Short Story Submission #2 ''Matriarch''

(The rules state to use the picture and caption to create a short story of 150 words with a margin of five if you eat over.This story won first prize)

The caption was Scraping back skin.
The picture:

                                    

and my story...

‘‘Matriarch’’

Sam Coleman

150 words.

@indigo_sam

The old house squats betwixt the pines, her dust covered windows concealing within like eyes milky with cataracts.

The furniture was covered in plastic as I started to scrape back her skin. A cream coloured layer with a brown interweaving pattern came first, it matched the furniture. Next a royal blue pattern against white. The bright astronaut decoration of a child’s room gave way to a foul mustard coloured floral pattern. Again and again I peeled back her coloured chameleon flesh and as I did I pulled back the veil from her past until I stripped her down to her archaic wooden bones. A large brown stain spotted the wall, that familiar iron pungency, almost sweet. The horror welled up within me and broke into screams as the sea breaks upon the shore and I knew then, I was looking upon her face.

The old house squats betwixt the pines.

My short story submission for the

55th #SatSunTails #Microfiction #Competition!

Linked here.