The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Taboo 
by Suzie Lockhart 

I know what I project…on the outside. I’ve seen my cool, composed look in author photos, and in the mirror; the presentation is a mere reflection, telling my readers who I imagine they want to see.

They devour my novels, the morbid tales I weave within those pages.

I don’t allow my audience access to the truth.

No… I wouldn’t want them to know, to have any idea what kind of guilt I carry with each and every word I pen. Of course not. I hide behind my tinted designer frames. Distract you with my expensive, elegant weave and big platinum hoops.

Humiliation would fill every pore if my public discovered that my own family refers to me as an evil, vile wretch. They mean it quite literally… I believe Mama and Grandmama Thelma and Auntie Bee would be glad to see me burned at the stake. At least relieved. I am an embarrassment to my own kinsfolk, a blight on the family tree.

Why do I let it bother me? The wealthy, award-winning author whose books have been made into movies.

Mama told me I’ve cursed my great grandma’s immortal soul, because I incorporate stories she’d terrified me with during my youth, scaring me with her villainous tales. It is true she would give me nightmares…but I was always compelled to listen to more; she certainly aided in molding the author I am today. Once I wrote her stories in my journal, the nightmares would stop.

And I loved her, because she seemed to understand me better than most.

My fans would laugh if they knew the truth of the matter. My great-grandma, Grammy Jean, told me, after my first book was picked up by a major Literary Agent… Yes, she was still alive then. She told me God gave her a vision, one of me telling her tales and becoming famous. She had not been able to pen her stories, but had known of my ability to spin her tales into great horror novels for a long time. I couldn’t believe her vision happened when I was only four!

She is the only one I’d allowed to read my first book before it was published.

She was in the hospital, holding the newly printed novel to her chest when she died. Almost poetic, I know…but true. That is how proud of me she was.

But when the rest of my family began reading my books, the backlash was more horrific than the stories.

“You’re goin’ straight to Hell if you keep writing about this stuff.” My own mother had told me that. It was just the beginning. The rest of what she’d said still haunts me.

At times the despair is almost too heavy to bear. Nobody from Mama’s side will talk to me, and only one cousin from my dad’s side. I was young when he died.

I huddle under my comforting blanket, staring at the sleeping pills on my nightstand.

I wonder if I should have ever spun those dark tales, turning them into the novels that have helped me amass the sort of generational wealth many only dream about.

But for this sister…it comes at a price; the nightmares that terrorize me are worse than anything I have ever written. The twisted ache in my gut has me considering whether or not to face tomorrow, or any of the days that follow.

Besides, having kids of my own seems unlikely. I have no desire to drag a decent man into my trauma… And a man that isn’t truly good and understanding would not last with me. The dive into researching subjects that would make most sleep with lights on, has taught me a way to rid myself of unwanted problems.

There is probably one group that would mourn my absence.

My tribe.

No, not family, and eventually fans would forget.

It’s another group of women who write unseemly stories of dark taboos. They are the only ones who’d understand. Some might even miss me.

Those other women…who write horror.

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Fiction © Copyright Suzie Lockhart
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com 

More from Suzie Lockhart:

Morbid Metamorphosis:
Terrifying Tales of Transformation

Metamorphosis occurs every day as caterpillars become sweet fluttering butterflies, tadpoles become gorgeous frog princes and chameleons become one with the beauty of nature – but you won’t find any of that here.

The transformations you’re about to witness are unnatural, sometimes gruesome and deeply psychological. They will make you question reality and take your mind places it was never meant to go.

Terrifying Tales of Transformation from Greg Chapman * Roy C. Booth & R. Thomas Riley * Terri DelCampo * Dave Gammon * Nancy Kilpatrick * Rod Marsden * Jo-Anne Russell * M.J. Preston * Stacey Turner * Tina Piney * Suzanne Robb * Franklin E. Wales * Donna Marie West * Suzie Lockhart * Cameron Trost * Daniel I. Russell * Simon Dewar * Amanda J. Spedding * Ken MacGregor * Erin Shaw * Gregory L. Norris * Nickolas Furr

Available on Amazon!