Twisted Tales

by Edward Grey

  As his heart grew ever warmer by Lisa’s presence, they reached an intersection. He pulled himself back into focus, and realized the fog had become dense again. As they crossed the street, he heard a noise. It could have been a growl, a scrape of nails, or anything really, but he was sure that it was nothing friendly.

  In a low whisper he said, “Hang on a second.”

  Lisa halted, and listened with him. The sinuous clouds shifted and stirred around them, and all seemed silent now. When he stepped closer to the fog, a large claw emerged from the smoky weather and slashed his arm.

  5

  Adams arm stung like the scratch from a cat, but with a fiery kind of wrath that seemed comparable to the three inch-wide lacerations on his skin.

  As they ran through the fog, listening for anything that would give the location of the beast away, Adam pulled his jacket off, removed his shirt, and then wrapped it around his bloodied wounds.

  “Are you okay?” Lisa said as she stopped.

  “I’ll be fine. We need to keep moving, how far is the safe house?”

  “It’s not far, but if we go there now, they’ll know where it is, they’ll follow us.”

  “We don’t really have a choice.”

  She looked at him for a moment, and though there was fear in her eyes, he saw trust as well. These same soft features were the ones that he had always seen in her eyes through the toughest times in their old life together.

  She smiled and said, “Okay.”

  “Keep going, I’ll follow you.”

  Lisa turned and continued towards the safe-house. Adam followed her as close as he could without running into her.

  After a few feet, he saw a tail in the fog. He quickly pointed the black shotgun and fired blindly. He hoped he hit it, because if he hadn’t, the beast was surely going to be more aggressive now that it knew he was fighting back.

  Adam heard a snarl behind him, and when he looked back he saw the beast right at his feet. He turned around and fired at it. The hound yelped, and then backed off.

  For a moment, he thought he was safe, but then one of the creatures ran in front of him. He tripped over its body and tumbled into some steps.

  As he looked around, he realized he was at the foot of a front door to a house, which was probably the place Lisa talked about. He turned to get up and get inside as fast as possible, but something snared his foot. He looked back, and one of the beasts had him.

  “Lisa!” He called, and pulled the trigger at the beast. The gun only clicked, subtly telling him that he was out of ammo. “Shit, shit, shit!”

  The creature bit harder on his shoe, and the pain shot up his leg. While its teeth were having a hard time penetrating the rubber, its massive jaw was still able to crush his foot with no problem.

  At that moment, he felt like it was over. As long as the beast had him, he couldn’t get free, and soon another would show up to kill him.

  He was terrified of dying. He had read a paper about people dying during lucid hallucinations, and about how the mind was not able to tell the difference between reality and the dream state. They would inevitably end up in a coma, where the body would eventually begin to die as well.

  No. He couldn’t let that be him. He turned the shotgun around, and struck the beast in the head with the handle. Once more, then a third hit for good measure. When he struck it a fourth time, the beast tamed, let go of him, and backed into the fog.

  He stared in shock that it actually worked.

  Get up, get up. Stop lying there!

  He rolled over and clambered up using the railing. When he put weight on his foot, a piercing pain forced him to his knee.

  “Damn it, Lisa!”

  Putting as little weight as possible on it, he struggled with opening the door and then fell into the house. He kicked the door shut with his good foot and sighed.

  It felt great to be able to see further than a foot. If anything came at him from anywhere in the house, he would see it coming. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. He’d dropped the gun outside when he made a break for safety.

  “Lisa?” He called.

  He didn’t know why she wasn’t answering him. She was just with him, and he’d heard the door slam earlier when he fell. At least, he thought he did. Anyway, she had to be in the house somewhere.

  As he dragged himself towards the kitchen area, he noticed the pain in his foot was gone. He pulled his leg closer and inspected it. After poking, twisting, and patting it, he realized that his foot was healed. In fact, it wasn’t until then that he also noticed his hand was no longer cut, and neither was his arm.

  “What the hell is going on here?” He said as he stood up. “Lisa, where did you go?”

  The kitchen was small, but inviting. Pots and pans hung from a rack above the sink, and behind them was a window that looked out into the fog. Surely it was probably a wonderful view when the world wasn’t busy turning into a circus full of strange creatures and walking talking loved ones who were deceased.

  As he headed towards the next room, he saw a few paintings attached to the refrigerator. At first he thought they were random and foreign images that he’d seen before, but upon closer inspection they were paintings he’d done as a child.

  He wasn’t sure why he would ever envision them on a fridge. His family would have never done something so endearing. Besides, the paintings that he’d brought home were inevitably burned in the fireplace by his father who would go on about how painting was a pathetic way to release anger and emotion. To that man, it was imperative children learn to speak their mind and not lose the ability to communicate their problems effectively. This wisdom came from a man that, when Adam did speak up, shut him down with either words or his belt.

  Way to go dad.

  He shook his head and went into the living room. The couch was a modern, black leather three-seat accompanied by a smaller matching love-seat. There were no photos on the walls, but there were dust outlines of frames.

  When he reached the back of the room, Lisa screamed from elsewhere in the house, “Adam, they’re here!”

  He turned and ran through the house, “Where are you?”

  “Upstairs, hurry!”

  The bottom of the stairway to the second floor was near the front door. When he reached it, he grabbed the poker from the family room fireplace and took the stairs two-steps at a time. When he reached the top and looked to his left, he saw Lisa supine and two beasts. One of them was on top of her, holding her down, and the other was staying close on her right. If he didn’t figure a way to get her out of there fast, she was as good as dead.

  6

  Lisa’s breathing was shallow, probably because the creature had most of its weight on her chest. He could tell that she was hurt, but he couldn’t see where. It didn’t matter though, because if he didn’t stop them, she was going to die.

  The beast to her right chuffed and licked the air. He took a step closer to Adam, probably in an attempt to put fear into him, but it didn’t work. He was far too worried about Lisa, which was completely mental of him for doing.

  Compassion for the living was one thing, but to have compassion for someone in a hallucination was another. He could’ve just turned, hid in the bathroom, and waited until it was all over, wait for that moment when the dream or whatever it was to turn back to reality. However, it wasn’t that simple.

  Lisa made it difficult. He went through dealing with her death once in his life already, and though it was just a dream, he couldn’t do it again. After years of getting over it the first time, there was no doubt that watching those creatures kill her was going to murder him emotionally.

  Adam took a step towards the beasts and slammed the poker into the wall. The loud clatter echoed through the hallway and both of the creatures flinched. They knew he wasn’t going to back down, and he suspected they were intimidated by his aggressive approach.

  He took another step closer and then the beast standing on Lisa bent down and put his
massive jaw around her neck.

  “No!” He said, freezing in his footsteps. “Please, don’t.”

  The beast growled, and it seemed to come out with a sinister fluctuation as if it were laughing at him. It squeezed her neck, and Lisa began to choke for air.

  He tried to move closer, but the other creature growled and moved towards to him. It clearly knew it had an advantage over him, regardless if he had a weapon that could do considerable damage.

  The beast bit harder into her neck, and she screamed with unequivocal pain. Blood began to run down her skin and pool on the floor.

  “Please, stop!” He cried, but the creature wouldn’t relent. It tightened its jaw, tighter and tighter. Soon, the blood was squirting, and then the creature tore a chunk from her neck.

  Adam fell to his knees and dropped his weapon. As silence fell upon her lips, tears burned in his eyes. It couldn’t be true, she was dead again, murdered right in front of him. In his chest, a song of sadness played as soft drums beat slower than a dying sun while the sullen arpeggio of pain played upon his heart.

  His hands soon met the floor, and he tried so hard to keep from crying. The creatures wouldn’t wait for him to regain his composure, and he needed to get away.

  After pounding his fist into the ground, he began to hear someone softly chuckling. Soon it turned into laughter, a disgusting display of malevolence.

  He looked up, and beyond the two creatures stood a man. His black boots shined in the cool white light of the nearby lamp, his hands fisted at his sides, and his wicked grin was dark and menacing. He had Adam’s eyes, his hair. The man was Adam.

  7

  “What the—”

  The man laughed. “Fool. I knew you couldn’t resist her.”

  “What are you talking about?” Adam said. He stood and looked at the floor where Lisa was killed. Her body was no longer there. “This is just a dream.”

  “No, it’s far more than that. You are asleep, that’s certain. However, this is not a dream.”

  “Bullshit... Lisa is dead.”

  “I know, I just killed her.”

  “No, I mean she died a long time ago.”

  “Oh, that.” He said, and then stepped around his creatures. “I remember that day, when you murdered your wife.”

  Impossible. She was killed in an accident, wasn’t she?

  Adam backed up, but the dogs didn’t pursue. There wasn’t anywhere for him to go anyway. He knew he was still in a dream, and no matter what he did, he needed to wait until he woke up. A pinch, death, stabbing his own body, or anything else he could think of wouldn’t do the trick.

  “I didn’t murder my wife. There was an accident, on our way to—” He paused. He couldn’t remember where they were headed.

  “To where?” The man laughed again. That evil laugh. “You can’t remember because it didn’t exist.”

  “No, she died because—”

  “Because you stabbed her. You cut her up, and buried her body.”

  “No…”

  Adam grabbed his head and tried hard to remember the details of the accident. However, the only images were of the blood, blood, blood of the saw and of the boat.

  “No, no, no!”

  “Oh yes. You killed her… I killed her.” The man continued to smile. “This isn’t just your dream, it’s your reality.”

  “Shut up!”

  “All that blood. Her smile fading into darkness… worse is the man we killed after killing her. The man she was sleeping with, the man she cheated on you with.”

  “She would never—”

  “She did, and you found out. That little whore touching him, kissing him. Yeah, you guys were separated, but she was yours and no one else could have her. It was killing you to think about all the things she was doing with him and what she was probably going to do.”

  Adam couldn’t listen to his lies. His mind was playing tricks on him—trying to convince him that he murdered his wife.

  He bent down and grabbed the poker. “Not another word. I’ll fucking kill you!”

  “Kill yourself? Go ahead, nothing is here to stop you.”

  “Fuck you!” Adam screamed and ran at himself.

  The first strike was emotional. Blood splattered against the wall, startling Adam. Then the second swing cracked the man’s skull, just like the poker that split the face of the man his wife cheated on him with, just like the trust he always held onto so dearly. With each destructive blow, he became less and less emotional. Cold relentless murder.

  When he was finished, he was breathing heavy. Not from anything he’d just done, it was the exertion he’d taken out on himself. As he stood there, whorls of white surged into his vision, and a moment later he passed out.

  8

  Adam’s alarm went off and he immediately opened his eyes. He was freezing. His clothes, comforter, and bed were drenched in sweat. For a moment he laid there, and when he tried to move, he couldn’t.

  What the hell?

  He took a deep breath and sighed. He began to move, but he was not controlling his body.

  “Adam, you in there?” He said to himself.

  What?

  “You know, I didn’t think I’d be able to get you to kill me. Well, I mean to kill yourself.” He said and then chuckled. “All you had to do was wait another ten minutes and you would’ve woken up. It would’ve been you instead of me.”

  My God…

  Adam watched through his eyes. He walked to closet and selected a black shirt. Just as he pulled it on, the doorbell rang.

  “Excellent.”

  He walked to the door and looked through the eyehole. A man stood there holding a brown package. The door opened and he grabbed it.

  “Do you have a pen, I need a signature.” The deliveryman said.

  “Sure. Come in for a moment.” The door shut. “Have a seat, I’ll be right back.”

  Adam went into the adjoining room and opened a closet door. Inside he grabbed a bat.

  Oh god, no!

  Adam whispered, “That’s right. You don’t have control over your body anymore. Just as well… I was getting sick of you being such a good little prick.”

  He walked back into the other room and smashed the deliveryman’s head with the bat. The first would’ve sufficed, but he did it three more times.

  “You’re done. I’m taking over, and there isn’t much else you can do about it, except watch.” He said, and then laughed. [Back to Contents]

  Black Winter

  Fifteen days ago the light disappeared. It was a lunar eclipse that was supposed to last roughly an hour. When four hours passed, everyone began to worry. However, it wasn’t until electrical devices ceased to operate that panic finally gripped the world. The last cut to our already deep wound was our dead. They were coming back.

  Some argued that it was all a giant plan by the government to control resources so they could inevitably control the people. However, that idea soon faded when the military stopped trying to help us. After just two weeks, everyone in our small town was left to fend for themselves, and I suspect it was probably like that across the world.

  Several hours ago—probably 5 or so—I was kicked out of the shelter a few of us were hiding in. I say hiding because aside from the cold climate reaching unsafe temperatures, the zombies were becoming increasingly violent. We had a generator there that still worked, and had plenty of food to last us all a long time. They eventually kicked me out because someone from our group turned during the night and bit me. I was doomed from that moment on.

  I honestly don’t blame them for it, but I wished I wasn’t alone out there. The small shack I found had thin walls and there was nothing I could use for fire or food. It was just me, the snow, and the darkness.

  When I stood to survey the outside world again, the small amount of warmth I’d collected faded. I reached up, wiped the frost from the window as best I could, and then looked through the mottled glass. Forty feet away I could see the light burning steady in the shel
ter, and occasionally a person’s shadow would cast against the glass.

  Ginny was still inside, safely protected by those walls. Just the thought of her made my heart ache with so many different emotions I nearly cried and screamed with rage at the same time. I loved her so much; I missed her elegant smile, loving touch, and soft kiss. However, I was also angered that she allowed them to push me into the darkness and forsake my humanity, forsake me as one of them.

  I punched the glass and cracked the thin layer of ice on the other side. It wasn’t fair that I was bitten, and it wasn’t right that they refused treat me with dignity or decency.

  Something, anything… deep breaths.

  I needed to calm down. There was nothing I could do about it, and besides, I had to find food and a way to keep warm.

  After walking to the door, I hesitated for a moment before opening it. I knew what awaited me out there, and even though I was destined to die soon, it still scared the hell out of me.

  The cold handle of the door turned effortlessly and when the door cracked, relentless and frigid wind pushed it the rest of the way open. Every time I took a breath, the air stung my chest and burned my eyes. I closed the ends of my sleeves with my fists and stepped into the black winter.

  I knew of a grocery store just down the street that still had some canned food left over after the last riot, but it seemed so far away, especially in the cold. With each step I could feel my feet going numb, and the grocery store seemed to become further and further away.

  That’s when I smelled the food. Oh that wonderful aroma of steak. It had to be closer than the store for it was so strong. If I could just convince whoever it was to give me a little taste, just a small bite of that mouthwatering food. I could make it the rest of the way to the Laundromat.

  Wait, why would I need to go there? Was there something at the cleaners I needed? Surely there was something of value, maybe a fur coat or some other device to keep me warm. Yes, that must be it.