Twisted Roads – Twisted Horror Stories by Matthew Tonks

Me and Mine

“They say when you know what you’ve got, you should hold on as tight as you can and never let it go. Sage advice for the troubled soul, or maybe it’s just an excuse cooked up by sick perverts who need an outlet for their desperation, their depravities, their hopelessness,” he says as he nervously picks up the glass in front of him and takes a large mouthful, running his now wet tongue over his lips. Desperately, they soak up the water, and he screws his face up in pain as the water burns, seeping into the large cavernous cracks that run across his lips. He looks back up at the camera and takes a deep breath.

“That’s what I told myself. That’s what I used to get me through all the shit, to get me… fuck, look at where it got me?” he says, peering over his shoulder and quickly glancing around the room. The red, now less vibrant than it once was, looks darker, uglier. He swallows, turns back to the camera once more; his left eye twitches, his lips tremble. “None of them understood what was right. They, they wanted—” He stops and looks at the table, clearing his throat. “SHE wanted to take them away from me! SHE said I was sick, that I needed help, and until I got it, until I showed HER my family came first, SHE was takin’ the kids and leaving. Going up to Jason’s holiday house in the woods, that sleazebag from work. FUCKING bitch, just like the rest of them, just like Mum said she was. But I couldn’t see that. I couldn’t see what she was really like because I was thinking with my cock, not my head,” he says, looking up again, and takes another mouthful from the glass before slamming it back down onto the table. It splinters on impact; cracks rush through the base, and pieces shatter off, tearing into the flesh of his hand. He pulls it away, lets out a hiss of pain, then begins to laugh.

“But now, now no one can have them. NOW no one can take them from me. We’re going to be happy again, just like we’re supposed to be, just like we used to be,” he says as he pulls a revolver from the table and smacks it against the side of his head. He looks into the camera once more, smiling as he pulls the trigger.