The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

She Turns, or How Dangerous Lies Make Dangerous Women
by Angela Yuriko Smith

She turns away, the dethroned Queen, sidestepping the blame with a grace reminiscent of the lioness pre-pounce, robes adorned with patterns of weeping, blood and ash. Braided in her hair are the bones of displaced kings, warriors and other corpses that dared to claim her. She walks and the forests shudder beneath her feet; the sacred, thirsty groves tremble with delight at her approach. The wind carries her keening song, a memory melody of loss, the feminine blood taken in childbirth and violence and sacrifice and for pleasure and as scapegoat and a thousand other atrocities piled as high as her throne of bones. She is vengeance…

… she is death, under the neon light of the full moon, she dances, hypnotizing with pulsating rhythm. Beneath her feet, a floor littered in false promises, pretense and decay. She has been lied to so many times she becomes the stories men whisper to keep her in her place. Witch, succubus, harlot, she rises on their fear and appears in their restless dreams, confounding them with a longing, lust and loathing. She is what they have claimed her to be, an unbridled woman, untamable, untouchable and returning regrets. Hell hath no fury and…

…she becomes the lies
the embodiment of fear:
what you said she was.

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Fiction © Copyright Angela Yuriko Smith
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com.

More from Angela Yuriko Smith:

Angela Yuriko Smith is a third-generation Ryukyuan-American, award-winning poet, author, and publisher with 20+ years in newspapers. Publisher of Space and Time magazine (est. 1966), two-time Bram Stoker Awards® Winner, and HWA Mentor of the Year, she shares Authortunities, a free weekly calendar of author opportunities at authortunities.substack.com.