ROOFTOP

My favourite spot, sitting on the rooftop.

I prefer it when I can hear the hustle and bustle of life below. The sirens are more ominous in the surrounding silence.

Life is getting back to normal, people are moving around.

Now my work will begin.

His virus has spread through the city like a plague. His numbers bolstered with every new victim. The only way to end it is to find Him and kill Him.

I check the crossbow, modified with the wooden stake. I hold the crucifix that hangs from the chain around my neck.

The twilight hour between night and day arrives: the hunt begins.

Written for Friday Fictioneers hosted by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields (more details HERE). The idea is to write a short story of 100 words based on the photo prompt (above). I’ve just finished reading Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’, which may have influenced my story this week!

To read stories of 100 words based on this week’s prompt, visit HERE.

73 responses to “ROOFTOP”

neilmacdon

15/04/2020

He forgot the garlic tip to the bolt

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1. Iain Kelly
  
  15/04/2020
  
  Don’t worry, he is fully prepared.
  
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Jaye Marie

15/04/2020

I have visions of you killing the virus the same way!

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1. Iain Kelly
  
  15/04/2020
  
  If only we could.
  
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Anthony North

15/04/2020

And it is good that this story is not unRead.

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1. Iain Kelly
  
  15/04/2020
  
  🙂 Thanks Anthony.
  
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rochellewisoff

15/04/2020

Dear Iain,

It has been sometime since a vampire has stalked Friday Fictioneers. 😉 Well done.

Shalom,

Rochelle

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1. Iain Kelly
  
  15/04/2020
  
  They are always there, just waiting to return 😉
  
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Susan A Eames

15/04/2020

Yikes, that was chilling. What a take on the photo prompt! 🙂

Susan A Eames at
Travel, Fiction and Photos

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1. Iain Kelly
  
  15/04/2020
  
  Thanks Susan
  
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Tannille

15/04/2020

I’m a bit worried now. I live close enough to a freeway that when outside there is a dull hum at least, trains and sirens often travel. Lately, the hum, trains & sirens are gone. Vampires?

Good take on the prompt.

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1. Iain Kelly
  
  15/04/2020
  
  Could be. Or something worse…
  
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Michele Jones

15/04/2020

I do enjoy a good vampire hunt. Nice one.

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1. Iain Kelly
  
  15/04/2020
  
  Thanks Michele. Not something I normally write, or read, but enjoyed the original Dracula thoroughly.
  
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J Hardy Carroll

15/04/2020

Spooky!

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1. Iain Kelly
  
  15/04/2020
  
  Thanks J.
  
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Lynn Love

15/04/2020

Ooh, cracking – Vampire Plague! Lovely tense opening. I just wonder what’s going to happen next, though.

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1. Iain Kelly
  
  15/04/2020
  
  I imagine it will be gory 😉
  
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  1. Lynn Love
    
    17/04/2020
    
    I’d be disappointedd if it wasn’t! Ever written any horror?
    
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  2. Iain Kelly
    
    17/04/2020
    
    Not really, not a genre I read or watch much either – not a fan of the gory stuff especially!
    
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  3. Lynn Love
    
    20/04/2020
    
    Ooh, no, I don’t do gore either, bit really. The occasional dark scene, but I don’t relish it. Give me creeping dread over gore, any day ☺️
    
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Anita

15/04/2020

He has a noble mission. May his hunt succeed.
Stay safe.

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1. Iain Kelly
  
  15/04/2020
  
  Thanks Anita
  
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Sadje

15/04/2020

Ominous beginning to your story.

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1. Iain Kelly
  
  15/04/2020
  
  Thanks
  
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  1. Sadje
    
    15/04/2020
    
    A pleasure 👍
    
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granonine

15/04/2020

Ooooh, chills and thrills! I never thought of the virus as being held by a vampire, but what could be more appropriate? Love the imagination of this one, Iain.

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1. Iain Kelly
  
  15/04/2020
  
  Thank you so much 🙂
  
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ceayr

15/04/2020

As many laughs here as in Mr Stoker’s original masterpiece.
He did enjoy a bit of gore, didn’t he!

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1. Iain Kelly
  
  15/04/2020
  
  He really did, delightfully so!
  
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neeltheauthor- author of WHEN LIFE THROWS THOSE CURVE BALLS

15/04/2020

Hope whoever is this he finds and kills the virus.

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1. Iain Kelly
  
  15/04/2020
  
  Thanks Neel
  
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magickmermaid

15/04/2020

A viral vampire! Great story! 🙂

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1. Iain Kelly
  
  15/04/2020
  
  Thank you
  
  LikeLiked by 1 person
  
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Dale

15/04/2020

Would that it were so “simple”…

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1. Iain Kelly
  
  15/04/2020
  
  Well, those vampires are quite hard to kill…
  
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  1. Dale
    
    15/04/2020
    
    This is true…
    
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Nobbinmaug

15/04/2020

At least Van Helsing gets to get out and have some fun.

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1. Iain Kelly
  
  15/04/2020
  
  He does love a good vampire hunt. I believe he is classed as a critical worker so is allowed out.
  
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  1. Nobbinmaug
    
    16/04/2020
    
    In that situation, definitely critical.
    
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Björn Rudberg (brudberg)

15/04/2020

This sounds like an easier solution… a superhero with vaccine?

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1. Iain Kelly
  
  15/04/2020
  
  It’s easier to live in a fantasy world with superheroes right now.
  
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bearmkwa

15/04/2020

Heya! Long time, no see. Quarantined here, too. Great story this week. I wrote one, but it was far too long for FriFic, so I posted with a seriously haunting pic… mass graves in NYC. So scary.

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1. Iain Kelly
  
  15/04/2020
  
  Those pictures really bring it home. Hope you are safe and as well as can be.
  
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msjadeli

15/04/2020

I hope you nail that b…..!

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1. Iain Kelly
  
  15/04/2020
  
  Literally 🙂
  
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  1. msjadeli
    
    15/04/2020
    
    lol
    
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cathrynanne24

15/04/2020

Ooh I love this one. I’m a twilight fan, so I like a good vampire story.

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1. Iain Kelly
  
  15/04/2020
  
  Happy to oblige 🙂
  
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plaridel

16/04/2020

it looks like there’s no end to the carnage. those who have survived the pandemic must face another peril.

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Stine Writing

16/04/2020

Please get him and let me know when you do!

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Na’ama Yehuda

16/04/2020

Is that a whiff of garlic I smell on the air?
May it be a successful hunt …

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draliman

16/04/2020

One man on a mission to save the city. Good hunting to him. Nice one!

LikeLiked by 2 people

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1. Iain Kelly
  
  16/04/2020
  
  Thank you
  
  LikeLiked by 1 person
  
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Sandra

16/04/2020

If only it were so easily resolved. We’d all be up there on the rooftops, I suspect.

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1. Iain Kelly
  
  16/04/2020
  
  Anything to make it stop.
  
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spicedmullings

16/04/2020

Hmmmmmmm.

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Liz Young

16/04/2020

I hope you catch Him.

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1. Iain Kelly
  
  16/04/2020
  
  Me too.
  
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pennygadd51

16/04/2020

Good to have a vampire hunt in FF – ages since the last one! I can’t help wondering, though, whether an unstable person with a crossbow isn’t perhaps more dangerous than a vampire…

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1. Iain Kelly
  
  16/04/2020
  
  True, that doubt is raised about Van Helsing in the original novel!
  
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Eugenia Parrish Author

16/04/2020

Very dark. I’ll bet this could be expanded to a long story or even a novel. Good premise.

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1. Iain Kelly
  
  16/04/2020
  
  Thanks Eugenia, a few have done it before me, hard to think up an original vampire story these days, but they’re still fun.
  
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Inside the Mind of Isadora

16/04/2020

Eeeekkk … a good story sprinkled with vampires … a bit scary.
Isadora 😎

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1. Iain Kelly
  
  26/04/2020
  
  Thank you 🙂
  
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Laurie Bell

16/04/2020

Fabulous, I want more of this.
Great tense build up

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1. Iain Kelly
  
  17/04/2020
  
  Thanks Laurie
  
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Kent Bonham

18/04/2020

Almost like Nosferatu — the plague spreader. Really cool, Iain!

Five out of five stakes.

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1. Iain Kelly
  
  20/04/2020
  
  Thank you Kent 🙂
  
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michaelwynnauthor

21/04/2020

Ha, we went for opossites this week, yours is up there trying to shoot down vampires, mine is trying to shoot a good photo of a bird. Nice take on the prompt, Iain.

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1. Iain Kelly
  
  22/04/2020
  
  Thanks Michael – perhaps it says something about how are minds work! 🙂
  
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subroto

26/04/2020

I can feel the tension of the hunter waiting for his kill. Nice one.

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1. Iain Kelly
  
  26/04/2020
  
  Thank you
  
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