“The Virtuous Woman” — A Short Story, P1

I discovered a lovely writing competition today on Instagram (via @cassandrahammwrites).

The prompt was “In the garden grew the most beautiful flowers; and they were all poisonous.” We had 24 hours to respond to the prompt in less than 150 words. Here’s my take; keep coming back, and I’ll add to it (because I may have accidentally fallen in love with this concept).

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In the garden grew the most beautiful flowers; and they were all poisonous.

But not in the way you would expect. The faeries were the first to understand their true power: only the pure of heart could smell their gentle, unassuming scent and live. Those with unrepentant, blackened souls were warned of the garden and never wandered anywhere near its dangerous beauty.

In the middle of the garden was a tiny hut, where its gardener lived. Legend had it that this woman had the purest heart in the entire world . . . and yet she was in love with a villain.

They communicated by letter only, for she was forbidden to leave the gate and risk staining her white soul, and of course her lover wouldn’t dare enter and succumb to the flowers’ power.

Their letters grew longer and longer with every passing year.