Unholy Trinity: Mommy Fearest by Margo Rife
Our church worships at the altar of the Unholy Trinity. Its gospels are delivered as a trio of dark drabbles, linked so that Three become One. All hail the power of the Three.
Inspiration for my Unholy Trinity Drabbles coincided with the arrival of a trio of large Wolf Spiders. The duo that settled in a huge web in the corner of my front window were easy to eliminate. But the third hitched a ride into the house in a potted plant. Online research warned that the female spider carries her babies–numbering in the hundreds–on her back and they can hatch and hide in one’s residence. – Margo Rife
Mommy Fearest
My babies are dying of thirst. No water source. If my midnight plan doesn’t work, my precious ones turn against me. Suck me dry. So, this human baby must save my spiderlings.
We gave birth the same week. Our abdomens ripped open. 100 eggs vs one.
The chubby pink spawn silently sleeps. My babies’ venom will swiftly liquefy its internal organs. I descend on a silken thread to land on its soft belly and bite. The pink blob screams. Drops of salty liquid stream from its gelatinous blue orbs.
Hop off your mama and drink, my babies. Bite and drink.
Spider to the Fly
“Won’t you walk into my parlour?” said the Spider to the Fly.
Hey! Come inside my bar. You’re getting wet.
What’s a lovely thing like you doing out on a night like this?
So he wove a subtle web.
Dante, get this poor creature a Night & Fog. Drink it, frail one.
Your eyes shine like diamonds. You tremble. Are you high?
Let’s lie you down. My sheets are fine and thin.
No need to help, Dante. She’s light as gauze.
He dragged her up his winding stair.
Hey, beautiful. Welcome to my den.
Frail One was never seen again.
In Memory of Kevin
Power Point presentation to CEO’s at Spencer Scientific Labs.
Click. Decades of dedicated lab research
Click. to create synthetic spider webs that are
Click. stronger than steel—tougher than Kevlar.
Clink. No army can penetrate these giant structures.
Click. Molecules unexpectedly morph into glue. The idea was to trap not enslave.
Click. Skeletal remains of the terrorist group El-Traleet. Isn’t that web stupendous?
Click. Wasting bodies of Venezuelan immigrants. The glistening is the glue.
Click. Fly-infested hanging goat carcasses in Iran. Webs are a work-in-progress.
Click. In Memory of Kevin our first intern. He looks peaceful hanging from that web.
Margo Rife
Margo seems to be drawn to small word count. As a playwright, she has had two short monologues performed by the Women’s Theatre Festival and MOJOAA Performing Arts. She is also fascinated with flash fiction. It’s a new obsession and she hopes to someday meld her writing and graphic design skills. Inspired by a member of her writing group, she is expanding into the horror genre.
Plays available on NPX site. New Plays Exchange.com
Flash Fiction: Goodnight Shark, Down the Rabbit Hole Darkly, I am Cheetos…hear me roar, Diary of a Lazy Eye.
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Stephanie Ellis writes dark speculative prose and poetry and has been published in a variety of magazines and anthologies. Her longer work includes the folk horror novels, The Five Turns of the Wheel, Reborn, and The Woodcutter, and the post-apocalyptic/horror/sci-fi The Barricade, and the novellas, Bottled and Paused. Her dark poetry has been published in her collections Lilith Rising (co-authored with Shane Douglas Keene), Foundlings (co-authored with Cindy O’Quinn) and Metallurgy, as well as the HWA Poetry Showcase Volumes VI, VII, VIII, and IX and Black Spot Books Under Her Skin. She can be found supporting indie authors at HorrorTree.com via the weekly Indie Bookshelf Releases. She can be found at https://stephanieellis.org and on Blue Sky as stephellis.bsky.social.
