The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Mr. Bonner’s House of Horrors 
by Jaime Johnesee 

Lilibet skipped down the street, exuding joy for the first time in a long time. Her braids bounced behind her and she brought smiles to the villagers’ faces.

“Hello, Bet!” Mr. Andersen waved.

“Hello!” Lilibet skipped past, waving back as she did so.

“Lili, I have to come see your mama for a tincture for my arm, is she in today?” Mrs. Crease asked.

“No. She’s gone for good!” the little girl hollered happily and kept skipping.

Mrs. Crease and Mr. Andersen looked at each other over the fence, puzzled by what the girl had said.

“Lilibet! What do you mean?” Mrs. Crease asked, uncomfortably.

“I killed her, Papa, too. I even killed Hawk!” she blurted, giggled, and returned to skipping.

“She must be joking,” Mr. Andersen said, his face pale.

“Must be. Let’s go see,” Mrs. Crease opened her gate and waited for Andersen to do the same.

He joined her and they hurried to the home of Rose, Hunter, Hawk, and Lilibet.

It was two streets over and took some time for them to get there.

“The front door is wide open. Maybe we should get the sheriff?” Mrs. Crease toyed with her handkerchief uncomfortably.

“I’m going to go in and see. Could be she’s just telling tales and forgot to close the door behind her,” he said, stepping into the house and shouting, “hello!”

It wasn’t long before he came running back out, “go get the sheriff,” said between gags and heaves, he vomited by the front stoop.

Mrs. Crease ran to the sheriff’s office and begged for help.

The sheriff entered the house to see all four family members dead.

Rose, Hunter, and Hawk had been stabbed multiple times by a pair of sewing shears. Lilibet’s young body hung from the railing leading to the second floor.

A note left on the kitchen table read, “They didn’t believe me about Mr. Bonner. That he did things to me, bad things, things my parents knew about. He paid them to stay quiet. He paid Hawk too. They also didn’t believe me about the child ghosts I saw. The ones like me, the ones Mr. Bonner made. So I made sure they could see them. After everything I did, and everything he did to me, I just wanted to be a ghost, too. I’m sorry if this means I go to Hell, but I sure don’t want to be here anymore. Lilibet.”

“If she’s gone, who was that we saw skipping by us? And what ghosts is she talking about?” Mr. Andersen asked the sheriff.

Mrs. Crease heard none of it as she was face down on the floor having fainted at the horrors around her.

“It’s a damn shame, such a sweet kid. I had my suspicions about Bonner, but he left town yesterday. Nothing we can do about it now,” the sheriff shrugged and turned to Mr. Andersen, “go get Doc Woods. Tell him to bring some smelling salts will ya? Damn shame.”

The sheriff shook his head as Andersen gladly ran from the house of horrors.

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Fiction © Copyright Jaime Johnesee
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from Jaime Johnesee:

Shifters: A Samantha Reece Mystery

When a serial killer begins leaving remains of victims in hotel bathtubs all over town FBI Agent Samantha Reece makes it her business to stop him.

This detective’s got an ace up her sleeve in the form of her ability to shift into the guise of a were panther. As she tracks down the cold-hearted murderer she also has to contend with an anti-shifter group determined to destroy her.

Not to mention the black jaguar who turned her decides to come sauntering back into her life.

Available on Amazon!