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The Virgin’s Offering

For the Unofficial Tales From Beyond: The Haunted Letter Challenge

By Paul StewartPublished 4 months ago 2 min read
Portrait of Elizabeth Báthory By Anonymous - https://www.herodote.net/histoire/synthese.php?ID=2526&ID_dossier=321.php, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=77967568

Čachtice Castle

.

Oh Gracious Lady Bathory,

Soak my innards in ceremonial wine,

poison my soul in the bitter blood.

Sever my tainted connective tissue;

paint my disembowelment, castration.

Divine my exsanguination, strangulation.

~

I offer thy virginal womb and skin-wrapped tomb

to you, Oh Countess, strip me bare and plunge —

yes, plunge me into a frozen watery grave.

For thy will and providence of butchery

gives purpose and meaning to my insignificance.

Please look upon thee, thy humble acolyte,

bitch for devastation as worthy of dehumanisation.

~

From the moment my dear mother died with birth pangs

as I fell from her vaginal opening into the world.

I was keenly aware from an early age that my form,

my bony, curve-less existence was for putridity only.

My father, bless him, bless his unwavering spirit

tried desperately to train me, to make me ideal

but his idealism I trounced heavily on with calloused feet

I never amounted to much, as the old man prophesied.

~

So, please, my dark Lady, dispose of me as you please;

stick needles into my skin, turn my labia inside out,

erase my corporeal form from this land and maybe —

maybe I can find some peace, some quiet, some...

~

Oh my lady, come for me post haste, come take me.

Take me to me thy maker, to meet thy destiny.

May thy sacrifice be a catalyst for all your hopes and dreams.

~

Your humble, disappearing servant

Gwen

"I wish I had been born a man, I would have killed thousands in battle, taken over countries, burned witches - I would have been a hero." – Elizabeth Báthory (Julie Delpy as Erzebet Bathory - The Countess (2009))

*

Thanks for reading!

Author's Notes: The curious thing was that I was already working on the bulk of this, and then Matthew told me about RHC's challenge, and here we are. It is, in case you are wondering or missed the subtitle, for Rick's Unofficial Tales From Beyond: The Haunted Letter Challenge.

I have included the Wiki about the person to whom the author of the letter sent to, as there is a lot of misinformation, and I would like to say that I wrote this knowing it. And in some ways, played up to many of the rumours.

I now need to write something beautiful, joyful, and nice.

Here are other things:

HorrorLoveMicrofictionMysteryPsychologicalClassical

About the Creator

Paul Stewart

Award-Winning Writer, Poet, Scottish-Italian, Subversive.

The Accidental Poet - Poetry Collection out now!

Streams and Scratches in My Mind coming soon!

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Comments (13)

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  • Sara Wilson3 months ago

    amazing work! Good luck!

  • Mackenzie Davis3 months ago

    Ew, I hope this wins, Paul! Brilliant entry. Leveling up with a poem, too ;D

  • Lamar Wiggins3 months ago

    So happy to see you join in, Paul!

  • Very gruesome and made me feel despondent-- o glad you wrote something beautiful afterwards-- that must have been exhausting to write!

  • Thank you for your gruesome entry Paul. My hands and knees are shaking after reading that.

  • Matthew J. Fromm4 months ago

    Nothing I love more then when a submission ends with a Wikipedia page

  • Aspen Marie 4 months ago

    Macabre and lovely! Fabulous as always!!

  • I recognised her in the cover pic before reading your caption because I've written about her in one of my true crime articles. She's so horrifying, lol. I especially loved turn my labia inside out hahahahhaahhaha

  • Hannah Moore4 months ago

    Like, I'm thinking about that case in Germany where someone commited consensual murder and cannibalism.... Depravity, that's the word.

  • John Cox4 months ago

    This is a masochistic nightmare, Paul! Excellently and extravagantly penned as always, but damn! Good thing I read this before dining and not after. It would have put me off my feed!

  • Cindy Calder4 months ago

    What a splendid bit of gore and haunted legend. I adore the way you pen such Elizabethan styled prose and poetry. This piece definitely has my vote. Well done.

  • Stephanie Hoogstad4 months ago

    Wow, that is definitely a different take on Lady Báthory than I would have thought. I love it. It’s twisted and desperate. My mom would have loved it, too; she was fascinated by the rumors surrounding Lady Báthory. So, excellent job.

  • Mark Graham4 months ago

    To me this is once again in your Shakespearean mode. I really like all the vocabulary you use, and I get the sense that I am in jolly ole England when this has taken place. Great work.

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