The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Nesting Dolls
by Jaime Johnesee

“They belong together!” I scream at the auctioneer, hands on my hips, face red with anger. “You can’t break up a set like this!” Livid was too soft a word for my rage.

“Madam, I assure you it is perfectly legal to break up a set at auction so more people get a chance to own that artist’s pieces.” The auctioneer looked down on me from the stage.

“You stated in the brochure, featuring the full set, that means the entire set; whole, together. Either you are advertising falsely, blatantly being deceitful, or just being greedy. I will have your business license for this.” I put my bitch face on and leaned back in my chair.

It did me absolutely no good, and I lost both halves of the doll set. I shrugged, said, “They probably weren’t even real anyway,” and I left.

After business hours, I broke into the auction house through a back door that I had duct taped so it wouldn’t latch. I disabled the cameras and went through their records. I jotted down the nesting doll buyers’ and the auctioneer’s info. Their addresses being the most important to me.

I found both buyers easily enough and kept an eye on them. While they had gone out for the evening I went to work breaking into their homes and took back what was mine.

Then I went and found the auctioneer. He was sitting in his office at home, counting his ill-gotten gains. His computer was open to a sketchy adult site that he watched videos on as he counted his cash again.

I killed him with a mining pickaxe I took from his hallway. The plaque said it was from the 1800s gold rush. It sure gave me a rush when I picked his brain. Ha, ha!

Sorry, I hate greedy, lying, cheater people. Although, I do admit that I did take the money, but I had to make it look like a robbery, after all.

When I returned home I lovingly set the dolls on the spotless mantel over the fireplace in my attic. Where they belonged. Where the demons who inhabited them preferred to dwell. Where I had put them, many many lifetimes ago when I had been my great, great great, great grandmother. Of course, that was before my great uncle sold them.

“My babies, you are home at last,” I coo, staring at them lovingly.

“Momma!” they cry down at me, gleefully, grateful for the fresh blood I have filled them with.

Fiction © Copyright Jaime Johnesee
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from Jaime Johnesee:

Shifters: A Samantha Reece Mystery

When a serial killer begins leaving remains of victims in hotel bathtubs all over town FBI Agent Samantha Reece makes it her business to stop him.

This detective’s got an ace up her sleeve in the form of her ability to shift into the guise of a were panther. As she tracks down the cold-hearted murderer she also has to contend with an anti-shifter group determined to destroy her.

Not to mention the black jaguar who turned her decides to come sauntering back into her life.

Available on Amazon!