The lights in the cabin flickered and Kevin shrieked. When the lights came on again, the dead mouse was the cabin’s only occupant.


This short story was inspired by the prompt given over at Imaginary Gardens With Real Toads: Snow Birthed Tales, using the following picture as inspiration:

Snow Birthed Tales by Leslie Jenny

26 comments:

  1. My goodness Rommy this one gave me the chills!! Beautifully haunting!!❤️

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  2. Ha, I so enjoyed this....you had me grinning about the trolls.............

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  3. Luvved the suspense, and then you thrilled me into laughter

    much love...

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  4. I was intrigued by the title so I loved the twist at the end - it all tied up so beautifully and chillingly!

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    1. Thanks Kim! I'm glad I was able to get a complete story in.

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  5. Kevin sounds too nice to be King of the Trolls--I'm so glad he escaped...or was he, and did he??? Love this, Rommy--fun and fiendish and with just the slightest hint of sarcasm, I think?deliciously served with just the slightest hint of sarcasm. ;_)

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  6. Haha! Great one! Hope this happens to all trolls!

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    1. *snicker* I imagine you aren't alone in hoping that.

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  7. Karma is a fickle mistress, who every now and again arrives early... holding a mummy in her hands.

    Thank you for the imagery, for letting me witness what can happen to one of society's most annoying vermin, for the roar your tale inspired.

    Yum-Yum!

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    1. Thank you for the awesome prompt which inspired me :D

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  8. the dead mouse was the
    cabin’s only occupant.

    A nice twist at the end Rommy!

    Hank

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  9. This was delightful! I could wish the same fate for every trill on the net! Justice!

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    1. I think there were several smiles at the story's end.

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  10. Great tale and wonderfully told.

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  11. Oh! And I felt so happy for him all cozy in the bed ...

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    1. True. It's an awful thing to have one's cozy bed time disrupted.

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  12. Escape from the "pixilated kingdom" haunts -- no, dogs -- us all. That's the measure of how trapped we are. Great foray into the real and its contempts.

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    1. A lot of us are more trapped than we care to admit.

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