Mav  Skye

Every year I write a Halloween story, one that creeps me to the core to write. Smashing Roxy is one of those stories. I had the vision of this (macabre) darling goth punk witch smashing in the face of an equally attractive (yet innocent) young woman with a pumpkin. Roxy hikes the young woman's body up on her front yard tree like a trophy and goes on the hunt for more victims. I remember reading a story a few years back of someone who hung themselves on their balcony during Halloween time, and it took a few days for folks to realize it wasn't decor. Can you imagine? Well, it's a vision that stuck in my head. I also try to tackle this same image with the loveable Ah Lam in Wanted: Single Rose. Back to Roxy—she is rotten to the core, and the death of the young woman was the tipping of the scales for the ol' Reaper. When she sees the tiny ghost dolls hiding behind the bushes, I knew exactly where they would lead Roxy... And lucky them, they get to hear a twisted re-telling of Hansel & Gretal (one of my favorite fairytales.) Oh, and the hair in the haunted house? It's a scary vision of mine that persists. For me, it is a symbol of stripping of strength or power. You'll see this vision again in Supergirls: Behind the Black Door, when Jenn finds Piggy's trunk of hair (that's been taken from his victims) in the basement. The creepy tapestry hanging on the wall near the stair case is another vision that was crystal clear in my mind. This story felt so cemented in my mind that I'd swear it had actually happened before, perhaps in another time and place.

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Witch This was another Halloween special. I was going through a particular lets-try-to-write-like-Shirley-Jackson phase, I LOVE the stories that were written during this period of time (and I'm still holding back on a shocking little gem that I'm honing for the right time and place.) To be honest, I felt utterly panicked for the young girl as I wrote this story. The creepy little friend with the violet eyes, Jules, was in part inspired by a neighbor girl I once had named Cherry. She was cuteness rolled up in a ball of manipulative hate and spite. People like this tend to target and ruin all that is good and pure around them. I think we've all met someone like that.

Sacrifice was inspired from emotions I was wrestling with back when I lived in Texas. Some people I was very close to literally nailed my reputation to a cross and lit it up. I felt I had lost all the people I loved and for the life of me, I couldn't understand why someone would make up lies to do this. But even more, why would people that you've loved unconditionally believe these lies?  It still blows my mind to this very day. Sacrificeis what came of those emotions. The world has a way of balancing the scales, but justice isn't always pretty and doesn't come in the way we think it ought to. This story was written quite some time ago, and took years of polishing to get it where it is now.

Another witchy tale you may like is called Poison Lip Gloss in Dolls, 3 Tales to Chill Your Bones, Volume 9.