The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Far From Perfect
by Melissa R. Mendelson

“Stop picking.”

Mary Beth glanced at her grandmother. She was flawless. Back then, they knew what they were doing, but today, we were lucky enough not to eat mud. “Was my mother perfect?”

Mary Beth’s grandmother stared at the thread in-between the girl’s fingers. “At first.” She tensed as one of the girl’s fingers bent the thread. “I told her not to pick.” She grabbed a pair of scissors nearby. “This will hurt for a minute,” and she pushed the girl’s hand aside, cutting the thread down to the skin.

“Ow! That hurt,” Mary Beth said.

“I told you not to pick.” Her grandmother ran her fingers through Mary Beth’s hair. “Perfect.” She touched her face. “Flawless.”

“I’m not a doll,” Mary Beth growled.

“We are dolls,” her grandmother said.

“Did Grandpa play with you?”

Her grandmother smacked her across the face. “Don’t be wise, and don’t be like your mother.”

“What was my mother even like?” Mary Beth rubbed one side of her face.

Her grandmother pulled up a small chair. The chair creaked and moaned, but her grandmother remained flawless.

“Do you even miss her?”

“Of course, I miss her. I made her.”

“Did you make me?”

Her grandmother sadly shook her head.

“When your mother came undone, she took what I hope was the best parts of herself, and she created you. And then…. She was gone.” A small, blue thread shaped into a tear slid down her face. “I discarded the rest.” She touched Mary Beth on the knee, wiping the tear away with her other hand. “You’re the best of her.”

“What if I come undone?”

“You do not let anyone pull your strings, do you understand me?”

Mary Beth flinched at her grandmother’s tone.

“You stand strong and proud, and don’t let anyone under your skin. Stop picking.” She sighed as Mary Beth found another stray thread. “I am trying to do what is right by you.”

“I am not for sale,” Mary Beth said, smacking at her flowered dress. “Why do people think they can buy us?”

“Because they have a desperate need to own people.”

“Ow.” Mary Beth flinched as she tugged at the thread on her leg. “That hurt too.”

“Stop picking,” her grandmother said. “Or I’ll cut it down like the last one.”

Mary Beth stopped picking. A chime caught her attention, and she paled at its ring. “I don’t want to go. I want to stay here with you.”

Her grandmother touched her hand as a shadow fell over them, and to her dismay, Mary Beth was quickly whisked away. She watched Mary Beth be carried over to the door, and Mary Beth smiled at her. She returned her smile, but then she looked down and realized that Mary Beth had tied a thread around her foot.

“No,” her grandmother gasped, looking up in horror as Mary Beth continued to smile at her.

“I am not for sale.” Mary Beth still smiled as her stitching was pulled apart.

 

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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