Coleslaw salad

 In the eerie silence of the opulent mansion, where grandeur and cruelty coexisted, a child's innocence was slowly eroding. As he delicately savored his coleslaw salad, he questioned his mother about the peculiar dish. Her chilling response echoed through his thoughts - "It's coleslaw, also known as the poor people's salad."

Unperturbed, the child ventured outside to play with the maid's children, a comforting escape from the harsh realities within those gilded walls. Yet, when he reached their usual gathering spot, he found an eerie void - neither the maid nor her children were present.

The following day, a new maid arrived, her children in tow, like a fresh piece on a sinister chessboard. The child, desperate for companionship, engaged in playful laughter once more. But the fleeting joy was a cruel mirage, for within a week, this new maid and her children vanished too, swallowed by the mansion's insatiable hunger for novelty.

Puzzled, the child confronted his mother about the unnerving turnover of maids. Her response was as cryptic as it was horrifying, "So that the salad remains fresh." The child shuddered, unable to grasp the macabre implication lurking beneath her words.

Undeterred by the sinister mystery, the child continued to consume his coleslaw, oblivious to the gruesome truth. It was a facade of normalcy, a fragile veil obscuring the horror that dwelled beneath.

One fateful day, as the child and the maid's children ventured near the cook's quarters, they were met with vehement scolding and an adamant warning - that place was forbidden. Curiosity gnawed at the child, and he stealthily ventured closer, peering through a crack in the door. What he saw would haunt him forever.

His heart pounded as he beheld a gruesome tableau. The maid and her children lay lifeless, their bodies cruelly dissected, becoming the horrifying ingredients that were destined to grace the dinner table of the heartless household.

The child's stomach churned, and bile rose in his throat. He vomited in revulsion, unable to comprehend the depths of cruelty that existed within those walls. And yet, as the putrid taste of bile lingered in his mouth, he returned to the dining room, where the tainted coleslaw awaited him.

Tears welled in his eyes, but he dared not defy the sinister force that held him captive. The child picked up his fork, the taste of horror and despair forever intermingled with the shredded cabbage and carrots. In that mansion of darkness, innocence was sacrificed, and the child was condemned to an endless feast of terror.

This was a story written by Gautam Bharti.