Carnival of Horrors: Pulp Fiction

by Mark Rich

  “Would you like for me to fix you some cup of noodles Roderick?”

  I stared at her in total shock. She had just asked a question, I used to hear from my dead grandmother all the time. What was really scary, is that she said it in my grandmothers voice.

  After she got cleaned up, she seemed like she was doing better and then her appearance changed again. Her face looked like it belong to a very pretty young Asian woman and she began talking in Chinese. And then once again she returned back to normal.

  “Do want me to take you to the hospital?”

  “No! I am okay!”

  For the rest of the evening it looked like she was doing better.

  By 1 am we both had finally drifted off to sleep. Around three thirty am that morning. I woke up to the sound of someone stirring around. I looked for Vonnie in bed next to me she was gone.

  “Vonnie are you OK?” There was no reply, so I got up and looked around for her. By the time I got to the kitchen I could hear someone growling.

  “Vonnie is that you?” It was dark, so I turned on the kitchen light. And I was immediately confronted with a terrifying sight. Vonnie's face was totally disfigured, she looked like a character out of a Hollywood Zombie movie. And she had a large steak knife in her hand.

  “Vonnie let's go to the hospital and get you some help!”

  Then the most horrifying sight I have ever seen in my life occurred. Her head turned 360 degrees completely around. She then began laughing and charged me with the kitchen steak knife.

  I tried to wrestle the knife away from her, but she was as strong as an ox. She made several attempts at stabbing me with the sharp blade.

  And then it happened, the knife stabbed Vonnie right in her heart.

  I called the police and paramedics, but when they got here after a few questions, they placed me under arrest. Now five years later today is the day.

  “Roderick Jenkins! It's time!”

  People don't believe in the Occult and Witchcraft but I tell you it's Real. It’s Real It’s Real!

  “Do you have any last words Mr Jenkins?” The chaplain asks me.

  And then I felt it, the toxic mixture flowing through my veins. I am getting sleepy, real sleepy it's time for me to go to sleep.

  The Curse Of Madera Heights

  Tiesha Brett-Harte was jogging one Saturday morning by the lake. She noticed a house she had seen many time before,with a for sale sign on it. The house had been on the market for a long time. For some reason she was compelled to code the Realtors number into her cell phone.

  When she got back home, she called the number to the agent.

  " Can I speak to Beth Parker?"

  "This is she,how can I help you?"

  "I am calling about that house on Atchison."

  There was a brief pause and then she said sure I can show you the house today. She met her later that afternoon and fell in love with it right from the start. " How much?" Tiesha asked.

  "Fifty thousand dollars."

  "You have got to be kidding? Houses around here go for three hundred thousand dollars and up." Tiesha could not believe her ears.

  "I know the price is a steal, this house is owned by an out of state relative. The previous owners died. He doesn't want the hassle of being an out of state landlord, so he is willing to sell it cheap."

  Tiesha thought to herself that's strange, if it's so cheap. Why has it been on the market so long?

  " Beth is there something about this house you're not telling me?"

  "There was a mishap that occurred a long time ago, when the house was first built."

  "A mishap? What happened?"

  " Well the couple with their son that lived here before, when the house was first built in two thousand and ten all died."

  "In the house"

  "Well not exactly, they found the father in the house dead, but the

  mother and her son were never found."

  "That's creepy Beth."

  “I understand if you don't want the house."

  "No on the contrary I am a writer, I write for horror and science fiction magazines, so all of this is very interesting. You said I can purchase the house with ten percent down?"

  "That's right."

  "Let me go to my car and write you a check." The real estate agent face lit up with a big smile.

  The house needed a lot of work, no one had lived in the house for a few years. So the weekend after escrow closed. Tiesha went to a home depot near the house to pick up paint and other supplies. She thought she could get some help from the local workers that stood outside in the parking lot. But she was surprised when she was asked by the workers which house she would need them to work on. They all declined. The answer were the same "The house by the lake Madera heights? No way am I working on that house." she became really frustrated because no one would tell her why they wouldn’t work there.

  And then when she had given up, a Latino man approached her car. " Mam you need someone to work on the Madera heights home by the lake?"

  "Yes I do!"

  "I am booked up this weekend but I am available next Saturday."

  " That would be fine,can I get your number?"

  " Sure, my name is Gus by the way."

  "Nice to meet you Gus,let me ask why is everybody turning me down when I asked them to work at Madera Heights?"

  "Everyone believes the house is cursed."

  "Cursed?"

  "One night the neighbors heard screaming and the next morning Ron Brown was found dead drained of all his blood, the wife and kid were never seen again. It's still a mystery as to what happened to them,but you should know this. everybody around here knows the story." "I am not from around here, I moved here six months ago from Fort Worth Texas.” Gus moved closer to Tiesha's car and spoke more softly.

  “Over the years a few people have bought that house and a few workers have died there all by strange accidents.”

  “The Realtor lied to me, she said the house was left to a relative."

  “ From what I have seen in the papers that's true mam,the nephew ended up owning the house. Again each time someone died there and the new owners got too spooked to stay."

  "Well why aren't you afraid?"

  "Me! I don't believe in that crap! There is one other thing they say if just one drop of blood is spilled in that house. It will bring back the hideous evil that killed Mr. Brown. But again I don't believe in that stuff."

  "I will call you Friday!"

  "Looking forward to it Mam."

  That night Tiesha tossed and turned, she had a really hard time sleeping. The stories Gus told her weighed heavily on her mind. By Friday she had gotten a lot of interior work done on the home and she was hanging some pictures. She swung the hammer and missed and hit her thumb busting it open somewhat, blood gushed from the spot where the hammer hit. She rushed and grabbed a paper towel, to stop the bleeding and then she heard her doorbell ring. "Who is it?"

  "It's me Gus from the Home depot last week."

  Tiesha opened the door. " I was going to call you later this evening."

  "I had a job painting a house a few blocks from here and was done, so I thought I would see what you needed done around here."

  “Great give me a minute." Tiesha finished wiping up the blood from the cut on her thumb.

  Tiesha came back outside and showed Gus how she wanted the exterior painted. " I already have all the paint you need and brushes."

  " I have my own painting equipment no problem,would you like for me to start now?"

  "That would be great."

  Gus painted all day and by the evening. " Hey Gus I am cooking some steaks do want some?"

  "I would love some I am famished."

  At dinner. "So Gus you live around here?"

  "No my wife and kids are living with their mother and I am living at a shelter, until I can get up enough money for us to get an apartment."

  "There is a guest house in the back, you can stay here for a while and we can work some
thing out for the work you do on the house.”

  “Sounds fair?" Gus smiled."Very fair"

  At dinner Tiesha couldn’t help but notice how he dug into the bloody meat,and she kept thinking about how he came exactly at the moment she got cut. And then she took her mind off of such thoughts, thinking it was only a coincidence.

  " I am glad you bought the house, it has sat here empty for so long."

  A little blood from the meat slid down his chin. "Well I have a busy day tomorrow tell me if you need anything Gus." Gus went to the back house to retire for the night. Tiesha stayed up late in her bed thinking she had made mistake, inviting the stranger to live there. But she also felt a little more secure knowing a man was around. Sleeping in the house all alone, after hearing the stories had taken its toll.

  The next morning as she got the mail, she felt Gus staring at her and when she walked back into the house. All of a sudden she felt a deep hatred and fear of Gus. She thought about how he showed up, right when she was cut. She had now changed her mind and wanted him to go. That evening after he had finished painting.

  "You know it was just an offer, you don't have to stay in the back house if don't want to."

  "No I like the back house. It's much better than the shelter."

  "Well come in the house and I will pay you for today."

  While Gus cleaned up his tools and the paint. Tiesha was in the kitchen thinking of how she could get rid Gus.

  "You know Tiesha those steaks you cooked were the best. They were real bloody just like I like em. I felt a hundred percent better after eating a meal like that."

  At that moment Tiesha became terrified of Gus, as he sat down to tie his boots.

  The statement he made may have been only about her food, but to Tiesha this was her worse nightmare. He was the vampire, the one that drained the previous owner of all his blood. She had to think quick.

  Oh there's a hammer on the kitchen sink. Tiesha thought to herself. As Gus raised up from tying his boots WHACK!

  Tiesha grabbed the hammer and caught him in the back of the head. With the blunt object and then struck him again and again. Then as the unconscious bleeding man lay there, with his head bleeding all over the kitchen table.

  Tiesha put the hammer down, grabbed Gus and sunk her teeth into his throat. It was at that moment that Tiesha knew, the curse of Madera Heights is real.

  Carnival Of Horrors All Rights Reserved By James E Nance © 2014