Word for Word: Terrifying

A dark corridor in Akbar’s Tomb, in Agra, India

I’m in a writers’ group that meets on Zoom, though before the pandemic we met in person. Every week, we do a writing prompt: someone gives a page number, and our organizer picks a word from a huge dictionary. In this example, the word is:

Terrifying

She opened the door at the end of the long, dark hallway. Expecting a ghastly vision hanging beyond the door, she was a bit disappointed to only see another long corridor. This one wasn’t quite as dark: one of many wall sconces was lit, displaying crimson and gold wallpaper above a wainscot. Only one painting hung in this hallway. Holding up a lantern, she approached the panting and stopped to peer at it.

She gasped at the terrifying canvas. It illustrated an open coffin on a table in a parlor. Out of the coffin flew translucent ghosts with their mouths open wide in howls she heard inside her head. But the terror was not in the ghosts. It was in the fanged demon looming over the coffin, its visage frozen in maniacal laughter.

She backed away slowly, keeping her eyes on the painting. She resumed walking down the corridor and now jumping at shadows. She anticipated meeting a similar demon to that in the picture.