OZARK HORROR: Pennywinkle

"Pennywinkle, Pennywinkle,
I was murdered, I was eaten,
I was buried.
I want to see, I want to breathe,
Pennywinkle."

Mandy woke up in her bed. That dream was too strange and fantastic. But she knew that voice. Did the dream have something to do with her? She thought about everything she'd done that day.

She'd gone to school, leaving her little step-brother, William, alone with her mother. School had been just fine, she'd done well in her lessons. Then she came home and found that William was gone. Her mother said he had run away from home, though William had always seemed like such a happy young boy. Why would he run away from home? Then she buried a bag of pig innards under the marble slab. She then remembered what had happened then. Pennywinkles, those little blue flowers, had sprung up from the ground. When her father came home and heard about his son running off, he wanted to go after him.

He would, Mandy thought, William is his blood son. I'm just his step-daughter.

Her mother had him eat before he went, but Mandy had felt too sick to eat anything. Then she remembered how her mother had also felt sick. She didn't eat any of the pork, either. That was why Mandy hadn't joined her father on his way out. She was supposed to stay and help her mother.

She looked over at the other bed where her mother slept. That part of the cabin was pitch black.

Mandy sat up, and as she did so, a pile of pennywinkle flowers fell onto her lap.

~ ~ ~

"Pennywinkle, Pennywinkle,
I was murdered, I was eaten,
My sister buried me.
I want to see, I want to breathe,
Pennywinkle."

Mr. Morgan woke up. It was cold. What was with that dream? He knew that voice. Slowly he remembered what had happened that day.

Early in the morning, he left his second wife alone with his son William. His step-daughter Mandy was off too school, but William wasn't quite old enough. He had gone to plow some ground, leaving his wife with one request: she butcher the pig and cook it for dinner. Everything had gone fine, until he came home and discovered William had run away. He was going to go after him, but his wife made him eat first. That pork had tasted very odd.

Mr. Morgan sat up, and as he did so, a pile of pennywinkle flowers fell onto his lap.

"Father!" screamed a voice in the distance. "Father!"

It was Mandy.

~ ~ ~

Mrs. Morgan woke up with a start. It had been a day where she wished she had never married that widower. But she had.

Her husband had never known that she hated his son, William. Of course, she never beat him, she was too clever for that. If she had done so, William would have cried to his father. So, she had beat the pig that was penned in the yard instead. When her husband had left that morning, she opened the pen, but the pig was so afraid of her, that it dashed away. She wasn't about to run off to look for a pig.

She had remembered this much, when she heard something.

"Pennywinkle, Pennywinkle,
My mother murdered me, My father ate me,
And my sister buried me.
I want to see, I want to breathe,
Pennywinkle."

Mrs. Morgan sat up.

Something, or someone, was at the foot of her bed.

~ ~ ~

Mr. Morgan and Mandy hurried back to the cabin. The door was shut fast.

"Killed my son, made me a cannibal, and now she locks me out of my own home on a cold night!" he shouted between clenched teeth.

"Your axe, father!" cried Mandy. "Break down the door!"

Mr. Morgan ran to the woodpile and pulled out his axe. With a few blows, the front door to the cabin fell inward.

It was still and dark inside the cabin, so Mandy lit a candle. The two gasped at what they saw: Mrs. Morgan lay on her bed. Blood dripped into a pool on the floor. Her throat had been cut.

Mandy pointed to Mrs. Morgan's left hand, dangling from the bed. In it was permanently clutched her butcher knife, clotted with her own blood. Her right hand was on her breast, clutching a small handful of pennywinkle flowers.