Curdled Milk Cried Me to Sleep
A short horror by Matthew Tonks
The smoke bellows up into the night sky while fires burn beyond the city’s edges, his fingers pressing against the blinds, separating them just enough for his eyes to peer through. The humming of helicopters assaults the night air while their lights sweep across the desolate streets below, explosions and sirens crying out through the darkness as petrified screams are swallowed by the witching hour.
A stuttered breath slips from between his lips as the ache in his jaw returns tenfold. His nose scrunches and a scowl digs sharply into his brow as things shift within his swollen gums.
He lets out a sharp hiss as his teeth move again, the salty taste of blood running thick through his mouth. He stutters another breath, almost salivating from the pungent aroma given off by his own decay.
A spasm throws him backwards as a violent ringing tears through his skull, his vision swaying in and out of focus. He strains another breath, clenching his hands into tightly wound fists until his knuckles turn white. A river of sweat pours over his brow while the sound of his heart thundering in his chest drowns everything else out.
The world cries out around him and he applauds it. He feels a smile spreading across his face, then the lights shift and he hears her call out his name.
“Brian?” she repeats, finally dragging him back into awareness.
A grotesquely wet click echoes through his skull and his jaw drops, hanging loosely beneath his face. A strained grunt slips from his lips as he forces it back in place, his wild bloodshot eyes scouring the room for exits while broken capillaries spider around his nose in bright red bursts beneath the dim light.
His flesh throbs and his nostrils burn as though a sea of fire is trapped inside his face. Things worm their way through cartilage beneath his skin while high-pitched screams echo through his flesh and a thick river of saliva washes into his mouth.
He savours the soup for more moments than he should before swallowing the congealing pus. He forces a weak smile and drags a hand across his slimy lips as his breathing slowly stumbles back into some familiar rhythm while the thumping in his chest fades into silent ignorance.
“C-C-Cassie?” he stammers.
“You okay over there? It’s been a while since you said, like anything,” she asks.
“Y-Yeah, I’m okay, just lost in thought, y-you know, thinking,” he mutters blindly as his words taper off into unintelligible sounds while he looks back through the blinds.
The cock of a gun and the sharp pull of a chamber echo through the room.
“What are you thinking about, Brian?”
His smile broadens across his trembling lips until it stretches almost too wide.
“A gun? It’s a little early for the Spanish Inquisition, isn’t it? Don’t you trust me?”
“Trust isn’t anything anymore, you taught me that. It’s all about the truth and how easily it slips into fear and lies, because that’s what really matters now. So again I ask, what are you thinking about, Brian?”
He allows an affectionate laugh to quietly slip from between his lips, a warped sense of pride layered through it.
“So, no I love you, no anything, it’s just I don’t trust you, so bang bang, you’re dead?”
“I told you, it’s not about trust anymore, it’s about the truth, and we both know what you’d do if our roles were reversed. If I woke up looking like you did, you wouldn’t even give me a chance to explain myself before pulling the trigger. So stop being so melodramatic and turn around, let me see your eyes.”
“Ouch, that felt real, and rehearsed. You’ve been holding onto that one for quite a while, haven’t you? I bet you even practised it in the mirror, right!”
“STOP IT, BRIAN! STOP BEING THIS THING AND TURN AROUND! SHOW ME WHAT YOU REALLY ARE!”
“What I really am? I don’t think you’re ready for that, so run away, Cassie, go now, and I promise I won’t follow you,” he says as his trembling fingers force themselves between the blinds once again, his eyes nothing but pools of red staring out across the burning city.
“And where am I supposed to go? The city’s falling apart, and this, this is the only place where the rot is not. So why don’t you leave? Why don’t you go be with the others, be with your own kind?”
“My own kind? And here I thought it was just you and me, together to the end.”
“This is the end.”
His smile broadens into a grin, pulling at the edges of his lips.
“And what if I don’t want to go? What will you do then, dear Cassie?”
“I’ll put you down!”
“Put me down? Put me DOWN?” he snarls. “I’m not some wounded animal, so don’t stand there pretending you’re strong enough to stop me. I know who you really are. You’re the girl who can’t sleep when there’s out-of-date milk curdling in the fridge. You’re nothing. Just another frightened soul trying to convince itself it matters. So forgive me if I don’t take your threats seriously, because right now, they’re nothing but words!” he says as he turns towards her, the red spiderlike veins spreading across his entire face now.
“O-O-Oh god Brian, y-you,” she stammers as she holds the gun towards him in trembling hands.
“I gave you a chance, that’s what I did,” he spits as he rushes towards her.
She closes her eyes tightly, turns her head away, and squeezes the trigger. Two shots explode from the barrel and tear into his rotten flesh in violent splashes of red.
Then everything falls silent around her.
She opens her eyes and slowly turns towards him. For a moment, memories flash between them, fragments of sunshine and daisy chains.
Then his head bursts apart in a violent spray of red that paints the walls, the ceiling, and her face.
She gasps breath after breath as a sea of tiny parasites writhe across her face. Then, like the seed of man, they force themselves into her mouth and nose, flooding every warm, wet surface they can find as her eyes widen in horror.
Did this one sink its teeth into you?
Then feed it. Share it. Let it loose on someone else.
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