Twisted Roads – Twisted Horror Stories by Matthew Tonks

The Storm and the Hakelra

“Why, Vincent? Why does all this have to happen?”

“You know why. You know what you did,” Vincent says through clenched teeth.

“Is this still about Becca? I told you it was an accident. You know it was. I never meant for it to happen the way it did. She wasn’t supposed to be with Kyle; she was supposed to be…”

He slaps him across the face. “Don’t, just don’t. You knew why we were here. You knew she was my Mexra, my only one. You should’ve warned her or contacted me. But instead, you went ahead with your stupid plan and ended up killing them both. So now, the time for excuses has passed, and all that’s left is justice—justice that I’ll take out on your skull.” He places a hand on the sledgehammer’s handle and lifts it into the air, holding it up as if it were a trophy.

“P-Please, Vincent!” he begs. “Don’t do this. Untie me and let me go. Don’t do something that you’ll regret later, something you won’t be able to take back.”

Vincent laughs. “You don’t get it, do you?” he says, lowering the sledgehammer. “I’ll never regret this. I’ll never want to take it back, not once, not ever. You see, Hector, I want to expunge you from existence. I want to wipe any trace of you from this world. I want your memory to be nothing but a stain on stone, and I will have that, tonight. Then, I will leave this place and return to my homeworld. Once there, I will tell my people of this place, and we will come back here to wipe it from the galaxy with but the press of a button.”

“My God, Vincent, what happened to us?”

“Are you now just saying random things in the hope that something will change your fate? Hector, you need to understand what I’m about to say. You need to take this piece of information into your thick little brain and process it accordingly. You, Hector, make me sick. Your kind always has: leeches, bottom feeders, scum. You survive by feeding on the weak and vulnerable because you have no skill set, no strength, no real power. You’re pathetic, just like the rest of your species!”

“BASTARD! Untie me and find out who is the weakest one among us, or are you too SCARED?” he yells. Vincent raises an eyebrow and smiles, bemused by the verbal attack.

“Threats now? Are you that determined to survive, that you’d risk combat against me?”

Hector lets out a muffled laugh. “I knew it. The great Hakelra, warrior of his people, survivor of the dreaded Samarian war, is scared of a human. An unarmed, wounded, dying human at that.” Vincent strikes him across the face with a powerful left, knocking him to the ground before cutting his bindings.

“I AM NOT SCARED OF ANYTHING, ESPECIALLY NOT SOME PATHETIC INSECT LIKE YOU!” he screams.

Hector smiles as he slowly gets to his feet, gently rubbing his wrists where the bindings held him at bay. “Before we battle, I’ve got a confession to make,” he says, looking up into Vincent’s hate-filled eyes.

“Choose your words well, human, for they will be your last,” he says, readying himself to strike, raising his sledgehammer in the air like a skilled gymnast would a hoop or ribbon.

“Oh, trust me, Vincent, my old friend, the words I’m about to give you will be well-chosen. You see, it wasn’t Kyle I was after, it was Becca. She was the one I wanted. Kyle just seemed like the perfect cover when you caught me in the act,” he says with a smile.

“WHAT? YOOOOOUUUUUU, you pathetic worm, you will DIE!” Vincent yells as he charges toward Hector, who stands undaunted by Vincent’s powerful strides. As he prepares to strike, Hector gently holds a hand in the air, freezing Vincent in place.

“Maybe now’s the time I should mention that I’m also not human,” he says, twisting his hand and clenching it into a fist, as Vincent is ripped apart by an invisible force.