Twisted Roads – Twisted Horror Stories by Matthew Tonks

Fountain of the Roundhead

It takes a step forward and smiles, gripping the stone wall with a clawed hand.

“I have braved endless eons. I have waded through rivers of blood. I have waited for the day you were reborn anew so my emptiness could be filled with your overabundance, your sinful soul, for that which I was not blessed. But now I see you for what you truly are—like me. I desire no longer just your vile pittance, not when I can have EVERYTHING!” it sneers as it throws its arms out wide and laughs, then looks down at him, its eyes endless pools of space shimmering in the candlelight.

He clenches his hands into fists and leaps into the air, driving a solid left hook across its face. It crashes to the ground, and his eyes widen with surprise. Lifting his hand before him, he slowly turns it in front of his eyes, bewildered by the might it dealt, captivated by the force it sent through the beast, and he smiles to himself as he looks down to where it lies. “I won’t let YOU!” he yells defiantly.

“Well played, child,” it says. Seconds flash past as it stands before him once more, saliva dripping from its rows of razor-sharp teeth. “But you are fighting something endless, timeless, without sin, without soul. This display, if you want to call it that, will not displace me. I am coming, I am almost through, and soon I will be more than a dream, more than a fading thought when you wake. Soon, I will be free.”

“WHAT DO YOU WANT OF ME?”

It laughs as he feels its hot, putrid breath waft over his face. He screws it up in disgust, holding back the rush of bile trying to escape his stomach. “I don’t want ANYTHING from YOU, not anymore. I just want you to witness the destruction you have imparted onto humankind. I want you to witness as I steal all the sins of those you hold dear. I want to pluck them from everyone you ever knew, anyone you ever loved, and then, once I have fed on yours, I will feed on the rest until there is only you and me, and then, then I will come back for you, Marty. When you see what your words have done to this world, what you have created.”

“W-W-WHY?”

It grunts and leans in closer, its form slowly shifting until Marty is staring at a ghostly, soulless version of himself, and it smiles. “We all have dreams, father.”