The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Playhouse
by A.F. Stewart

Giggles.
Faintly drifting in the corners
No one was left to hear the sound.
So it waited…

The child’s playhouse remained there, resting among the tangled weeds and decay. Mold crept up the sides, the roof slowly rotted, yet, it survived, even after the adjacent house was demolished. A neighbourhood eyesore, ignored. Fear kept people away, a vague sinister feeling that crept up your spine and made you shiver.
Everyone knew what happened in the playhouse that October day.
No one believed it could happen again…

She stood in front of the door, golden curls fluttering in the wind, listening. Only six years old and sometimes she imagined things. She knew that, but still, she heard something.
Something that sounded like a giggle.
“Hello?” She moved a step closer.
“Do you want to be my friend?”
The child jumped back and blinked. A little boy stood in the shadows of the playhouse, holding…a toy? She wasn’t sure.
The boy smiled. “Will you come play with me?”
She nodded and stepped inside. The door of the playhouse slammed shut.

There was blood all over her dress and in her golden curls. She turned her head as they wheeled her brother’s body past her and looked up at the police officer.
“Was I a bad girl?”
“Why did you stab your brother, sweetie? Was he hurting you?”
“I don’t know. I—I think he made me.”
“Who, honey?”
She just shook her head and never said another word.

Giggles.
Faintly drifting in the corners
So much blood.
Well worth the wait…

.

Fiction © Copyright A.F. Stewart
Image Copyright Rie Sheridan Rose

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!