The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

The Eggman Cometh
by Sue Renol

“Mommy, who left these eggs here?” June asks with a hint of excitement and wonder in her voice.

Terror molds itself into the expression on Anne’s face. “Don’t touch them!”

June reaches her hand toward the delicious brown eggs.

“No!” Anne screams, pushing her daughter’s arm away. She remembers the last time eggs were mysteriously left at her doorstep as a child…

June begins to cry. “But Mommy, why?”

Anne doesn’t want to tell her daughter the reason. She doesn’t want to know it herself. She wishes she could forget. “They’re from a dangerous man,” Anne tells her. “He’ll take you away.”

As her daughter cries her eyes out, Anne picks her up and takes her back into the house. “Go play with your dolls, June, and forget about the eggs, ok?”

Anne goes back outside to consider what to do. She wants to get rid of them, get them as far away as possible, but the thought of touching them revolts her. She loved eggs once, a long time ago, before the Eggman came. Her mother would make them for breakfast, and she’d gobble them down, asking for seconds. But ever since that day, she’s been revolted by them.

She goes back into the house. Maybe she’ll call someone to come get them. Then it won’t be her problem anymore. But who? Who to lay this burden on? She tried to think of a neighbor she disliked, or someone local who gave her trouble, but there was no one here she disliked, and no one she’d wish this upon.

When she goes back outside to deal with the eggs herself, they’re gone. Fear strikes her like lightning. “June!” she calls out. “June! Where are you?”

Silence is the only answer.

Anne crumples to the floor, knowing where she’s gone. It’s somewhere she cannot follow. There is some small relief that she would see her daughter again, but regret that she’d never be the same. Stress always brings on the symptoms. And this stress was certainly enough.

The pressure begins in her stomach, then travels up her throat. Anne struggles for air while the round object blocks her esophagus on the way out. Just when she thinks she can’t take any more, a brown eggs pops from her mouth. She cradles it in her hands and feels its warmth, then carries it to her bedroom, opens the closet, and places it in her hidden nest.

She hopes this one doesn’t make it. One child has always been enough.

.

Fiction © Copyright Sue Renol
Image courtesy of Pixabay

Wicked Deeds: Witches, Warlocks, Demons and Other Evil Doer’s

Sometimes wicked people do wicked things simply because they can… The twelve stories in Wicked Deeds tell tales of witches and warlocks with ill intent, devilish demons bent on destruction, and other doers of evil who make the world a terrifying place. What is a mother to do when her daughter is gifted but lives under the thumb of her fanatical preacher husband who will brook no talk of the supernatural? What of a demon so desperate to free himself of a trap that he will force another to repeat his atrocities and condemn a young boy to his demonic fate? Or maybe the story of a crotchety old witch with a score to settle against the town she lives in is more to your liking – what evil will the seemingly harmless town-crazy call upon when faced with an ultimatum? If you’re looking for wicked people with supernatural abilities doing wicked things, this is the collection for you!

Available on Amazon!