“Oh now, Mell, Let the girls go out and play,” one of Mother’s friends chided. “I’m surprised that more of Margaret’s classmates didn’t show up.”
“Well, you know how rude people can be these days,” Mother said. “Yes, you and Lacey can go out and play. Don’t get your dress dirty, though.”
Maggie could see that look in Mother’s eyes. She’d embarrassed her in front of her friends, and the slight would not go unpunished.
Mother didn’t beat her, but she had her subtle and completely deniable ways of making Maggie pay. Mother loved to yank her tight-toothed comb through Maggie’s curly hair after every bath. She would chastise the girl for crying as it felt like her hair was being ripped from her scalp. Of course, that was after the scalding hot water of the bath.
“It’s not too hot. Just sit down. Don’t make me come over there,” her mother would say, and Maggie would be forced to lower herself into the burning hot water; so hot it turned her skin pink.
Mother would find a way to make Maggie pay, and all the while everyone would be ohhing and ahhing about what a loving and giving her mother was.
“Look at all these gifts,” they’d exclaim. “You’re such a lucky girl.”
Such a lucky girl.
Chapter Five
Day Four
I woke up with the sun and stretched my sore muscles. It had been a long time since I’d slept until sunrise. Usually, I had to get up and make sure that Kurt had breakfast and a suit laid out for the day.
If he thought it would be a high sales day, he’d want lunch made so that he could eat without leaving the dealership. When I went downstairs, it became apparent that he’d left for work without waking me.
“Good,” I said as I made my way into the bathroom.
I stood in front of the mirror, watching my reflection for a long time. Even at first glance, I could tell something was different. But as I continued to watch the mirror, my reflection began to change.
My face morphed into something twisted and sinister. At first, I was afraid, but then I laughed. I had trouble in the past feeling like a whole person. My identity was so dependent on others. I was disconnected, but this terrible visage felt real. I finally felt like I was a part of something.
My reflection smiled back at me. It leaned forward and beckoned me with one finger. Mirror me wanted to tell me something.
I bent to my reflection and heard the sound of my voice whisper in my ear. “You know what you need to do.”
“I can’t. I’ll be arrested,” I said, knowing what I meant.
“You’re already in prison. You’ve been there your entire life. They might put you in a cage, but you’ll be free for the first time. The price of freedom is a blood sacrifice.”
When I pulled back from the mirror, it was just my regular reflection staring back at me.
There were two things I needed to do that day. The first was to take my loving husband to lunch. After all, I owed him an apology for my horrible behavior. The second was to invite Jared Hayes over to my place for a goodbye afternoon romp. I wanted to be with him one more time before it all came to a head.
Call me when you can. I’m sorry I’ve been so wretched.
I sent the text to Kurt and waited.
He called back ten minutes later.
“Hey, what’s up?” Kurt asked hesitantly.
“I want to take you to lunch. You need a good meal and I need to make up for being so terrible. I’ve got my writing done for today,” I said.
It was a lie, but it was the only way to lure him out. I picked him up and took Kurt to his favorite restaurant. After asking about his day and his sales, he was happy to carry the conversation. All was forgiven once I made it about him again.
“What got into you?” Kurt asked after he’d gone over his entire monthly sales rundown.
“I don’t know,” I said sheepishly. “I know that my book sales are a good way to supplement your income.” Like I wasn’t the one supporting us. “But I think I’m letting it take too much of my focus off our home and marriage. I know I need to keep working hard, but I also need to make sure the bulk of my focus stays on us. I’ll just need to try harder. If you’ll forgive me.”
He did, of course. I promised him that I’d make his favorite dinner, and Kurt went back to work with a smile on his face.
That just left my rendezvous with Officer Hayes. It was easy to lure him to my house. I told him I had some information on my neighbor’s murder.
“It was the only way I could get you here,” I said with a smile once he realized my call had been a ruse.
“That’s good. I’m glad you’re clever. I couldn’t have come otherwise.” He was in uniform.
When we were done, I kissed Jared goodbye. If I saw him again, it would be under very different circumstances. But I seriously doubted that he’d be the one that came for me.
After that, I cooked Kurt’s favorite dinner. Not because he’d get the chance to eat it, but because it kept me busy. I was buzzing with energy. For the first time in a long time, I was excited about my husband coming home.
When he walked through the front door, Kurt didn’t know I was standing in the corner where the coat rack normally stood. He didn’t know I had a butcher knife in my hand.
I’d considered drawing it out, but I had no patience for it. There was another life for me, and I was ready.
I slit his throat before he could even announce that he was home, and oh how he loved to announce his arrival. I’m glad that I was able to take that from him in the end. After everything he’d taken from me, it was the icing on the cake.
When it was done, I wiped the blood off my hands and picked up my phone.
“Hi, Mom. I’ve made entirely too much for dinner. Would you and Daddy like to join us?” I said into the phone.
Behest
Chapter One
“What the hell are you doing?” the woman yelled at me before throwing her coupons in my face. It was fitting that this was my ten-year anniversary at the Pic-n-Shop.
“Ma’am, these coupons have been expired for months. The register scans all the coupons. I can’t input them by hand,” I said and waited for the tirade to begin again.
“I need to speak to your manager.”
I heard the groan of everyone behind her in line. I wasn’t the only one this bitch was affecting. It was the busiest time of the weekend and five or six customers were lined up at every register.
I was feeling light-headed by the time I finally got my break. Since I’d woken up fifteen minutes before I had to be at work, I hadn’t had any breakfast. My blood sugar had to have plummeted at some point, but break times were pushed back an hour.
There was no way I was going to buy something from the store for lunch. It would take my whole break to wait in line. Of course, I hadn’t brought anything either. My mother barely kept any food in the house, and I hadn’t gotten up early enough to throw something together anyway.
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m a loser. I’m a checkout boy at a shitty grocery store, and I live in my mother’s basement.
I call it my apartment, but it’s just a basement. The washer and dryer are at the bottom of the stairs, and every time she stomps down the rickety wooden staircase, I get a lecture about how I’ve done nothing with my life.
But the few times I’ve tried to do better, mother always finds a way to keep me from moving on. I let her convince me that using some of the money I’d saved from working at the grocery store to pay for community college was a waste. By the way, she withdrew all of it the next day and blew it on bingo.
Yeah, I’m a twenty-eight-year-old guy whose mommy is on his bank account. She’d throw a fit if I took her off or opened another account, and it’s just too much hassle.
I tried to join the Army too, but she said I’d be abandoning her. I’d temporarily convinced her that it was a good idea by telling her I’d send her my pay, but the day I was supposed to sign the papers, she tried to
kill herself.
Where was I? Oh right. So, my blood sugar was low, and I needed something to eat. When I opened the fridge, and rifled through the lunches, I only found one that seemed alright.
Lindsey had a roast beef sandwich, baby carrots with ranch dressing, and what looked like a homemade banana bread muffin. Now, I knew what people would think if I stole it and got caught. What kind of loser asshole monster takes a pregnant lady’s lunch, but I was really hungry. I was also down to fifteen minutes. I knew Lindsey was working the middle shift between the day and night shifts, so she had just come on. She wouldn’t be taking her lunch for hours.
It was a good lunch too. Lindsey was going to be an excellent mother. She made a great sandwich and was obviously a good baker. I put the bag back in the fridge with a five-dollar bill inside because I’m not an actual monster.
That left me with just enough time to go outside and suck down a cigarette before I had to be back at my register. Outside the back door, I couldn’t believe my luck. Carrie was out back having a smoke too.
I’d wanted to ask her out for ages. I knew there was no way she’d ever say yes to a loser like me, but I had to at least try. Besides, women liked when men asked them out, right? Even if she didn’t like me, I knew she’d feel better about herself knowing that she had an admirer.
I stood stupefied for a moment, watching Carrie pull her cigarette away from her lips. Her scarlet lipstick left a ring around the butt, and I couldn’t help but imagine where else she could leave that lovely ring of color.
“What’s up, Billy the Kid?” she said with a congenial smile.
“Not much, Carrie Berry. How’s it hangin?” I asked and pulled my pack of Marlboros out of my apron.
“A little to the left today,” she said and took a puff. “Good job handling that psycho hose beast.” Carrie held in the smoke while she said this and then exhaled a long column of smoke into the air when she was done speaking.
“Thanks. I’ve gotten used to it. I get one every week or so,” I said.
“I’m surprised it’s not more often. Can you believe the freaks that come in here?”
“I can,” I said with a laugh.
“What time are you off?” she asked, and I couldn’t believe my luck.
“I’m off at four. What about you? Do you have any big plans tonight?” I asked as casually as I could.
“Off at four too,” she said and stubbed out her cigarette in the ashtray. “I’d better get back. My break was over five minutes ago.”
“Okay,” I said, but I knew I would hate myself if I let the opportunity pass. “Hey, Carrie?”
“Yeah?” she asked, with the door held halfway open.
“Since we’re off at the same time, would you like to grab some dinner or maybe a drink tonight?”
“Seriously, Will? It’s not like that at all. Please don’t make it awkward,” Carrie said and slammed the door behind her when she went inside. I wanted to fall into a hole.
Chapter Two
Before I left for the day, we had a team meeting about how HR was going to put cameras in the breakroom due to the epidemic of food stealing. I wasn’t quite sure if they meant the lunches being lifted every now and again or if someone else was stealing food from the store and taking it into the breakroom. Either way, I felt like a complete loser.
I mean, I was almost there after Carrie’s thorough takedown of my last scrap of self-esteem, but when I grabbed my jacket from the breakroom on the way out, Lindsey was crying. One of the other girls was comforting her.
“Only a complete psycho would steal a pregnant woman’s lunch.”
That stung. At the time, I had my share of problems. Some of them were mental health issues like anxiety and ADD, but I wasn’t a complete psycho. I hadn’t stolen her lunch either. I’d paid for it.
The door hinges on my 1999 Toyota Corolla creaked loudly when I got in. My car didn’t look so great anymore, but it still ran like a champ. I changed the oil religiously. It’s the one thing my dad taught me before he split on my mom and me.
Back at home, my mother stood in the middle of the kitchen waiting for me. I always knew it was going to be a bad night when she waited for me right there in that certain spot. The lights were off too. It was as if she were trying to scare me. Like she was waiting to pounce.
I was afraid of her, but I had no idea why. She could yell like nobody’s business, but I couldn’t remember her ever hitting me. That was probably the reason it was so terrifying. If she had beat me in the past, it was so bad that I blocked it out. I couldn’t come up with another reason why I was so irrationally afraid of a woman that was half my size.
“Did you get fired or something?” she asked when I flicked on the light.
“No, Mom. I worked the early shift. “
“When do you get paid? They’re going to shut the water off on Thursday.”
“Mom, I gave you money for the water bill last week,” I said, and my heart sank. She’d probably used it to play online bingo instead of paying the bill.
“No, you didn’t,” she said in that go ahead and challenge me voice that meant things would get ugly.
“Yes, I did, Mom. I gave you seventy-five dollars last week.”
“Are you calling me a liar? You ungrateful little piece of shit. How dare you treat me this way? I give you a roof over your head and this is how you repay me?”
“Mom, you don’t give me a roof over my head. I’ve been paying most of the rent here for years. I also gave you money for the utilities.”
“Fuck you!” she screamed and turned around to pick up a dirty pot from the stove. “You’re just like your father!” she said and threw the pot at my head.
I ducked and opened the door to the basement. “I’ll pay the bill on my way to work tomorrow.”
“You need to give me the money!” she shrieked.
I halfway expected her to follow me down the stairs so she could continue screaming at me until I agreed to give her the cash for the water bill. But, if I did that, the bill wouldn’t get paid, and I didn’t have enough money left to pay the utilities three times a month. I had to figure out something fast. I’d never get the money together to get out of there if I kept letting her piss it away on bingo and whatever else she spent it on instead of bills.
When I got to the bottom of the steps and flipped on the basement light, I just about pissed my pants. The man sitting in my computer chair turned around slowly and smiled, revealing a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth.
Chapter Three
“Don’t be alarmed, William,” he said, and I could swear that his tongue looked reptilian.
“Who are you? What the fuck are you doing in my room?” I hollered.
“Hush now, Billy the Kid. I’d hate for you to draw your mother down here. I’d have to dispatch her in a most unpleasant manner,” he hissed.
I let out a huge sigh. “I’m not sure that would bother me much, mister.” I said.
I probably should have been more frightened, but after he’d spoken to me and threatened to dispatch my mother, I figured he wasn’t going to pounce on me and rip my throat out with his jagged teeth. If he was going to do that, why bother saying anything at all? Why not just hide in the shadows and be done with it? But from the looks of it, he’d been playing Call of Duty before I got down there.
“See, you’re very clever, William. That’s why I’ve chosen you,” he said and stood up. It was as if he’d heard my thoughts.
“Oh, I see.” I said to no one in particular. “I’ve finally snapped. You’re a hallucination. I’m supposed to be too old to come down with schizophrenia, but I assume there are people who get it later.”
“Listen to me.” His voice boomed and suddenly he stood right in front of me.
“I thought you were worried about my mom coming down here,” I said sarcastically. The pants-shitting effect of seeing him when I’d first walked downstairs had worn off completely. I think that I was just too broken inside to care that much.<
br />
“Mooooom!!! I’ve got the cash for you,” the creature man called out in my voice.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
I heard the basement door open. “What’s that, Billy?”
“I have money for you, Mom,” the creature said in my voice. “I’m so sorry, Mom. I was being a jerk.”
“Mom, no,” I tried to say, but no sound came out.
She practically ran down the stairs, and my mother never moved fast. It would have been hilarious if not for what happened next.
Mother was halfway to us before she realized that I wasn’t alone. “What is this about?” she asked. “You didn’t tell me you were having company.” She could barely hide her contempt, but it was obvious she didn’t want to embarrass herself until she knew if the man was a loser like me.
“Carol Ann, it’s so good to finally meet you,” the creature said in a voice that was no longer mine. “I’ve had my eye on your son for a long time. He is exactly what I need.”
“Oh, you’re a faggot,” my mother said and then turned to me. “Jesus Christ, Billy. I always kinda expected that you were a queer, but I never thought you’d be dumb enough to bring another faggot into my house.”
She raised her hand to strike me. All pretense of being a normal person dropped now that she thought the man was gay and thus inferior.
Before she could hit me, his hand shot up and grabbed her by the wrist. My mother made a tiny whimpering sound before the creature man ripped her arm right off the socket.
Mother looked stunned for a moment as all of the color drained from her face. The creature man—I’d decided then to call him Kevin because he looked like a monster version of Kevin Spacey—handed her arm back to her. If not for the blood and gore, it would have been a bit comical.
“Help,” she started to scream. “Help meeeeeee!!!!”
“Well, that will be about enough of that, Carol Ann,” Kevin said.
A moment later, he’d separated her head from the rest of her body.
Dark Ends: A Horror Collection Page 11