{Isolation Tales} Death’s Escape By Miranda Crites

These are the most testing times the human race have faced since World War II. This time the enemy is unseen, an enemy so powerful it’s forcing many of us to retreat back into our houses. It’s here that people will try to continue to live as normal a life as they can and it’s here that the wonderful art of storytelling may blossom. Be it, young children sitting in front of a parent, or a person sadly on their own listening to the radio, stories will be spread and remembered, to be told to future generations once this horrible virus has faded.

I wanted to be able to share some stories with the fiends of Kendall Reviews, stories to help people get through these difficult times.

If you have a tale you’d like to share then please contact me via email

It’s always an honour to bring you new content from Miranda Crites. Miranda is wonderfully talented and the blog has been fortunate to be graced with her writing and photography.

Here, Miranda has unveiled a chilling poem that I’m sure you are going to enjoy

So fiends of Kendall Reviews, give this poem a read, digest and please tweet your thoughts on ‘Death’s Escape’ #IsolationTales #DeathsEscape

Death’s Escape

A Poem By Miranda Crites

I have my morning coffee as I sit by the woodstove

Rain pats down onto the tin roof above my head

The coffee is strong and cold, a concoction of bitter powders

I set it on the table and wonder how long I’ve been dead.

 

The stove stands cold in the corner

I awaken to this same scenario every day

I am confined to this dark, dank cabin

There is no escape

 

I try to light the remnants of a candle

But the matches crumble in my hands

There’s no sustenance here

Not on this tainted land

 

Movement catches my eye outside the dirty window

A bird – a crow – looks in at me

There’s something familiar about this bird

Oh, how I wish I could be so free!

 

“Cah!” it speaks.

I walk closer to the window, closer still

The crow doesn’t fly away but looks into my eyes

I begin to feel

 

For the first time in what seems like an eternity

My body begins to feel more than the chill of death

Closer, still, to the window

It fogs lightly with my breath

 

I reach out and touch the filth and condensation

I wipe a small circle clean

My eyes lock with the crow’s

And relive the nightmarish daydream

 

I had gone for a hike to free my mind

I met a couple guys on the trail

They waited on me up ahead

And turned my trip into hell

 

They dragged me to an abandoned cabin

Tying me up, gagging me, oh how they played!

For three days and nights they tortured my body, my soul

They shoved my lifeless body under the cabin on a sunless Sunday

 

A shadow came over the crow’s eyes

Then a brightness from within me seemed to burn

“Cah!” it said again

To the door, I turned

 

I walked out onto the porch

The top step was as far as I could ever go

The crow came and sat on the banister

I could hear it thinking, “You can do this; you know.”

 

I gave in to my fears and anxieties

My lifeless body inhaled one last dead breath

I felt again: warmth and hopefulness, light and airy

All the things you don’t feel after your death

 

I spread my wings far and wide

And took flight

I stopped briefly in the top of a tall pine

And looked at my world in all its new light

Miranda Crites

Miranda Crites is a reader, writer, book reviewer, photographer, and lover of horror from the ghostly woods of rural West Virginia.

The writing bug bit Miranda at a very early age. She was pretty much born with a pen and a camera in her hands. She won the young writers’ contest in first grade and received her first camera as a gift when she was nine years old.

When not writing, Miranda enjoys spending time with her family. She and her family spend a lot of time off the grid where they are building a cabin in the supposedly haunted woods.

Miranda is self-employed. She and her husband create large and small vinyl decals, t-shirts, signs, and a plethora of creative customized items.

Some of her many hobbies when time allows are: making unique crafts and artwork, painting, hiking, and, of course, photography.

She has a diploma for Writing for Children and Teenagers although most of her current work is horror fiction and poetry.

Miranda is a member of Team Kendall Reviews at www.KendallReviews.com where you can find her horror book reviews and her monthly feature, Miranda Snaps, which generally contains horror fiction and photography.

Miranda is one of “The Thirty,” which is a group of thirty authors who are each taking a turn in writing a chapter of an in-progress horror novel.

You can follow Miranda on Instagram Miranda_C_rites

Follow Miranda on Twitter @Miranda_C_rites

You can find out more about Miranda via her website www.mirandacritesreadsandwrites.com