The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

The Bone Brush
by Rie Sheridan Rose

One hundred strokes through curls like coal,
Tamed into submission like my secret soul.

I played the good wife, docile and compliant…
and you forgot I was always self-reliant.

There was no silver spoon between my teeth
as I helped my father gather heath.

You thought I’d be a docile wife,
after all, you’d saved my life—

Taken me from the cold, dark moor
to your house of glass with the marble floor…

You thought to break my untamed spirit,
and, indeed, you did come near it.

You had me writhing in fear and doubt,
every time your whip came out.

Instead of love, you wanted pain—
as you proved, time and again.

But now my true self comes to light,
as I brush my hair with your bone so white.

Fiction © Copyright Rie Sheridan Rose
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from Author Rie Sheridan Rose:

Skellyman

“I have always preferred the supernatural in tales of horror, the knot between life and death. Rie Sheridan Rose’s Skellyman is cool and creepy. Her first horror novel is a chilling read.” — Charlee Jacob – Stoker winner, Best novel, “Dread in the Beast”

Brenda Barnett is trying to cope with raising her four-year-old daughter all alone after an accident tore her family in half. As she and Daisy go for a much-needed treat, the little girl spots a Skellyman on the corner.

This pivotal encounter leads to a wave of mounting terror as Brenda’s life begins to come undone around her. Who is the Skellyman? Why does he keep appearing? Can the sympathetic policeman Brenda turns to stop the madness before it is too late?

And why does Daisy insist that her dead brother is trying to tell them something important?

Available on Amazon!