The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

She Lit Up A Room
by A.F. Stewart

Against the Southern Bayou, she smiled;
a tempestuous child of unconditional joy
She owned dreams of being someone,
of education, of that white wedding with roses

Now the only roses are on her grave

One of a thousand mournful, mirrored stories
Against the Southern Bayou, she smiled,
the darling daughter, that beloved girl;
their brilliant angel who was going places

Whose road ended at an early grave

Her ghost, the echo of her missing laughter
that absent place, grieved at the dinner table
Against the Southern Bayou, she smiled,
at the wrong person, the right sociopath

And at sixteen, he put her in her grave

.

Fiction © Copyright A.F. Stewart
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from A.F. Stewart:

Visions and Nightmares

Tragedy spares no one… and takes no prisoners.
In the twilight shadows, secrets are revealed past the whispers of madness.

Wander into the realm of the old gods with Elenora, where humanity and marriage are a prison.
Step through a looking glass of dark horrors with an Alice you never knew.
Join with Zenna to seek the truth as her death by magic grows closer.
Journey with Olivia as she crosses paths with a monster of the forest and runs for her life.
Watch Isobel summon the faerie to solve her problem of an unwanted husband.
Shiver as Doctor Killbride experiments with corpses to create life from death.
All that and more await within the pages.

Ten stories. Ten women.
Who will survive? Who will fall? And who will succumb to their inner evil?
Find out in Visions and Nightmares.

Warning: This book contains disturbing scenes that may be upsetting to some readers.

Available on Amazon!