“Kiss my ass!” the man yelled.
Mason shook his head, finishing his wine.
“Most likely you’ve opened up to each other,” Mason said. “Most likely so. And you decided to work together, although I’m not sure what exactly this means in your case, but I think you will share it with me. You wanted to kill and rob me. Otherwise, why do you need the gun?”
The woman in the room sobbed. The man kept checking the strength of the walls. He hoped, apparently, to find a secret passage in one of them.
“My dear sociopathic friends,” Mason said. “I have never met anyone more interesting than you two. Honestly, I thought you were going to see through me, but you were so busy with yourselves and with your selfish goals that you believed everything I said. Of course, I know how to act and what to say to be anyone I want you to see in me, but you have so much experience! Have you killed, Michael?”
He heard only a roar in response.
“What about you, Margaret?”
“Mason,” she said as she jumped up. “We can work together. We will help you! It will be even more interesting than before! Let’s talk.”
Mason moved the camera closer to her face. Her mascara was smeared and her hair was disheveled. She was still beautiful and it was interesting.
“Right!” the man agreed. “It would be some kind of a team! We could do some crazy stuff!”
“I promise!” the woman cried.
“We promise!” her husband added.
Mason finished his wine and put the glass aside. His hand reached out to the desired button.
“I’m sorry, guys, but I work alone and, unlike Dr. Freeman, I don’t need an audience. I’m not that ambitious.”
“No, no, no! Listen to me!”
“I’m sure you’ve played a lot of people,” Mason said. “You thought that no one, ever, would catch you. Unfortunately you can’t teach this lesson to your children, but it goes like this—there’s always someone smarter than you, stronger than you, more creative than you. And so on, and so on. Never be full of yourself.”
“No! Mason!”
“You shouldn’t worry so much about your life. You are dead already. There’s nothing blooming inside you. Your thoughts are dark and rotten. Nothing can make you happy, but I will. That’s one of my goals. My hobby.”
“That’s not true!” the woman yelled. “We are happy! Tell her Frank!”
“Your real name is Frank. That’s good to know.”
“We are happy!” the man said. “You don’t have to change us!”
“I like to compare a brain to a garden where something is happening all the time. Some gardens are bright, full of life and light. There’re flowers, birds, butterflies, love and happiness. You have no butterflies or flowers. You have no love in you and no empathy. You will never be happy. You can’t be. Your garden is dead … Just like mine.”
Mason pressed the button and the happy room began to fill with happy gas. They didn’t see it, but they could smell it for sure, because they both froze and then began to rush about the room, bouncing off of each other, and then they fell on the floor like insects.
“I’ll open Dom Perignon White Gold,” Mason said, rising. “They deserve the best.”
THE END
More book from Natasha A. Salnikova
Author’s FB page
Quiet River (A psychological thriller)
Quiet River is a small town and people are friendly. But evil lives in quiet water.
Lisa and Matt Collins spend a weekend in the town of Quiet River, Washington, where their son Evan meets a woman who says he looks like her son. She gives him cookies. The hotel clerk, an older woman, also gives him cookies, explaining to his mother that they came from the hotel's kitchen. Lisa ignores the clerk's strange behavior and forgets about her. The family goes back home to Seattle where Matt returns to his job as a magazine editor and Lisa finds out she is pregnant for the second time. Soon Matt's personal assistant dies in a car accident and he hires a new one: Kristine. One day Kristine presents Matt and Lisa with tickets to a ballet performance and that night their quiet lives change forever when they get involved in a violent store robbery and Lisa loses her unborn child.
Lisa and Matt think it is their worst nightmare, but how little did they know. They have to return to Quiet River to learn what the darkest dark is and what face it can wear.
Rotten Apple (A suspense thriller)
Alexander Tallman enjoys life to the fullest. He has his own advertising company, a few girlfriends and a perfect wife, who is so naïve she doesn’t even notice her husband’s multiple affairs. But, one day, Alexander meets Karen. The woman is five years older than he and she wants to marry Alexander instead of letting him go, as others did. She doesn’t want to give up; she wants Alexander to belong to her and only her. Alexander finds a reason for leaving that he thinks is good enough for Karen – his wife is pregnant. He obviously can’t leave her now (except she’s not). He hopes it will bring them to the finale of the relationship. He just doesn’t know how far a woman in love can go, a woman who was betrayed.
When Karen finds out that Alexander wants to break off their relationship she doesn’t step back, but takes the reins of fate into her own hands. She decides to fight for her love no matter what the consequences. But everything turns out differently than she had expected and she becomes a marionette in somebody else’s game.
Mean Girl
Corby Mackentile is a 15-year-old girl who attends a private school. She has been bullied because of her weight since she was 12, especially by the most popular girls. Her parents - her mother is a TV anchor and her father is a Buddhist who owns a butcher shop - are too busy with their own problems to pay attention to their only daughter. Corby has a crush on one of the most popular boys in school. He makes fun of her once, but then unexpectedly apologizes. From that moment, her situation with three of the popular girls becomes worse. Then, one day, one of the girls who had bullied Corby comes to the butcher shop where Corby works for her father after school. Again, the girl teases Corby about her weight, but this time everything is different.
The savior (A psychological thriller)
If you are intrigued with Marilyn Manson, sects, cults then you will love this book. It is captivating from the beginning all the way through. You will not be disappointed. This would make a great movie! - edbursch (Good reads review).
Amy is disturbed by her mother who is lecturing her for becoming different, not doing well in school, and hanging out with some person named Orson. When Amy hears Orson's name she becomes scared. No one, let alone her mother, should know anything about Orson. How did she find out? This is Amy's secret. To make herself feel better, Amy takes the pill Orson gave her in their secret club. This pill makes everyone feel not only better, but also fearless and high. The pill is a secret like everything else in her club for teenage girls. Mother doesn't stop to scold Amy and the pill and the knife next to her pushes the girl to make a deadly decision.
Amy is not the only one. Teenage girls in a white collar part of Cincinnati get in trouble more often than usual. More than that, they commit suicide. When fifteen-year-old twins Violet and Lily hear about their neighbor's Amy's fate, they want to know what happened.
In another part of the city, in an old house in the woods, Orson cries because he can no longer hear the voice of God. His older brother Dennis, who is a detective in the Special Cases Department, is not bothered. He has big plans for Orson and a little group he has created. These plans will shake not only Cincinnati, but the entire nation.
Dark Curtain (A psychological thriller)
After an attack in the park, Roman loses his memory. He tries to remember his past as any person would do in his place. Only what he finds terrifies him. Is he really the man his family and friends know?
The Hairdresser (A psychological thriller)
George Spenser loves his neighbor, Sara. They have been friends for years, but when Sara begins dating someone else, George
doesn’t want to let her go. He doesn’t want her to be with anyone but him. He kills her and cuts her hair as a memento of his feelings for her. After that, George begins his quest to find another woman who looks like his first love. Now he’s a famous photographer and a killer they call Hairdresser.
The voice of waterfalls (A supernatural thriller)
Inga manages to escape from a "house of terror" where she was held as a captive along with other girls who were kidnapped. She is chased into the woods and runs onto the road, almost falling under the wheels of an approaching car. She thought, it would be better to die that way than to return to her captors. The driver of the car, to her surprise, saves her. He brings her to his house and introduces her to his family: his mother, his father and his younger sister. He gives Inga a key to a separate room and brings her food. She appreciates his help and calls him her knight from the road. All she needs now is a phone to make a call to her mother. Her savior, Alman, says they don't have one in the house. He's also not in a hurry to take her from his house in the woods to the town where she can talk to police. And Inga began to doubt the noble intentions of her savior. After some time she starts to think this house is worse than the one she was imprisoned in before, if that was possible.
The Land of dead flowers (A supernatural thriller)
Morris Bishop killed his first girl when he was nineteen. He loved his neighbor and he didn’t see any other way to make her belong to him, so he captured her in his house. He couldn’t stop since then. He didn’t think anything or anyone would ever stop him.
A popular mystery writer. Max Stevenson is a realist. He doesn’t believe in little, green men, ghosts, or messages from the world of the dead. That is until he reads an article in a newspaper and starts having dreams of the house. The same house night after night. Now he suddenly wants to write a supernatural thriller, but not until he finds the house. The house from his dreams … Then not only the genre of his book will change, but his whole life.
Albertina ( A supernatural thriller)
During the time of inquisition, Kenvil’s wife kills his beautiful mistress, Albertina. Kenvil can’t get over the death of his beloved and buys a potion to revive her. The potion works, but Albertina is different after returning from the dead. To live, she must nourish her body and soul with energy from the living, by killing them. Kenvil becomes her first victim. Then Albertina goes on a journey around the world, sowing death around her.
In the present day, a journalist of criminal chronicles, Philip doesn’t know that his presence at the scene of several bizarre murders is not random and that his fate is sealed by someone else. He meets a mysterious beauty, Albertina, who becomes his obsession.
To kill an immortal Dark Queen called Alba, four brothers from Russia follow her footsteps for eight years, which brings them to America, where they are joined by Philip as destined. The five of them begin a dangerous hunt, which not all will survive.
Silence in the house (A supernatural thriller)
When Lana ran away from her abusive husband, she never would have believed things could be any worse. Then, she bought a new house, the house of her dreams. But, the house of her dreams could turn out to be her biggest nightmare.
A step to nowhere (A science fiction thriller)
All Sam wants, running home from work, is to get away from the rain. She doesn’t think, at that moment, of the possibility of meeting the man she is in love with, but to whom she has never admitted her feelings. They had taken different life paths five years ago, but she couldn’t forget him. Suddenly, in the crowd, through the rain, she sees him. Sam stops abruptly and the person behind her runs into her. He drops his phone and Sam picks it up to give it back to him, but that person disappears into the crowd. But not him. Not Ray. He explains that he came to this city for work and invites Sam to spend the evening with him. Something happens between them, something that should have happened five years ago.
Sam forgets the stranger’s phone and doesn’t check it until the next morning. She wants to find some number to call and return the thing, but instead she stumbles upon lots of messages that describe her every step. She tells Ray about it and he promises to help. Only Sam finds herself in a situation where it's easier to admit yourself as a mental case than to accept the reality.
One hundred lives (A science fiction thriller)
One Hundred Lives is a science fiction thriller with so many twists and turns, it will make you dizzy. So jump on the ride and hold tight.
Marina has no idea that her life is about to turn upside down when she changes her usual route to work. She sees her husband talking with a woman on the street when he is supposed to be at work. Marina confronts him at home and the next day he disappears as if he never existed in her life. And then everything spins out of control and Marina can no longer determine who is a friend and who is an enemy. One thing becomes perfectly clear: her seven-year-old son is suddenly in danger and she has to protect him.
Read first chapters of Natasha A. Sanikova’s psychological thriller “Dark curtain”.
“An attack in the park causes Roman to lose his memory. He tries to remember his past, as would anyone in his place. But what he discovers terrifies him. Is he really the man his family and friends know?”
Not all people can be in animals,
But all animals can be in people.
(Chinese folklore)
***
“Who are you?”
I’m looking at the person hanging over me. A woman. Short, curly hair, hazel eyes, narrow lips, button nose. How old is she? Fifty? Sixty? And why does my head hurt so much, why won’t my arms move?
“He’s talking, he’s talking,” says the voice from above. “Roman? Roman? Someone, call a nurse!”
“Who are you?”
The woman’s face wrinkles and tears run down her cheeks. The fog is thickening in front of me. The woman disappears and a bald man takes her place. Everything starts to spin.
“She’s your mother,” the man says. He looks old. He sounds disappointed. “You’re in Boston Memorial.”
I sink into the darkness.
***
The fog is dissipating slowly and the faces are not bright. They are cloudy, like phantoms. One of them is getting closer and I see a young woman. She touches my cheek. Her hand is cold, icy. And I go away again. Slowly, everything dims, like I’m sinking underwater. I drift to the bottom.
***
“Hey, dude, it’s Bob. Can you hear me?”
I do, but I can’t open my eyes.
“Sorry, man, I …”
“Excuse me. It’s time for Mr. Barrington’s tests.”
“Sure. Will he live?”
The pain. I don’t want more pain.
***
Everything around me is white and hurts my eyes. I hear silence and turn my head. It hurts. Everything starts to spin. Before I sink into the fog again, I notice the chair is empty; no one is in the room. Where are the people? Did I dream of them? Did I dream of something red? What was it? Blood? Did I dream of a young woman? Who am I? Did I die? Is this heaven? I’m scared. I don’t want to be alone.
Chapter 1
There was a picture on the wall across from my bed. A sea or an ocean, I couldn’t really tell. Sunset, the water colored in red and orange, and nothing else. I couldn’t remember being by the ocean. I couldn’t remember anything. I had no idea what had happened to me. In the hospital, I slipped in and out of consciousness all the time. I couldn’t even remember what happened in the moment before I blacked out again.
A week had passed since I came home. I hadn’t had any blackouts, hadn’t gotten dizzy, and if I had it was probably because of those pain pills the doctor prescribed for me. I had to take them four times a day. Maybe it was because of them I wasn’t interested in what had happened to me. I knew it was some sort of accident and that was all I knew. My mother wanted to tell me more, but I didn’t want to know the details at the moment. I had no idea why, but I felt like it was j
ust going to give me a headache. I had enough headaches. Again, the reason might be in the drugs. The woman … Mother … said she was afraid I’d become a drug addict. It meant I wasn’t a drug addict before. That was good, wasn’t it? Maybe.
There was a white wall behind the picture. All the walls in the room were white, but they had been hidden under bookshelves, souvenirs, pictures, family portraits. This woman …
The garden of dead thoughts Page 30