The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

The Greenhouse  
by Elaine Pascale 

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“Why do you put on red lipstick before bed?” the groom asked on the night of their wedding, the first night they had shared.

“I want to look pretty in your dreams,” the bride responded. The nights of their honeymoon he noticed she often left their bed, but he thought little of it.

“What will you do when I am working at night?” he asked before accepting the job he was offered when they returned from their honeymoon.

“I will make your meals for the next day; I like to keep busy at night.”

He had noticed her nocturnal inclinations and had also noticed that after she shaved, there was coarse hair in the shower drain. He was new to the ways of women and thought nothing of it.

“Why are there feathers in the greenhouse?” he asked after seeing the structure was often in shambles when he returned from work.

“Those come from the birds that I kill for your meals.”

“You mean chickens, right?”

She smiled with those red lips.

“Are you feeling ok?” he asked when he found her curled on a large pillow in the greenhouse. She spent more and more time there even though it was damp and smelled of mold.

“I am nesting,” she answered, and he was happy to learn that they would be parents.

One night, he left work early, hoping to see for himself what went on in the greenhouse while he was gone. “What is that?” he gasped as his headlights landed on a large rat-like being that had babies suckling at its teats.

He panicked and crashed through the panes, wanting to kill the monster with his car.

As he rolled up on the giant rat, he noticed its red lips.

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Fiction © Copyright Elaine Pascale
Image courtesy of Pixaby.com

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