The Ladies of Horror
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No Place Like Home
by K.R. Morrison

“There’s no place like home!”

I had uttered those words when I’d first woken up/gotten back/whatever. Everyone was so relieved to see me come back to life.

But now that line didn’t seem to work anymore. Maybe it was because the cops had brought me home in the wee hours more than a couple of times this past month. Seems you can take the girl out of Ozzland, but not the reverse.

I had enjoyed my time there. I was the reigning monarch of all I surveyed. But now here I was, back in Doldrums-land again. Of course I was going to be restless—who wouldn’t be?

Auntie wiped her hands on a dishtowel and turned to me.

“That may be so, Dottie, but no matter. We are sending you to a boarding school in Topeka.”

“What?”

“Tomorrow.”

So, even though I whined, pleaded, threatened, and cajoled, I was shipped off to this ugly old bunch of buildings in the heart of the city. Usually that would have been great for night-prowling, but…

There was a curfew. Locks on the doors.

And—I had to wear a UNIFORM! Ghastly!

It was after my last attempt to make my garb more colorful that I was stuck in my room with no chance of redemption for at least a week. So what’s wrong with making a necklace out of squirrel heads? It’s not like we were going to run out of the little buggers any time soon.

I paced the room, drew nasty things on the walls with my own blood, ate a few pieces of wood out of the flooring. This kept me busy until boredom finally took over. Two days and I was done with this prison.

When I went to rearrange the furniture (by throwing it all out the window, I hoped), this waswhere a new adventure began.

On the wall was scratched a few words in some language I didn’t understand. What the hell?

So I recited them, just to see what would happen. I expected nothing, but I was pleasantly surprised.

The wall fell away, and I ventured through the gap. And into a dark forest, lit only by the moon up above.

“Well, here we go again,” I said, and started walking.

Turns out this forest was just on the edge of a huge plain, and as I walked into direct moonlight, I spied a familiar building.

My childhood home. Auntie and Unc were probably sound asleep.

“There truly is no place like home,” I chortled happily.

I started running, just wanting to get back into my bed and forget the last few weeks.

But there, gleaming in the moonlight like a beacon, was the ax we used to chop up firewood. It called to me, and I answered.

I pulled it out of the woodpile, and stared at the house with a new mission.

Vengeance.

Lizzie Borden didn’t have a patch on what I could do…

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Fiction © Copyright K.R. Morrison
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com.

More from K.R. Morrison:

Enoch’s Return: Pride’s Downfall Book 4

All hell broke loose, as demon fought saint, and undead fought mortal. Fangs and swords, fire and light, mingled in a cacophony of noise that would have awakened the dead — if they hadn’t already been in the pitch of battle.

Toby was looking forward to celebrating his 21st birthday with family and friends. However, the day is shattered by the arrival of his sister, Erica, fresh out of the juvenile detention center, where she has lived in isolation most of her life. There is something very wrong with her still; witness her biting the ear of her taxi driver and licking the blood from her lips, and the way she antagonizes everyone around her. The other thing that is very off-putting about the day is a gift he receives – a musty tent and a few iron spikes that have been lying in the ground for years. Toby faints at the sight of the “treasure,” while Erica reacts violently and runs off to who-knows-where.
While he is unconscious, Toby learns who he truly is, and of his mission.

Available on Amazon!