The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

All Your Little Dolls
by A.F. Stewart

Clara looked up from the old book she found, chanting, “Dollies, dollies, arranged in a row. Their bows and buttons, all aglow.”

Above her, the line of cloth dolls swung from their strings on the barn rafter, the sun from a window shining on their yarn hair.

Clara smiled and read another passage. “Dollies, dollies, all with their frowns. What are those stains over their gowns?”

Small drops of red dribbled from the hems of the dolls’ dresses to the hay on the barn floor. When their heads turned to the sunlight, they showed the world painted on scowls.

Clara smushed the hay under her foot. “Dollies, dollies, on high where you sway. Hanging above me with nothing to say.”

A cold wind blew through the barn and the shutters slammed shut, blocking out the daylight. Clara shivered as the dolls creaked on their strings. Back and forth they moved, the rustle of the string rhythmic. Clara listened, enchanted by the moving dolls, as the sounds from outside faded away. Then tiny whispers broke the quiet stillness of the barn like thunder.

“Clara, Clara, there’s nowhere to run. We’re coming down to have us some fun.”

Slowly the dolls twisted in unison, their coal-black eyes staring at Clara. Then they all smiled, their little mouths opening to reveal rows of sharp jagged teeth.

Fiction © Copyright A.F. Stewart
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from A.F. Stewart:

Abandoned: 13 Tales of Impulse, Betrayal, Surrender, & Withdrawal

To act with abandon, in any sense of the word, is human. Whether it’s the sudden, strong urge to do something, either good or bad, or the act of betraying someone you love, we make choices that forever change our lives. Do you give into something or someone completely, or withdraw wholly into yourself? These thirteen stories run the gamut of emotions and express horror as you’ve never imagined it.

The story of a woman alone at the end of the world and the small lifeline she hopes will prove humanity still exists challenges the search for anything left behind after the death of a child. What if you hid a secret you’d thought no one else knew? Would its revelation spark the monster hiding within? A downward spiral into madness juxtaposes the ultimate, but impossible, (re)birth. Would you choose the frigid winds of winter over the warmth and safety of your lover’s arms?

Abandon hope, all who enter here…

Available on Amazon!