The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

To Rest in Piece
by Rie Sheridan Rose
Dorothy was tired. She’d tried carving a life for herself in Kansas after what she thought of as her “green-sky adventure,” but it never really worked out.
She’d never been able to settle into Kansas cornfields when the last yellow rows she saw were brick road tiles. Everyone looked at her funny when she inadvertently mentioned her best friend the Scarecrow, or said how much she missed the lion’s shoulder to cry on.
They wanted to know where she had stolen the ruby slippers at first, but she placated the skeptics by donating the shoes to the local museum. Every year or so, she would go and look at them longingly…wishing she could go home.
Two weeks ago, she had gotten word from her doctor that it wouldn’t be long now. She’d had a long life. She really couldn’t complain about that…
But she’d determined to end her days where her life had truly begun. Security was fairly lax in a museum in BackofBeyond, Kansas. All she’d had to do was wait in the bathroom until the lights went out.
She’d slipped on the shoes and whispered a prayer to Glenda…then clicked her heels three times and murmured, “There’s no place like home…”
A shimmer of magic, and she was back in her beloved Oz. Things weren’t quite the same here either, but it didn’t matter. She didn’t intend to stay long.
She wandered into the poppies, as they’d done so long ago. This time, as she waited for dreams to envelope her, she prayed there would be no snow.
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?
Good one, gives me a happy feeling, and I don’t care if it is light rather than dark.
An interesting take on the story, excellent.
Did I REALLY use the same title 2 months in a row? Yikes! I must be getting old…
Meh–if it works, why not?
Loved it!