Welcome to this week’s installment of many micro stories, ranging in length from 100 words to 500 words.
With each story we hope to deliver a little whimsy into the lives of our readers.
PRETTY PUPPET
Beating herself against the walls of the cube, like a wild animal trapped in a too small cage. Had to be free, had to flee, had to break free, but still they came to her, the people like puppets.
Now why can’t you be like us?
“Why would I want to be like you?”
You’ll see. You’ll be at peace this way.
“Your peace is madness.”
No, you are the mad one. But we can fix that. We can make you all better.
And their wooden hands closed on her, dragging her back into the middle of the cube. She tried to flee, tried to break free, but their wooden hands turned to wooden hooks, locking onto her wrists and limbs and set about the transformation.
Cut her hair and slapped on a wig. Cut her clothes and slapped on garments that pressed her in and immobilized her limbs. Painted her face into a garish mask. Put out her eyes and gave her glass eyes to see only the things they would let her see. Wired her limbs. Tied strings to them so she would move only as they would let her move. To dance only the dance they would permit. Another pretty little puppet like them.
R.C. Mulhare was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, growing up in a nearby town, in a hundred year old house near a cemetery. Her interest in the dark and mysterious started when she was quite young, when her mother read the Brothers’ faery tales Grimm and Edgar Allan Poe’s poetry to her, while her Irish storyteller father infused her with a fondness for strange characters and quirky situations. Between writing projects, she moonlights in grocery retail. A two-time Amazon best-selling author, and contributor to the Hugo Award Winning Archive of Our Own, she has over one hundred twenty stories in print through dozens of independent publishers, with more stories in the works. She shares her home with her family, about fifteen hundred books and an unknown number of eldritch things rattling in the walls when she’s writing late at night. She’s happy to have visitors through her page at: https://linktr.ee/rcmulhare.
If you enjoyed this story you can find it and more in the Hawthorn & Ash anthology.
Iron Faerie Publishing 