The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Architect of the Damned
by Amanda Worthington

The girl weaves easily in and out of the columns

Like so much bright thread on a loom

Twisting this way and that

Knitting a silvery path amongst the dark tombs

Those towers in tribute to the dead

Fortunate enough to lie concealed

Beneath the finite earth

Rather than be burned.

.

Disposal of corpses is mostly an afterthought these days

Monuments are for those not in survival mode

Those whose bones deserve consecration

Those whose passing is not seen as casualty

But calamity

.

Death stops for no one

So it’s best to stay in motion

.

The girl Stops only long enough to press her sweaty brow

against the cool granite

And breathe

.

She does not immediately recognize the voice

When her grandmother starts to speak

The family has fallen from grace

Their bodies will have no place beside her remains

They are whores and conmen and exceptional thieves

Their matriarch all but forgotten

.

The girl found a picture of her once

In an old album

And asked questions that no one looked comfortable answering

.

They told her to go play and leave the dead be

Still, they brought her to visit this monstrosity

That was the deceased’s grave

.

It was enough concrete to house dozens

Condemned to life on the streets

.

Avenge me, Maria

Bring me Giuseppe’s ear

And Antony’s eye

Luca’s brain

And Mateo’s heart

.

“And in whose body shall they be put?”

The girl manages, fear gripping her

.

Oh, Maria

I envy your speed

And your dynamism

 I would war in that form if you’d have me

.

Somewhere, a blonde girl with an ancestor whose skin

Is the color of coffee

Whose own flesh is like the creamer without the brew

This strange girl with the dead in her mind

Readies her blade

And approaches the men who have already decided her trade

.othing cuts like the Unexpected.

Fiction © Copyright Amanda Worthington.
Image courtesy of Pexels.com