Deception

“I am not a witch,” she told me, “I am a goddess.  And so will you be, as long as you do what you’re told.”

I didn't believe her.  But too afraid to challenger her on this, I only asked, “You were my mother once, weren’t you?”

The witch smiled.  “The universe is our mother,” she answered.  From underneath her robes she then produced a baby doll--the kind little girls pushed around in tiny strollers, and kissed good night.  “You will take this," the witch told me.  "But beware: she will watch you and report whatever you say or do.  She never sleeps, and she never blinks.  You might think you’ve fooled her, but you won’t have.  She exists for only one purpose.   You cannot kill her.  You cannot win.”

I looked down into the baby doll's glassy blue eyes.  It was over.  Nothing would ever feel safe again.