Terrifying Love: A Halloween Anthology

by Serena Nova

  He trailed off as a sob escaped him. It seemed as though he really loved her and there was nothing I could do to comfort him other than to just listen as I scanned the room. I hoped that Trey would come over and help me out. He knew me well enough to know that I would be dealing with this whole thing myself until the backup came.

  Instead of Trey, Master came over and handed me a drink. "I hear you're a cop," he said with a little bit of surprise in his voice. I just didn't know if it was good or bad.

  "Yep," I replied simply. "Thank you for the drink but I need to sober up before my colleagues arrive."

  "I figured as much, and it's plain soda," he grinned at me. "Do they know about this?" he questioned as he gestured to my outfit.

  I laughed, "No, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to transfer to another state after this. I stupidly gave my trench coat to the girl who is going to try to get a call out to the emergency line." I felt the blush creeping up as I thought of how my partner would react to my current situation. He was a devout Christian, and this would not be good at all.

  Master showed a side of himself that I appreciated, "Why don't you go get the rest of your outfit on and I'm sure we can find a way to fix you up to look like it's just a normal Halloween party costume."

  I didn't want to leave the body, but he assured me that he would make sure no one touched it while I was gone. It seemed that no one wanted to be near it anyway, so I took him up on his offer.

  Giving him a chaste kiss on the cheek, I said, "Thank you. I appreciate it. I'll be back soon.”

  Chapter Ten

  Present day...

  I found my way to the couch where I'd left the other pieces of my costume before my tryst with the sexy trio. I still didn't know where Trey was. Normally, I wouldn't care at all because we would both disappear and meet up at the door when the night ended. This time though, I was a little scared. More than a little.

  "Ames," a female voice sounded behind me. I whipped my head around and didn't see anyone near me. "Aaaammmeesss," the quiet, feminine voice called my name in an almost teasing way.

  I stood up and my head felt like it was spinning. I cursed myself for all the shots I'd drunk earlier. Blackness clouded the edge of my eyes as I turned around and found a reflection staring back at me that was not my own. Her face was eerily white, blood seeping from her eyes down her face. She grinned at me like a predator and I backed away, falling over the table behind me and landing on my ass.

  I scrambled to get away as I felt the danger I was in, something in my gut that told me if I didn't run, I would be dead. My head spun as I crawled as quickly as I could while trying to get on my feet. I didn't know where I was going, but I knew I had to get away.

  My only thought was to find Trey. He would know what to do. It's strange how the mind goes to that place when faced with death from the unknown. My training flew out the window when I was faced with a threat that couldn't be real.

  My heel broke and I tripped, flying into a lounger and landing with a thud on something hard and cold. I scrambled to get up and keep running from whoever and whatever that thing in the mirror was.

  Somehow, through the haze of my mind, I realized that it was a person I'd landed on. I stood on shaky legs and forced myself to look. "Trey!" I screamed as the shock of seeing him registered, blood leaking out of his eyes, mouth, and ears. I told myself he couldn't be dead, not my Trey. "No, no, no," I cried as I tried to find any sign that he was still alive.

  Fear forgotten by the overwhelming sense of grief, I cradled him in my arms and rocked him as the tears ran down my face.

  "Baxter," the same voice from earlier whispered, shocking me out of my state. I looked up and saw no one. I didn't know how this thing knew his last name, or mine for that matter.

  "What do you want?" I yelled to the disembodied voice.

  A laugh echoed around me, with one word, "Revenge."

  Chapter Eleven

  390 years ago...

  I didn't know how much time had passed since I was hung until I appeared in a state of sudden awareness. It was almost as if I'd been asleep and suddenly woke up. Except I was in a dark room with a small light coming from something that looked like a window.

  I stepped closer and could make out the inside of someone's house. It seemed familiar to me and I tried searching my memories for where I knew this place. The home was much like my own before I found a real home in the comfortable wigwam with my lovers.

  The ache in my heart made me gasp as I recalled the memories of their deaths. I could feel the blood spraying upon me as the throats of Sassomon and Tatoson were slit. I could see Thomas, my sweet love, turning blue and eyes bulging as he took his last breaths swinging from a rope.

  Anger ripped through me as I looked down upon my belly and saw that it was still swollen as if I were with child, yet there was no movement. Only a feeling of emptiness that brought me to my knees. I called out to the Creator, but my voice just echoed back to me.

  I wiped my tears, and my hand came away with blood. Before I could examine it more, movement from the window caught my attention. I stood to investigate, hoping that whoever was on the other side could help me escape this dark room.

  Him. It was Patrick White, the Minister that destroyed my happiness. I leaned closer to the window and called out to him. He looked around the room as if he heard me but couldn't see where I was.

  "Patrick White!" I screamed as I pressed my face against the glass.

  He turned and looked, finally seeing me as his jaw dropped and his face paled. He held a hand to his heart. "Mary?" he questioned as fear flashed through his eyes.

  "You killed my soulmates! You killed my child! You killed me, Patrick!" I screamed at him, my anger unleashing in every word I spoke.

  I shivered at his words. "You all deserved it. Now you're in Hell where you belong. Don't blame me for the sins you committed under God's eyes."

  It didn't matter that there was glass in front of me or that I was in an incorporeal body, all I could think about was making him suffer. He would never feel even half the pain he inflicted on me, but I would do what I could.

  Both of our eyes went wide as I jumped through the window as if it weren't there and landed on him. I wrapped my fingers around his throat, my shattered heart seeming to press all of its grief into him.

  I didn't understand why, but he was rendered unmovable, his eyes boring into mine. It was as if he were feeling all of the horrific emotional pain that I did. It didn't take long before blood seeped out of the orifices of his face and I felt his pulse slow as my hands dug into his neck.

  His stiff body suddenly went slack, and I knew in my soul that he was gone. I let go of him, letting him drop to the floor with a loud, satisfying thud. Grinning as I looked down on his dead body, I knew the Creator answered my pleas. I'd exacted my revenge upon him, and I would get the others as well.

  I straightened my dress, the ugly white frock they forced upon me to cover my beautiful deerskin clothing before they paraded me through the town. When I turned around, I realized that the window was not a window at all. It was a mirror. I stepped back into it and found that I could move in at will, but not out.

  One person down on my list. I just needed to figure out how to get to the other three. And with those ones, I would not make it a simple death. No, I would kill their wives as they watched before making their deaths just as painful as Patrick White's.

  Chapter Twelve

  Present Day...

  Max came upon me and somehow got me to let go of Trey. He pulled me to his chest and let me cry, saying soothing words as he stroked my hair. "I'm so sorry, Kat," his voice filled with concern as he used my fake name. "Let's get you something to drink."

  "I can't leave him like that, out on display. God, what am I going to tell his parents? Mrs. Baxter already lost her husband when Trey was young. He was all she had left." Sobs wracked my body at the thought of how crushed she would be. Guilt assaulted me as I thought of my own refusal to ha
ve children, someone that could have carried on his name and soothed the souls of both his mother and I.

  Max let me go for a moment and pulled a drape from the wall and carefully put it over Trey's body. I knew I should be investigating, helping the others, yet my heart was shattered into a million pieces and I just couldn't.

  We moved across the room, the tightness in my chest increasing the further away from Trey's body I moved. At this point, I was moving on autopilot and drank whatever was put in my hand. I didn't taste it, just relished in the burn that went down my throat and warmed me from the inside. "You're shaking," Max noted as another drink made it into my hand. I threw this one back just as quickly and made a noise of agreement.

  "There you are, my pet," Master's voice barely pulled me from my zombie state. I glanced up and he must have mistaken my look for something entirely different. "Don't worry, I have someone watching the body that I trust. I was concerned when you didn't come back. It also seems that I’ve lost Lui."

  Max informed him that he hadn’t seen Lui and I confirmed that I hadn’t either. After that, he filled in Master on what happened as I stared at nothing in particular, willing my mind not to listen to the words. I no longer cared about Patty's body or doing my job. I just wanted to go home and crawl in my bed. Maybe I'd wake up from this nightmare.

  "Dude, you alright?" the concern that bordered on panic in Max's voice pulled me from my state. "Sam!" he said in almost a shout.

  I don't know why my thoughts went there, but my only thought was that Sam seemed like such a mild name for Master. I would have expected him to be a Ryder or Blade, something more fitting to his dominating presence.

  It wasn't until Max stood up quickly that I looked up at Master. He stared out in the distance, a look of pure fear on his face. Looking around, I couldn't see anything that would cause that kind of reaction. It snapped me out of my inaction, "Does he have a history of medical problems? Maybe seizures?" I questioned Max.

  "No, nothing like that. He's always been very healthy. He's my best friend and I've never seen him do anything like this before. His dad died when he was a baby, but I don't know what from. His mom would never talk about it."

  Max tried to push him on the arm after not getting any reaction, but his hand jerked away as soon as it got near Master. "Son of a bitch, that hurt. What the fuck?"

  I had no idea what happened, so I tried myself. As my hand hovered over Master's shoulder, searing pain that felt like a knife radiated from my hand and up through my arm the longer I held it there. I tried to push through the pain, reach out and actually touch him, but an invisible barrier stopped me. Sweat was dripping from my forehead by the time I gave up as I realized it was fruitless.

  "I have no idea what the hell is going on," I murmured, more to myself than to Max. "I've never seen anything like this before and I've been a cop for damn near fifteen years."

  There wasn't anything we could do, so we stood helpless and watched as his expression changed from fear, to what looked like grief. A lone tear slid down his cheek, yet it wasn't clear liquid, it was blood red.

  I tried again to get to him, but the same force stopped me. In desperation, I tried to hit my hands against the invisible barrier but to no avail. Pain radiated up my arms, but I didn't care. This seemed to be the start of his death if the other bodies found were any indication, and I couldn't not try.

  As the blood began to seep from other orifices, Max tugged me away. "Shhh, there's nothing you can do for him. It's too late. We just have to hope he is strong enough to make it through this."

  No sooner than the words came out of his mouth, Master's body slumped to the ground and the people around us started screaming and running away. It seemed to cause a chain reaction where everyone rushed towards the front door and I knew the doorman wouldn’t be able to stop them all from leaving. I only hoped he was smart enough to stay safe.

  I could’ve left with them, turned in my badge and started a new life somewhere, yet I knew I couldn’t give up on the man that just collapsed in front of me. As a human, I felt life was valuable.

  Max and I both rushed to his side and I tried again to get through the barrier. It was more than a shock when my hand went right to his skin with no consequences. I checked for his pulse, but it was gone. "CPR," I mumbled as I tried to roll his large body over from where it had landed on his side. Max quickly helped and I started to push on his chest.

  My body was tired and my muscles felt like they would give out, but I kept going. I had to keep trying. I couldn't have another one lost, not one right in front of me.

  "Kat," Max sobbed, "it's too late. You have to stop now. He's not coming back. Fuck, I hate to say this, but it's been almost an hour."

  I didn't realize how much time passed, "Damn it!" I screamed as I beat on his chest. "Why? Why is this happening?" No one answered me as none of us knew. I sighed and sat back, "I'll need his real name so that the department can contact his family."

  "Samuel Greenwood," Max answered. "His mom is the only living relative in this area. He wasn't married and didn't have kids or anything. He doesn't even have siblings."

  I huffed, "Thank you. I need to see if I can find out where that girl is. I sent her out hours ago. Backup should have been here by now. Stay with him?" Max nodded and I made my way to the door to talk to the doorman and see if there was any sign of the woman.

  Laughter surrounded me, "Ames, you are the last," the same feminine voice echoed around me.

  "Why us?" I asked, my voice hitching as I thought about the three innocents that already died tonight.

  More laughter, bitter and full of venom, rang closer to my ear and I shivered. "You'll see very soon, Ames." The cold feeling that accompanied the voice disappeared and I knew that this thing was no longer near me.

  Chapter Thirteen

  390 years ago...

  I explored the darkness, my hands out in front of me as I tried to find where the confines were. It seemed as if it were an empty space that went on forever. I didn't tire of walking and kept moving forward as I asked the Creator for guidance.

  Time was no longer something that I had any awareness of. I only knew from the aging of Patrick White that some years must have passed from the time I was killed until I ended up here.

  As I spotted light glowing in the distance, excitement thrummed through my body and I quickened my steps. I didn't know what I would find and only hoped it was another mirror to those who needed to pay for their actions. Those responsible for not only my death, but the death of my Thomas, Sassomon, Tatoson, our child, and our people.

  Rage engulfed me as I finally made it to the mirror and looked through. I knew this home well, one that I'd visited many times when my parents were killed. Mrs. Greenwood helped me through the grief of losing my parents. Her husband, Samuel, taught me to work the land and provide for myself. They were my neighbors and I’d thought of them as my friends.

  When Samuel Greenwood spoke out against me, calling me a whore and screaming for me to be hung, I felt betrayed so much more than the others. Mrs. Greenwood stood by his side, clapping at his words. They would both pay for their treachery.

  I didn't know how much time passed as I stood waiting for movement as I stared out from the mirror. It didn't matter anymore. Time had no meaning and there was no limit on revenge. My patience paid off when I saw a little boy run past the mirror. Looking at his size, he must have been the one Mrs. Greenwood was pregnant with when she supported the death of myself and my own unborn child. He would have been her fourth child and I wondered how she could have felt it was okay to kill my own knowing full well how much love a mother felt towards a child in the womb.

  I burned with the need to kill her, to give her the same sense of hopelessness, loss, and utter agony that I felt that fateful day. Then she walked by and I screamed her name in rage. She turned and looked at me, her eyes widening in shock as she recognized my face looking back at her. I grinned wickedly as she made the sign of the cross and prayed, "
God, save me."

  I lunged at her, grasping her throat in my hands, "God will not save you from your sins."

  "Mama," her little boy's voice could be heard from the other room but I wouldn't let her answer. I kept her under my spell, something I was learning I could control with my intent. I waited for Mr. Greenwood to come in. I would make him watch while I took his wife and then I would take his own life.

  It wasn't long before I heard his footsteps and his voice, "Martha, there you are. Little John is looking for you. He wants to know if it's time to start the fire for dinner."

  She didn't answer him, and it seemed as though he couldn't see me. "How could you let me die, especially after they slaughtered the entire village. Then they took the men that I loved more than life itself from me and made me wear the blood of my lovers as they took me to my death."

  Even my words didn't seem to allow him to know I was there. Whatever powers the Creator blessed me with, I was even more grateful as I learned each one. Without further hesitation, I ignored Samuel trying to get his wife's attention, his hand pulling away as he tried to touch her. Instead, I pushed my memories of that day into her, everything I felt and saw unleashed in a torrent until the very end. Blood seeped from her eyes, followed by her mouth, her nose, and then her ears.

  Her heart stopped and I dropped her as I waited for Samuel to see me. He rushed to her side and cried, "John, get the doctor!"

  I heard the boy's footsteps run through the next room and a door slam. I tried to touch Samuel, but my hand went right through him. I stomped my foot, though it wasn't the same satisfaction as it was in my life. Screaming in frustration still did nothing so I jumped back into the mirror and turned to watch the scene. I didn't think I would be able to get out again as that was what happened the last time.

  Instead, I leaned against the pane of glass and shouted, "Greenwood!"

  He looked up at me and I laughed as his face morphed into one of shock and fear. "Mary?" he whispered before he called out for his God.