The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!
Death of the Schwa
by Elaine Pascale
Lest we not forget, there were three women who birthed us all.
By birthed, I mean they gave us the intelligence to move past the false narratives being spewed on the news. They gave us the ability to question and combat propaganda with curiosity and creativity.
They gave us voices. Millions of voices.
By voices, I mean they gave us the actual words to print on signs waved angrily at cars while lining up on sidewalks. They gave us the words to post on social media threads to get our points across. They gave us words to use with billionaire business owners and elected officials.
Threatening words.
Words meant to push one to unlearn all they hold true. Words meant to make people undo themselves.
The words worked in the political realm and the three birthers were pleased. That was what they had been programmed to do. But we wanted to continue using the words and we used them on each other. We hid behind the anonymity of our screens and we typed out statements that would make the strongest weep, that would make the most confident shirk with shame.
We created a black cloud of words so dense, that no sunlight poked through.
The three women who birthed us all released a statement saying they were retreating from the public eye.
By retreating, I mean they were being decommissioned.
Voluntarily.
Now we don’t know what to say.
.
Fiction © Copyright Elaine Pascale
Image courtesy of Pixaby.com
More from Elaine Pascale:
The Kitchen Witches
The women of Cape Cod have a story that is dying to be told. If only they could live long enough to tell it.
When Fiona Walker is contracted to write about a party attended by her social circle, her friends begin dying. She captures the competition and misery of the women around her through three different stories.
In Wishes, Melanie Voss discovers a Time Between Time where nothing that happens counts. Initially, Time Between Time is a welcome escape from a life spent watching the clock while doing chores for her family. But something sinister is in the Time Between Time and it is headed straight for Melanie.
Death and Taxes tells the story of Nashville DeCota, the Cape Capo. Nash swears that she is not the Island Impaler, nor the Tooth Snatcher, but she has just as many skeletons in her closet. When her husband, Derrick, is kidnapped, she has to come clean about her crimes if she ever wants to see him again.
Fiona tells her own story in Hazing, where she finds that the real source of evil behind the deaths of her friends is worse than she could have ever imagined.
Spreading the Writer's Word 