The Short and Scary Series
Second Story
There Will Be More
By Cathy Pace Matthews
Copyright 2019 by Cathy Matthews
Published at Smashwords
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This book is a work of fiction. Any similarities to anyone, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Content
Short story – There Will Be More
About the Author
Books by Cathy Pace Matthews
Introduction to Blood Lines, The Curse – Chapter 2
Connect with Cathy
Dedicated to
Terry Pace who has such faith in me. Thank you, my dear sweet brother.
There Will Be More
The woman running down the hill stopped suddenly as she heard her husband scream out behind her.
“No!” The resounding high pitched sound of her husband’s voice breaking through the night was enough to give anyone chills in spite of the oppressive heat that permeated the night.
She turned to see the taboo of her husband and the man standing in front of him silhouetted by the large bright full moon behind them. The image reminded her of some cartoonish sight from an old movie scene. She watched as the ax swung through the night air making contact with the side of her husband’s neck slicing her husband’s head completely from his body.
This sent the head of the man she loved go spinning through the air end over end. The blood that the heart had shortly before pumped into it now sprayed the red droplets of liquid flying out in a pinwheel pattern as it made it way outward. It then took the arched pathway to the ground several feet below where the body slowly sunk to its knees then falling forward to the ground. The soft thud like sound the head made as it hit the earth barely registered with the woman as she watched her husband’s head now roll downhill and coming to a wobbling stop face up on the toe of her right shoe.
The shock of the horrific sight held her glued in place, her eyes fastened to the now dead sightless eyes of her husband. So mesmerized by the gruesome sight at her feet she totally forgot how and who had put it there. That critical moment held her prisoner as the ax welding dark figure made his was slowly down the hill toward her.
The woman wasn’t aware of the determined human silhouette being at her side until she heard a swishing sound and felt the razor-sharp blade kiss the soft skin of her neck. This was followed by a quick unbelievable rush of pain through her head as her spine was sliced and her head was severed from her body. Now it was her head that went flying leaving a red trail of blood as her now numb body stood headless for a moment before taking the very same journey to the ground that her husband had before her. The result of this was to remove the barrier that had held her husband’s head prisoner as one of her feet gave it a slight kick as she hit the ground and his head went rolling again down the hill pursuing hers.
The man’s head hit something in the road and took a slight turn sending it rolling off toward the side of the road and coming to rest again on the soft shoulder of the night blanketed asphalt. The woman’s rolled a little further down the thoroughfare before it too came to rest on the opposite side of the road from her husband’s.
The lone ax welding man watched the two oblong objects roll down the hill and come to rest before he turned his attention back to the body of the woman. She had been attractive he thought. He noticed a couple of locks of her dark curly hair lying next to her body where they too had been severed from her head when the ax caressed the side of her neck. A warm breeze caused one of them to slowly spin like the pin on a compass in a ninety degree turn with the end of the lock of hair now pointing downhill toward the woman’s head as if it were pointing in its direction. It almost reminded the man of an accusing finger pointing out what he had just done. If this had been an act of passion or some unforeseen act it might have had some effect on him. He only found it to be interesting.
The man continued to stare at the woman’s body as his mind processed what he had just done. Yes, it had been a brutal and messy way to kill but he had enjoyed it. As he stood over the woman, or what was left of her a pleasant sensation traveled up his spine and then made a return trip back down coming to an enjoyable end in the abdominal area of his body.
He didn’t know what had possessed him earlier this evening to pick up the ax and make the decision he did. He just remembered going out to his shed and taking the ax by the handle and softly stroking it. Somewhere in the back of his mind he had heard a voice telling him to, “Use me.”
He hadn’t understood at first but as the voice continued to make this demand of him the message became more and more clear. The voice wanted him to kill.
When he had rounded his house from the back of his house, he had noticed his neighbors standing in the middle of their front yard talking about something. When they had noticed him walking toward them. they had tried to make conversation with him at first. When they saw the look in his eyes and the ax in his hand they started to run toward the street. There was no running toward their front door because he had already gotten between them and it. Probably wouldn’t have mattered anyway if they had made it inside. Their front door wouldn’t have stood up to his ax. Funny thing was, he had bought the ax from his neighbor’s hardware store only a couple of days before.
He had just brutally killed two people tonight, but he wasn’t through. The voice was still screaming in his head and he was still stocking the handle of the ax, now soaked in blood. He had been holding this in for years and tonight it had finally broken free in him. He had tried to fight it but no longer could. He wiped the edge of the ax on the woman’s clothes and turned to continue down the hill. No, he wasn’t through. He had others he wanted to dispatch the same way he had this couple. He wanted to get as many in tonight before anyone knew what was happening. He had no doubt that he himself would be dead by this time tomorrow night, but until then the night belonged to him. Yes, before this night was over, there would be more.
Cathy lives in Tennessee with her wonderful husband and together they have three beautiful daughters who all live close to them. They are a tight knit family, but things can get a little hectic during the holidays and on special occasions with the girls and their families.
Cathy and Buddy have a 1963 4106 Greyhound bus that has been converted and they love to travel in it. A lot of what Cathy is inspired by are the people she meets on the road and the places they go.
More than anything outside of her family Cathy loves to write. She came to it a little later than most but like in real life she loves to take adventures in her own mind and her books are the result of that.
Other books by Cathy Pace Matthews
Blood Lines The Curse
Blood Lines Buried Treasure
Blood Lines Family Ties
Journey into Nightmares
Nightmare Express
Laugh, Cry, Die
Cold Encounters
‘The Short and Scary Series’
The Long Drive Home
There Will Be More
The World of Pretty Colors
The Darkest Shadow
Locked Away
Contract Killer
Excerpt from
Blood Lines
The Curse
Chapter 1
Emma stepped out of the attor
ney’s office into the late afternoon sun trying to comprehend all she had just learned. Once on the sidewalk she stopped and simply stared off into space. She managed to collect herself and tried to decide what she should do next. To her right was Main and to the left was Water Street, beyond that, the Cape Girardeau Mural Wall. She turned in the direction of Water Street.
It was a short walk to the restaurant where she had decided to have dinner. One of the few things that had stuck in her memory was the Sunday lunches. She remembered the place where she and her family used to go. It was a little more upscale barbeque restaurant with really good food if memory served her correct. Emma had looked it up on the internet and been surprised to find it was still there.
The restaurant was located in an old three-story building that had been around since long before the Civil War. The building actually progressed from a one-story building on Main and as you traveled down Themis Street became a two-story then a three as you continued down to Water Street. At about the two-story mark Emma realized she would have to walk back up this damn steep hill to get her car and wished she had driven down instead. At the bottom the building faced the Mural Wall and the Mississippi River. The wall was part of the flood defense system that ran along this stretch of the Mississippi here in Cape. The wall was painted with lovely murals depicting the history of this lovely old town and state. The people of this little city, calling it a town didn’t seem right anymore, had taken great pride in the wall and overall growth it had experienced. It had put a lot into keeping the old buildings and history alive. The building the restaurant was located in had been the headquarters for General U. S. Grant for a short time during the Civil War.
She stepped in the door and a pleasant looking young woman greeted Emma and seated her. As the waitress handed the menu to Emma the young woman asked her what she would like to drink. Emma ordered sweet tea with lemon. What could she say? She was Southern.
Emma picked up the menu stared at the menu lost in thought for a moment when she was interrupted. The waitress sudden appearance at her side again startled Emma.
“May I take your order, or do you need a few more minutes.”
Emma made a quick decision and gave the waitress her order. After she had left, Emma reached for the folder that she had laid on the table when she had sat down. Inside was a copy of a will and other documents that the lawyer had given her. The will had simply stated that she had inherited her paternal grandmother’s entire estate. What she hadn’t expected was how much it had turned out to be. The total was enough for her to live on for the rest of her life if she didn’t do anything stupid like buy a couple of big planes or yachts. A tear rolled down her cheek as she realized this was the second time in the past few months she had gone through the same thing. Her mother had died in a car wreck just a little over a month before. She was a long way from being over that and now this.
When Emma’s mom had been killed in that car wreck by that drunk driver she had been devastated. She had been told that her mom had had been killed instantly and probably never knew what hit her. The low life creep who had taken her mother’s life was alive, well, and out on bail. He had been fortunate enough to get thrown from his car on impact. A couple of weeks in the hospital and he was good to go. A burning anger flowed through Emma at that point that flushed her skin bright red. Emma took in a deep breath to try and control her feelings.
The waitress had evidently notice Emma and walked back over to the table. “Are you OK ma'am?”
Emma brushed the tears from her face and answered the young girl. “Yes, just tripping over a few emotions. I’m fine. Thank you.”
“Well if you need anything just let me know, your order should be out shortly.”
Emma choked back a nervous giggle because of the thoughts going through her head. First and foremost, going from tears to giggling in the middle of a public place could get her locked up for being a nut job. The other was that she was fast accumulating a lot of property and she didn’t know what to do with any of it. She owned her own condo in downtown Memphis, and she’d inherited her mother’s house and holdings. Now she had a fairly large farm and all that went with it in Missouri. She still hadn’t made up her mind what to do with the two places she already had.
Emma also knew that if she were to express this out loud to anyone, she would come off sounding shallow and spoiled. The truth was she had always liked things simple. She tended to try and find logic in everything and to her way of thinking, things were getting way too cluttered and complicated.
Emma’s phone rang bringing her back to the here and now. Pulling it out of her purse she noticed who the caller was and said under her breath. “Damn, not him.” David was technically her boss but before he had been promoted to that position Emma had dated him a couple of times on a casual basis. It hadn’t taken her a long time to figure out what the man’s game plan was and had no intention of being a part of it. The truth was he was an arrogant ass. Emma thought she had made it very clear that she wasn’t interested in any future relationship. It hadn’t kept him from butting into her life unfortunately.
David was bad about butting into everyone’s business back at school but his constant poking his nose into her personal life had reached its limits with her. He even tried pushing his way into coming on this trip with her.
She answered her phone. “What do you want?”
“Well hello to you too, Emma.”
“Get to the point David.”
“When are you planning on coming back?”
“I just got here. It won’t be anytime soon.”
“Well I could really use you back here as soon as possible.”
“David I’m taking time off. You know, it is called extended leave? Do you understand the concept?”
Jumping in before Emma could hang up on him, he blurted out. “We had something come up at the Pinson Mounds and I really need you on this one.”
Pinson Mounds was an archeological park in the middle of the western portion of Tennessee. It contained thirty mounds, one of which was the second tallest in the country. Some of the mounds dated back to between one hundred and three hundred AD. Under any other circumstances she would have been more than happy to go.
“Get Jeff.”
“You are the best we have, and I think…”
“Get Jeff. End of story. He’s good at what he does, and those mounds are something he has wanted a chance at for a while. Keep this up with me David and I won’t come back at all.”
“Emma, I think it would be best for me to come up there and help you sort this all out? After all…”
“Goodbye David, don’t call me again,”
Emma hung up the phone and dropped it back into her purse. She really did love her job at the university. She loved her work in the archaeology department, but she also knew she could go pretty much anywhere she wanted so David needed to back the hell off.
God, she couldn’t believe she dated that moron even if it had only been for a short time. He was an arrogant pig, way too full of himself. It had been over two years since Emma had had a lapse in judgment and gone out with him. Ever since her mother died he had really tried to move in on her. She was quite certain he was interested more in what she may have inherited than in her. Just in the couple of days before she had left for this trip he had found out what was going on and the result had been he had gotten worse.
Her food arrived and that washed all other thoughts from her head.
After Emma finished eating, she paid the bill and walked out into a soft spring breeze that stirred the evening air.
She decided to walk out past the wall through one of the flood gates and onto the bank of the river. The soft sound of the fast-moving water had a calming effect on her. She had never stood on the bank of this river anywhere that it hadn’t touched something inside her. It seemed that she was forever drawn to it. It was the reason why she had bought the condo in downtown Memphis. She could step out on her balcony and see the river and could
even hear it when the traffic wasn’t bad.
A small child and her parents were walking nearby. The little girl let out a sweet little laugh as her father grabbed her and swung her up in the air. “Daddy!” She squealed as he swung her up again.
For the second time that day a tear rolled down her cheek as she remembered her dad doing the same with her when she was little in about the same spot as the man and his daughter were now. Funny, she hadn’t remembered that in a very long time. Most of the memories of the time before her father’s death had been shut off in the back of her mind because they had been too painful. Now she was here because it was his mother who had died.
Emma turned and retraced her steps through the flood gate and walked back to her car. It was getting late and she wanted to talk to her mother’s parents before it got much later. You never knew what those two might be up to and she wanted to catch them if she could. They had been devastated by the loss of their oldest daughter. It had been fortunate they had friends who had stepped up and did everything they could to keep Meme and Poppy busy. It didn’t stop their pain, but the support they had received from their friends had been a godsend for them both. Emma had been glad that they’d had such strong supporters.
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