The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Momma’s Boy
by Alyson Faye 

“Here’s a little piece of my heart,” he said, as he laid out his lady love upon the red velvet throw on the four poster bed. He tucked in the skirt of the hand-made red satin dress, nice and tidy, as he always did.

Once his mama had worn a dress just like this one.

Red was his favourite colour. His Mama had always painted her nails, and lips blood red, then put on her best red dress before going out ‘to party’ (as she told her son), often for several days and nights.

When the police and social workers found out, and then found him, in the basement, shivering, they’d said his Mama was ‘neglectful’ and ‘not a fit parent’. He’d cried his little heart out.

He’d never seen his Mama again. It was as if the city and its bright lights had swallowed her up, in one ravenous gulp.

But he got himself educated, grew up, got a job. Life went on. He was good with his hands, liked working with wood, metals, and fabric. He relished carving the wooden jigsaw pieces. He’d sit in the basement at his workbench, spending hours cutting, planing, sanding, ensuring the four pieces, two by two, fitted snugly, each into the other. Seamless.

Each one of his lady loves – Lois, Iris, Jill, Libby and now Lilly, had been gifted their own wooden heart.

He knelt at Lilly’s bare feet, painting her nails with the same vermilion polish he always used. Lilly lay passive, as though asleep. He stroked her hands, painted her fingernails and then, as a final flourish, layered Pillar Box Rouge lipstick onto her cool lips.

Just like Mama, he thought, sighing contentedly.

He’d waited so long for Mama to come back, years and years, and when she never did, well, then he took steps to replace her. But he was a grown man now, so he’d pretended to date these Mama substitutes, became the perfect boyfriend.

Their final date was always dinner at his house. He was an excellent cook. He wanted their last meal to be memorable.

Dear sweet, trusting Lilly.

“You were my favourite, Lilly,” he whispered. “You came the closest to my memory of Mama.’’

He stroked Lilly’s hair, and cheek, chill under his fingertips, and placed the wooden heart into her palm.

“Keep tight hold of that, Lilly.”

His eyes filled with tears, for he was easily moved at moments like these.

He had read the headlines, seen the online forums about the missing women. A part of him knew the world called him ‘killer’ and ‘sick’ or worse.

But the other part, hidden deep inside, the lost little Mama’s boy, just couldn’t help himself. Couldn’t stop himself.

Sleep tight, Lilly. See you in the morning. Missing you already.

Fiction © Copyright Alyson Faye
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from Alyson Faye:

The Lost Girl & Spindleshanks

The Lost Girl
A nailed-up door. An inheritance which comes with a ghost. A missing girl. A fifty-year-old mystery. Parapsychologist Berkley Osgood is hired to investigate. What he uncovers reveals secrets the living want to hide and the dead will never forgive.

Spindleshanks
Adam is having nightmares about a skeletal shadow figure, who he calls Spindleshanks. Soon his whole class are sharing the same nightmare. Adam’s dad, Rob, knows that Spindleshanks can’t be real. But is he? One terrible night Rob has to face his son’s nightmare creature and fight for his son’s life. What would you sacrifice to have your child back safe?

“A decent two-for-one. Alyson Faye brings the engaging and eerie in equal measure.” CC Adams – horror / dark fiction author

Available on Amazon!