***
- INNOCENCE -
An Empty Chair
“Such a sweet child, Sofia is. I am so proud of her.
She is really good at school, you know? For
a 7 years old girl, who’d think she’d be that good at maths? She has a bright
future ahead of her I know it, she’s a little genius. Such intelligence in such
a sweet innocent little thing. She’s not only good at maths, she also has a
wonderful imagination. She always tells all those stories about her imaginary
friends. There’s Mr M. for example, she says he’s her best friend. Apparently
he’s the one who tells her all those things about being so good at maths. I
know how things really are though, she’s only a little girl of course she’d
wonder why she is so good at it while other children her age barely know how to
count. So I guess she imagined that friend as an explanation to her extraordinary
talent. That friend and the many others... Such a sweet child though, such
imagination is evidence of a great talent. She can also sing and draw and she’s
only 7! I feel like there is nothing she can’t do! She is still so innocent
though, so pure... She has a bright future ahead of her I can assure you that!”
Officer Hart could not get his hand off his mouth. He
listened to the whole testimony and did not know what to reply to this. He
never had to deal with that kind of behaviour before and he felt that was above
him. The only thing he could do was to be honest, so he said:
“Sofia doesn’t have a bright future ahead. She doesn’t
have a future at all. She’s dead. Your daughter’s dead! She was killed, 10
years ago damn it! Don’t you remember?”
“Nonsense”, replies the woman. “10 years ago she wasn’t
even born you foolish man! What is that? Some kind of sick joke? If you are
here to talk ill of my daughter I will ask you to leave right now!”
“I am not leaving, Mrs Snow, I am here investigating
your daughter’s murder. I know it has been a long time but the case has been
reopened as there are new leads on her murderer’s identity. But I will need you
to cooperate, I need your help. Shake some sense into you, for heaven’s sake!”
The officer sighed in desperation as he left his cup
of tea on the table. Mrs Snow looked angry. She did not seem to understand what
was going on. A bewildered look on her face, she replied to the investigator:
“Officer Hart, I don’t know what you’re up to here,
but I assure you my daughter is very well alive. Why she’s the one who prepared
the sweet tea we are drinking right now, just before your arrival! She’s in her
bedroom at the moment, probably playing with Mr M. Follow me I’ll show you!”
And as she says that, she rised from her chair and
headed straight to a door on the first floor. Hart sighed and followed her. He
would play her game for now, what better could he do anyway? The woman clearly
never survived the shock of losing her daughter. She belongs in an asylum, he
thought to himself as he followed her. Mrs Snow pushed the door. To Hart’s
surprise, the door opened on a children’s bedroom, a chair back to both Hart and
Snow on which was sitting a little girl facing a window.
“Who is that?” Asked a puzzled Hart.
“My daughter, Sofia, of course!” replied Mrs Snow.
Hart did not understand. He knew for a fact Sofia was
dead and he also knew Snow never had any other child. So who was that little
girl sitting on that chair?
“Hello Sofia, I’m officer Hart from the police. May I
speak with you?” Asked Hart, still playing Snow’s game.
No reply. The girl did not move an inch, she did not
even turn her head to look at them. She seemed completely absorbed by what she
was seeing through that window because she was not moving her head from it.
Actually she was not moving. Not at all.
“She’s very shy”, said Snow. “Dear Sofia, come say hi
to officer Hart, darling!”
Still no reply. Hart started to find this really
suspicious and decided to go in the bedroom to have a closer look at that
little girl, to see if he could recognize her face. Snow stayed behind. The
officer got close to the little girl and what he saw made him jump in terror.
Her face, he recognized it. It was Sofia indeed, but her face was dead. Her
body was completely stiff. Her skin was not human anymore and her eyes were
glass balls. It was Sofia’s body indeed, but she was not alive at all. Her body
had been naturalized, just like taxidermists do with animals. What a horrible
sight to behold. That explained why the body never had been found. Hart was
terrified at Snow’s sickness; she had embalmed her own daughter and thought she
was still alive. He started feeling groggy and he thought at first it was
because of the grim find. But he quickly realized that was not the problem. His
vision started to go blank and he collapsed on the floor... The tea... She had
drugged him.
“Oh, feeling tired officer Hart? Let me help you” said
Mrs Snow as she grabbed the unconscious man’s body by the feet and dragged him
downstairs. She dragged him all the way down to her basement, where she put him
on what looked like an operating table. She turned the lights on. The room was quite
large. Half of it was occupied by the operating table and by taxidermy tools.
The other half held what looked like a gigantic dollhouse. Mrs Snow walked to
it and opened its door. Inside, there were dozens of naturalized human bodies,
just like Sofia’s. They were all girls, most of them children and amongst them,
two grown women. They were all dressed up in princess dresses and other children
costumes and were wearing a great amount of makeup on their dead faces. Mrs
Snow looked in her dollhouse as to make sure everything was in order, smiled
and shut the door close. She then turned her head to an empty chair sitting
close to the dollhouse. She smiled and started talking to it:
“Hello Mr. M.! How are you today? You are going to be
happy! I have brought you something new, a fine specimen at that! He will make
a nice new toy for you to play with when I’m done with him! And a boy at that!
You never had a boy doll before, have you? I’ll make one for you just now
honey, you’ll just have to be a bit more patient! He’ll make a very nice boy
toy for you to play with. Yes, very nice indeed! I better get to work if you
want your new toy soon! Mommy likes to make you happy, my sweet Mr. M.!”
She gave the empty chair a warm smile, and headed back
to the operating table. She grabbed a surgical knife and started undressing the
unconscious officer Hart. She would have a lot of work to do to make him a
perfect doll. The night would be long.
***
(C) Copyright 2014 Hope Alexander aka David Giroux for the text
Oh my, I really loved this one. Not only the pace does build up the weirdness and oddness of Mrs Snow, the fall is excellent, I was giggling while reading. A children taxidermist serial killer, who would have thought? Original as fuck, I tell you, and bad endings are the best for this genre of stories!
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