The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Beyond the Darkness
by Linda Lee Rice

The carnival is in my sleepy little town, and I have waited months for it to arrive. The smell of popcorn, candy apples, and the calls of the barkers as they try to get the marks to spend money. 

The carvinal was here last year and that is where I met him. Hair as blonde as the sun, eyes as blue as the sky, and a seductive voice that whispered sweet nothings in my ears. I didn’t recognize evil in the handsome disguise.

I admit I was an innocent girl when we first met but that soon changed beyond the darkness. I thought he loved me and would ask me to leave with him. But, alas, the carnival packed up its freaks, carny games, and barkers and slipped away in the night.

Nine months later, I gave birth to…something. It couldn’t be called a baby because it was beast like in appearance and there was no soul behind its eyes. The town shunned me, turned it’s back on me, especially when I killed the monstrosity.

The doctors declared me insane and put me in the asylum. Medicating me to calm my demons they said, but I know only one demon. So, I have escaped, palming my medication for the past couple of days, acting calm so I would escape notice. 

I slit the turnkeys throat with the knife I stole. Sharpening it on the stone windowsill while waiting, waiting, waiting for the carnival. I’ve made my escape using the keys, releasing the other inmates. In the confusion, I slipped away, my knife still dripping. The carnival calls to me and I am answering the call.

Ahhh, my love, I’m coming for you!

Fiction © Copyright Linda Lee Rice.
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More about Linda Lee Rice:

Linda Lee Rice aka Ruzicka has poetry published in Twilight Times, Dark Krypt, Fables, Descending Darkness, Writing Village, Spine, and Page, Muses Gallery, Bloodbond, Lycan Valley Press Publishers, Alban Lake, Highland Park Poetry, Rosette Maleficarum, The Siren’s Call, Edify Fiction and the June Cotner anthology, “House Blessings” and “Garden Blessings

She has short stories published in The Grit, and Reminisce, Haunted Encounters: Friends and Family, FrostFire Worlds. Plus, a personal essay at Mamalode. She also has various articles and blogs published online as a freelance writer.