Amelia rose eagerly to her feet with a speed that was neither modest nor patient for a woman of her station. With hands outstretched she crossed the floor and found the awaiting hands of her friend who had come for a visit. “Madame Rammsdale. I am so very glad to see you.” The two women feigned kisses to the sides of each other’s cheeks and sat down oppositte each other in beautifully upholstered chairs.
Before them lay a table carefully varnished with a silken cover upon which a silver tea set was placed with a deck of oversized playing cards resting gently alongside the tray. As the steaming vapor rose from their cups and disperesed itself through the room, the two women engaged each other in conversation. The usual mundane topics of conversation were covered concerning family, travel, interests, and present experiences.
“Amelia, forgive me for changing the subject but do you detect an odor?” Rammsdale’s tone was sudden and broke the rhythm of the mutual conversation at hand. Blinking her eyes and sniffing the air about her in a manner which appeared not unlike a common housepet. Amelia smiled and looked to her friend who seemed a little putoff by her present actions. “I believe my dear it is the tea”.
A queer sort of look was summoned across the face of Rammsdale as she looked with curiosity at her friend Amelia. “Can tea turn badly as meat can?”. With great laughter Amelia put her hands to her face to minimize the gusto of her delight at her friend’s question. “The tea stinks Amelia, don’t you smell it?”
Taking the cup in her hands to inspect the contents Amelia fummbled with the handle and spilled some of the drink on her dress which had become a terrible stain dark, thick and almost a brownish black color. “My god” Rammsdale exclaimed. “What could make a stain like that Amelia?” Amelia looked to her friend who had now resembled a rotted corpse stinking with age and decay; with a thin layer of yellow flesh stretched over the form to create the illusion of life.
It was only for a moment and then she saw Rammsdale as a vital healthy woman again. Amelia quickly lowered her gaze to her tea cup which was now trembling and shaking. The contents were sloshing all over her dress and in a crazed frenzy she placed her mouth over the cup so the tea would not be lost. When Amelia had looked up again she noticed that the room taken on a filthy and grimy shade. The walls looked old and worn and the furniture that once was fine and regal had become minimal and shabbily thrown together. Urine stains and some kind of cross between feces and blood had conjured up a stink that was inhuman. The floor was littered with half eaten and rotting scraps of food and old bits of clothing. Rammsdale was nowhere in site and in her place was a doll with one missing eye. The eye was missing because it had been replaced by a star shaped puncture that had left the socket jagged and mishapen.
The door to the room had opened to reveal a very angry man dressed in very simple rags that at one time may have resembled a common vest, decent shirt and trousers. “Dammit!, who the fuck let her have these things” The man shouted angrily down the corridor, the corridor had replied with quickened and mischevious laughter that began to rise as cackles that could make the skin crawl.
Amelia only looked up and from behind nearly hollowed eyes framed by deep set black circles a piece of chipped tea cup was spit from her mouth along with a thin trail of blood. With a row of teeth stained blackish red with thick fresh blood she hissed. “Won’t you please have some tea with me?”
The man staggered back, his body moving him in a clumsy retreat as his eyes grew wider and wider with horror. He found the wall behind him and was paralyzed.
Find out more aboutAndy Bove winner of the first Vamplit Flash Fiction Competition
