The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!
Silk and Roses
by A.F. Stewart
She smiled at the display of romance: the turquoise silk carelessly throw on the table, the silver serving set, the roses and lilies. She traced her fingertips over the wine decanter and ruffled the flower petals.
He remembered our anniversary tradition.
She moved to a shadowed corner to watch her husband, Jake, as he entered the room. The tilt of his head, the sway of his hips, the half-smile on his lips. She studied him as he poured a glass of wine and gave a toast.
“To Annie, my darling. This is for you, on what would have been our fourth anniversary. I—” His hand shook and the wine spilled on the floor. He dropped the glass and collapsed in a chair. “Why did you have to die? Why are we here?”
Annie moved forward to stand beside him. Her hand brushed his shoulder.
He whispered, “You promised to never leave me. Oh god, oh god, I never imagined…”
She knelt down, her voice murmuring, “I’m still here.”
He answered, “I know.” Jake stared at her, the light moving through her ethereal form. “That’s the problem.”
She wrapped her arms around him. He shivered at her ghostly touch, prickles vacillating down his skin. “Stop fighting. You know you want to be with me. Drink the wine and let it happen. Let the poison take you. Then we can be together again.”
With tears in his eyes and a trembling hand, he poured another glass of wine.
She smiled. “Hurry, darling, I’m waiting…”
Fiction © Copyright A.F. Stewart
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com
More from A.F. Stewart:
Hell’s Empire: Tales of the Incursion
A unique anthology of two thrones at war as the forces of Hell assault an unsuspecting Victorian Britain.The cry went out to theologians and engineers, to artificers and antiquarians, to every name which could be named. By telegraph where lines were still intact, and by volunteer riders where they were not; smuggled along the coast in fishing smacks, semaphored from hill-tops. It came without royal sanction, issued jointly by the Lords of the Admiralty and Marquess Lansdowne, the new Secretary of State for War:”In God’s name, help us. We are losing.”
Spreading the Writer's Word 
Well done! Enjoyed it and the poison part was so effective!