Twilight Nightmares (Twisted Tales Special Edition Book 1) (10 page)

“Heads, we get married; tails, we break up.” Max said into the webcam, his face adorned with a pixelated smile.

He and Brooke had been talking for over a year, and he’d finally convinced her that they should move in together and get married. The problem with that was they lived on opposite coasts. He lived in New York, and she in California. Brooke knew
it wasn't exactly the kind of decision someone made by flipping a coin, let alone for someone she’d never met in person
. She nevertheless acquiesced because she had a plan.

She said, “What if they both land on heads?”

“Easy, we’ll just roll again until we get split sides. If you get heads, you move out here. If I do, then I’ll move to you.”

She was hesitant, but she had to ask the question. “Are you sure you’re okay with breaking up if they both land on tails?”

Sadness seemed to distort his face, but it was almost unnoticeable. She knew him well enough to decipher his hidden emotions, though. He smiled thinly, and she watched a small glint of light appear at the edge of his eye. She knew how he felt, but was certain that regardless of the outcome, they would both persevere.

“Yeah, I’m positive.” He said, but she knew he was lying.

“Okay. You go first.”

“No! Come on… at the same time.”

“Baby, I’m nervous. Just please go.”

His smile broadened, and he flipped the coin. Time seemed to slow as the quarter performed forced acrobatics through the air. The glow of his monitor turned the coin into a flickering flying jewel, but instead of something with an appealing value, she felt as if it carried the horrific weight of a blood diamond. It passed the top of her screen and disappeared as if its existence was only real when visible. When it appeared again, it fell quick, and then she heard it slam, spin, and come to a rattling stop upon his desk.

Max’s mouth formed into a giant toothy grin and he threw his arms into the air. “Heads!”

Her stomach churned as if hundreds of insects fluttered and swam within it. As she positioned a quarter over her thumb, Brooke kept the swarm from escaping by swallowing hard. She took a deep, sickening breath and flipped her coin.

Unlike Max’s turn, her quarter rocketed through the air. It was as if fate couldn’t wait to show her the tail end of it. When the coin dropped, it fell with all the force of a meteor slamming into Earth.

She said, “Heads.”

“Oh, man. What are the fuckin’
chances!
” Max giggled, and then fell back into his chair while rubbing his face. “This is intense. Okay, babe. Again!”

He picked up his quarter and tossed it. Irrationally, she took a deep breath, held it, and remained completely still as if any movement she made might alter its trajectory and make it fall on an undesirable side. When it landed, he looked up with disappointment.

“It’s tails.”

She felt relief for a second, but knew she still had to flip her coin. She placed it upon her thumb and flicked it into the air. It sailed through the mild darkness, cutting through the sweet fragrance of her candle with its own bitter essence. Finally, it dropped, rolled, and fell into a puddle of condensation when it smacked into her glass. She looked down and sighed.

“Tails.”

“What—no,
please.
”

“Baby…”

“I can’t leave you!”

“I
know,
me neither, but we agreed. It’s
gonna
be hard, but we’ll be fine.”

Max reached across his desk to reposition the camera as tears trickled down his soft cheeks. His eyes burned a furious red, but his face lost most of its color. With a look of desperation he said, “Can we roll just one more time?”

“Baby, don’t make this harder than it has to be. We set the rules, and we—” She said, but he interrupted her when he opened a drawer, retrieved a gun, and shot himself in the head. Parts of his skull painted the wall behind his desk with a crimson, gruesome portrait of reality, and then he slumped onto the table’s faux mahogany surface.

Brooke covered her mouth with her hands. Her eyes burned, and a sudden cough of sickness followed by a cry of pain escaped her. Shock turned her body cold, but she didn't relent to fainting. She only stared in horror as the man who was falling in uncertain love with her lay in a pool of his own blood. Worse, guilt squeezed her heart with its icy talons. When she looked down at her coin, Washington’s cold metallic eyes stared at her with an inexorable accusation of murder.

It was an average afternoon where hard-working bees buzzed from flower to flower. Occasionally they curiously approached a young boy named Clifford as he walked home from school. Sometimes, just sometimes, he would stop to say hello to them, and this was one of those days.

He stopped at a gorgeous patch of lilacs and daisies. A bee landed upon one of the white flowers as he sniffed the subtle fragrant aroma.

"Hello there, little bee." Clifford said as he set his books on the ground.

"Afternoon, young man!" The bee greeted.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Certainly, but I don't want to
be
here all day." The bee said, and laughed with a deep-bellied buzz.

"Are any of you born without wings?"

"I can't say that I've ever met a young one with no wings, but it's possible I suppose."

"How would one like that get around?"

"No idea. We have our legs, but we don't crawl so well. I'm sure it can be done, though."

“Do you communicate with those tentacles?”

“You mean my antennae?”

“Yeah, those things.”

“We bees communicate with them. It’s more efficient than talking.”

"Hmm." Clifford said, and then snatched up the bee.

"What are you doing?"

"Science." The boy said, and then ripped one of the bee's wings clean off.

A buzz emitted from the bee as the pain from having his wing removed burned to his core. The boy laughed joyfully, and the bee began flapping his other wings with the hope that he might free himself.

"Why would you do that?" The bee cried.

The boy didn't answer him, but the obvious reason was that he wanted to satiate his desire to know what would happen to a bee without wings. One by one, Clifford tore the bee's wings off. As each floated to the ground like picked feathers of a bird, he cried to his mother, the queen, for help. Clifford finished by removing each one of the bee’s antennae.

"There we go." The boy said, and set the bee upon the concrete sidewalk. "Now buzz off."

"I can't." The bee said even though he crawled slowly along the ground. He had an effective crawl, one that any bee born without wings could be proud
of
.

"No, you're doing it all wrong!" The boy cried with rage. "You're no fun!"

The boy stood. The bee looked up and regarded him with a sullen smile regardless of the things the boy had done. He then returned his gaze to the concrete, and continued to crawl knowing he had a long journey back home. He didn't get far, however, because Clifford's anger over his failed experiment led the boy to step upon the bee and smear him into the ground.

~

The next day, the boy walked home on his usual route. He stopped at the flowerbed and sniffed the flower that the bee had previously landed
on
. He looked down at the oily spot on the concrete where he had killed the bee, and smiled.

"Stupid bee." He said, and then continued toward home.

As he passed a large tree, someone said, "Hey you."

Clifford stopped and looked around. The street was empty and no one was around for as far as he could see. He furrowed his brow, combed his hand through his red hair, and continued to walk.

"Hey, kid. Over here."

"Who's there?"

"The tree, genius."

"Wow, a talking tree?"

"You got it." The tree said. "Hey, I got a question for
ya
. You like experiments, right?"

"Heck yeah I do!" The boy exclaimed and threw his hands excitedly into the air.

"I know, I know. That was a
pretty good
experiment you did yesterday. You got some talent!"

"Awe, gee, thanks, dude...
er
tree-dude."

"What to help me with an experiment?"

"Yes! What is it?"

"Well, I was just curious... in school do you write a lot?"

"Yeah, my teacher tells me to but I don't like it because it makes my arms tired."

"I bet they make you read books, too."

"Do
they
ever! Sometimes I wish I could take my eyes out!"

"What do you think it would be like if you didn't have to?"

"That would be awesome! I could just have fun all the time."

Two large branches appeared from the leaves, reached down, and picked up the boy. He squirmed, but the tree held him still, and tugged hard on the Clifford's arms.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Clifford cried, trying to pull his arms out of the tree's grip.

"Science," the tree replied.

The night I met Cocoa was the night my life changed forever. I sat in a lonely booth at the Blue Dog bar where the stench of burning tobacco, cheap cologne, and alcohol was
ever present
. I had my head propped up by my hands, and I stared down into the empty glass that once contained a cheap watery beer. I suppose some might say I searched for some profound truth written in the traces of foam lining the base of it, but the reality was that the server was taking too long to bring me a new one and I wondered what held her up.

I wasn’t very social, especially in a bar, so I usually kept to myself. I just wanted to sit there and drown my sorrows. Besides, I was sure no one wanted to spend the night with me, a man burdened by an unknown emptiness, one that had been eating at me for months. I could barely keep the frown off my face. Forget even
trying
to keep a smile on it.

As I searched the room, I listened to nonsensical drunk conversations and to women laughing at stupid jokes told by men trolling for a one-night stand. It was always interesting that women knew why many men were at bars, and yet they themselves perpetuated it by giving them the attention they desired. I never understood it.

When my gaze reached the door, it opened, and the bell hanging at the corner jingled. I placed a silent bet with myself that some kind of hussy or douchebag would enter that we might be able to add to the list of people that make it hard for normal people to date. It turned out to be a woman, but she was certainly no hussy. As I would come to know, she was far from it.

She was the tallest one in the room, though she was physically short. She had dark brown hair that shimmered in the light of the neon bar signs, and a crisp mocha complexion that made me salivate. She glanced my direction, and smiled—that’s what ended me. The smile. Her entire face lit up, and after a short moment of watching each other as the sands of time seemed to slow, she managed her way to the bar.

“
Woah
.” I said to myself as the server finally replaced my beer.

The room around me seemed to disappear. I watched her stand at the bar, and I probably even broke some kind of record for creepy stalking. I can assure you that I have never once stalked a woman, but something preternatural about her drew my attention. She was sexy, sure; those incredibly tight jeans, the boots, and that thin black Tool t-shirt probably had a lot to do with it, but there was something else—something more.

While she ordered her beer, she’d glanced over her shoulder a few times. At first, I thought she was just looking for someone she knew, but her eyes always came back to mine. Once, twice, probably more if I hadn’t lost count. I looked behind me to make sure I wasn’t crazy, and she assured me that I wasn’t when she grabbed her drink, and sat down across from me.

“Hi, I’m Cocoa.”

“Uh, hi.” I said, furrowing my brow and wondering why she was even talking to me. “I’m Cory.”

Her smile grew even bigger, and she said, “Hi, Cory! Couldn’t help but notice you looking my direction.”

“Oh, that. Sorry, I’m not usually like that.”

“No, it’s okay. I don’t mind. I’m actually here looking for you.”

Is that some cheesy pick-up line?
I wondered. Even if it was, it worked. Of course it did. I was a man, and men hardly ever walked away from women.

When I opened my mouth, probably to vomit words I might later regret, a loud boom interrupted me. It sounded and felt as if a plane had crashed in the woods outside the bar. A few drinks toppled, some of the lights above swayed, and a couple people latched onto someone nearby to keep steady.

“The fuck was that?” I said. I didn’t expect an answer, but I got one.

“They’re here.”

“What?”

“Do you trust me?”

“I don’t even know you.”

“You have to trust me.”

“I don’t have to do any—” I began to say before she latched onto my wrist.

There’s an intense feeling you get when someone you love touches you, and when Cocoa touched me, I felt as if I’d known her all my life. It was as if she was someone I deeply cared for, and the trust was there. I don’t know how but it was there, and it was strong.

“We need to go.” She said, and for some reason, I agreed.

Cocoa yanked me from the booth, and we shuffled toward the door. When she threw it open, I expected to see a full moon and a thick dank forest sitting quietly, but instead there was all of that plus a raging fire spitting cinder and smoke into the air.

“What happened?”

“You’ll see. We have to go.”

As I stepped through the door, a woman screamed from inside the bar. I looked back, and there was a woman grabbing her head. The man next to her laughed instead of helping her, and as Cocoa pulled me away, the woman’s eyes began to bleed. Then blood came from her nails and her ears. Finally, she crumpled to the ground, and silence fell across the bar. A moment later, everyone started screaming.

I hadn’t realized that I stopped until Cocoa jerked me, and I started running with her again. We headed toward the fire, but all I could think about was the things that happened to the people in the bar.

“What the hell happened back there?”

“
Dakhor
.”

“What?”

“God, I wish you would remember.”

“Remember what?”

She didn’t reply, but when we reached the fire, I’d forgot what I asked. Something covered the forest in some kind of black ooze. When the fire light hit it, there was a blue tint shimmering from the surface, and it seemed to grow.

“What is that stuff?”

“We don’t have time. We have to touch that over there.”

“What?”

“That glowing thing.” She said, and pointed to her left.

“I’m not touching that.”

“
Do
 
you
trust me?”

“Yes, but I really don’t know why.”

“Then come on!” She said, and pulled me into the black ooze.

If I hadn’t tied my shoes so well when I left the house, the stuff probably would’ve pulled them off. It was as if we were walking through some kind of glue.

When we reached the glowing orb, she stopped and said, “Ready?”

“No.” I said, but she forced my hand onto it. I tried to pull away, but I couldn’t.

“I’m stuck.”

“I know.” She said, and then touched it as well.

Nothing happened at first, but then the orb pulsated, becoming brighter and brighter with each one. Finally, a field of energy surrounded us. The intensity of the light forced me to close my eyes, and the world around me began to shake. I suddenly felt as if I was in a vacuum, and I screamed with unequivocal terror.

Everything suddenly stopped, and I honestly thought I’d died. I didn’t want to open my eyes for fear that I might find myself floating in an endless darkness, where no heaven or hell existed, just a lonely empty nothingness.

I felt a hand softly touch my arm, and I flinched. It caressed me for a moment, and then Cocoa said, “You can open your eyes. It’s over.”

I cracked my lids open, and she was right. The forest had returned to normal. No ooze. No orb. No fire. Just as it should be. I didn’t think I could speak because I was still incredibly terrified, but I managed to find my voice.

“What the hell was that?”

“About ten years ago we were approached by an alien race. It told us that if we didn’t help them, then our race and theirs would be doomed.”

“We?”

“Yeah. Believe it or not, we know each other.” She said, and moved closer. Cocoa put her small hand on my face, and softly caressed my cheek with her thumb. “After they infused us with some kind of power, we passed out. I woke up, and could barely remember anything about you, my life, or what happened.”

“So, how did you know to find me?”

“Well, they contacted me again, told me that it was time, and explained everything to me. I didn’t believe them, but then they returned my memory to me.” She said, “This was the place they said it would happen, and that I would find you here, drawn by the power they gave you.”

“This is all just too crazy.”

“Well, let’s get out of here. I can tell you all about it when we get back to our house.”

“Our house?”

“Yeah. We’re married. Have been for a while. Let’s go.” She said, and smiled.