Twisted Roads – Twisted Horror Stories by Matthew Tonks

Miles of Smiles

The venom leaks out of his mouth and drops to the floor in sizzling fashion, burning the ground-like flesh as if it were some mediocre acid. He casts a desperate wayward glance towards Cole, only to be met with the cold snarling face of Hargrave.

“DIE YOU PIECE OF SHIT!” Hargrave hisses as a sadistic grin paints itself across his lips.

“F-F-FUCK YOU!” he manages to force out before he collapses to the ground in a lifeless heap.

“No Bomber, FUCK YOU and FUCK the broom you rode in on!” Hargrave says as he looks over to Cole, who looks down sadly upon Bomber’s motionless form. “Don’t be doing that. Don’t be mourning that piece of SHIT for one FUCKING moment!”

Cole presses his hands against his face and drags them down over it, pulling at his skin as if it were silly putty. “You have NO RIGHT to tell me what NOT to DO!” he heaves from his chest, as his eyes bore into Hargrave’s flesh. “From the moment you TWO started your bullshit dance, everyone and anyone has paid a price, while you’ve barely been scratched. So if you don’t mind, I’ll mourn the death of MY friend.”

Hargrave smiles nervously, biting into his own flesh, drawing blood. He hisses and grabs the side of his face, then snarls like a rabid animal before spitting a wad of blood to the ground.

“He wasn’t your friend, and neither will I be if you disrespect me again!”

“When have we been friends? You keep me alive because I’m your canary!”

“My what?”

“Your canary, the thing you push out in front of you to ensure that if there’s any danger, I’ll be the one to face it first.”

Hargrave laughs loudly, “THAT YOU ARE!” he bellows as his smile encompasses his entire face.

“It’s nothing to be proud of, it just shows how much of a coward you TRULY are!” Cole snaps back, each word drenched in raw emotion.

The smile fades from Hargrave’s lips and is replaced by a vicious snarl. “Then maybe it’s time I saw fit to replace you, for your words disrespect the bond I thought we had.”

“The only bond we share is one tainted in the blood of others, there is no benefit to this relationship. So replace me, but make sure you bury my bones deep enough.”

“There will be nothing left of you to bury,” he snarls.

“That’s always been your mistake,” Cole says as a wicked grin creeps across his face while his eyes explode in a brilliant sea of colours that cause the very earth to shake.

As Hargrave steadies himself, his eyes widen with terror. “W-What wizardry is this?”

Cole laughs heartily, “It’s not wizardry that is your undoing, but witchcraft. For the dead are NEVER truly gone.”

“Y-Y-You should know I don’t scare easy, nor do I play well with others. S-So deal your hand with certainty, for the foolish only have themselves to—” his words drift off into a dead silence as arms tear from beneath the soil and decaying corpses pull themselves up from below.

“Unlike you, my word is my PROMISE,” Cole snarls proudly as Hargrave is swallowed by the horde of dead.