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By Emmanuel Williams

Once upon a time, in a cabin deep into the warm mountains, lived a woman just outside a quiet town.

She wore a black dress tied at the waist, and buckled with gold. She wore black, gold buckled, leather shoes at her feet which were covered in white socks. She wore a white paper bonnet that blocked the sun from her eyes and left room for a bun or ponytail at the back of her head.

A black, majestic horse stood tied to a pillar on the raised porch.

Her biscuits were almost done, so she entered the room to await the moment her nose would tell her they were done. 

She sat. And smelled. And smelled. She exhaled…

“Ok, let’s get them,” she said, at last.

She donned her mitts and opened the oven door. And a loud wave of flames escaped the oven!

She could do nothing but dance around to put her clothes out. But the flames were claiming every cloth in the nearby vicinity. Climbing up the walls of wood. From the smoke or the fire, she lost consciousness…

She fell.

Her mind travelled.

Back to the lake. She did not want to be here. She knew it.

It was as though she flew over a woman riding a horse. The most beautiful horse she had ever seen. Its hooves were covered in white hair, its bushy white tail bounced and swayed with the wind as the woman trotted. Blissfully ignorant to the woman watching her from just ahead. They were going to pass each other soon.

She did not want to be here. She knew it.

Sure enough, the women passed each other. The rider had not seen the pedestrian. Did not see her raise a bow behind her back, and release the arrow into her back.

The horse stopped dead. The rider fell without a sound.

The pedestrian mounted the horse, but had to relieve herself first. She peered at her victim. Useless and dead.

So she squatted over her, lifted her skirts, and pissed.

She woke in a room full of fire. She was on her knees. Wearing the same clothes from the kitchen. 

Unburnt. Unharmed.

Until the first arrow hit her in the back. Then another. And another.

All she could do was wail.

THE END.