The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Do No Harm… 
by Rie Sheridan Rose 

My husband is ill.

Given his proclivities, and the resemblance he bears to my father, who was his age, I am not surprised. With his corpulence, and the drinking till almost dawn, I am merely surprised it took this long.

I did the expected thing. I rushed to the apothecary and begged for help. We have no established physician in the village. Poor Marta does what she can, but she is overworked and out of her depth. Still, she sent me here to the forest to fetch mushrooms for a poultice that should make him well.

I searched until I found what she was asking for. The slender brown mushrooms that all know are safe for all manner of things—from soup to the desired poultice. But I also found something else.

And that is what has me sitting here in the dirt weighing my options.

Beside the helpful brown mushrooms, I found some of the Dead Man’s Blood that my mother always warned me not to touch. Even the briefest contact can poison you.

So, I sit here and remember…the pain of his brutality; the taunting scoffs of my uselessness; the working from dawn till dusk without a word of thanks ever.

I wonder what life would be like if I were free…

Marta is bound by the doctor’s oath to do no harm, even if she isn’t technically a doctor. But I…I have no such stricture. And the purple is so beautiful.

Who would guess how deadly it is?

Fiction © Copyright Rie Sheridan Rose
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from Author Rie Sheridan Rose:

Overheard in Hell:
Dark Poetry

Poems exploring hell and damnation. Tales of sorrow, vengeance, betrayal, and redemption. Ghosts, ghouls, and demons stalk these pages. Don’t read in a lonely house…in a darkened room by a single candle…

…unless you like the touch of an icy finger up your spine.

Available on Amazon!