Twisted Roads – Twisted Horror Stories by Matthew Tonks

The world screams at him like a small child wanting dessert, but Joel knows there’s no time for custard and cake. He mumbles a quick prayer, draws an invisible cross from his forehead to his chest, holds his breath, clenches his teeth tightly, closes his eyes, grips his groin as hard as he can with both hands, and leaps from the window just as the fire touches his skin. He covers the height of the fifteen storeys in record time and hits the ground with a crunch, screaming out in agony as both legs shatter and snap from the impact. He flails on the ground like a newborn baby, unable to walk. For a few immeasurable moments, the world is pulled away from him, and he’s dragged into one of darkness, but he blinks his eyes repeatedly and grits his teeth tightly together before he cries out loudly and digs his weakening fingers into the ground, dragging himself away from the burning building. He casts a fevered look over his shoulder, spying Heinrich watching him from a flame-encased window. Tears stream down his face as a sea of pain washes continuously over him, but in this moment, he allows himself to smile, even to laugh.

“F-F-FUCKING told you I-I-I w-wasn’t going to be another one of y-your FUCKING victims, mate! I-I-I’m a FUCKING s-s-survivor,” Joel stammers, looking back once more, just as Heinrich launches himself out the window. For a second, his eyes widen in terror, then shift to confusion as Heinrich hits the ground headfirst, making an impact a bug hitting a windscreen would envy.

“W-WHAT?” he laughs weakly, collapsing and clutching the ground as if it was the warm embrace of a lover. “FUCKING idiot, w-who jumps out of a w-window headfirst!” he scoffs. A smile softly caresses his lips, and he closes his eyes for a moment, hearing the distant wail of fire engines beckoning. But then his eyes shoot open in fear as the sounds of snapping bone and tearing flesh fill the air. To his horror, Heinrich is rising, his body repairing the damage from the fall, and in no time at all, the menacing figure stands above him once more.

“W-W-WHAT THE F-F-FUCK! Y-Y-YOU CAN’T D-DO THAT! Y-Y-YOU CAN’T C-CHEAT L-LIKE THAT!”

His head tilts to one side, and a deranged smile cuts itself across his scarred lips. “It’s only cheating because you can’t do it,” Heinrich proclaims gently, gripping Joel by his shattered legs and lifting him into the air.

“IT’S N-N-NOT F-F-FAIR! I W-W-WON! I ESCAPED! I-I-I SHOULD B-B-BE FREE!”

“This isn’t a game that finishes once you get out of the burning building, Joel. This is real life, and in real life, it’s not over until we’re dead.”

“F-FUCK YOU! IF I-I-IT’S NOT A G-GAME, W-WHAT MAKES YOU S-S-SO FUCKING I-INDESTRUCTIBLE!”

The smile on Heinrich’s lips grows wider, and he looks down at the dangling Joel once more. “I sold my soul to the devil,” he says matter-of-factly, before cracking Joel as if he was a whip, snapping his neck.

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