Twisted Roads – Twisted Horror Stories by Matthew Tonks

Just Over the Border

“It’s entirely possible, I mean, at this stage, anything is,” she says, running her hand down the frame of the mirror.

“At this stage? We’re not in one of your supernatural horror movies, Shelley. This is the real world; shit like this just doesn’t happen.”

She turns to him and smiles. “Why is it suddenly my supernatural horror movies? You’re the one who introduced me to The Evil Dead and Phantasm.”

“Years ago, when we were kids. You went all science geek on it and built this, this fucking thing.”

“The looking glass is not a fucking thing. It’s a doorway to another world, bridging the borders of our world and the world of…”

“The world of fucking nightmares!” he yells out. She looks at him with a wry smile. He feels a cold shiver run down his spine and looks to the ground, biting his lip nervously.

“Scared?”

“Of course I am. None of this would’ve happened if it wasn’t for that fucking thing. Whatever it did, it fucked everything, and nothing’s been right since. Nothing.”

“It only fed on what you asked it to. You knew that before you hooked yourself up to it.”

“Hey sister, I only did what you asked. Your fucking mirror did the rest.”

“Stop it! Stop blaming the mirror! It’s what came out of it—out of you—that caused all these killings. When you were hooked up, I detected something huge. Something with enough juice to keep the city running for a thousand years tore through the doorway,” she says, throwing her arms left and right, overly animating herself. He takes a step back, raising his hands in the air.

“Calm the farm. There’s no need to lose your shit.”

“Who’s losing their shit? You’re the one who keeps ignoring the facts. Everything is right here, and the only way to stop it is for you to cross the fuck over. Hopefully, whatever it is will ride back with you, and then we’ll—”

“You’ll do nothing. I’ll be stuck over there with whatever it is, and you’ll be safe. That’s the deal. Destroy the mirror as soon as I’m through. Promise me, like we’ve planned.”

“I promised already. I’ll destroy it, even though I know I could fix it, I could save you. I’ll keep my word.”

“Then let’s stop fucking around before I change my mind,” he says as he steps towards the mirror.

“I-I-I’m sorry,” she says softly, tears welling up in her eyes. He reaches out, cups her face in his hand, and smiles.

“Don’t be,” he says. Tears run down his cheeks as he takes a deep breath and steps into the mirror. The room vibrates as the realities’ seals are broken. His world flashes before his eyes—whites, blacks, reds, and blues—everything falling, disintegrating, and then reforming into something the same yet different. He steps into the dark grey otherworld, falling to his knees. His body feels twisted, torn, and broken. Tears cascade down his face, and then he feels it in the core of his soul—the connection to his world being severed. Slowly, he turns until he sees the cracks in the mirror behind him.

“Good girl,” he says softly.

“How touching,” a voice says from within the room. “Can I vomit?”

“When I stepped through the gate and crossed the border into this world, I knew the killings would stop. But I didn’t expect it would be…” He looks up at the shape hiding in the shadows.

“You didn’t expect it to be you?” she says, stepping from the darkness. “Is that what you were going to say?”

“Why?”

“Because of you. Don’t you see that? Haven’t you always seen that?”