Absorbed By Penelope Crowe

The sun was setting and shining unusual red lines of colour through my porch. A glint in the corner of the room caught my eye, and I remembered my gift. The box was a bit dented and the ribbon was slightly askew, but otherwise it looked intact. I opened the filigree envelope and read the card. The same dark script that wrote my name spelled the words “Her lady’s piece.” No signature, nothing else. One thing was for sure, it was not from Mick. But this was thrilling. I had chills and felt part of a mystery, or like a character in a book.

This short story is one that surprised me. I thought it was going to be a little bit of a prince-meets-ordinary-girl-falls-in-love type of story, but I was totally mistaken. This story took a totally different turn, a dark turn.

Violet is a young woman that seems to attract the wrong kind of men. Men who like to abuse her physically and mentally. Mick being one of those men. He treats her like crap, but for some reason, she keeps taking him back.

Then she finds a neat little package on her front step. A regal looking package. An intriguing package. Possibly from a secret admirer? And what is inside the package is just as regal; a beautiful ruby necklace.

She knows it couldn’t be from Mick, so who’s it from? She can’t figure it out, but at the moment, she doesn’t care. She just wants to wear the necklace.

But something happens when she puts on the necklace. Something that starts concerning Violet, and yet, makes Violet feel that she should take back some of the abuse that has been bestowed upon her.

This is a very dark short story. It won’t take you long to read, but it leaves you thinking that you’d want to get that necklace off as soon as possible. Will she take off the necklace? Can she take off the necklace? And, what about Mick? Will he fear her as she had feared him? You’ll have to read the story to find out.

5 stars!