The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

What They Leave Behind 
by Melissa R. Mendelson 

I almost missed it.  That look in his eyes.  After all of them, I knew to be aware of it, but I missed it with him.  He was so good that he had me fooled.  Then, he wrapped his arm around my shoulders as we sat on the couch, telling my parents the great news, and I looked into his eyes.  There it was because he dropped his guard, and I fell into his gaze.

I promised myself so many damn times that I would never ever find myself in this place again.  The darkened woods with that creature circling overhead.  With each of them, that creature grew, and they never met each other.  But they sensed one another, and they wanted a piece of me too.

Now, I was running as the creature drew closer, but it already had me.  I saw its marks on my arms, quietly feeding on me, smiling because I had no idea that it was there.  I thought I was careful.  I thought it was more than enough time, years, where I sentenced myself to be alone to recover, pick up the pieces that they left behind, and manage the damage as best as I could.  But it didn’t matter.

The creature cried a happy cry because it found me again, and part of me wanted to surrender.  I was so tired of being careful.  I was so tired of wasting my life, watching out for them, and turning what could have been the right ones away.  I just don’t trust people.  But there are good ones out there, right?  Why can’t they find me?

Something scared the creature off.  I wasn’t alone.  I needed to pull away from his gaze, return to my parents, and call it off, save myself, if it wasn’t too late. 

Something moved in the darkened woods.  It looked human, stepping closer, and I saw…. Me.

She mirrored the darkened woods.  Her gaze made me cringe.  Then, she focused on his eyes still looking into mine.  It was the way back.  She moved fast, and I realized that if I didn’t hurry after her, I was going to be left here.

I grabbed hold of her, but the touch of her cut right through me.  It was as if she were that pain that I had felt from them, and she smiled.  She smiled their smile.

“No!”  I screamed, but she was gone.  So was the creature.  At least, for now, but it would soon realize that it was me here not her.  It would come back, but that wasn’t the worst thing.  No, the worst thing was him, or was it me?

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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