The Handmap Margaret Short Story

It starts with Elliot inviting Margaret over and serving her tea, she tells Margaret to sit down, whom does in the same spot she usually sits, however, just as Elliot is about to leave, a sharp and highly unladylike noise rips through the room and Margaret 's face goes red.

“Margaret my dear, pardon you, how highly disgusting.:”

Elliot laughs, however Margaret is not amused, lifting up the pillow she sat on to reveal a rubber-ish circle, almost like a balloon yet somehow different.

“Is this another one of your husband 's, ‘genius inventions,” again, Elliot?”

“As a matter of fact it is, and although it’s hardly proper to replicate such an unmannerly sound the children at the chapel have had the greatest of laughter playing with them. So

When she awakes, the house is dark, so dark she panics thinking she might have gone blind only to realize that it’s just because night has fallen. She looks around in wonder, maybe her husband let her sleep for the afternoon but she knows the children would never leave her as such.,

The second thing she notices, is the smell. Thick in the air the smell of blood is pungent and it has her face curling up into a pretty grimace. A sharp noise, rings from the kitchen catching the attention of the lady, causing her head to whip around and call the name of that of whom she married, ”Wallace, my dear, are you there?” She speaks carefully, not enjoying the abnormalities in the house she 's lived for many years. She lifts her body up off the bed, venturing into the kitchen with caution.

Her steps are shaky, knee caps clinking together beneath her silky dress. Something is off and she knows it, the erratic beating of her heart in her chest makes her tug on her collar in discomfort and she peers her head around the door frame, to see a single candle flicker inside the kitchen from which she sees a silhouette of a man, wearing the same shirt her husband had worn in the

“Come now Elliot, don’t look at me with such eyes. It’s been hours since you’ve been widowed. Don 't you think it’s time you loosen up a bit? Come have some tea.”

“Margret- What-What’s going, why are you?”

“Elliot that wasn’t a question, I said come has some tea now,” Margret says with a menacing venom in her voice that has Elliot shuffling over, the tips of her yellow dress being stained with blood.

“Margret, please tell me what is going on, I don’t understand my husband- my kids, where are they!” She lowers her head in defeat, tears slipping past brown eyelashes.

“Elliot please darling, I really don’t lie being ignored, but don’t worry. I’ll take you to see them soon enough.”

“What? They’re alive?”

The last thing Elliot see’s is the glimmer of a blade, “Not quite my darling, come on now, keep your head up!”

“...-Mama mama!”

Eye lids snap open and her body darts up into a sitting position.

“Mama? what’s wrong Mama?” It’s Nancy, her seven year old and relief washes over her. it was a dream, after all. Her four year old Flint standing right next to her silently.

“Nancy, Flint, did you wake your mother?” It’s her husband, standing in the doorway.

“Wallace…” Elliot breathes out and she can’t withhold the sob that rips from