The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Jenny Greenteeth 
by Elaine Pascale

They called her Jenny Greenteeth.

Her teeth were not her fault. She had been jaundiced as a baby and her bilirubin levels took many months to rectify. By the time her teeth had come in, it had been too late; they were shockingly discolored. Jennifer tried explaining this to the teenagers who were holding her down, but spray from the falls kept slipping into her mouth, drowning her words.

They had brought Jennifer to Crone’s Cascade. The teenagers would gather at Crone’s to do things that Jennifer didn’t truly understand. She knew they did bad things, but she hadn’t imagined that including dragging a small girl out into the cold and filling her pockets with rocks.

“Her teeth are the color of seaweed,” the red-haired boy said. His teeth were metallic, covered with braces, yet he was able to make fun of Jennifer’s.

“I wonder if they’ll turn blue once she’s in the cold water,” a girl in a purple puffy jacket mused.

Another girl said something, but Jennifer couldn’t hear her above the sound of the falling water.

“Jenny Greenteeth, Jenny Greenteeth,” they chanted, their voices growing louder as they pulled Jennifer to the water’s edge.

Just as they were about to toss Jennifer into the freezing water, something burst through the falls, rubbing its eyes as if waking from a deep slumber.

It was a woman, with long green hair and green rotting skin that seemed to sprout water plants. She had a pointed chin and nose and very large eyes. She also had razor-sharp, dark green teeth.

The teenagers screamed, yet were frozen in place, now holding Jennifer in front of them like a shield.

The green woman scowled and said grumpily, “The audacity of you…punks to call to me, to call my name. Haven’t you heard what I do to children?”

She reached for the teenagers with her long fingers, hooking them with sharp nails that resembled fishhooks. She had the strength to pull the entire group into the water at the same time. They begged for Jennifer to help them, but she lay on the frozen ground, frantically trying to empty her rock-filled pockets so that she could run.

As Jennifer was staggering to her feet, she turned to see the green woman’s head emerging from the water. The other kids were gone, vanished beneath the frigid surface. As Jennifer ran, the green woman called after her, “You have such a pretty smile.”

.

Fiction © Copyright Elaine Pascale
Image courtesy of Pixaby.com

More from Elaine Pascale:

The Kitchen Witches

The women of Cape Cod have a story that is dying to be told. If only they could live long enough to tell it.

When Fiona Walker is contracted to write about a party attended by her social circle, her friends begin dying. She captures the competition and misery of the women around her through three different stories.

In Wishes, Melanie Voss discovers a Time Between Time where nothing that happens counts. Initially, Time Between Time is a welcome escape from a life spent watching the clock while doing chores for her family. But something sinister is in the Time Between Time and it is headed straight for Melanie.

Death and Taxes tells the story of Nashville DeCota, the Cape Capo. Nash swears that she is not the Island Impaler, nor the Tooth Snatcher, but she has just as many skeletons in her closet. When her husband, Derrick, is kidnapped, she has to come clean about her crimes if she ever wants to see him again.

Fiona tells her own story in Hazing, where she finds that the real source of evil behind the deaths of her friends is worse than she could have ever imagined.

Available on Amazon!