Twisted Roads – Twisted Horror Stories by Matthew Tonks

Ghosts of Forever

She looks over to Bennett and grips his hand tightly. He squeezes hers back in return and forces a smile. But his eyes tell her a different tale, one filled with uncertainty. Of course, she didn’t expect anything different, not from him.

For the past two days, all he’s done is try to talk her out of tonight’s venture, but she hasn’t budged. To his credit, he kept his promise and came along with her. She turns slowly towards an older gentleman who sits at the opposite end of the table, and he tightly grips her other hand. His grey hair recedes as it gets closer to the crown of his skull, his long, jet-black eyebrows hang over his tightly closed eyes, and the moustache of his goatee quivers as his lips tremble, muttering unheard sentences under his breath. She feels his grip slowly begin to tighten and lets out a small grimace of pain. His eyes shoot open, and the room’s temperature drops quickly. Her eyes widen in disbelief as she can not only see her breath in front of her, but she can feel the thickness of it in her lungs with each breath she takes.

“They’re here,” Frasier says softly.

“I-I-I know, I can feel it,” she says. They lock eyes, and for the first time since she met this man, she can see the fear in his eyes. For someone who seemed so nonchalant about the whole process ten minutes ago, his tune had changed completely. He now seemed unknown to her, as if he were a stranger.

“They ask why y-y-you….” Suddenly, he is pulled up into the air by invisible arms and hangs like a puppet on strings, dangling there for a few moments before he jerkily moves around. “Why do you call us here? Why do you disturb our rest?” he says, his voice deep, gravelly, almost otherworldly, if there is such a thing.

“I needed to talk to you all. I needed you all to understand why I did what I did,” she says. He rushes forward and stops centimetres from her face. His head cocks to the side, and drool drips from his mouth and runs down his chin.

“We have nothing to say to you, and we have no desire to hear what you have to say. So, go, child. Go tell someone else of your sins, someone who cares about your soul. For once you leave this world, you are ours, that I promise.”

“I’ve got to die first, and that’s something I’ll never do.”

“Time ends for everything, everyone. Those who think they are forever always end up facing their mortality. You’ll see in time, wench; nothing lives forever, not even you.”

“I think maybe I’ll take that as a challenge and….” She stops mid-sentence as she feels the blade pierce her skin and dig into her back. She feels the cold steel slide towards her heart, frozen, unable to do anything to stop what will happen next. She feels his warm breath on her neck and a tear fall on the bare skin of her shoulder.

“Everything has to die,” Bennett whispers into her ear as everything goes black, and they laugh, all of them, her family, her victims. For now, they all come for her.