The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Let’s Roll
by Elaine Pascale

“Let’s Roll.”

That is how we routinely begin.

Truly, we begin with make-up and costumes, our “armor,” but that is done before, before we get to the alley.

The lights are low.

The atmosphere has hints of soft pretzels, of beer, but mostly of carpeting that sports a variety of fluid-born stains.

We bring our own pins. They are sharp as fangs.

We ignore the whimpers; the fear they feel is fair.

After what we have been through, it is more than fair.

It is nothing personal, but what they represent.

We usually spike their drinks—a way of using their own weapon against them.

They never suspect a thing. The way we quiet beforehand should serve as a clue.

The jungle always becomes silent before an attack.

Seeing the shadowy figures, by the pins, conjures the voices that brought them here.

Lane 1 had said, “You’d be so much prettier if you smiled.”

Lane 2, at work and in front of others said, “That’s a man’s job, let me do that.”

Lane 3 had mansplained the public transit system we had taken every day for years.

Lane 4 questioned if the lack of “keeping sweet” vibes were due to monthly menses.

Lane 5 had fatally asked, “What were you wearing?” after an assault.

Lane 5 would go last.

They are tied, spread eagled and facing us.

And we roll.

We take turns; we take our time.

Until we run out of men.

Until we run out of the need.

Fiction © Copyright Elaine Pascale
Image courtesy of  Pixabay.com

More from Elaine Pascale:

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Jezzie reaches out to former lover Lou Collins, a scholar who has chased proof of the lights for decades. Will he be able to solve the mystery of the lights in time?

Intensely competitive, reporter Bridgette Collins knows the lights are a way to secure fame in her career. And while it’ll put the final nail into the coffin of her ex-husband’s career, she vows to know the secrets of the lights. Even if it means unleashing a world-wide epidemic…

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