Title: Kaidan
Source: Flash Fiction Challenge
Prompt: Write a story about 100 candles.
Word count: 99 words
Photo by Tim Umphreys on Unsplash
Twilight fell as storytellers crowded into the room. Ryu finished lighting one hundred candles. They gathered to repeat their favorite accounts of weird happenings, walking sprits, and vengeful ghosts.
They told tales of a man’s escaped from hell, monsters roaming misty woods, and bridges conveying the dead into eternity.
At each tale’s conclusion, the storyteller rose and extinguished the life of a single torch. The night progressed, the chamber grew darker, and shadows haunted foreboding corners.
Ryu earned the honor of the evening’s final story. With his last breath, he blew. His candle smoldered, and everything descended into darkness.
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Keep on writing.
Jo Hawk The Writer
Jo Hawk 
As usual, a very intriguing story.
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Thank you, Sadje. 🙏
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You’re welcome
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Wow! Mood set and carried to conclusion with such skill. So visually rich, I saw/felt the light wink out!
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I appreciate the scary touches in the stories’ content and the communal (and haunting) aspects in the storytelling. In fact, just enough details are provided (judiciously) for the reader or the hearer to imagine everything that’s going on. Wow!
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As Alfred Hitchcock said “There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.”
Glad you liked it Christopher. 😊🙏
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Oh, I got chills! What a delightfully frightening way to tell ghost stories.
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It is based on the Japanese game called Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai. It is believed to date back to at least 1660 and was played by samurai as a test of courage. Glad you liked it Charli.
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