MicroHorror

Sue called it quits. Timmy’s crushed. When you’re in high school a six-month relationship is a lifetime. Sue’s a cute kid, nice little body; typical cheerleader type… I can see why Timmy’s upset. Thing is, girls Sue’s age love attention. A midnight drive, flowers sent to her work–Timmy didn’t stand a chance.

Tomorrow he’ll get his History test back. No more As. My little switch will drown him; kid can’t have a D! So with Sue and the grades it’s the classic one-two punch. Drop the ol’ Sabbath Bloody Sabbath CD in his lap, give him that look, I’ll be a hero! His folks get their money’s worth and Timmy’s just another “teen suicide.” There’s been so many in this town the last month.

I hope the McMillians are my last clients for a while. I need rest.

“Blood bank, Bill.” The lab tech answered the phone.

“Sure, I’ll get it ready”..

“I have 350… maybe 400 milliliters ready to expire.”

“Okay, give me about an hour to throw it through the cell washer.”

The midnight silence of the hospital hallway was broken with the sound of footsteps as a tall, slender man approached the blood bank. Bill put down his paperback, walked out of the lab office and stood by one of the glass door refrigerators. The darkly complected man in a black suit and tie stepped into the lab with a white box labeled “Biohazard–Human Blood Products.”

Bill opened the refrigerator without a greeting and grabbed three bags of blood off of the quarantined shelf. He placed the units of blood on a tabletop scale and read the digital number result.

“352 mL, two O-negatives and a B-positive, packed cells, washed free of all preservatives, ready to go. Lets round it to 350 and make the math easy. It’s late and I hate doing math after midnight. 700 bucks.” Bill politely thanked the mid-thirties-looking gentlemen for the business and added: “Do you own anything else but that suit? It’s kinda creepy, dude. Looks like you just came from a funeral.”

“Never been to a funeral and don’t plan on going to any.”

“You know, one of these days, a security guard at the front desk is going to want to see some kind of identification from you to prove you actually work for the community blood bank.”

“Don’t worry about the guards. They’re all used to seeing me come around here by now. Believe me, I’m an old pro at this. I’ll be in contact with you in a few days.”

“Boy, you’re picking up the pace with these deliveries. This is the third one this week”.

“Is there a problem?”

“No, not at all. No problems here. I throw expired blood away almost every night. And anyhow, I can use the money. I’ve got three teenage boys eating me out of house and home.”

“Well… I also have soon-to-be-teenage twin boys at home and have the same problem going on.”

One week went by and no midnight phone calls were made to the blood bank for a special delivery. Bill wondered if his cash flow was going to be shut off without notice. He found out on his way to work that night.

The lab tech was barely two blocks from his house when he noticed he was not alone in the car. Two identical faces stared back at him in the rear view mirror. Bill cursed and slammed hard on the brakes. The car came to a screeching halt and then forced him backwards. The two teenage boys laughed loudly from the backseat.

Before Bill could move, one of the boys grabbed the back of his hair and easily lifted him a couple of inches off of his seat. The other said:

“You know what’s so funny back here, Blood Bank Bill?”

Bill’s heart was pounding so hard he could not catch his breath enough to speak. His head was bent back over the seat and his throat burned from the stretch.

“We’re both off of baby food!”

With each breath came the scent of decay. There had been a living girl with her in this darkness. Charla had touched her emaciated frame, comforted her.

“Couldn’t change him,” was the only thing the girl had uttered. Charla had fallen asleep shortly after that, and when she’d awoken, the girl was dead.

There were others she’d felt, all gone, in various stages of decay, some skeletons.

“Help me!” Charla screamed. “Somebody let me out of here!” She was afraid he’d hear her and come back. But she was more afraid of rotting in this place.

The stone wall she pressed against had a crease, like it could be a door. She slapped it, shouted for several minutes.

Finally, she thought she heard something, a slight clattering, coming from outside.

“Help me! He’s trapped me in here!”

The clattering became louder. “Who’s in there?” a female voice shouted back.

Charla started to yell again, but a coughing fit came instead. It lasted nearly a minute. She hoped the girl was still there. “I’m Charla! The man picked me up at the bar. He took me to his house. He beat me up and raped me. Then he put me in here to die.”

Charla stated coughing again. But she heard a click, and the door slid open.

Light poured in and stung her eyes so much that she couldn’t see the girl in front of her. She could hear her voice, though.

“You mean the guy with the big blue eyes and crooked smile?”

“Yes. He was wearing a leather jacket and faded blue jeans.”

The girl gasped. “That’s the guy who picked me up. I thought he looked like a real bad boy. I couldn’t resist. He’s upstairs in the shower now. He doesn’t know I went snooping around.”

Charla’s eyes had adjusted to the point that she could see this was a young girl, petite and cute, like Charla. She knew of the sentiment the girl had felt. She too had not been able to resist, felt the urge to help him. “He’s picked up others. They’re all dead. We have to get out of here and call the police.”

Charla started to move, but was stunned by a blow to her jaw, which knocked her to the floor. She tried to get up, but her legs were like jello. She heard the girl talking again.

“You had your chance with the bad boy and couldn’t change him. Now it’s my turn.”

Charla tried to speak, to reason with the girl, to beg, but another coughing fit came instead. The door shut, and light was gone.

For Sale:

One Axe.

Handle painted red, blade painted red.

Only used once.

Kate, Kate, Kate and Apple sat at a trendy French eatery discussing what the world is coming to. The sun always shone for the Kates and Apple. Weather was of no consequence for them. What was of consequence would be their important humanitarian topic of the moment.

Kate looked in her compact. “Did you know the Japanese are killing whales?” The other Kates looked from their compacts and Apple tore her interest away from her new twelve-inch, three-thousand-dollar sparkly shoes. Concern filled their eyes like the silicone that filled their breasts.

“Oh, no,” Kate said. “The poor whales.”

“We should do something,” Kate said. They all shook their heads.

The man in the top hat standing behind her took his shiny straight razor from his tuxedo pocket, grabbed her by the hair, pulled her head back and gave her a clean slice on her neck from ear to ear. Blood spilled on the concrete floor and over the black marble table top pooling around the Kates’ and Apple’s white latte mugs. Gruffly he pulled her from the table and threw her to the floor. Five seconds later another Kate appeared.

“So what should we do?” Kate said.

They all looked at each other. Apple put a finger to her sculpted lips and tapped. Kate looked at Kate who looked at Kate. They all put their finger to their sculpted lips and tapped.

“I got it!” Kate said. “Let’s protest.”

They looked from one to the other. The man wearing the top hat picked a white linen napkin from the table, wiping his blade clean, and placed the napkin back on the table. He grabbed Kate by the hair, pulled her head back and gave her a nice, clean slice across the neck from ear to ear, tossing her to the floor. Soon another Kate sat down.

“How do we do that?” Kate asked. Some internal clock sounded and they all took their compacts out and gazed at their reflections. The waiter refilled their no-fat lattes.

“We must go to Japan,” Kate said.

“Yes, of course,” Apple said with forced admiration and nodded her head.

The Kates’ cell phones rang and they each answered, listened for a second, spoke for five minutes and hung up. The man in the top hat wiped his blade on Apple’s white silk blouse, moved to behind Kate, grabbed her by the hair, bent her head back and sliced her neck from ear to ear, shoving her from the chair. Soon appeared another Kate.

They all spoke at once. “I’ve been accepted!” They laughed. “You too!” Kate said. Apple stared down at her shoes.

“Oh, Apple. Don’t worry. I’m sure you will be in soon.” The Kates gathered their too-large five-thousand-dollar purses. Kate leaned beside Apple’s ear and whispered, “We will learn the mysteries of the Universe. And you will too, for ten thousand dollars per level.”

They waved goodbye to Apple and as they sashayed down the sidewalk the man with the top hat followed. He saw the other man who wore a top hat take position behind Apple. He shook his hand.

“Good luck, Man. I hope you have better luck.”

Soon Apple was joined with her friends Plum, Apricot and Jupiter to discuss deeply the human condition.

My mother fell in love with that house at first sight. She bought it without thinking twice. For her it meant the start of a new life, and I never meant to ruin it, but there was always something that worried me about that place. She didn’t listen to me when I told her about the shadows in my bedroom. She didn’t believe me when I told her about Steven. It wasn’t my imagination or bad dreams when I would hear my name being called every night after midnight. She accused me of just wanting attention when I told her how the shadows had scratched me.

She almost went insane when she came home after work that day, and didn’t see me in the house. She didn’t like living there anymore; she said everything reminded her of me, and she couldn’t take it. She moved a little while later. I was so sad that I wept all night, but I have to stay here with Steven in the corners of the house. Only the mirrors can see my face.

When I was just a kid, what I wanted more than anything was to have a friend. A pet. My mother said no, and said they were very dirty. “Not this one!” But no matter how much I begged, it was all in vain. Time went by and I still wanted a pet. One day, while walking home, I found a dead dog, hit by a car. I felt so sorry for it. “I’ll love you, even though no one else cares!” I dissected it, removed the blood and viscera, and filled it with sawdust. Now I’m happy because I have a pet, and Mother is happy because it’s not dirty.

I sometimes think I need a girlfriend, but Mother says that women are dirty.

I love my job. I’ve worked in the Lost and Found office for ten years so far, and I can’t say it’s ever been monotonous or boring. Every day new deliveries arrive and surprise me. Like the time when the children committed mass suicide, and shortly afterwards we received nineteen wills to live. Those kids should be more careful with their belongings.

I also remember when we found the virginities of fifteen seven-year-old girls. None of them ever came to claim them, but their mothers did come to ask about their innocences, which never arrived. They must have stayed with the rapist.

Today, no less, we’ve received three hearts. That means that soon we’ll receive some revenges and some desires to live. But I fear that most of what we’ll receive will be memories.

My mother always told me that I was special. Too much empathy. But it’s not that. It’s just that I know what people are thinking. I can get into their minds. So when she arrived, half dead and covered in blood, I didn’t like what I saw inside her. Everything was dark.

“You’re jealous,” they said, but they were wrong. I was afraid of her thorns.

She was fourteen years old, or at least that was how she appeared, but her hunger was something as old as the world. Our mayor was the first to succumb. He turned into an animal and raped her until he fell unconscious. The furious townsfolk burned him in a bonfire as high as his soul was filthy, right at the entrance to the village, but there was no respite. The priest was next to fall to the temptation of the flesh, and he suffered the same fate as the mayor. Many adults followed them, until no men were left alive except for the librarian. She couldn’t tempt him because he was blind. She fled the village soon after that failure.

Much later, I learned that beings like her give birth to as many daughters as there were fathers to mount her when she was in heat. Next time, it won’t just be the village. The whole county will fall.

My mercy condemned me to this hell on earth, but today will be the end of it. She’s drugged; it was the only way to bring her here. This is a place far from the city, away from the roads. Nobody can save her this time. No merciful soul will take pity on her pleading eyes. I would tell her to pray, but I don’t think she has any god to listen to her. Not now, not after all the deaths and pain she’s caused.

I raised the shotgun and aimed at her heart, and just when I was about to fire, he shot first. That stupid bastard shot me point-blank. I’m so cold that I can hardly speak, but I’m watching him untie that angelic-looking creature, hearing him whisper that everything is fine and nobody will hurt her again. It’s too late to tell him that he’s taking a wolf in the guise of a lamb. His grief, his sorrow and his misery are just beginning. Mine, thank God, ends here.