Without Malice

Our gracious host, Rochelle, is asking us to get
creative in 100 words or less using the photo
seen below. Welcome to Friday Fictioneers.
This is where the prompt took me.

We’d been warned the eye would come. Not a storm exactly… something far older.

I watched from my apartment window as the cloud descended… not falling, but arriving, deliberate as a fist. The mountains behind the town had gone quiet. Even the cars below had stopped moving.

I recognized this kind of thing. It wasn’t weather; it was judgment.

The white wisps above scattered like startled birds fleeing the darkness rising from below.

My neighbor knocked. “Should we leave?”

I pressed my palm against the cold window glass.

“Too late,” I said. “It’s already here.”

Outside, the first thunder answered.

NAR©2026
100 Words

This is “Riders on the Storm” by The Doors

19 June 2026

^{Everything on The Elephant’s Trunk was created by me, unless otherwise indicated. Thanks for your consideration. NAR©2017-present.}