MicroHorror

Joseph Leganal awoke to the awful feeling, a sense ingrained from years of combat. There was something wrong. He reached for his wife, but the other side of the bed was empty. He rolled and saw a silhouette next to his bed.

It was his youngest grandchild. Had to be, by the size.

“Mandy? What’s wrong, sweetheart?”

She was very still. “I came to say goodbye.”

“Goodbye? But you guys just got here, tonight. We’re going to open Christmas presents in the morning.”

She stepped back, away from him. “I was with you for ten years, from the day we met. I couldn’t do anything to you, just make you dream. I passed to your son, and was with him for twenty-five years. I was the one who made him walk in his sleep. I couldn’t make him do much more. He passed me to Mandy. I’ve learned to take her over completely while she sleeps.”

Joseph remembered his nightmares and the guilt they caused him. He remembered Derek sleepwalking through the years. “I know by the way you speak that you’re not my granddaughter. You should leave her now, because I’m not a man to be messed with.”

His granddaughter laughed, in a way almost as adult as her words. “I know exactly what you are, Joe. I didn’t know your language at the time, but it was easy to tell that you gave the orders.”

Joseph thought back, subtracting the ten years the spirit said it had been with him, the twenty-five in his son and the five in Mandy. “You’re from Nam.”

“Yes. My name is Trong, and I’ll be leaving your lineage tonight. I hope you will accept the favor I’ve given you.”

Trong was silent, cueing Joseph to speak next. “What favor?”

“Years ago, when you had most of my village, including me, exterminated, you allowed my brother to leave. I guess you wanted him to tell others what would happen if they didn’t cooperate.”

Joseph reached over and turned on the lamp. Mandy’s little face was grinning. “Since you left one in my family, I’ll leave one in yours–this one. You’d better make sure she’s the only one if you don’t want me to come back for her. Goodbye, Joe.”

Mandy collapsed to the floor. Joseph looked her over and saw she was sleeping.

He then got out of bed and moved through the house. He found his wife in the hall, his son and daughter-in-law in the guest bedroom and his two older grandchildren on the hide-a-bed in the living room. He knew why he’d not seen any blood on Mandy. Trong had slit all their throats very neatly.

Joseph went to the phone. He dialed the numbers.

“911. What’s your emergency?”

“I just killed most my family.”

He hung up, walked back to the bedroom, got his pistol, went outside, stuck the barrel in his mouth, and made sure Mandy was the only one left.