The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!
I used to be beautiful. I think this every time I look in a mirror. Sometimes I say it out loud.
You still are!
I wish I had your curls!
Your eyes are such a great color!
That outfit looks amazing on you, girl.
You’ll always find gal pals in a night club bathroom. Drunk women are the best. I never believe them, though, because they don’t see what I see in my reflection – an ugly, unlovable ghost, just drifting through life. Hoping that nobody will see what I see.
I look at pictures of myself as a little girl, cute pigtails and a smile missing two front teeth. I am on a carousel horse, in a swimming pool, on my bike with the training wheels and tassels streaming from the handle bars. I look happy. I look normal.
I miss that little girl.
But she’s been gone a long time. Ever since the nightly visits to her bedroom began, when her reflection showed her the truth in the harsh morning light.
I’ve looked at myself so many times over the years, hoping to see something different. Streaky mirrors in shitty motel rooms after a night with a stranger or two; walking by store-front windows on the way to my shift at the diner, showing off clothes I can never afford.
The worst thing about my reflection is that I am never alone. He is always next to me, a grinning monster looking over my shoulder, making sure I see myself for what I really am. I’ve left a trail of blood behind me, in so many motel rooms and sleazy apartments, hoping the monster would leave me alone. I was too scared to face the monster itself.
But monsters don’t go away on their own, do they?
Monsters must be defeated.
Monsters have to die.
Fiction © Copyright Sheri White
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com
More from Author Sheri White:
200 CCs: Year One
This is #microfiction. Stories told in a handful of sentences, a bare few paragraphs. Inside are worlds, lives, tragedies, and triumphs. Each condensed to its barest essence, able to be read in minutes. But their power is not deflated. These stories will shock, amuse, delight, horrify, inspire. They will stay with you. Crafted by dozens of today’s sharpest writers, this is 200 CCs of distilled literature, ready to be mainlined. Includes stories by Scarlett R. Algee, Nicholas Antoniak, Elizabeth Archer, Davian Aw, Michael Balletti, Amanda Bergloff, R.L. Black, Mickie Bolling-Burke, Nikki Boss, Constantine de Boudox, Karen Bovenmyer, Maureen Bowden, Tara Bradford, J. Bradley, Anne Lawrence Bradshaw, Laura J. Campbell, Shenoa Carroll-Bradd, Pamela Hobart Carter, Gregg Chamberlain, Vajra Chandrasekerea, Alex Creece, Carrie Cuinn, Christina Dalcher, Dominic Daley, Danielle Dreger, Alethea Eason, Allison Epstein, Brendan Foley, Ron Gibson Jr., Will Gilmer, Georgene Smith Goodin, Alex P. Grover, Sophie Hammond, Anna Hawkins, Charles Hayes, Russell Hemmell, Kyle Hemmings, Jinapher J. Hoffman, Liam Hogan, Simon Hole, Isobel Horsburgh, Katta Hules, Adiba Jaigridar, Soren James, Rita Jansen, Anne E. Johnson, Sierra July, Jeaninne Escallier Kato, Maxine Kollar, Stephanie Kraner, Jena Krumrine, Nolan Liebert, Daniel Lind, E.N. Loizis, L.L. Madrid, Erick Mancilla, Ruchira Mandal, Alison McBain, Kathryn McBride, Ville Meriläinen, James A. Miller, Kris Miller, Sean Mulroy, Joseph Musso, Garth Pettersen, Alice Pow, R. S. Pyne, Howard Rachen, Ahimaz Rajessh, Eliza Redwood, Alexandra Renwick, Alyson Rhodes, Laura Roberts, C.C. Russell, Casi Scheidt, Holly Schofield, Dimple Shah, T. L. Sherwood, Steve Spalding, William Squirrell, Tasha Teets, Clive Tern, Natalia Theodoridou, Monika McGreal Viola, Christopher Walker, Deborah Walker, Jessica Walker, Jake Walters, Anne Elizabeth Weisgerber, Megan Wildhood, and Sheri White
Be sure to check out the other fantastic events and people participating in
Women in Horror Month 9
Darkly ominous and powerful.
Thank you.