The Ladies of Horror
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One For All and All For One  
by Rie Sheridan Rose 

My sisters and I were thick as thieves. You never saw one without the others. We were three peas from the same pod, but that didn’t make us identical. Veronique was the clothes horse–always trying to live up to that silly affectation of a name. Sylvie loved sports and the outdoors. She was a true sylvan at heart. As for me, I was the “normal” one–read boring and belittled. Aside from my sisters, no one ever bothered to learn my real name. They all called me Jenny, though my name was Genvieve.

The year we turned eighteen, my mother wanted to mark the occasion in a big way. I guess she’d earned it, having “to birth all us babies at once.” She never tired of reminding us about that…

Ronnie and Sylvie were having none of it. They refused to have anything to do with the party. I sighed and did whatever Mom asked me to do. It was exhausting, but Mom needed me, and for once I was the “good daughter.”

The party was grandiose and definitely over the top. I fielded questions about where the others were until I was ready to scream, but I managed to make it through the night.

Finally, it was over and I could retreat to our room. The perfect pretty palace for spoiled adolescent girls…it hadn’t changed a bit since we were twelve. Because that was the year I had to start the pretending. Some days, Sylvie went to school and played on the volleyball team and captained the cheerleading squad. Sometimes, Veronique went shopping with Mumsy’s credit cards. Every now and then, Jenny went to class.

Or skipped school and went to visit her sisters in the woods. They are in a better place, I know. But I couldn’t let them keep taking, taking, and taking from Mom and I had to do something about it.

We used to be all for one…but now, we are one for all. And I am the one.

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!