Tag: horror

Garage Door

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Right after breakfast, when it’s time to go to school, Danny does this trick – he hits the garage door button and then watches the garage door go down and down and down…
When the time is just right, he runs for the garage door and rolls under it.
“Garage Door Limbo” he calls it.
One day, Danny’s principal calls his mom at work.
“Is Danny sick?” he asks.
His mom races back home, sees Danny trapped under the garage door.
Stone cold dead.
She weeps. If the garage door didn’t kill him, well, running him over finished him off.

Confession

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Confession is good for the soul.
And for the community, too.
Every few nights, Max shows up with a bag of cash.
It scares me to think what he’s done to his wife and daughters this time.
Over the years, we’ve renovated the church with that money. Put in a community center. Added computers, tutors for homework.
Last night, soaked with blood, all torn up. Hands me a briefcase.
“Make it last,” he says. “You’ll never see me again.”
I don’t even listen. I just put it in the bank, and watch the news as they bring the bodies out.

Mark Brown

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Mark Brown. Spoiled rotten rich kid.
The worst bully in the entire school.
He pushed kids down the stairs.
Nobody ever stopped him.
One day, he tried to push me down the stairs.
But I saw him coming and ducked to the side.
Mark lost his balance and fell, tumbling down.
Crack… he broke his neck.
Laying there in the hospital bed, he tries to apologize to me.
“Say it like you mean it, Mark,” I say.
He’s crying, looking at the ventilator hose.
My hand, crimping it shut.
“Cry for me,” I say.
There’s a new bully in town.

She Wore Angry

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There’s some kinds of hate that wash off like dirt in the shower, and there’s others that go deep that you can’t dig it out without killing the wounded heart it’s wrapped around.
She wore Angry like a mask and Vengeance as a necklace, barbed wire around her ankle while she hunted us down one by one.
We knew she was coming for us. Like a force of nature, there wasn’t a damn thing we could do but dig deeper and pray she passed overhead.
Someone calls you. Your phone’s set to vibrate, but it rattles loud.
Did she hear?

The Things

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You’re new around here, aren’t you?
I guess I’m the one to break the news to you.
Strange things wash up on the beach at night.
Locals know better but there’s warning signs for out of towners.
There’s also chain link fences.
We don’t bother with lights. That just attracts more of the things.
Folks would snap photos of them, but the photos… moved. Shifted.
Or they looked like it.
Oh, if you see a hole in the fence, call the police and get home as quickly as possible.
Lock your door. And don’t open it for anyone until morning.

Axe Murderer

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The judge banged his gavel and called the court to order.
“Fred Axemurderer, you are charged with two counts of first degree murder. How do you plead?”
A blood-soaked figure in torn overalls and a hockey mask stood up.
“Well, let’s see,” he said. “You have my axe over there. Next to it, videotapes of the murders. Beside that, my signed confession. What more do you want?”
All the while, Fred’s attorney was shouting “HE PLEADS NOT GUILTY BY REASON OF INSANITY!”
You see, only a crazy man would give up the massive revenue potential of a sequel. Or two.

Call To Dinner

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Jeremiah beats the triangle with a metal rod and calls us to dinner.
The table is piled high with all sorts of dishes he’s prepared for us.
How he manages such feasts, we have no idea. He doesn’t let us in his kitchen, and the only time we see the food is when it’s already out on the table and he’s ringing the dinner bell.
Every so often, someone gets curious, and they say they’re going to find out.
Too curious, because the next time Jeremiah rings the bell and we all come to dinner, they aren’t there.
Say Grace.

The Hive Queen

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Ambassador Grindmar’s report to the Hive Queen was positive: the negotiations were going well, and peace would come at an insignificant price, easily made up for with future mutual trade and growth.
“Where is that Grindmar now?” asked the Queen.
The bodyguards upended a preservation-cask, spilling Grindmar’s butchered carcass on the throne room floor.
“That’s unfortunate,” said the Queen. “But the negotiations completed, correct?”
“Yes,” said Grindmar’s replacement. “The war is over.”
“Good,” said the Hive Queen. “Let us Prepare a feast in Grindmar’s honor.”
That night, Grindmar was as delicious as she had been skilled in crafting peace treaties

The Whole World

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I get so afraid of the world sometimes.
The whole damn world.
When the fear gets to be too much, I crawl into bed and pull the covers up to my chin.
Then, I just lay there, not even moving my eyes.
I am as still as a statue.
The shadows close in on me, looking, and I can feel them watching for the slightest move.
I’m just sitting here, feeling my heart beat. The rise and fall of my chest as I breathe.
What will they do next?
I don’t know. And that is what I find so terrifying.

Vacuum

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Milton has one of those vacuums with the clear tube that sucks all the dirt into, and you can watch it spinning around like a tornado.
So, he throws things on the floor so he can vacuum them up.
Yesterday, he tried to do it with popcorn, but it got all jammed in the hoses.
The motor’s high-pitched whine caught his attention.
Milton tipped the vacuum over to clear out the jam, but he forgot to turn off the vacuum.
He watched in horror… and then fascination as his fingers rattled around the clear plastic tube in the vacuum cleaner.