Twisted Roads – Twisted Horror Stories by Matthew Tonks

Millions

“It’s easy, you either sign it all over to me, or both of you get a bullet to the head!” she says, holding the rifle towards them.

“Marion, this is ridiculous! Put the gun down, and let’s talk ab—” But she doesn’t allow him to finish his sentence. She fires a shot from the rifle, hitting him squarely in the centre of his chest. He stands there for a few long, agonising moments as the shock slowly sets in. The girl hiding beneath the bed’s doona begins to scream erratically. Slowly, his eyes look up at her, his mouth drops open, and he collapses to the ground, stone-cold dead. She fires another shot, and it rips into the doona. The girl hiding underneath lets out a gut-wrenching scream and then falls silent. A red stain quickly grows from the doona and across the sheets.

Seconds pass while she stands there, admiring her handiwork. Then the door bursts open, and he runs into the house. Sweat drips from him as if he had run through a storm. His heart races a million miles an hour. Desperately, his eyes search the hallway. But as soon as he sees her, and the smoking rifle in her hands, he knows he’s too late.

“W-W-W-What, what did you do?” he yells as he runs towards her. Without hesitation, she swings the rifle in his direction, and he throws his hands up in the air, if only for a second. Quickly, he drops them again, knowing they’d do little to shield him if she fired. “M-M-Mother, w-w-what the fuck did you do?”

“Don’t you dare talk to me like THAT! I did what that lying sack of shit deserved, what all pieces of shit like him deserve,” she says, spitting a mouthful of yellowish saliva onto the floor. “I sent him and the whore he was fucking to be judged by their maker.”

“F-F-Fuck, Mother! Have you lost it? What the fucking hell were you thinking? Couldn’t you have just left him?”

Her lip trembles, and her grip on the rifle tightens. “We had a prenup. I’d get nothing if I walked away, and his new floozy, she’d end up with everything. I couldn’t let that happen, not after all these years, not after everything I went through. I wasn’t going to lose it, not without a fight!”

“Don’t you see, don’t you realise? You’ll lose it all now! You’ll get nothing, and you’ll end up going to prison, for what?”

“For everything. We’ll make it look like a home invasion. All you need to do is be my alibi, and we’ll share in all of it, together!” she says.

“You’re crazy, Mother. It’s over, you’re done. I’m calling the police, and nothing you can say will stop me! I won’t be a part of this. I won’t be part of your plans!”

“Don’t be a fool, Jeremiah. We can salvage this, all of it. Just remember what I taught you?”

“What you taught me? When did you teach me anything, Mother? All you ever wanted was Daddy’s millions, and that’s never going to happen now. Don’t you see? I’ll end up with everything, so I don’t need to help you do anything. The best I can do for you, the only thing I can do for you, is to give you a head start on the police!”

She lowers the rifle slowly as a tear runs down her cheek. “I-I-I knew you’d say that,” she says softly, before raising the rifle again and firing.