These small stories were written for the @ScienceFiction 'February 2022: 28 Days of dread' challenge ... but I forgot to submit them. 🙄

A Side of Darkness

A harsh mechanical breath. A shadow striding from the blackness.

A violent hum. A blade of light blazing red.

A gloved hand fists, crushing my windpipe.

The Force.

What or Who?

It glides from darkness: spotted metal skirt; dome head.

An eye on a stalk rotates towards me—locks on.

I scramble back in horror. "What are you?"

"Exterminate!"

Birth

Movement inside me. Pressure, pain... My chest!

Terror. Agony as lungs collapse—no air to scream.

A crack! Ribs exploded outward.

An alien screech. A baby's first cry.

Pretties

"Stay still, my pretty. Hurts worse if Pretty moves."

The whirl of a saw over my thundering heart.

Terror. I see other pretties.

Flesh made machine, silently screaming.

Enriched Soil

A cage. Scrambling hands. "Where am I?" A cry into darkness. "What do you want?"

A trapdoor opens in answer.

A fall into alien soil.

Worms writhe.

Pixelated Hell

They hunt me as always. No escape.

I'm found as always. No one intervenes.

I die as always—to their laughing delight: 

"The blood looks real! Awesome graphics!"