The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

One Last Rose
by Rie Sheridan Rose

She sat on the edge of the bed. Egyptian cotton sheets under a silk duvet. Made with precision corners and perfect pillows. Everything about the room was perfect. It was his trademark. The perfect room, the perfect bed, the perfect wife.

But she wasn’t perfect. She was messy at heart, and a bit of a lay-a-bout. She’d learned early that those traits must be sublimated at all costs. So everything had a place, and lived only in it. Everything…except her.

She no longer felt like she had a place. This room was a prison, and she knew she would never break free of it. He was too rich, too powerful. He’d never agree to a divorce—it would make him look less than perfect.

She stared at the clock on the mantle. Three o’clock. He’d be home at five, and expect perfection—in the dinner, in the conversation, in the bed. But she wasn’t perfect. And now, there would be no hiding that soon. Had it been absentmindedness or self-sabotage that had her skip the pills? She wouldn’t give him another hostage to fate.

Rising to her feet, she walked to the mantle-piece. She pulled a single rose from the vase sitting there. The stem was covered in sharp thorns. Good. Sharp was good.

In the bathroom, she filled the tub with warm water and stepped inside—making sure her robe was perfectly folded on the chair at the vanity. Sinking down into the comforting warmth, she pulled a thorn through the soft flesh of her inner wrist.

This would take awhile, but she’d be sure to do it perfectly.

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

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!