PROMPT: Ten fairy lights
CW(s): religious trauma, domestic/child abuse, implied murder/violence/sexual abuse, brief description of a dead body.
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
1 ... 2 ... 3 ... 4 ... 5 ... 6 ... 7 ... 8 ... 9 ... 10
There are ten fairy lights hanging above my bed.
Every night, I count them all in my head. Over and over again.
I can't sleep without them, you see. I'm too scared of what lurks in the dark, inside the closet and beneath my bed.
My mom said to "pray the monsters away". But monsters don't listen to prayers. So, I asked for the lights instead.
And every night I lay awake, counting each one in my head. Over and over again.
1...
One light, dangling from the ceiling.
It swings and flickers every time the ground shakes and the walls groan. My mom is holding on to me pretty tight and I can't move or breathe.
She covers my ears to muffle the loud sounds, but I can still hear how her voice wavers as she whispers a prayer to every God she knows. Just in case.
Tomorrow, when the ground no longer shakes, she'll deny it.
But I'll see the scars on her hands in the morning. Another burn from the candle. And I'll hear her sobbing alone in her room, asking Him to forgive her weakness.
I hope He does.
... 2 ...
Two lights. Two candles on top of mom's bedside table.
She lights them every afternoon, as soon as it gets dark. She'll take out her figurines, carefully wrapped up in a cloth under a loose board beneath the bed, and place them, one by one, on top of the table.
She's very particular about it. They each have their proper place, and they have to be placed in order, sort of like the way I used to play with my dolls.
She insists they're not toys though. She won't let me touch them, despite dragging me to her room every day to pray in front of them. I'm not sure why. But I feel like mom likes looking at their sad, smiling faces as she prays.
They're like her friends. She knows all their names and stories, and I guess she wants them to be my friends too. She says they'll protect me if I'm a good girl and pray to them every night, so they won't get lonely.
Every month, there's a new one. A new pale, wax face to add to the collection. A new friend to pray to.
I wonder what'll happen when there's no more space left on the table...
... 3 ...
YOU ARE READING
The Ink In-Between: An Anthology (Dark Edition)
Short StoryA collection of short stories of various genres, that either have an horror element to them, or lean more towards the dark and macabre side of fiction. Whenever realistic or supernatural, each story will contain some degree of upsetting, sensitive o...
