Mother Always Told Me No

“My mother always told me I could be anything, so I told her I wanted to be a princess.”

He paced back and forth in front of his captive as her eyes followed. His hands trembled as he knelt in front of her, breath warming her face as she leaned back in disgust. “She told me I couldn’t. That it wasn’t right for me to do something like that.”

He reached forward, straightening the hem of her lavender dress. Lace lined the bottom and sides, white ruffles spanning across the front in rows, a pink bow smeared with dirt hanging limply from her disheveled hair. He ran his finger down her cheek, smearing the tear soaked lines of mascara.

He smiled to himself, yellowed teeth exposed through the crooked grin, and drew a knife from his coat pocket. The girl scrambled against the wall as the blade came closer, the coppery stench of soured blood wafting into her nose. He glanced to the corner of the room where a heap of bodies rested, all wearing different versions of her dress, blood-soaked and tattered.

“Mother told me only girls could be princesses, never someone like me.” With the knife pressed against her throat he pushed forward, spilling her precious life onto the damp cellar floor. “Now you’ll be a princess forever, how mother never let me.”