Twisted Roads – Twisted Horror Stories by Matthew Tonks

Piper Paid

“It’s easy, Simon. You just put the fucking knife to her throat, and you slice it across. It’s that fucking simple—you know how it works!”

Simon looks down at the girl, whose hair he tightly grips in one hand, then to the knife in his other hand, and finally up at him. “But she’s done nothing wrong. She’s innocent.”

“Just fucking do it! Now’s not the time to get scared.”

“I’m not scared, it’s just… well, it’s wrong, that’s what it is,” Simon says as he releases his hold on the girl, and she crumbles to the ground in tears.

“Wrong? Is that your idea of a joke? Of course it’s fucking wrong—that’s why we’re here: to spread the anarchy, to stick it to the fucks upstairs, and all that jazz. Why the hell do you think we’re here? They’ve all gotta pay!”

“Even the innocent?”

“Especially the innocent.”

“That’s not what I signed up for. That’s not what this is all supposed to be about, and I won’t be a party to it!”

McGregor raises a revolver and aims it towards Simon. “You’re either with us, or you’re with them. And if you are, then you have to pay the same price,” he says, lowering the revolver and firing two shots into the girl. Simon freezes in place. He feels his body break out in a sweat, and a nervous trembling starts to shake its way through his legs, creeping up towards his bladder. McGregor raises the revolver back towards Simon. His face is now dark and mysterious—not the man Simon had grown up with, not the friend he thought had his back.

“What the fuck is going on, McGregor? This isn’t you. This isn’t what we started this all for.”

“Fuck you! Why come along, then, if you weren’t ready to really commit one hundred percent to the cause?”

“I am committed, but this isn’t what we’re about. This is wrong. She was innocent!”

“Fuck you. You’ve never been committed. All you’ve done is sit in your basement writing propaganda manifestos, spreading the word of our ways. You’ve become blind. You’ve forgotten where the true power of our people lies. I’ve been out in the trenches, taking names, waving the flag. And now you’re finally out here, doing what everyone else has been doing since the beginning, and what? You suddenly realise you don’t want to do it anymore? You’re pathetic. I can’t believe I looked up to you. I can’t believe any of us did.”

“Then do it. See where you’ll be without me,” Simon says, standing tall and tightly closing his eyes.

“For the cause!” McGregor shouts.

Two shots explode to life. Simon readies himself for the impact, but it never comes. After several moments, he nervously opens his eyes to find McGregor face down in a pool of blood, with two brothers of the cause standing over him.

“I’m tired of the killing as well,” one of them says, as they both place their guns on the ground. They look towards Simon. “Show us what this cause is really about. Show us how we can win without bloodshed.”

“Then, let’s begin again,” Simon says, allowing himself to smile as he darts one last look at McGregor’s body.