STILL HOLDING STEADY, BUT WE NEED A HORROR-MOVIE-WORTHY COMEBACK! :jack_o_lantern:
I've dropped to fourth place after holding strong in the top three through the 2-for-1 donation days. With only 3 days left in the Quarter-Final Massacre, I desperately need our community to come back fiercely!
This is the final push, fiends! Your daily free votes and any donations to the amazing Starlight Children's Foundation are absolutely crucial. Even if they do another 2-for-1 day this week, we need maximum effort every single day!
If I don't claw my way to first place by Thursday, I'm out. But hitting third in the quarterfinals would mean everything—I barely missed it last year!
Remember, every vote and donation helps bring joy and games to seriously ill kids. That mission is the real win. Let's make this count for them!
00:00Hey everybody, it's Sai Marie. I'm coming at you because, of course, you know I still need your daily free votes and those donation votes for the Starlight Children's Foundation.
00:10But while I got your attention, I want to tell you a little story.
00:14And this kind of just goes along with what I do, aside from me attending to this campaign for this contest, but just to, you know, give you a little bit more of a connection with me.
00:25And so, right now on the Olive Branch review, I have a short flash fiction, it's a flash fiction actually, story called Charisse.
00:36And this was inspired by Carmilla. I'm not sure how many vampire enthusiasts know about the story of Carmilla, but nevertheless, if you know, you know.
00:45So I thought I would read you guys Charisse real quickly.
00:49Charisse by Sai Marie Johnson.
00:50She hadn't known, this is the blurb basically, she hadn't known Catronel Magdalena at all.
00:57The woman had died before Alara's 10th birthday, remembered only in fragments passed down through silence.
01:03A scent of rose mater, a velvet box no one opened, a name spoken like a spell and then buried.
01:09But the diary was unmistakably hers, and it was not a record of domestic life.
01:14It was a confession.
01:15The train hissed into Oradea like a serpent, exhaling secrets.
01:23Alara Moranu stepped down, gloved hand clutching the parcel that had arrived two weeks ago.
01:28No return address.
01:30Only a crimson wax seal and a name printed in calligraphic blood red.
01:37Casa Morana.
01:39Inside the parcel was a deed, a key, and a diary.
01:41She hadn't known Catronel Morana at all.
01:45The woman had died before Alara's 10th birthday, remembered only in fragments passed down through the silence.
01:51A scent of rose water, a velvet box no one opened, a name spoken like a spell, and then buried.
01:57But the diary was unmistakably hers, and it was not a record of domestic life.
02:01It was a confession.
02:03She adored me.
02:04I sang as the veil lifted.
02:06I sang as the hunger came.
02:09The entries were scattered, fevered, erotic.
02:13They spoke of a lady named Contessa Charisse Valora, of a lady evidently from the old country, and of a love that could not be named, only ritualized.
02:24There were no dates, no locations, only longing.
02:29Alara absorbed every page.
02:31She dreamed of mirrors of silk.
02:34She dreamed of Charisse.
02:37And then, a parcel arrived.
02:40From it, Casa Morana rose from the mist like a cathedral of velvet and bone.
02:50The gates opened without a touch, and inside candlelight flickered, but the mirrors were strangely veiled, and an eerie silence settled into the wood.
02:57Alara found the mirror in a chamber lined with silk and dust, crimson veil, ornate frame.
03:04Her breath caught.
03:05She reached to move it, and the veil fell like a sigh long overdue.
03:10In the glass, her reflection shimmered, but it wasn't hers.
03:14The woman before her wore silk, her hair meticulously pinned in 1940s waves, mouth parted not in fear, but in longing.
03:24She looked identical to Alara.
03:26She was Alara, only older, softer, and somehow hungrier.
03:33Catranel Magdalena Moranu, Alara whispered, bespelled by the image.
03:40The mirror pulsed.
03:42Returning to the diary again, Alara filed the strange apparition into her memory as she glanced through the page.
03:47The final entry seemed oddly new.
03:51She returned.
03:52She remembered.
03:54She sang.
03:55The light seemed to bend then, and the air thickened.
04:00Only then did Alara see.
04:03The memory, not as words, but as flesh.
04:09Catranel bowed her neck forward, tendrils of dark silken curls trailing across her ivory skin.
04:17Chill bumps rose along her exposed flesh, and a soft sigh escaped her lips.
04:22Charisse, veiled in crimson, watched with revenge and hunger.
04:25Her mouth was stained the color of ripe pomegranate.
04:29So easily doth the dove bow to the lips of a predator, Charisse mused, as the gorgeous woman in her embrace lay unsuspecting of all that awaited.
04:39Her thoughts flirted with the possibility of engaging this one differently.
04:43A purposeful change.
04:45A ritual rewritten.
04:46An angel turned to the most beautiful of demons.
04:49The vampirist slid her long finger between the young woman's thighs, fingertips slick with the sweetness of her surrender.
04:58Catranel gasped, intoxicated by the entrancing woman whose lips now pierced her tender flesh.
05:04Writhing against Charisse's hand, she moaned softly, willingly acquiescing to the hunger that waited generations to be fed.
05:11Now Charisse is chosen.
05:15Catranel bit into her lower lip as waves of ecstasy coursed through her veins.
05:21The manor pulsed around them, candlelight bending, mirrors shimmering.
05:25Charisse broke away from her skin.
05:27Droplets of soft scarlet dripping from her potent lips.
05:30A salty whisper escaping her.
05:32Heaven, tis such a wondrous place to fall from.
05:35The mirror shimmered, and the memory dissolved.
05:40Alara stood in the chamber, breath shallow, thighs trembling, with a pulse singeing in the places she had never named.
05:47Her fingers hovered over the final page, her body flushed with the heat she could not explain.
05:53She had come seeking answers, but what she found was herself split open, aroused, aching.
05:59She had never known this kind of hunger, and hadn't even known she could feel it.
06:08Her hand slid to close the diary, and then a sultry voice slipped through the air just behind her.
06:15You read it all.
06:17Charisse cooed against the nape of her neck.
06:19Alara turned with a low gasp.
06:23Charisse stepped forward, eyes gleaming, her voice suave like velvet.
06:26Come, allow me to show you the tastes of the sublime.
06:33And that, my friends, is my flash fiction vampire suffix story, loosely inspired by Carmilla, available now on the Olive Branch Review.
06:44Please do go vote for me.
06:46I could really use your support.
06:49And I was in fourth place last I checked.
06:52I am very grateful for all we've done here together.
06:55And as we come into the last 48 hours of the competition, I wish all of the competitors the very best as the face of Halloween quarterfinalist rounds start to come to a close.
07:10Please remember that you can donate to the Starlight Children's Foundation on my behalf and boost my votes, which is what I really need people to do now.
07:18Let's get these children as much money as possible to bring them the smiles that they deserve.
Be the first to comment