The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!
Father
by D.M. Slate
You delivered me to this gruesome destiny, abandoning your only child without even the slightest glance back over your shoulder.
I cried out as you left and I attempted to follow you, but the orderlies restrained my arms and dragged me into the depths of this hell.
An embarrassment – that’s what you called me… but I never intended to bring about any discomposure.
Unladylike, headstrong, brash, and presumptuous. All terms you’d use in your fits of anger.
You never came for a single visit, nor inquired about my wellbeing. As much anger as I had burning in my soul, I still hoped every day that you’d appear.
But you never did.
For twenty-three years I was held hostage in this prison, constantly being told that I was unwell.
Screams of traumatized patients echoed off the walls and carried down the endless corridors. The sounds eventually merged into a symphony of misery, playing in my head each day.
At some point I began to covet death, seeing it as my only true escape from this madness.
But I’d been wrong.
Even death couldn’t free me from this confinement.
Fiction © Copyright D.M. Slate
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com
More from D.M. Slate:
Roots of Deceit
Fueled by the underlying currents of her daughter’s death, Gianna vows to unravel the mystery surrounding the foreboding apparition who keeps making appearances in her new home, but she’s not prepared for the grisly trail of clues that’ll unfold before her; testing not only her sanity, but her guilty conscience as well.
Zack and Gianna call on a team of paranormal investigators to start them in the right direction, and after the initial terror of the ghost’s presence begins to dull, Gianna finds herself sucked into a web of deception, lies and murder, as the ultimate questions are posed: who is the terrifying pale-faced ghost, and what does she want? As the secrets of the past reach their gnarled fingers out beyond the grave, grasping firmly onto Gianna’s soul, she starts to suspect her only neighbor, old farmer Peterson, of committing the unthinkable crime.
But finding evidence to prove a twenty-three year old murder is more difficult than Gianna anticipated, and when the ghost gets tired of waiting, she takes matters into her own hands; at which time the distinction between the two women begins to blur…
Most excellent.