Red Series

Wednesday 15 February 2017

WEP February Challenge: Back of the Drawer

The first WEP of 2017 is here! This time around I decided to go with flash fiction instead of poetry. The theme is 'Back of the Drawer' and all entrants will be posting about something found in that very spot. Click here to visit the listing of all participants. Thanks for coming and God bless.




Tiny Beauty

In my hands whimpered the secret to our blessed health and long life. It couldn't be more than a few centimeters tall and was so thin and pale that gender couldn't be determined. When Gabrielle left our village two years ago, I never understood her declaration that our lifestyle was barbaric. The only clue she spat was the secret we kept hidden in the back of our precious drawers. Mother said my sister had gone senile from refusing to inhale our weekly supply to blue dust. The powdery elixir that kept us healthy as the outside world aged and died often before the age of seventy. My mother celebrated her two hundredth birthday last month. If she passed year three hundred and fifty then she would make a new record. Our village was not meant to be known by outsiders. Those who left had to pledge to never tell anyone about us.

How was I supposed to know that after all this time my childhood curiosity would lead me to this secret. Right at the back of my grandfather's old wardrobe drawer up in the attic. The creature lay in a glass box surrounded by blue dust. Ever so often the box would heat up and blue dust rose from the body of it's tiny prisoner. My heart ached as I pried the torture device open and placed the tiny inhabitant in my cool hands. I had no idea what manner of creature I held. Only that what my sister said was true and that I needed to release this poor victim.

But then a sweet smell hit my nose. The air had filled with a glittery vapor as my hands started to glow. The little thing had started to heal itself. The body was gaining fatty flesh, lengthening hair and even wings. Then I noticed my own body was changing. No longer did I feel small and regular. One look in the dusty mirror nearby showed  my youthful appearance improved a hundred fold. My stringy brown hair was now a lovely chestnut, a more developed body and no more freckles. Every girl at school would envy me tomorrow. I now looked like how I had always dreamed to look. Whatever this creature was, it was magical. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. I was about to let this creature go and give this all up?

Just as it started to stand fully healed, I tore it's wings off and shoved the varmint back in the glass prison. No sound came as it screamed wordlessly at me with hurt eyes.

"So close to freedom but no luck," I mocked and shoved the glass box back in it's hiding place. I was not my stupid sister. One day I would inherit this creature and use it's dust everyday. No one in my family had ever lived beyond two hundred and forty anyway. Dad died years ago and Mom and my sister were the only family that I had left. Two down, one to go.

21 comments:

  1. A little horrifying and very enjoyable! She sounds like a real nasty piece of goods. Very cruel, very human :)

    Well-crafted flash. Thanks for the read.

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  2. Hi Sheena-kay ... interesting and I'm glad I don't have an attic ... that would make me think twice about going up there ... poor varmint ... but wonderful story telling - cheers Hilary

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  3. That was unique Sheena-kay, but plenty scary. Loved your descriptions. Great use of the drawer prompt. Thanks for posting to WEP. :-)

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  4. Oh wow! The feel of greed and looking after self runs through your story. You have done a beautiful job showing how a person's mind can be blinded by their own desires.
    Shalom aleichem,
    Pat G

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  5. Oh what greed and the need to be superficial can do. Hopefully the poor creature wins out and watches them all age to dust

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  6. *shudder* OOOH! This was fantastic. What a horrifying story. Very well done! The confusion, the sympathy was so evident and then the shift to greed and selfish cruelty jarred me to gasp! This is a GREAT entry!! Thank you for sharing.

    ~Jen

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  7. Oh, dear, vanity wins again. Love this, so well written, but you do have to wonder if that small village is enough. I'd have to spread my wings. :)

    Thank you, Sheena, love your flash as much as your poetry! So glad you chose to take the WEP challenge!

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  8. Ouch, what a twist! But then you could resist near immortality and beauty.?

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  9. Oh that poor creature bound captive by human vanity and greed. Great writing. I really enjoyed reading your story.

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  10. Fascinating horror story! I was captivated from beginning to end. You have a wonderful imagination and writing style.

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  11. Definitely didn't see that coming! What a great (though sad) twist in the end.

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  12. Oh wow, it was looking really nice until the end part! What a horrible person! Great job with the prompt :)

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  13. Loved that shift in tone! It's so easy to switch from hero to villain without even realizing it. After all, if it benefits you, is must be a good thing, right?

    At least she's not planning to take over the world...yet.

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  14. That was a magical entry to the current round of stories. Very nice.

    Arlee Bird
    Tossing It Out

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  15. Wow, so cruel and yet, in some ways a true reflection on reality. So many are willing to benefit at the cost of someone else's pain and or freedom. In any case, very entertaining. I hope no one in her family dies mysteriously.

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  16. I thoroughly enjoyed this story and the fluctuating emotions of the person just as I'm very curious about the blue dust. Well told.

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  17. Ouch! She is truly evil, isn't she?

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  18. Ah, vindictive and selfish. Awesome. Love the way you toyed with my emotions :)

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  19. Greed and Vanity prevail once again. As long as humans lack compassion, we will never progress to a higher intellectual state. Pity. Your story could be about a lot of the politicians currently holding office.

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