The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

I Just Want To Be Happy
by Melissa R. Mendelson 

My aunt was the smart one, burrowing upstate away from everyone.  She knew the insanity that was coming and did not waste her time or energy trying to convince anyone different.  “Reap what you sow,” she said and was off, cutting everyone out of her life except for me.

“The door is always open,” my aunt said, “But do not tell anyone where I live.”

I never thought I would be riding a bus now, head tucked down, hoping to avoid suspicion, praying to get to her safely.  I had no choice but to leave everyone that I knew behind.  If I had stayed…. Well, it would not have ended well for me.

I stepped off the bus and was able to get into a cab, but I saw one woman hurry over to an officer, waving her finger at me.  But she didn’t know where I was going, and I had the cab drop me off a mile away from my aunt’s house.  I hoped that was enough.

I found the door to my aunt’s cabin open.  My heart dropped, but then a soft hum filled my ears.

“Hello,” my aunt sang.  “Welcome.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

My aunt paused mid-sway and then shook off my words as if they were droplets of rain.

“Do you have any idea what is going on out there?”

“I.  Don’t.  Care.”

“Are you high?”  I asked.

My aunt laughed, and usually, her laugh got me to laugh.  But not today.

“Look, you are welcome here, but don’t bring me down with what’s going on out there.  They did that to themselves, and I am happy.”

“You’re happy?”

“Don’t you want to be happy?”  My aunt asked.

“You’re crazy.”  I shook my head, plopping down on the couch nearby.

“Well, if you go out back and see the mushrooms, just eat the small ones.  You are not ready for the large ones.  Not at all.”  My aunt waltzed out of the room and never came back.

I don’t know how long I sat there, but then dinner was ready.  After dinner, my aunt sat by the fireplace, humming, knitting.  I realized that there was no tv, no radio, no computer, and she was happy with that.  I wasn’t.

“Is it safe to take a walk out there?”

“Why wouldn’t it be safe?”  My aunt asked.

“Because we’re in the woods surrounded by wild animals.”

“The only wild animals are the ones that you left behind.”  My aunt stared at me and sighed.  “Yes, it is safe.  The wolves are not circling.  Not yet, I hope.”

I met her gaze.  “I had the cab drop me off a mile away, if that’s what you are asking.”

“I would have added another mile, but…” My aunt shrugged and went back to knitting.

I stormed outside, and as I roamed, I slipped between the trees, listening for any sign of danger.  I heard a sound and realized that it was me.  I was crying, loudly, and the enormity of what was going on out there pushed me down onto my knees.  I lifted my head, turned, and saw the mushrooms, strange, colorful mushrooms.

“Well, if you go out back and see the mushrooms, just eat the small ones.  You are not ready for the large ones.  Not at all,” my aunt had said.

“That’s why you are high.”  I walked over to the mushrooms, and some brushed across my knees.  “You know what?”  I pulled a large mushroom out of the ground.  “I just want to be happy.”  I popped the mushroom into my mouth, waiting for a bitter taste that would make me spit it out, but the damn thing tasted like candy.

I waited a few minutes.  Nothing.  Nothing happened.  Then, I collapsed onto the ground and laughed, and I wasn’t stopping.  I just kept laughing and laughing until I passed out.

When I awoke, it was morning.  People in long, gray outfits walked past me, some over me.  Their bones stuck out of their skin, their faces pulled and drained, and they reminded me of leaves that fell.  But they were standing as they fell.

“Shouldn’t be here.”  It was a young girl, and she was as gray as her clothes.  “They’ll catch you and shoot you down.”

“My aunt!”  I hurried past her to the cabin, but it was gone, burnt to a crisp.  My aunt was also gone.  I was surrounded by more people in long, gray outfits, and they stared at me as if I were a bitter reminder of the past.

Gunfire erupted into the air.

“They’re here,” the people said as they staggered about, but no one ran.  “It’s finally over.”

Bullets tore through the air, ripping through them like paper dolls, and as the people fell, as the young girl fell, they looked at me and smiled.  A bullet struck my chest, knocking me down.

“Hey, wake up,” my aunt said, shaking me by the shoulder.  “Told you not to eat the large ones.  They show you the future.  What did you see?”

I opened my eyes, and I screamed.

.

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