What We Don't Talk About

“Breakfast!” Mom trilled.

The horror opened its misshapen jaw as the bowl of porridge passed.  Green sludge dripped between its crooked, needlelike teeth and spilled with a hiss into the vessel.

“Mom...” said Harriet. 

“Shush!” Mom said.  She turned away, deliberately not looking at the horror’s spiked tail as she stepped over it.  “Eat your food.”

“But I can’t.  It’s...” Harriet paused.  The horror was staring at her, tense and readyAll she had to do was acknowledge it, just once...  “I don’t want it.”

“Well, you have to sit with us until we’re done,” Mom said.

“Okay.” 

The horror waited.