The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

The Librarian 
by Elaine Pascale 

She is the sorter for the universe.

She plays with algorithms, scrutinizing the content.

There is the cosmic database to consider

and what should receive the most engagement, the most views, the most “likes.”

There are two catalogues for most users,

two eternal classifications based on a lifetime of data.

She indexes keyword “kindness” on optimum shelves.

She indexes keyword “compassion” on premier shelves.

Some users want to engage badly;

some users badly engage.

Keywords “me,” “me, me,” “pay attention to me”

Keywords “at any cost”

Keywords “no shame”

the librarian sorts,

she selects,

she chooses,

she discards,

she decommissions.

She knows that

some titles do not deserve a place on the shelf.

.

Fiction © Copyright Elaine Pascale
Image courtesy of Pixaby.com

More from Elaine Pascale:

The Kitchen Witches

The women of Cape Cod have a story that is dying to be told. If only they could live long enough to tell it.

When Fiona Walker is contracted to write about a party attended by her social circle, her friends begin dying. She captures the competition and misery of the women around her through three different stories.

In Wishes, Melanie Voss discovers a Time Between Time where nothing that happens counts. Initially, Time Between Time is a welcome escape from a life spent watching the clock while doing chores for her family. But something sinister is in the Time Between Time and it is headed straight for Melanie.

Death and Taxes tells the story of Nashville DeCota, the Cape Capo. Nash swears that she is not the Island Impaler, nor the Tooth Snatcher, but she has just as many skeletons in her closet. When her husband, Derrick, is kidnapped, she has to come clean about her crimes if she ever wants to see him again.

Fiona tells her own story in Hazing, where she finds that the real source of evil behind the deaths of her friends is worse than she could have ever imagined.

Available on Amazon!