He found her stretched out that way, the wishing hat beside her. She didn't speak. Only her muffled sobs filled the room. "What's wrong?" he asked her. Her feet lay limp on the bed. Again that muffled whimper, as if something deeply intimate had happened to her against her will. But her ordered appearance made no suggestion of violence. "What happened? Was someone here?" he asked with undivided concern. "The Djinni, the last wish... he did this to me..." he made out between her despairing moans. "I wished..." he heard in her voice, smothered in the pillows, "to have... alluring... mysterious..." She broke off, gasping for breath. "What did he do to me!?!" her voice screamed out suddenly, unnaturally. It terrified him. A creeping hysteria shook her body. Then she turned violently and showed him her face: It was the Mona Lisa's face, in oil, that adorned her now. Her smile looked inviting and immortal but frozen for all time on the flat canvas where her face had been. She turned her head away.
Story #21
4 comments:
This made me think of the tales from the crypt series, where vanity seems to be the worst of sins and is punished accordingly;) I liked it a lot!
K.
In some dark corner of my mind, maybe that's where it came from. I used to read those comic books when I was in junior high.
"The Monkey's Paw" dude that just rocked. A classic "be careful what you wish for" tale if ever there was one. You did a wonderful job of capturing that. love and light.
I was worried because I didn't think it would be a good story for you to start the day with, but it looks like you ended the day with it, so great that it worked out!
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