The Horror of our Love: A Twisted Tales Anthology

by Nikita Slater

  The Angel of Music.

  “Oh, God,” she yells out, gripping my shoulders with thin claws. “I can see the stars, feel the night…”

  “Ugh,” I grunt over and over, my seed shooting deep inside her. “My love,” I chant, coming so hard the room goes dim.

  “Ethan,” she says, her neck lulling back and forth on the feathered pillows. “I feel so strange, like something is happening to me. Is something happening to me?” she asks softly, her voice barely above a whisper now.

  I want to reassure her, but she’s already asleep.

  The change is happening.

  Her pale mouth hangs open, and I push a lingering drop of blood from the corner of her lips into her throat, massaging her neck until she swallows.

  I’m neither a vampire nor a ghost.

  I’m nothing you’ve ever heard of. No living or dead creature has ever heard a whisper of me and lived to tell the tale.

  My father was and still is the Phantom, the Angel of Music, the creator of death notes.

  A man of so many faces…

  The Devil in the flesh.

  My mother couldn’t fathom his trickery or that she’d given birth to Lucifer’s son, so she’d tried to kill me, an innocent babe, her raven’s talons stripping away half of my face.

  Whenever I asked my father about her, what became of her, his answer was always the same:

  Shapeshifters are not to be trusted.

  And now, I am this thing for which there is no name.

  Yet, I am simply another monster.

  When I turned a certain age, I noticed that women wanted me, craved what was beneath the mask. They wanted a secret all their own. None of them, none of those women held my interest, for I was like them in a way. I wanted what I couldn’t have.

  Hannah Vale.

  And so, I struck a deal with the dealer himself.

  Shuddering, I remember our encounter from a month ago.

  “Ssso, niccce to sssee you, again, ssson,” he greeted, his red eyes lighting up at his luck. “Finally come to pay the piper.”

  “I just want her,” I panted, the effort to look upon his true form almost too much to bear. “That’s it.”

  He cackled, leaning forward on his throne. “You know the priccce.”

  Blinking, I pull my thoughts back to the future, where he can’t hear them. The man I call my father is the biggest monster of them all.

  For I am the son of Lucifer and Elorna, Queen of Ravens.

  My own mother wanted me dead, and now I’ve given him my soul.

  All for her.

  When she wakes, which won’t be for some time, she’ll be like me, a monster with no name.

  But she’ll still have her soul, that’s the one thing I won’t let be taken from her.

  Her soul belongs to me.

  October 31st

  “Souls, we’re looking for souls, anyone have any souls for sale?” a man dressed as a businessman asks. “Ah, you, you’re awake.” He smiles pleasantly, opening his palm to reveal a still-beating heart with a name carved into the bloody organ.

  Hannah Vale

  Jolting awake, a cold chill tingles up my spine, my breath heavy and taxed. “What the…” I look around, a scream welling up inside my throat.

  No, no, no, no.

  Oh God, I’m still in the same bed. His bed. Stripped completely naked.

  “Ethan?” I call out, my voice echoing in the darkness. “Ethan, where are you?”

  Ethan!

  I receive no answer save my own frightened voice as it bounces off expressionless walls, mocking the silence.

  Where are you?

  Clenching my eyes closed, a soft mewling starts as I count to ten in my head.

  One, two, three…why is this happening to me?

  Four, five, six…this isn’t real.

  Seven, eight, nine…wake up, Hannah, wake up!

  “I’m here.” Ten.

  Cracking one eye open, I’m relieved to find it is Ethan and not something else. Like that person or thing in my dream.

  Holy hell, I must be losing my mind.

  “Hannah,” Ethan says my name, stalking closer with his hands outstretched. “I know you must be feeling…” he trails off, eyeing me with curiosity.

  “Strange, I’m feeling…” I mutter softly, pausing as I gaze around the barely lit room for clues. “So very strange,” I finish almost helplessly. “And yet, I feel as if I’m supposed to be here, right now.”

  His lips curve into what I think is meant to be a sympathetic smile. “Yes, my love, that’s all normal.”

  “Normal?” I ask, sensing there’s more he’s going to tell me.

  “You’re one of us, now.”

  I try not to lose it. “One of whom?” I question shakily.

  He laughs demonically. “You and me and many more, we’re what they call…creatures of the night.

  As much as I want to play dumb, I can’t, because I know exactly what he’s referring to. He means that we’re dead or undead, something along those lines. I feel it, too. Dead…and yet not. Like there’s something inside me missing, but also something new and undiscovered…

  Deep, dark, and terrifying.

  He’s suddenly beside me on the bed, caressing my face. “You’ve put the pieces together, haven’t you, my love?” His face seems dispassionate, but there’s something almost sweet in his tone.

  Tears leak from the corner of my eyes, and I almost laugh in relief that I’m still able to do something so ordinary, so human. It’s odd to describe, but I know I’m still me. I’m still the Hannah Vale that grew up with an overbearing father.

  Dear, God…my father. I’d forgotten all about him up until this moment, and now more than ever, that day seems like a distant memory…

  “Hannah!” my father called impatiently. “Your breakfast is getting cold!”

  Hurrying in my guilt, I slid my forbidden book from the library underneath one of the loose floorboards in my bedroom. Just in case I couldn’t go through with it. See, Father didn’t approve of romance novels. He said they did nothing but rot a young girl’s brain.

  The last time he’d caught me with what he called a ’forbidden book’, I’d been put on a water and bread diet for a week straight.

  It hadn’t been the first time, but I hoped it would be the last.

  My father’s punishments were always extreme, starting from the age of thirteen. He’d had to teach me the ways of being a clean, proper young lady.

  Only, I didn’t care for his methods and often wished for an end to it all…

  Life could be a dream, sweetheart.

  He’d started playing the song, the song I’d come to hate, which meant I needed to get downstairs soon. It was strange but that tune, those words spoke to me. After so many times of hearing it, I’d started to become one with it.

  I knew I sounded crazy, that’s why I had to do it.

  This was the day, I thought to myself, swiftly climbing down the stairs. I’d end that old man’s suffering once and for all. With sweaty fingers, I clasped a kitchen knife in my right hand, hidden behind my back.

  Hello, hello again.

  Only, I was too late. When I reached the bottom step, my father was reaching for me, one hand over his chest. I’ll never forget the way his mouth hung open, like a pig’s waiting to be stuffed with an apple.

  My father died that day, at the age of 48, of a stone cold heart attack.

  “What’s that song you’re singing, my love?” Ethan asks, slightly pulling my hair to grab my attention.

  Licking my lips, I tell him the truth. “A song my dad used to play by The Coasters.”

  “I know you wanted to kill him, your father, didn’t you, Hannah?”

  “Yes,” I admit, meeting his icy-blue gaze. “Yes, I wanted him dead.”

  He chuckles. “But the heart attack came first, that’s too bad, my love.” His tone implies sympathy but I don’t feel it. I don’t feel anything.

  I nod in agreement. �
��That’s right.”

  I should be asking how he knows all this, but I honestly don’t care how he knows.

  He knows, and that’s enough.

  Ethan starts to climb over me, the feel of his breath against my chest sending waves of heat straight to my core. “You have me now, my love,” he says softly. “I’m all you’ll ever need, ever desire.”

  He’s starting to sound more and more like my father, someone who only wishes to control me.

  And I can’t have that, no matter what I’ve become. No matter how much I might desire him, a monster.

  I need to get back to my friends who I’d somehow been separated from at the party, but first I need to see the man beneath the mask. Who is Ethan Winchester, really?

  With a shaking hand, I reach up before his lips meet mine, ripping the mask from the right side of his face…

  Gasping, I take in the horror…

  It’s as if someone tried to rip the flesh from his face.

  Long, claw-like scars rake his right cheekbone all the way up to his eye and hairline.

  An eye that came close to being ripped from its socket, I can tell because there’s a piece of skin completely missing…

  My hand covers my mouth as I take in his dark, tragic beauty.

  My God, what creature did this to him?

  Growling, he yanks the mask from my grip. “You’ll pay for that,” he threatens, jumping up and turning away while fumbling to put the mask in place.

  “I’m sorry, so sorry…” I whisper, half heartbroken for him. “I had no idea…”

  He twists his mask back into place. “Now, what?” he snarls like a beast about to trample. “I’ll not stand for your pity.” He advances on me, murder in his eyes.

  Dark, deadly energy pours off him in terrifying waves.

  Fly, I need to fly…

  Trick or Treat Part I

  Like a freight train, determination mixed with some kind of old magic courses through my bloodstream as I shift and change into something else entirely. I feel it, the break to my bones when my arms are no longer there, and in their place are black-feathered, raven’s wings.

  I’m flying; I’m actually, literally flying.

  The air surrounds my tiny body, and the look on Ethan’s face is one of incredulous rage. My vision is no longer hindered by that of a human. I can see every crevasse of the room I’ve been kept in, the walls a glimmering, tan stone.

  The beating of my wings trills through my senses, almost causing me to falter.

  There’s a distant light, calling to me…This way, fly this way, freedom is here.

  Flap, flap, flap…

  His howl is the last thing I hear as I fly forward. There are too many endless turns and twists, a never ending maze. A labyrinth of haunting shadows chases me until finally; the light is right before me. The exit to my prison is in the shape of a gaping hole that leads out into the night sky. A sky filled with brilliant stars and a moon hanging in the balance.

  A cave, I’d been in a cave!

  With one last look behind me, I make out a sign stuck in the ground. It reads: Private Property, No Trespassing Allowed.

  That’s why no one knew where we were, that sneaky bastard!

  Another ominous howl rents the air, prompting my wings into rapid motion. The wind aids in my escape, lovingly pushing me in the direction I must go. The fear that I’m lost never takes hold because up ahead in the distance are the safe lights belonging to the town of Elko, Nevada.

  “Hannah!” he screams one last time, but it sounds more like a weeping animal.

  But it is my own answering call that astounds me the most…Caw, caw!

  Sense of time and rationality are all but gone when I finally make landfall. My body is strange to me as my tiny claws make purchase onto a quivering limb right outside my dormitory window. Thoughts pass through me, but they feel foreign, as if someone else has taken residence in my brain…

  Fly again, think about your body and it will become one again. Become one with your legs, your arms will follow next.

  I know things I didn’t before.

  I am stronger, I am wiser.

  Swooping down, I hear and feel a pop and crunch before my feet touch the cold cement. After testing my limbs, I reach up and touch my face with shaking hands. My cheeks feel as soft as they always have, but I realize one important factor when I hear footsteps approaching.

  Jesse stands at the dormitory entrance, his handsome face shocked. “You, Hannah, you’re…naked,” he says, rushing over to me and taking off his jacket to wrap around my shoulders. “My God, Hannah, what’s going on?”

  Licking my lips, I accept his jacket but take a step back. “I’m not sure, what day is it?” I ask, suddenly knowing that a certain amount of time has passed. “What’s happened?”

  “It’s Halloween,” he reveals softly, his hazel eyes shining underneath the street lamp. “At the party…you fainted. Oddly enough, Mr. Winchester was there and drove you to the hospital.” He rakes his hair back, clearly agitated. “I wanted to come with you, we all did, but Mr. Winchester wouldn’t let us because of the curfew.”

  “Ah, I see,” I say woodenly, the news that over a week has passed barely fazing me.

  “He told us you were going back to your hometown to rest for a while, that you’d come down with a terrible sickness,” he says, concern lacing his tone. “Are you okay Hannah, are you still sick?”

  My stomach sinks as I realize just how thoroughly Ethan had explained my disappearance. Next, the man probably would’ve delivered the news of my death, while he continued living a normal life and kept me prisoner on his private property. The man is pure evil.

  “I’m…,” I pause, searching for the right words. “I’m not sick, just different. And I need to get inside my room, now. I’m freezing.” I shiver, pretending to be cold.

  He nods emphatically. “Of course, c’mon, I’ll make sure no one sees.”

  “Thank you, Jesse. You’ve been such a good friend to me.” I smile gratefully.

  “Luckily, almost everyone is at the Halloween bash, so we shouldn’t have too much of an audience,” he laughs, steering us through the double doors.

  “Lydia is there, too?” I ask as we climb the stairs to my old room.

  Old room…that’s right, it’s not really mine anymore.

  “Lydia?” he questions back, unlocking my room with a key from his pocket. “Oh…yeah, she’s not here. She’s at the party.” He smiles reassuringly as he holds the door open for me. “Let’s get you inside and put some clothes on.”

  “Thanks,” I say, taking in the small bedroom and how everything is just as I left it. “Uh, wait out here, I’ll just be a minute.” Rushing over to my dresser, I pull out a pair of jeans and a hoodie, along with some undergarments.

  After I’m dressed, a sense of urgency jolts through me, and I have to lean against the bathroom door to collect myself and the thoughts rushing at me. It’s hard to explain, but the thoughts are like flying paper airplanes all aiming for my brain.

  He’s near, flee now.

  Smell that, fear is just outside the door.

  Him, too. It’s him!

  Nearly stumbling, I open the door. “Jesse, I’m sorry but I have to go now,” I pant, the urge to run even stronger now. “I-thank you, for everything. I’ll always remember what a good friend you were to me.”

  He’s sitting on my bed, seeming relaxed but his heartbeat is off.

  Thump, thump, thump, thump.

  It’s a little fast, faster than before I’d gone into the bathroom. In a flash, my eyes zoom in on his hand. He’s holding something, and I can tell he’s trying to hide it…my underwear. He has a pair of my underwear in his hands…

  What the hell?

  …You know the answer.

  He had the key to your room.

  “Jesse?” I ask, walking slowly forward. “Why do you have my underwear?”

  He coughs, his eyes meeting mine innocently. “I found them on the f
loor, over there by your dresser.”

  He’s lying.

  “Can I have them back, please?”

  Jesse grins as he stands. “You know something, Hannah? No, you can’t have them back. You know what else? I’m tired of playing your little waiting game.” He stalks closer, shaking his head. “I know you aren’t sick, you never were, so where’ve you been this whole time, huh?”

  “We-”

  “Don’t tell me you weren’t with him,” he yells, suddenly in my face. “I know you were with Mr. Winchester this whole time,” he says, spitting with emotion. “And now…I have to kill him, too.” He taps his own head, pacing the floor like a maniac. “Hannah, Hannah, Hannah,” he repeats and then stops in front of me again, laughing. “Not you, of course…I have to kill him for almost ruining my plan.”

  “Your plan?” I ask, taking a step back. “What plan are you talking about?”

  “Us, me and you, Hannah,” he shouts, yanking on his own hair in frustration. “We are meant to be, and we will be once I deal with Mr. Winchester.”

  It’s then that an earlier conversation comes back to haunt me…

  “You killed Edward Turner and Jared Shaw, didn’t you?” I accused, hoping to stall whatever was about to happen next.

  “Edward, yes,” he agreed indifferently. “I didn’t care for the way he was planning to insert himself into your life.” He laughed at my shocked expression. “Oh yes, he wanted you, just like the rest of them. You’re naive to your own beauty, my love.”

  “You’re crazy,” I whispered.

  “You killed the librarian, didn’t you?” I ask, startled by the revelation. “You killed Jared Shaw.”

  He mutters dementedly. “You’re not as dumb as I thought, not as dumb as I thought.” He paces away and then back, once again in my face. “I had to; I had to kill him after the way he looked at you that day. I know him, and he wanted you for himself. He does terrible things to girls like you.”

  This is crazy. “You knew him?” I ask, my heightened senses more than keeping pace with his words. “How’d you know him?”