Audelia is young, talented with a ton of possibilities lined up for her future. She just has one major problem. The monster…
I hate her. She is the bane of my existence. I often prey for the ability to wish her away the way that child did in an episode of the Twilight Zone. Her crystal blue eyes come to rest where I sit, half hidden in a corner of the room, and my thoughts desert me. The corners of her mouth twist up in a parody of a smile and I visibly cringe. Oh no.
“Audelia, dear, come here,” she beckons with dulce tones. The royal court surrounding the Queen Bee watches with indulgent smiles as I cautiously make my way to her. She offers me her hand as I draw near and I hesitantly take it. Her long cold fingers, first caress, then curl around my hand. The Queen Bee’s smile is as bright as the highly buffed chrome on my father’s old Cadillac.
The air is filled with sighs and ah’s as the nearby crowd witnesses what they think is a touching moment. If they looked hard enough, they would see the talon-like nails digging into the flesh of my palm. If they truly cared, they would notice the frostbitten eyes that sear into me. But the Queen Bee has played this game for a very long time. People see what she allows them to see. They have never met the monster which lies beneath the beauty. Never felt her all-consuming and constant wrath.
Whether awake or in slumber, I suffer mercilessly in this hell. A hell where the monster reigns. At times, I am more frightened of myself than of the monster. Will I awaken one day and find myself to be the mirror image of her inside and out? After all, she is my mother…
You can read the rest of Audelia’s ordeal in My Sister’s Soul which will be available at online booksellers the first week of December.
