#Writephoto #Late #WhiteChristmasRabbit – Beneath

I am a White Christmas Rabbit this week. I have been late for everything. Anyhow, better late than never so, without further ado, here is my late write photo post for Sue Vincent’s challenge.

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The woman scuttled through the busy streets of the town. It had been raining and the bottom of her long, dark dress dragged in the mud. She clutched the large carpet bag she carried as if its contents were extremely precious to her.

As her destination drew closer the woman’s actions became furtive and suspicious. She approached the railings of the River Thames, peering all around, with short, sharp looks like a bird approaching a morsel of food.  This spot near a weir at Caversham Lock was secluded, she had been here several times before, it was nevertheless best to make sure. Satisfied that she was alone, she shoved the bag through the railings. A splash announced the bag’s meeting with the water.

A vague expression took possession of the woman’s ugly features and her facial muscles went slack as she watched the bag containing the bodies of the baby girl and the thirteen-month old boy, suitably weighted with bricks, slowly sink beneath the gently rippling surface of the water. To anyone watching, it was as if the candle illuminating her mind had been blow out, plunging it into blackness.

The woman, Amelia Dyer, had murdered both children herself, winding the white edging tape used for dressmaking twice around their fragile necks and tying it with a knot. The babies didn’t die immediately. Amelia liked to watch them going bright red as their tiny faces suffused with blood, and then pale and white. Finally, their lips went blue as their blood was starved of oxygen and then it was all over.

Minutes later, all that remained to be seen of the bag and its grim contents were a few bubbles. The woman’s face started to clear as the candle in her mind was re-lit through some unknown process. “Time to leave,” she said slowly, her expression still dazed.

This piece is extracted from my WIP Through the Nether Gate but I only wrote it this morning.

You will find the other posts in this challenge here: https://scvincent.com/2018/12/20/photo-prompt-round-up-beneath-writephoto/