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Sara @spauffwrites.bsky.social · 18h

Monsieur's rule: Ballerinas must be light as air and eat nothing but. She dances and starves in his music box but never pleases him.
The pointe shoes around his neck aren't hers, but the news is delicious. She takes the music box, and seven pounds of #ash and bone, and never shrinks again. #vss365

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Sara @spauffwrites.bsky.social · 1d

The annual war. Course after course, they #clash over news, politics, religion, football. A table divided, a family snapped like a wishbone. Until she serves the pumpkin pie.
Murmurs of delight all around, followed by snores.
Next year, she'll put the sleeping pills in the appetizers. #vss365

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Reposted by Sara

Bookshelfie @bookshelfie.bsky.social · 7d

#booksky

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Sara @spauffwrites.bsky.social · 7d

Tighter and tighter, she twists the swing, until the chains entwine to the apex and the links groan with tension. She lets go.
The ground #blurs; the portal opens. She leaps across time to her backyard swingset, grass between her toes, chasing fireflies as Mom calls her in for dinner. #vss365

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Sara @spauffwrites.bsky.social · 12d

“Goodnight,” he says with a kiss.
“Good morning, love,” she replies, but he’s out like a light, #sonorous snores echoing in the dark. He burned all day while she waited in his shadow. Now she rises, wan and exhausted, a woman’s work never done. She must pull the tides, guide the lost home. #vss365

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Sara @spauffwrites.bsky.social · 13d

"Off with his head!"
My screams echo through the gallows as the executioner sharpens his blade. His Majesty's #caprice demands a great show. The axe falls, slicing the ribbon round my neck, and my head tumbles into my hands.
"Again!"
So I tie my head back on and the game begins again. #vss365

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Sara @spauffwrites.bsky.social · 14d

His wife got nights; his mistress had weekends. And as his secretary, she kept him during the week.
In the #eventuality of my death, destroy my diary, he told her.
Instead, the spurned secretary brought Xeroxed copies to his funeral.
But his wife only laughed. "Who do you think hired you?" #vss365

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Sara @spauffwrites.bsky.social · 17d

She checked the forecasts, put up a tent, bought umbrellas, buried the bourbon, stuck a knife in the ground and prayed. The day dawned sunny, the sky, her something blue.
Waiting in white, clouds gathered in her mind. #Perhaps he was only late?
No rain at her wedding. No groom either. #vss365

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Sara @spauffwrites.bsky.social · 18d

We knew the rules. Only move at night. Don't take the cheese, laced with strychnine. Stick to dried goods, still in the package. We only wanted food.
Then he came, with claws sharper than poison, jaws faster than a trap. Families dead, babies starved, under a tabby tyrant. Utter #catastrophe #vss365

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Sara @spauffwrites.bsky.social · 20d

Not much in the freezer. Bones, kidneys, a little tongue. But it's enough. Pressure makes a rich #stock, perfect for minestrone, hot and ready when the cop arrives.
"Sorry ma'am. We haven't found your husband."
He offers her a tissue. She offers him soup. He eats the last bit of evidence. #vss365

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Sara @spauffwrites.bsky.social · 21d

Black sludge bubbles in her cauldron. Another bad batch.
A Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry and thirty years studying witchcraft, #synthesizing medicine and magic. But love potions elude her.
She dumps the ooze; it bubbles from the trash, grows arms and legs, rises. "Hello my love," he says. #vss365

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Sara @spauffwrites.bsky.social · 23d

Ma pushes out the mower. "Sorry, love. The HOA says we've got to #rein it in."
Savages. All tidy beds, trimmed hedges and rows of Bradford pears. Odorous soldiers at war with my riotous spring.
I weep as Ma mows down my wildflowers, my beautiful weeds. Welcome to the suburbs. I miss hell. #vss365

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Sara @spauffwrites.bsky.social · 24d

Flying, from the adult student showcase at Canopy this weekend. #aerialdance

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Sara @spauffwrites.bsky.social · 28d

Lock the doors. Arm the security system, turn on the spotlights, feed the guard dog. A nightlight for baby, a shotgun for Pa and an SSRI for Ma to make the anxiety #bearable.
Once upon a time, we felt safe in these woods. Now, we battle daily nightmares of impudent thieves with golden hair. #vss365

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Sara @spauffwrites.bsky.social · 29d

A glint of gold in the dumpster catches my eye. A candy #wrapper?
I haven't seen one since the children died. Drowned, shrunken, juiced to the bone. Police shut the old man down, put us on the street. The factory makes guns now. More death.
On a hot day, you can still smell the chocolate. #vss365

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Reposted by Sara

Dale Tudge? Humor! @daletudgehumor.bsky.social · Sep 9

The foolish young Tootsie Pop had been warned never to wander into the Bittersweet Forest. For the Owl waited there, ancient and hungry.

“Whooo goes there?” he hooted with dreadful mirth, before snapping up the fragile, sugar-shelled sweet in three terrible bites— #wrapper and all.

#vss365

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Sara @spauffwrites.bsky.social · 29d

😆

Sara @spauffwrites.bsky.social · Sep 7

No grown-ups a-loud, scrawled on a two-by-four, nailed above the narrow #doorway. She'd made that sign decades ago; now she had to obey it.
But she still believed, could still hear their tinkling laughter. She pushed open the door—an empty room. The fairies had fled, like her childhood. #vss365

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Sara @spauffwrites.bsky.social · Sep 5

"Is the patient #conscious yet?"
"Waking now, Doctor. With enough nutrients, she'll grow another liver in three months."
"Make it two. High demand for livers."
I trace the mesh over my abdomen. Three livers is enough for a down payment and I'm grateful home is not where the heart is. #vss365

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Sara @spauffwrites.bsky.social · Sep 3

Years of #eluding capture, deforestation and endless wildfires. I am tired. Let them take me.
But I find city people as wild as me, with bodies painted and pierced. "I like your look, Bigfoot," a man says. "You could make a lot of money."
They grow money in the Holly Wood. But not trees. #vss365

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Sara @spauffwrites.bsky.social · Sep 1

I'm a new man, he says. I've done things I regret, but you're my future. After the wedding, he buys a ten-bedroom mansion, shows her every room except one.
"Is that all?"
"One more box."
I bang on the lid, scream through my gag as they carry me to the basement with the rest of his #past. #vss365

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Reposted by Sara

Tyn Shenton @tynshenton.bsky.social · Aug 21

Ghosts are not scary because they are dead. They are not scary because they can hurt you. They are scary because they spend their deaths floating, occupying the nothing space where they can do nothing and be nothing. Ghosts are scary because they are #mundane, and we fear we might be, too.
#vss365

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Sara @spauffwrites.bsky.social · Aug 21

A #mundane life? That didn't sound so bad. Others in purgatory got worse.
The newborn wail of her alarm. A shower too quick to enjoy. Instant oatmeal and bitter coffee gone cold. Traffic. Meetings, emails, meetings. Traffic. Frozen dinner. Sleep.
Another Monday tomorrow. Monday forever. #vss365

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Sara @spauffwrites.bsky.social · Aug 20

Over the cauldron, she keeps a constant #vigil. Basilcum, allium, lycopersicum, oleum. A low flame; stir counter-clockwise. The mixture foams and #seethes — keep stirring! Don't let anger burn.
Thick as blood? Let's taste.
Strega Nona licks the spoon and smiles. Marinara, ready for market. #vss365

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