Twisted Roads – Twisted Horror Stories by Matthew Tonks

No, It’s Not

“Now just relax. This is a safe room, and I’m not going to make you do anything you don’t want to do. Do you understand?” he says as he settles into a seat across from her. She sits there, staring at him with wild eyes.

“I-I-I, I said I don’t want to,” she says, gripping the side of the couch tightly. “I just want to go back to my room, to my photos.”

“We’ve been over this before, Marie. We’ve agreed—you agreed—that for you to take the necessary steps in your rehabilitation, we need to confront what happened in your past. What made you build these walls, walls that have led to violent outbursts towards, well, happiness—other people’s happiness, to be more precise.”

“I know. I’m not stupid. I-I-I’d just rather go back to my room. Can’t we do this another day?”

“It’s not going to happen, Marie. The last four times I’ve allowed you to do just that, and in each instance, you’ve gone back to your room and either assaulted a member of staff or harmed yourself. That will not happen today. Today, you either get on board, or I’ll have no other choice but to request your immediate relocation to a more, how should I put it….”

“Just say prison. We both know that’s what you want to do with me—lock me up and throw away the key.”

“Please, Marie, that’s far from what I want. If you work with me like you promised you would, we could fight the demons in your head together. We could overcome all the things inside that make you feel the way you do. All you need to do is lie down, allow me to administer the drug, and together, hand in hand, we’ll fight this.”

“I-I-I, okay….” she says as she slowly lies on the couch. Quickly, he is at her side, and then a sharp pain, followed moments later by a feeling of euphoria.

“Now, Marie, tell me what you feel. Get it out; let’s purge this demon together,” he says as he sits back down calmly, crosses his legs, places a small notebook on his lap, and leans back in the chair.

She stares intensely at the ceiling. Her bottom lip begins to tremble as tears start to run down her face. She bites her bottom lip, breaking the skin. She feels the warm thickness of it land on her tongue; she tastes the salty goodness, and she wants more. She feels waves crash against her body—waves of sedation, peacefulness—and she closes her eyes, lost in the moment, lost in time, as seconds turn into minutes, and minutes into hours, until, finally, she begins to come back.

“Marie, where are you now?” she hears his voice say. It seems so far away, so distant. Her eyes slowly open. She catches a glimpse of something moving in the corner of her eye—it’s not him; he’s to her other side. Her heart jumps, its rhythm increasing, as she sees the dark, shadowy figure creep towards her, but she’s unable to move. She feels something cold grip her leg—is it a hand? Her heart beats faster. She feels the perspiration seep from her body as her eyes slowly, nervously, make their way downward. That’s when she locks eyes with it—with herself—and she screams, leaping from the couch, crashing to the floor in a heap. Frantically, she scrambles away, cowering in the corner of the room, screaming.

“Are you okay?” he asks. She stares at him, her heart racing. She sees the sweat run down the side of his brow. He knows. He knows what’s happening. He can see it too. It’s what he wanted, after all. He places a nervous finger on the intercom switch and clears his throat. “Judy, can you…?” A pencil tears into his throat, piercing his windpipe. He clutches at it, gasping for air as he begins choking on his own blood. Marie stands over his quivering body as the doors to his small office crash open. Judy lets out a scream of horror. The orderlies stand there in shock before charging towards her, crashing into her like a freight train, tackling her to the ground. All the while, she smiles. Maybe, finally, she knows how to be happy herself.