Of my distress

laying them out: one, two and three. They were as pristine as the little satin costumes that they wore. Emerald smiled down at her emaculate  collection of dolls. One was of her husband, one was of her father and one was her long-time enemy. She didn't know which one was more
dispicable. These were the tangible signs of her failing, she mused. Carefully, she picked her father from the line of dollies and held him
to her breast. He was the most ancient of the three. His eyes were red rubies.
"You...You have given me love beyond that which any other could possibly fathom." Emerald held out the diarama of her father and thought for
 a moment. " I see the love in your eyes, even, but I see the darkness as well. This, my dear father, is why you are here amongst your
breathren."
Emerald replaced the dollie of her father in its central spot among the rest. She then picked up her husband. His face was ashen gray
porcelin with pink daisies for eyes. Emerald shook her head and pursed her lips. Her heart ached in its blackness.
"My sweet sweet dear, I saw you there with her. I saw you in many places with them all. I saw you and what you did with them. This, my dear,
is why that good girl, here, died." The tainted girl held her husbands doll very close and pointed to her own breast. "I died so very long
ago, and something else came back to haunt me." Emerald swallowed the hard knot in her throat and put her husband's doll back down on the
left. She shook her hand as if fire had burst upon her skin. "You shall be first, my long time companion." One more word toward her husband,
then she turned to her long time enemy.
The little dollie lay looking at Emerald with its big black eyes and golden hair. Its hands were boney skeletal hands and its dress was
black. "I tried so hard to have no enemies, but you insisted. For this, I have included you within my hall or horrors. My dear dollie, you
are just the perfect example of why some of us do such terrible things to each other. I heard your laughter, I tasted your words and my
dear, I felt the blade that you left in my back. This is why I have to repay you in kind."
Emerald then put down the last of her three. She leaned back in the broken chair and ran one hand through the silk of her red hair. Her
thoughts raced as they often did. She thought of torn and bleeding feelings. She thought of all the reasons why she should turn the other
cheek but then she remembered how her cheek was covered in blood and bruised badly from the blow. Her heart grew venomous with retribution.
The windows rattled from the great north wind that wanted inside. All through the house, moaning phantoms and creaking wood shifted and
contorted. Emerald saw their shadows run from cupboards to doorway and then shift back into the walls. Her heart raced like the palpatations
of a tiny baby. Time passed slowly as her brain, again, entertained various thoughts of pain and desperation. She felt her justification
crawling up her spine. The serpentine thing tickled the nape of her neck, wrapping its tendrils of bitterness tightly around her medulla
oblongata. Her face lit up making her eyes look like feiry black beacons. Emerald knew it was time, it was dead time.
The old blue clock struck 3 am and they came. One by one, the dolls pulled themselves from the marble top counter and began to dance.
Emerald watched them parade across the cool surface of the counter top; and she giggled uproareously. Her red curls fell into her pale face
like lacie blood ribbons. She didn't mind her tattered dress, she didn't mind her soot stained fingers; Emerald just wanted vengeance. As
the dance twirled into a maniacal piroette, Emerald grew angry. She rose from her broken chair and slammed her fists upon the counter.
"Enough!"
As it had began, it ended abruptly. All dolls fell haphazard upon themselve. Nothing moved, nothing made a sound. Emerald watched hard for
quite some time, then sat back down upon her rocker. Her hands caressed her knees, she licked her lips and exhaled in finality.
"Now which one of you would like to feed the flames?"
The Reaper laughed in the distant winds. Emerald smiled to herself.