The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Even At Peace, We Still Seek Ruin
by Melissa R. Mendelson 

It was another beautiful day.  Another lavender sky, green, lush grass and pink and purple bushes.  The wind was gentle, a kiss on a cheek, fingers running through hair.  Even the stone steps were not jagged.  But I was.

My grandmother was quiet today.  Usually, when we took our strolls, she would talk a mile a minute.  Maybe, it was because my grandfather, her husband was gone.  He closed his eyes one night and drifted off to heaven, but everyone said that earth was the same as above.  Did my grandfather have lavender skies, green, lush grass and pink and purple bushes?  What if he went to hell, but no one believed in such a place.  No one except for me.

“How was school?”  My grandmother asked me.

“Boring.  As usual.  Just factual information.  Only the facts,” I said.

“Well, opinions a very long time ago ruined this world.  We didn’t have the peace and beauty that we have now.”

“Do you miss it?”

“Miss it?”  My grandmother stared at me, and I flinched at her stare.  “All the senseless violence and death?  The lies?”  Her mouth twisted into an ugly snarl.  “You’re lucky that you live in peace.  We all could’ve been dead.”  She walked ahead of me.

“Why does everyone die in their sleep now?”  I asked.

She was quiet for a moment.  “Even Death has had their fill, and a lot of people died.”

“But Nature kills people,” I said.

“That was before she retired.”  My grandmother sat down on a stone step.  “Anyway, we can’t change the world back.”  Her gaze rested on me, and I could feel its weight pressing down on me.  “Not without a sacrifice.”

“Sacrifice?”  I asked.

My grandmother closed her eyes.  She let the wind caress her face.  She breathed in deeply, enjoying the lavender air.  Her eyes remained shut, but she asked me, “You’re not of age yet, but when you are, would you want to bring a child into this world?  Would you want them to live in peace?”

I sat on the stone step beside her.  I played with some grass, wondering what it would be like to cut my finger on a blade of grass.  I was never injured, never sick.  I was just…. Bored.  “No,” I finally said.  “Life has no more meaning.  We’re born, we drift around for whatever time, and then we go to sleep, forever.  The world’s not changing.  No one’s inspiring anyone.”

My grandmother opened her eyes and stared at me.  “Inspiration comes with a price,” she said.  “People will love you, and people will hate you.  Do you really want that?”

“We’re not connected anymore.  We just…”  I stared up into the lavender sky.  “Exist.”

My grandmother moved fast.  I never felt the knife against my throat, just the warmth running down my neck.  I opened my mouth to speak, my fingers clutching at the open wound, but all I could do was stare at her.

“The world can’t remain this way.”  My grandmother didn’t even shed a tear.  “I’m bored too.”

As I fell back against another stone step, my blood raced downward across the green, lush grass and into the pink and purple bushes, and the sky darkened, a rumble of thunder heard in the distance.  But I would never see the storm.

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Fiction © Copyright Melissa R. Mendelson
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com.

About Author Melissa R. Mendelson:

Melissa R. Mendelson is the author of the Sci-Fi Novella, Waken.  She also has a prose poetry collection called, This Will Remain With Us published by Wild Ink Publishing.  Her short story collections, Better Off Here and Name’s Keeper can be found on Amazon/Amazon Kindle.

If you’d like to learn more about Melissa, you can visit her accounts here: www.MelissaMendelson.com