Twisted Roads – Twisted Horror Stories by Matthew Tonks

A Meeting In-Between

“We had a deal,” it says, as if words could be anything in this place. His naked, shivering form stands before it. If he could cower, he would, but his body does not answer his cries. For if it did, he would be running now, far from this thing, far from whatever is about to happen.

“I tried, I did, but…”

“But nothing. I gave you back life, and you betrayed me. You twisted my words, my story. You tried to escape, and your family paid the price. More will suffer unless you do as I say.”

“I can’t. What you’re asking is genocide,” his mind screams. It laughs, and its eyes grow wider as it grips him by the throat with one of its large, clawed hands.

“Genocide—one of the words created by your kind because of the things you’ve carried out against each other in the name of your petty beliefs. But I don’t want genocide. I want the one who bore forth all of us. I want the one who made these limbs, this eternal heart, and I want him to pay,” it says as it thrusts him backward. He crashes to the ground, into the soft, watery underneath that is the place in-between all.

“I can’t. It’s too late for what you want. I never agreed to this, not what you want me to do. I can’t do it. Why don’t you just let me die? Find someone else to carry out yo—”

“YOU ARE MY TOOL!” it screams into the darkness as the very ground beneath him vibrates with its power. “You will do what we AGREED upon. You will do what I ask of you. I gave you what you wanted. I breathed life back into your husk, I let you keep your sin. Stop fighting what is inevitable. Do what you were reborn to do, or you will relive everything, over and over again, until you obey me, until you are BROKEN. Do you understand?”

“NO! I’LL NEVER STOP FIGHTING YOU, I’LL NEVER DO WHAT YOU ASK!” his mind screams. For a few moments, it stands there, looking at him, hunched over as if it is ready to attack.

“Then, I will break you,” it says as everything melts away and he leaps from his bed to his feet. He feels his phone vibrate in his pocket, his eyes dart around the darkened room while his heart beats furiously in his chest. Slowly, he pulls the phone from his pocket and answers it.

“We’re fucked,” he says nervously into the phone as Abby jumps from her bed and starts barking furiously at the door.