Write Her Story

My Better Half
by Rebecca R. Pierce

He sawed me in half. My job was to smile whenever he did it.

Reflecting back, I realized I let him do whatever he wanted to me. I was just some pretty thing he’d show off to the applause of all. He was the talented one. I was nothing more than the magician’s pretty assistant. I didn’t have a voice. I’d strut across the stage with long, tapered legs and wave. He made me appear or disappear at his whim. At the end of the show, I’d crawl in the box and he’d saw me in half.

I used to ask him which part of me he loved best, heads or tails. He’d smile enigmatically as we lay together in bed. He never did say. We were so cute before the magic left us.

I remembered the day we met. “A penny for your thoughts?” he had asked, handing me the quarter he pulled out of my ear.

“I’m looking for my better half,” I said.

“The lady in the box knows your future.” He nodded to one of those coin-operated gypsy fortune-tellers.

She was so eerily human in that glass box. Those bright dark eyes seemed to know so much from that dead place within. I held onto that quarter until the very end, when I lost all hope in our love and needed some reassurance.

I fed her the coin then. The slip of paper spat out, “I am your future.”

After he sawed me in two, I knew which half he loved best.

I still smile from out of a box. Today, I saw a young woman with hope and terror in her eyes, feeding me a familiar quarter. “I am your future.” I told her.

I wondered what happened to the last one?

Fiction © Copyright Rebecca R. Pierce
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com Artist: Rondell Melling

More from Rebecca R. Pierce:

Model Town

When Laurel Rose inherits her great-grandmother’s house, she discovers a miniature town in the attic. The details enchant her and she sets about to restore it. Soon she’s having the strangest dreams…

Available on Amazon!

Stop by my other blogs for more Women in Horror Month content!
Sotet Angyal, The Dark Angel – Dark emotive flash fiction written by me.
The Road to Nowhere – Horror movie picks staring strong leading ladies.

And don’t forget to visit the Women in Horror Month official web site
for more great WiHM8 events and posts!