The Devil’s Delight
The Vatican Vaults, 1510
“I hesitated to inform you, Holiness, but conscience demanded.”
Julius patted Carafa’s shoulder.
“Fret not, my friend. It concerns the artist, yes?”
The aged cardinal bowed and raised his candle to where a fresco remained unfinished. “He works on this at night.”
Pandemonium exalted before them, desolate shores charred black in a molten sea. Souls writhed, angels wept, while Satan laughed in a demon hoard, a scarlet jewel thrust mockingly towards Heaven. Beneath was written, ‘The Heart of Man’.
“Shall I dismiss him?” Carafa implored.
The Pope was still admiring the brushwork.
“No, let him continue.”
Link back to Julia’s Place.
Wow that was brilliant. Really inspired. I don’t know what else to say …..
Thankyou, this really tested me! I worked backwards from the jewel and brainstormed some possible connotations. How could it be more significant? Then thought of Heart, Heart of Man, Fall of Man, Sistine chapel, Michael Angelo. Struggled to figure out a plot to weave in all the elements though with a punchline, which took a couple of hours this morning. Then I had to write concise and edit it during lunch. Which overran. No wonder short stories take so long!
It shows in the precision and the use of names…really well done.
so glad i found the post!
They do, don’t they!
All your work came to an interesting end. I loved how I felt a sense of place and even proximity to your characters, as if I was there watching. I loved it.
I wish I could just trot them out, but writing tight forces you to slow down and carefully choose just the right word. Its still 104 but don’t tell Julia. I’m trying to get the Theatre to do just as you say and involve the audience.
Wow, brilliant writing. Good job the Pope appreciated the brushwork.
He’s wiser than his friend. Guess thats why he’s Pope
Or you’d hope so.
Clever writing indeed. I went for the more trivial approach, very much enjoyed yours
Cheers, Anna. Thought I’d try bit harder for an aniversary. Might have to take a break now
I hope I implied that in order to create the majesty of Heaven, MA had to somehow squeeze out all that was bad into an opposing masterpiece, like Dorian and his painting. And Julius shows his wisdom and realises this. Or it might just be MA knowing hes good enough to get away with it 
O
Brilliant writing, both story and language are superb!
Ta Gill, its like being in a film and seeing it play out in front of you. Its amazing that a sentence can gain a certain power just by combining certain key words.
Excellent piece, full of atmosphere and foreboding, with just the right turn at the end. Skilfully executed. I quite often work back from the end of a flash piece – it seems to work very well. Thanks, I enjoyed this.
My pleasure! Even though it does take longer than I would like, its worth it.
Excellent word choice mate, I love it
A few of those words did change in the revision, he he. For the better, I hope
I like the idea of this Pope being a secret Satanist and *that’s* why he wants the work continued. Now that would be a twist. I’m gonna get struck by lightning for saying that!
Now THAT did cross my mind before I banished it for getting too controversial! Wouldn’t that be fascinating to follow up, though, but I can see you and me getting flamed for that sort of thinking. That ‘fresco’ might be nearer than we think for the likes of us :/
Very clever and inspiring x
Thanks Susan, had to try something different and no small amount of effort, seeing as Julia pointed out it was week 40.
I think it’s not just the brushwork. The whole idea that this is what the heart of man is like bolsters the ideas of religion. Great take on the prompt.
Yeah, if we didn’t have rules in religion or law that curbed our natural inclinations, what would we become? Julius would probably agree with you.
Very clever. Well written, well researched and unique idea.
Thanks, that makes it all worthwhile! It was a bit of a reach. Took a bit of time to craft. I felt a bit drained afterwards :/
Ah, brilliant – great imagery. This is definitely one of my favourites this week and could easily be extended into a much longer story.
I’ll leave you to write that then, S ;D
That sounds familiar.
You never cease to amaze me of your writing talents Andy! Brilliant cameo of those times with all the intrigue and menace that abounded then!
Ta Julia, but you are the ‘prompt-master’.
As soon as I detected this web site I went on reddit to share some of the love with them.