The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Smiles
by Elizabeth Massie

Charming, cheerful, lovely, sweet,
Radiant smiles for all to see,
Arms that gather yellow blooms,
Mother, housewife, lover, me.

Fluff your pillows, make you laugh,
Mend your clothes and bake your bread
Tie your shoelace, run your bath,
Wash the windows, make your bed.

Did you know her? now they ask,
Blue lights flashing, piercing, bright,
As I stand and smile my smile
In the heavy, blood-stained night.

Pretty up the living room,
Dust your dresser, press your shirt,
Don my lacy scarf and shawl,
Bind your bodies, make you hurt.

Did you know her? Is she mad?
As the neighbors stare at me.
‘Neath my perfect, lovely skin,
If they had the eyes to see,
Oh, the skull that lives within,
Made me kill them, made me sin.

Fiction © Copyright Elizabeth Massie
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com 

More from Elizabeth Massie:

It, Watching

Turn, and you see nothing.
But it is surely there.
Watching…

Enter a dark, terrifying world where it’s best to watch where you’re going, to keep a sharp look out, to be very careful. A world where a cheap, traveling circus keeps its darkest secret in the rear of a trailer. Where garden gnomes and ventriloquist dummies plan revenge. Where ignorance is hardly bliss. Where a visit to Grandmother’s house takes a horrifying turn. Where a doctor plays with the sanity of his underling. Where toothed creatures live and follow in the shadows. Where kids who ignore their mamas find trouble in an old oak tree. Where curiosity kills more than the cat.

It, Watching is Bram Stoker Award-winning author Elizabeth Massie’s long-awaited seventh collection of horror short stories. It offers tales of dread, suspense, terror, mystery, and an occasional touch of humor. The stories span Massie’s thirty-three year writing career, with goodies her readers may have missed as well as some brand new tales.

Cover art by Cortney Skinner

Available on Amazon!