The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

The Formidable Gift
by Elizabeth H. Smith

She gazed down at her subjects and remembered the misery they once inflicted. She’d been taunted, shunned, cast away, and reviled in every form by those who now kneeled at her feet, praying for mercy. The awful wretch they saw, they created by treating her as such. The monster they believed her to be, she became.

She never wanted to be the wicked thing she was. She never asked for it. But one day when she’d finally broken, she decided to journey to the top of the mountain, to seek the beings who lived in the caves there. Maybe they’d accept her, maybe they wouldn’t throw her away.

The villagers laughed, assured her she would die. Alone, with meager supplies and no preparation, she went anyway. She reasoned it would be better than spending her life surrounded by hatred.

When she finally reached the peak, starving and delirious with exhaustion, she found the cave dwellers. They carried her into their home, warmed her body, and provided food and water. They cared for her until she recovered.

When she gained enough strength to speak, she asked them, “Why have you cared for me?”

“You are like us,” they said. “And so you shall be forever.”

When she left the cave, she felt no cold, no hunger, no fear. The trek down drained no energy. Not a single muscle tired. She felt anew with life, imbued with raw vigor. When she returned to the village, everyone stared with wide eyes and slack jaws.

When she saw her reflection in the village well, she saw why. She’d not returned as the person who left. Something different had come back, something other than the meager woman plagued by disdain all her life. Something unnatural.

The cave dwellers had given her a gift. One she could use however she wished.

She decided then, she would be their queen, and they, her people.

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Fiction © Copyright Elizabeth H. Smith
Image courtesy of Pixabay

More About Elizabeth H. Smith:
Elizabeth H. Smith is a storyteller who writes while trying to keep her cat, Luna off the keyboard. The musical group, Rasputina is her muse. She was born in the state of New York and would never feel at home anywhere else.