Mary Taylor
I look down at the postcard on my doorstep. A woman’s vacant gaze stares back at me, her old fashioned black bonnet surrounding her face with shadow. Turning the card over, there is no note, only a signature: Mary Taylor
Through the glass pane of my window I see her on the street, consumed by a black shroud. She’s staring in now, directly at me. I turn and bolt my door, questioning ‘what could you want with me, Mary Taylor?’
I am on the bus. Through the window condensation I see a shadow, a white face standing out from the darkness. I stand from my seat but she is already gone, leaving the words on my lips: Mary Taylor
I hear a scraping outside my apartment door, like scissors on metal. The door clicks and creaks, and a tap, tap, tap, clicks along the hallway. She is here.
I wanted to use the image that I was basing my creative writing on, within the piece. I found an image of a Victorian woman, and based the character ‘Mary Taylor’ on her. The story itself is loosely based on the myth of Bloody Mary, which I wanted the audience to realise, hence naming the character Mary. The idea was that after seeing her three times (instead of saying her name) she would appear and kill you/the main character. I also chose the surname Taylor as I wanted her to have a seamstress theme. If I had had a higher word count I would’ve liked to explore the idea that she was a seamstress originally, possibly using sewing scissors to murder her victims. The word count did prove to be a challenge, as I could not offer much context, or description of the main character or the situation they were in, instead having to rely on more subtle descriptors. I also wanted the character of Mary to seem as if she didn’t really belong in the world, or was a supernatural character, so tried to show that she often blended in with the dark or could only be seen not in person (eg in on a postcard).