Tim shook his head. ‘No, they won’t. It’s a big area outside these woods, a big place to search. There are other pockets of trees and woodland around here, and those places might get searched, but this place? Nope, afraid not. Grandpa’s protection is enough. Always has been.’
‘And how long have you been doing this?’
‘Me? Well, I’m older than I look. A lot older. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. But the family... I guess some of them have been doing it for centuries.’
It sounded impossible to Ashley, but, after all she’d seen, she had no doubt he was telling the truth. ‘And you never thought to fight against it? Did you ever think that this was wrong?’
He shook his head. ‘Doesn’t work that way. Once he’s inside you, then that’s it. Besides, how can anyone fight something like that? You saw it, didn’t you? It can’t be fought, Ashley, only obeyed.’
‘But you could try,’ Ashley said, trying to reason with any kind of humanity he might have left.
‘No,’ Tim said, as if talking to a child, ‘you can’t. The longer we go without eating, the worse it gets. The impulses he embeds in us get stronger and harder to control. The violent urges, the aggression, the depravity; those are the things it revels in. The only way to satisfy those urges is to indulge, and that’s one of the reasons we do what we do. The longer we go without, the harder it is to control. Fuck, you saw how my family treated each other. Dysfunctional hardly covers it.’
‘Try to kill it,’ Ashley said.
‘You can’t.’
‘Try.’
‘You can’t!’ he shouted. Tim then turned his head, aware that the flames were getting stronger. She saw a brief look of fear in his eyes.
‘Fire,’ Ashley said in realisation. ‘Fire can hurt you. It can kill you people, can’t it?’
‘Knowing that isn’t going to do you any good, little mouse. Not now.’
‘But will it work on that thing?’
‘No,’ he said. ‘I’m not lying when I say it can’t be killed, Ashley. Fire has its uses, sure. It can burn away his link to us, his link to our reality, but nothing more.’
‘So what would happen if we set it on fire, then? Torched the fucker? Would that send it back to wherever the hell it’s from?’
Tim laughed again, genuinely amused. ‘Jesus, Ashley, I have to give you credit. I’ve never seen this side of you before. Never knew you had it in you. Suddenly, you’re this kickass warrior girl, huh? I like it, I have to say. But no, you’d never get the chance. He would stop you. And even if you somehow succeeded, fire won’t kill it. He would only come back. He is... forever.’
‘But we could try, Tim.’
‘No,’ he said, ‘we couldn’t. You can’t talk me round to this, Ashley. I’d never go against him. And he knows that. Even if I had half a desire to, he’s just too strong. The place he’s from, it’s not like our world, our existence. From what Father has told me, and from what I’ve seen, it’s like a living nightmare. Sometimes the things that exist there find a doorway through here.’ Tim then leaned forward, putting more weight on Ashley’s throat. ‘And you wanna know the scariest thing?’
‘What?’ Ashley squeaked out.
‘That thing down there, as powerful as he is, he isn’t one of the worst. In fact, I think he’s pretty low on the food chain where he’s from, compared to some of the other things that roam around there. How crazy is that? Can you imagine if one of the really big, nasty ones wanted to find their way here? We’d all be fucked.’
He laughed, but it was a manic laugh, one that belied a genuine fear. Whatever he’d seen, whatever visions he’d been given, as awesome as they might have been, they clearly scared him.
His laughter died down and he looked back at the ever-growing fire.
‘So, Grandpa killed Father, huh?’
Ashley nodded as best she could with his boot on her throat. ‘Yes.’
‘Then that opens up a space,’ Tim said, shrugging. ‘I thought maybe I’d get my shot if they got rid of Claudia, like they were planning, but this might work as well.’
‘No it won’t,’ Ashley said, struggling against his weight, fighting the urge to gag. ‘Do you really think you’ll get what you want now? They couldn’t get me to join, could they? That means you’re fucked. They still need their little errand boy, which means you’ll still only get their leftovers.’
The pressure on her throat increased again.
‘No,’ he said, gritting his teeth in anger. ‘Things need to change. And I’ll make sure they do.’
Ashley had hit a nerve, goaded him to anger, just as she’d hoped. Whilst he bubbled with rage, she had brought a leg up and aimed the sole of her boot at Tim. She kicked out, hard, extending her leg with everything she could. The sole of her boot sunk between his legs.
Tim’s eyes opened wide and he let out a noise, something between a groan and whimper. He grabbed his crotch, back-pedalled a few steps, and doubled over.
Ashley got to her feet, rubbing her aching throat.
She set herself, then ran towards him with a roar.
Chapter 38
Tim’s testicles throbbed, the dull ache making him lightheaded and nauseous. The bitch had kicked him so hard she’d almost popped his balls.
Before he knew it, he heard her scream, and she came sprinting at him.
In that moment, he genuinely thought Ashley had lost it.
He could do no more than brace himself as Ashley crashed into him with such force that he was thrown back into the library window. The single pane of glass reverberated and cracked under his weight. Still reeling, Tim barely had time to bring his hands up in defence before Ashley charged him again, tackling him. The glass of the window behind them gave way and they both fell through.
Tim’s world spun in a shower of glass and he found himself inside, on the library floor, with Ashley sprawled out beside him. He was also aware of the sudden increase in temperature.
He looked up and saw just how bad the fire had gotten; the room was engulfed in flames. The bookshelves were a blazing inferno, and the fire had even taken hold of the wooden walls at the far end of the room.
No. This can’t happen. This can’t happen. Not like this.
There wasn’t much Tim was genuinely scared of anymore. Though he wasn’t as strong as the others in his family, he could still recover from most things, painful though they may be. This, though, would be different. There would be no recovery.
No coming back.
And it would be agonising.
He had to escape.
Tim got to back to his feet, ignoring Ashley who lay, coughing, on the floor, and tried to ignore the pain that still throbbed from his groin. He stumbled back towards the now broken window. Upon taking a step, he felt a sudden stab of pain in his back and yelled out. Tim reached a hand around and felt a shard of glass sticking out from his lower left side, something that must have happened during the fall. He grabbed it and pulled, flaring up more pain, but it refused to budge.
Fuck it, he could deal with that later.
He was aware of Ashley slowly getting to her feet as well, but that didn’t matter, he just needed be outside, away from the heat and the smoke and flames. Everything else could wait.
He fell on the sill of the window, feeling some remaining jagged glass press into his stomach, and began to roll through it.
But something stopped him.
A hand, grabbing the belt of his trousers.
He turned to see the bitch, Ashley, holding him, teeth clenched and jaw set. Her face was smattered with light burn marks, her cheek was gashed open, and she was covered in cuts and bruises and filth and dirt, yet she would still not just give up and die.
Warrior girl indeed.
He felt a begrudging respect towards her, but in that moment, respect didn’t matter, survival did. His hand wormed around a shard of glass still stuck in the frame. It drew blood as he pulled it free, ready to thrust it into her weak and supple flesh.
>
As he made to turn his body, the pain from the glass in his back erupted again and, with a scream, he looked down to see Ashley was forcing it deeper inside of him with her free hand.
He coughed and spat blood, lashing out an elbow that knocked her back.
‘You fucking bitch,’ he screamed. He held up the shard of glass and charged at her, enraged that someone as lowly and weak as her seemed to be destroying everything his family had built.
The glass found nothing but air as Ashley dropped a hip, then weaved the other way, grabbing him tightly around the waist. She pulled at him, using his own momentum against him, and toppled them both into the flame-engulfed bookcase on the far wall. The flames were everywhere now, and Tim felt their stinging heat on him.
‘No!’ he yelled, trying to pat himself down, not even knowing if the flames had spread to him. It was a reaction he couldn’t control. ‘No, get it off me.’
He began to scream, aware he was losing it. But he couldn’t afford to lose it.
Not now.
If he kept his head, he could still get out. He could still make that bitch suffer for what she’d done.
But the panic that had set in was hard to overcome.
Was this akin to what their victims felt?
He didn’t care for the irony.
‘Tim,’ he heard Ashley yell, and he looked up. She’d moved to the side of the bookcase, pressing herself into it, letting the flames lick and kiss at her, seemingly uncaring. He soon realised what she was doing as the bookcase began to creak. ‘Fuck you.’
He looked up and saw the top of the case begin to fall.
Tim tried to run, to scamper and crawl out of the way, desperate to reach safety.
But it was not to be.
A heavy, scalding weight crushed down onto him, pinning him to the floor. It snuffed out any hope of survival.
The bookcase lay on top of him and the fire that coated it so completely now began to find its way to his flesh. It took hold of his clothing first, and he could feel the skin beneath begin to sear as fire did what it did best.
He screamed and squealed in pain.
No, not like this, please. Please, no. Please, please, please.
Tim flattened his hands on the ground and pushed, trying to lift the heavy piece of furniture that weighed down on him. It took a lot of strain, but he managed to get it to raise slightly. If he could just crawl out—
It suddenly dropped heavily again, forcing itself down on him, flattening him to the floor. Twisting his head, he saw that Ashley had planted a foot on the top of it and was pushing down, trapping him. He tried desperately again to lift it, but his arms were pinned tight and he could find no purchase.
The flames began to ravage his body. His clothes now completely took hold and set ablaze. Tim could do nothing but lie there, helpless, and scream as the fire engulfed him completely.
Chapter 39
It was quite a sight, seeing the man she thought she loved turn into a human torch beneath her.
But he was never really that man. It had all been an act, a way to fool her and her friends. Just to get them out here.
To kill them.
And he’d almost succeeded.
Almost.
Now, Ashley hoped, he was feeling a little of what his victims must have felt.
Helpless, unable to stop the pain inflicted upon him.
Unable to avoid death as his life was slowly taken away.
Tim still screamed and writhed, his cries high-pitched and desperate.
It wasn’t a sound she could ever enjoy, because she wasn’t like them, she wasn’t a monster, but it did bring her some closure, some measure of revenge.
Flames threatened to wrap around the leg she was using to push down on the bookshelf. She’d planted her foot in a small section where the fire hadn’t yet taken hold, but that space had dwindled fast and was now almost non-existent.
But even if the fire caught her, she refused to let up. Not until she was sure Tim was dead.
In the time it took for him to stop screaming, and for his melting body to fall still, Ashley never once looked away.
She watched him die.
And when she was certain, absolutely positive that he was dead, she finally removed her foot from the blazing bookshelf. She had cut it fine, too, as the material of her hiking trousers had started to melt and smoulder.
The heat and smoke in the room was becoming unbearable and, now that Tim was finally dead, she needed to turn her attention back on herself.
Back to survival.
She looked once more upon Tim’s fire ravaged-body, then vaulted through the window to the porch outside.
The air felt fresh and clean, causing a coughing fit.
Ashley grabbed the book she’d dropped earlier, after Tim had struck her, and ran off into the woods.
Chapter 40
Ashley’s journey back through the woods was a long one.
She followed the trail back the way they had come in; on guard and fully aware that, somewhere out here, Tim’s bitch sister and faceless brother were lurking.
During her trek, she fully expected them to show up, to ruin her escape, but that didn’t happen. Perhaps they had scuttled off somewhere to try and recover from their wounds, or had taken a different route back to the house. If so, she hoped they found nothing but a blazing inferno and were helpless to do anything other than watch their home burn.
As Ashley walked, a new morning finally broke through the darkness. Shortly after, she finally passed out of the woods and into the open fields.
Back to the wilderness.
Once free of those cursed woods, she kept going for over an hour straight, making sure she put plenty of distance behind her.
Then she finally stopped, collapsed to the floor, and wept.
It was as if a switch had been flipped. Every feeling of sadness and loss and anger that had been pushed beneath the surface finally got release and erupted from her in a wave.
She cried and cried, loudly and desperately.
She remembered Kim and Craig, and what had become of them. She remembered the pain and terror she had endured.
She remembered it all.
But it would not ruin her, it would not define her.
She wouldn’t let it.
Dealing with what had happened would take time and a lot of tears.
But she would deal with it all.
Ashley gave herself a few more moments, then got back to her feet, holding the book close to her. From the small snippets she had seen within it, she was certain it would read like the ramblings of a madman.
The thing was, she knew it was true. All of it. Hopefully, the book would explain the things she’d faced out here and help her to come to terms with what had happened.
Then again, maybe knowing the truth behind all of this wasn’t something she needed in her life.
But she could make that decision herself, in time.
Ashley dug her hand into her pocket, felt the cold metal of Kim’s lighter, safe with her, and pressed on.
She had no idea how she would explain things, or what lay ahead for her.
There was still a hell trek to overcome before she reached anything approaching civilisation, and she had no supplies other than the clothes on her back.
No food, no water, no shelter.
Nothing.
After everything she’d been through, Ashley realised something as simple as Mother Nature could actually be the death of her.
But she wouldn’t allow that to happen.
She wasn’t the same person as the one who had walked into those woods the day before.
She would make it, and she would survive.
Of that, Ashley had no doubt.
THE END
TORMENTED
Chapter 1
Adrian James looked down at the floor as the person at his feet begged. It was a person he knew well.
‘Please,’ the dying person pleaded.
Adria
n wasn’t listening—nothing was going to stop what was about to happen.
Because it had already happened before.
The act of taking the life was every bit as difficult and soul-destroying as he remembered it being the first time around: the pleading, the struggling, and the weak resistance which he easily overcame. Adrian snuffed out the flame of life, and the body lay still.
The room they were in, illuminated only by faint candlelight, fell silent after the death rattle—the last wheezing breath—petered out of the corpse.
After the deed, Adrian slumped to the floor, feeling incredibly drained. He studied his hands—murdering hands that he’d just used to kill.
Was he a monster?
Adrian felt something squirm inside, a knot in his gut that tightened and tightened. Then he purged, spilling the contents of his stomach across the dirty carpet floor.
When his vision finally cleared, he looked up at the walls of the room. Once white, they were now dull and yellowed.
Then the paint started to discolour even more before his eyes.
Something was wrong here.
This wasn’t how he remembered things.
Dark pools of black formed in places along the walls, and from these pulsating pockets, sickly yellow tendrils ran free, weaving their way around the remaining space, spreading and covering the entirety of the walls.
A sickness running wild.
Adrian was crying now, wailing uncontrollably. What had he done? He was a monster, there was no question of that. A killer.
A murderer.
He hugged himself and fell to his side, curling up into a foetal position as he continued his sobbing, feeling the wet, sticky patch of vomit beneath him.
Then he felt a breeze around him and detected a foul smell—worse than the one that already emanated from the carpet.
Adrian looked up just in time to see the surrounding room completely disintegrate before his eyes like it was never there. Blown away as if made of smoke. And what lay beyond terrified him.
He screamed.
The Extreme Horror Collection Page 20
