The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Appearances
by Suzie Lockhart

My performance deceived everyone
for so long
I hid behind dirty windows,
Ashamed of what I’d become inside
year upon year
of practiced dissimulation,
Stinging me into a silent façade,
making excuses
I ignored the darkness, tried to remember
Colors so bright, once blinding as
blind me they did.

Small things at first, pinholes of a darkness
piercing through
Colors bleeding down the walls,
Peeling away a paper heart
love was dying,
I refused to see, denied the truth
Until an endless void opened
my soul shuddered
Begging to be set free, from a love
Making me smaller, each passing day

colors now faded, muted gray
Blossoming like a black dahlia
I scream from the bottom,
To a world turned dark.

I never let you see
The pit of despair behind my masquerade,
I am lost forever now
But…finally free.

Fiction © Copyright Suzie Lockhart
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com 

More from Suzie Lockhart:

Morbid Metamorphosis:
Terrifying Tales of Transformation

Metamorphosis occurs every day as caterpillars become sweet fluttering butterflies, tadpoles become gorgeous frog princes and chameleons become one with the beauty of nature – but you won’t find any of that here.

The transformations you’re about to witness are unnatural, sometimes gruesome and deeply psychological. They will make you question reality and take your mind places it was never meant to go.

Terrifying Tales of Transformation from Greg Chapman * Roy C. Booth & R. Thomas Riley * Terri DelCampo * Dave Gammon * Nancy Kilpatrick * Rod Marsden * Jo-Anne Russell * M.J. Preston * Stacey Turner * Tina Piney * Suzanne Robb * Franklin E. Wales * Donna Marie West * Suzie Lockhart * Cameron Trost * Daniel I. Russell * Simon Dewar * Amanda J. Spedding * Ken MacGregor * Erin Shaw * Gregory L. Norris * Nickolas Furr

Available on Amazon!