Twisted Roads – Twisted Horror Stories by Matthew Tonks

Infinity

They say when you die, everything you did in your life flashes before your eyes. All your sordid secrets, all your forgotten memories, everything flashes before your eyes, and then you die.

It’s a reassuring thing really, a kind of highlight reel to transition you from one journey to the next, be it upstairs, downstairs, or sometimes in between.

Now, none of us can accurately surmise what happens until it does. So, basically, all of what I’ve told you up to this point could just be bullshit, or on the other hand, it could be exactly what happens.

Where am I going with this, you ask?

I’m going to the truth. I’m going to tell you what I saw when I died. I know, I know, how is any of this possible? Just stay with me, and I’ll tell you.

But before I go into it all, I want to thank you for asking the question, mainly because I could have gone on for ages with more examples of what we, as mortal beings, think happens when we die.

Anyway, enough of all that. Let me get to the guts of the story. Let me get back to where I started, because your life flashing before your eyes is kinda on the right path—it’s just a little off-centre. You see, for me, it was Dolores Fillmore. She was my moment—what, or whoever, was out there—wanted me to see as I passed through one door and into the next.

Who was Dolores Fillmore?

She grew up next door to me. When we were kids, we played together. Heck, we even shared our first kiss. But as we grew up, we also grew apart, splintering off into different social groups, and it wasn’t until the night of her twenty-second birthday that I even had a real adult conversation with her. Unfortunately, it was also the last time anyone ever saw her alive.

For thirty-eight years, I kept the conversation a secret. Even when the police threatened to lock me up, I kept quiet, denying I had ever seen her that night. To be honest, I don’t think they ever believed me—especially the lead detective. He fucking hounded me for years, pegged me as the weird kid who lived next door, the one who had no tangible alibi, who was possibly seen talking to the missing girl on that night.

Anyway, I’m getting sidetracked again, lost in the whole story. You see, the thought of reliving the whole thing, as I have every moment since I passed, is almost impossible to shake. I guess you could call it the one sin that got me here in this place, reliving it over and over again.

I can see by the look on your face that you’re disgusted by me. That’s only because of what you saw me do to the Jones’ cat, isn’t it? I was curious. I wanted to know if it felt pain the way we do. You ran away, repulsed by what I had done. When I came to you that night, you were upset. You’d just found out your perfect boyfriend was cheating on you. It’s crazy how a few drinks can make everything clear.

At first, I wanted to explain it all, but you pushed me away. You told me you would tell everyone, and that’s when I hit you. The blood was like oxygen. I breathed it in and realised what I had done once the high had worn off.

For three days, you lay there, waiting for the right time to be moved. When I took you out to Helen’s Creek, I kissed you for the second time in my life, then let you go forever. You’d never rise again, but you’d always be with me, forever—for eternity—as I find myself watching you leave the house again to meet me once more for our date with destiny, for our dance in the infinity of creation.