The Dark Issue 84 by The Dark Magazine

Author:The Dark Magazine [The Dark Magazine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: dark fantasy, fantasy, horror, magazine
Publisher: Prime Books
Published: 2022-04-30T22:16:01+00:00

Nelson Stanley lives and works in Bristol, UK. He has had stories published/forthcoming in venues such as The Dark, Vastarien, Dark Void, Kaleidotrope, and other places.

The Many Murders of the Self

by H. Pueyo

Content Warning: Child Sexual Abuse and Sexual Violence.

I

The first one to die is the little girl. The executioner watches her from behind a curtain made of bobbin lace, delicate white threads interwoven in a fine translucent layer that, in normal circumstances, would not hide anyone. The child can’t be seen, not yet. She’s lying on the colorful carpet on the floor, in front of the sofa, building blocks scattered around her like the pink petals of the bougainvillea blown by the wind outside the house. From there, the only visible parts of her are two tiny feet with one tiny sock, the other one lost amid the toys.

The executioner did not expect a toddler to be this small.

At least she’s not one anymore—a one-year-old is too close to a newborn, that would have made her harder to kill. At two and a half, the little girl has been alive for enough time, and she inspires no pity in the executioner. Her scraped knees squirm, and the sock almost slips out of her foot. The carpet ripples, a wave of thick fabric pushing the blocks away, yellow and blue and green rocks washed away by the sea. The executioner looks around, at the three seats of the sofa, at the dogs barking outside. The animals know something is happening; the animals know she’s going to die.

The shadow covering the girl moves away, taking human form. A man, forty, wearing a polo, zipping up his pants, taking the strands of carpet hair from his clothes, putting his glasses back in place.

The little girl is still there.

The executioner steps closer, invisible to him, but not to her.

“There,” the man says, lifting the child by the armpits, light as a pillow. He cleans her and brushes her hair. The girl’s eyes follow the executioner, who decides she can’t be human. She’s a rag doll, a wind-up toy, a wooden figurine. She’s made of papier-mâché. She lifts her arms when the man dresses her up, one wrist on each sleeve, then screws her eyes shut while he wipes her face. “Nothing happened, see? No reason to whine.”

The little girl has been silent the entire time.

The man goes to the bathroom; the dogs keep barking outside.

The rag doll is still on the floor. Sitting, legs open, staring at the toys. The executioner stands behind her. The little girl, she does not move. She does not talk. She’s a puppet without a puppeteer. She simply stares at the braided carpet, at the back of her knee, red with allergies, at the red crisscross on her skin.

The executioner pushes a pillow against her face.

The doll twitches, her feet flutter, her toes quiver. She doesn’t fight back. She keeps silent, accepting, unresponsive, then lunges, face down.

She is finally dead.

“Your mother will be coming soon,” the man calls, still in the bathroom.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.