Fear The Ones You've Hurt

An author is haunted by his books.

   "Come on dear, you've been working all day." My wife had called from the other room. I finished the last sentence of the paragraph before calling back "I'm just saving and I'll be out for they day." I turned off my computer and saw my wife setting the table. I smiled at her "We should invited Paul and Alex over." I walked into the kitchen checking the lasagna. It looked about done so I got oven mitts and pulled it out. My wife walked in and I make a smart remark "I wasn't in my office all day because I was able to make this." She rolled her eyes "Fine, but you already have six books out, that are doing pretty well, what's the point of a seventh?" I grinned as I left the room to set the lasagna on the table. When I came back to the kitchen grinning "See love, I write because I like it and when people read they do it to connect and relate to characters. It's also the same reason people watch TV." Julie shook her head "Yeah, but who reads horror stories to connect with characters?" I shrugged "I don't know but if there's a chance that someone does, not even on purpose, and it didn't happen in the other six then this seventh book is completely worth it." Julie shook her head "You're so weird Michael." I smiled "Yeah, but you love me." Smiled smiled "You're right." She moved in and kissed me before we heard the microwave go off for the corn. I pulled away and got the corn out while asking "Are we going to invite Paul and Alex over?" Julie shrugged "I'll call them, it's kind of last minute though so they might already have plans." I nodded my head and brought the corn out to the table. I got back to the kitchen to see Julie on the phone so I quietly walked in and grabbed rolls, placing them into the oven to toast them slightly. Julie got a hold of one of them and greeted whoever she called 'Hey, Michael and I are having a dinner party if you'd like to join us." She got a reply and I assumed that the person on the other end had asked what we were having. Julie answered "Just a lasagna dish with corn and rolls." Julie smiled "Okay, we'll see you soon." Which obviously meant that they had said yes. Julie hung up and told me "That was Alex, they'll be over here soon." I nodded my head "Okay, the bread is in the oven so it should be ready in like two, three minutes." Julie nodded her head "Okay, I'll go pick up a little around." I nodded my head before I started to wipe down some of the counters. After a few minutes I heard a knock on the door and went to answer but before I could Julie got there so I stood behind Julie while we both greeted Alex and Paul. "Hey guys." Alex smiled "Hey, we brought some wine." I smiled "Thanks guys, come on in." Julie and I moved out of the way so they could get inside. The four of us sat down and talked about the usual things, Alex and Paul were planning on having a baby. They talked about making a nursery and names. After dinner I took all the plates and cups to pick up after all of us. While I was cleaning up Julie came in and helped me clean up, I washed and she dried and the both of us put them away. When we got back to the dinning room we had some wine glasses for the wine that Paul and Alex had brought over. I poured the wine into Alex and Paul's glass before pouring a glass for Julie and I.
    After dinner and some wine while talking Paul and Alex had to go. Julie and I waved them goodbye and I asked Julie "Can I go write?" She sighed "Yes, fine. Could you come up in like an hour? I was thinking we could watch some TV, you know I have to leave for my sisters tomorrow afternoon." I nodded my head "Okay, I'll be awake before noon so we could go out for breakfast tomorrow if you'd like." Julie smiled before kissing me. "Okay, I love you." "Love you too." I smiled. Julie went up to our room while I turned around going to my office. I had stopped in the kitchen for a quick cup of water and then went to my office to set up.
   About an hour later, like I promised Julie, I saved my writing and turned off the computer before joining her in bed. When I got the room I walked in about to speak when I realized she was fast asleep with the TV still on. I walked in and turned off the TV before pulling the blanket up to cover the both of us. I fell asleep quickly.
   I had woken up at some weird time in the night so I rubbed my eyes and decided to get a glass of water before getting back to sleep. I walked down the stairs and into the kitchen to get a glass of water. I was filling my glass when I heard something falls behind me and break. I turned around quickly and noticed one of our decorative bowls had fallen off the table. I sighed and knew Julie was going to yell at me. I went to get the broom from the other room when I heard a knock at the front door. I decided that the bowl could wait while also questioning why someone was knocking this late, or early. I never checked the time. I opened the door to see a teenage girl drenched and shivering which was odd from the start since it didn't look like it rained and we live in the south and it's summer, no way she's cold. Curious I ask her "Are you okay?" She shook her head "No, my boyfriend and I were driving around town when some creepy guy attacked our car. My boyfriend drove into a lake and I think he might be dead, can I come in? I think that guy is still around." I hesitated for a minute before realizing this was like my first horror book, she looked a lot like the character too. "Oh, um. I don't know, would you want me to go look for your boyfriend? I'll call 911." I went to get my phone when I heard a slight scream. I turned back to the door and saw the girl's face go pale before she dropped to her knees and fell over. I jumped back and nearly screamed myself before slamming the door closed and running back upstairs to wake Julie. When I got up the stairs I was stopped in my tracks. I tried to move but couldn't, I fell over and thought I had been shot or stabbed or something before realizing I felt no pain. I looked around and after a few moments I saw someone's feet move in front of me. I heard her voice, she cackled before picking up my head to look at him and it was the girl; from the front door. She shook her head sighing "See, it's no fun knowing you're about to die. Feel that fear? It's making your heart race and you want to cry and scream but you can't, you're stuck and you know it's all over." She laughed deeply before pulling out a knife and running the edge of it along my face. I winced and she tugged on my hair. "No! If you move you lose part of your face."
   I was awoken suddenly by a shake. I was Julie. She was looking down at me "Hey, you started freaking out, it's morning though." I sighed "Another nightmare. I'm okay, want to go get that breakfast?" Julie gave me a slight smile before nodding her head "Sure, get dressed then. I have to finish packing." I nodded my head as Julie left and I pulled myself out of bed before hopping into the shower to quickly clean up and then got dressed. Julie was waiting with her bag near the front door. Confused I asked "You aren't leaving now right?" She shook her head "No, I'm just ready to go whenever my sister calls." I smiled "Okay cool." In all honesty I'm pretty relieved.
   When Julie and I got to the breakfast place we were talking about her trip and all the details when she randomly changed the subject "So, what was your nightmare about?" I shrugged "It was nearly exactly the plot of my first book, the one with the boyfriend who faked his death to kill everyone who wronged him." Julie nodded her head "Maybe you should take a break, your other books are doing fine right now and no one expects a new book to just pop up quickly. You released the other one just a few weeks ago." I agreed with her slightly "Yeah, you're probably right. I can't exactly give up writing as a whole though, I love it." Julie nodded her head "Of course, you don't have to. What if you went home and you wrote a short story about something happy?" I thought for a moment for saying "Yeah, okay. I will." Our orders had come soon after we finished talking and we ate while moving on from the topic.
   After breakfast we got home and Julie was about to do her own thing, we're both pretty independent, but before she could get away I asked "Could we watch a movie or something?" She smiled "Aw, is someone going to miss me?" I smiled and she grinned "Yeah, we can watch a movie. Got one in mind?" I shook my head "Let's go explore." She smiled and took my hand while the both of went to the living room and explored Netflix before settling.
   Afterwards Julie checked her phone and noticed it was near noon so she sighed "I've got to go babe." I sighed "Okay, I'll see you in a few days." She smiled and kissed me goodbye before grabbing her bags. I helped her bring out her bags and waved her goodbye from the driveway. I had a few hours before dinner so I decided to go and write something light and warmhearted. I sat down at the computer and pulled up word before I just stared at it, wondering 'What do I write?' I shrugged and went to google looking up some lighthearted prompts. I found one that was sweet, not exactly warmhearted. It was about a girl who give an assassin all the money she has to kill an abusive relative. I thought it would be cool, I could write something really empowering.
   After about two hours of writing and editing myself I had about half of it done and decided to take a break, get some food and watch Netflix. I went into the kitchen and while I got a drink I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. I pulled it out and it was Julie. "Hey! How's the trip?" Julie sighed "Fine, one of my tires decided they didn't need air so I had to stop off and fill it." I sighed "Oh, I'm sorry. Guess I should have checked before you left." She brushed it off "It's fine, I got an excuse to call you so it worked out." I smiled "Okay, cute. I did what you said, about writing something lighter." She replied "Mhm. And?" I laughed "It was definitely nicer, a good change of pace." I picked up my water and went to the living room where I flopped onto the couch. Julie and I talked for about another five minutes but her tire was done so we said goodbye and I turned Netflix to Friends and began to watch, for a few more hours than I had meant to.
   After I finally turned off the TV I went to the kitchen to boil a pot of water. I didn't really like to cook when it was only me. I sat down at the table and got on my phone, going through some social media then after a few minutes I went to check and noticed it started to boil so I got the box of pasta and set the timer for it to cook. I sat down and waited for the oven to beep. After the oven beeped I drained the water from the pasta and then got some Alfredo sauce to put on the pasta.
   After I ate I cleaned my dishes and put them away before going back to my office to work some more on the short story thing. I worked until I finished it, I didn't finish until about nine forty. I saved and called Julie before turning off the computer. "Hey Jules." I smiled. Julie laughed "You never call me that, someone in a good mood?" I nodded my head "Yep, I finished the light short story. Did you make it to your sister's yet?" Julie replied "Yeah, I'm settling in now." I told her "Oh, sorry. I can call you  tomorrow." She shook her head "No, it's okay." We talked a little longer and I explained the book plot and she talked about how it was at her sisters. After about half an hour I said goodbye and I love you to her so I could go to bed. I went up to my room and laid down on the bed ready to go bed.
   I was abruptly awoken by someone dragging me. I figured this was a dream so I just went with it. After a quick few moments I felt my body get dragged down the stairs. It really hurts, I felt my head hit a few stairs and once I got down to the bottom level of the house I was thrown onto some chair.  I looked around and noticed it was the living room except the couch and sitting chair was replaced by wooden chairs. I looked around and noticed it was the same girl from my dream last night. She was behind me and came to the front. I tried to stand up but my legs were being tied. I heard someone shout to me "Hey! Don't move." I sat still until the girl crouched to look at me in the eyes. She smiled and I could see a flame flicker behind her eyes. She finally spoke "Ah, Michael. You don't know how long we've waited for this." I was confused and asked "We? What are you going to do?" She stood up and I followed her with my eyes as she walked around. She began explaining. "You see, you've tortured us. For years. Every time our stories are read we have to suffer again, and in all honesty you could have changed it all. You could have saved us." I looked at her and she was right in front of me, with the knife again. She placed both hands on the arm of chair, the knife was just centimeters away from piercing my skin. She looked me dead it the eyes "We just want you to suffer how we have, our revenge story."
   She walked out of the room and I tried to think about all of it. What was going on? How were my stories coming to life? I could hear her talking to someone else in the kitchen. I heard her sigh before she walked out. "Alright. The other people won't be here for a little longer and I know how much it sucks not knowing how or why you're about to die so, I'll explain. You, Michael, will suffer. Every death will be inflicted on you, not to the point where you die but you'll just have the wounds inflicted on you. The worst death is where you die, which is Mary's. Come on man, she was just a kid. She was only nine!" The girl shook her head and sat on one of the chairs. "Mary..?"  I asked myself in a whisper. She looked up at me "Yeah, Mary. You killed her, she was nine. She didn't do anything." I shook my head "How? How are you guys coming to life?" The girl laughed "You see, we've always been alive. We're kind of like actors. Every time our story is read we live it and you read a story about a lady who brought her son to life but he had to kill who killed him in order to stay alive. Now since we're your creation and part of your mind we can take the things from your memories. So we took that magic and now we have until sunrise to kill you, we can do it however though," She stood up and looked down on me "We're going to have some fun with this though." And she left the room to join whoever she was talking to before.
   When she came back there was five other people with her. All from my stories. They all took a seat in one of the chairs. Mary was the last one out, she was petrified of me. I wanted to get up and hug her to apologize. She sat down next to the girl who seems to be the leader of them. I looked at them, they look so real; like they could be real people I'd killed. The leader spoke "Okay, well, no need for introductions but lets do them anyway." She grinned, she's insane. "Okay, So this guy here is Gabe, from your second book. He was killed by the crazy axe guy. We have Sara here, an exorcism that went wrong. Dan, motorcycle accident. Sal, remember him? Had to be one of the worst. Decapitation. Mary, who you killed with her own doll. Oh, then there's me, Alicia. I was killed by my boyfriend. Ah, what a love story." I looked at everyone and sighed "I'm sorry. I didn't realize you guys felt this pain." Gabe stood up and was nearly shouting "I'm sure you feel such guilt! We suffer day in and day out while you rake in all the cash!" Alicia walked over to him and him sit. She said something to him to calm him down that I couldn't quite hear.
   After a few moments of silence Alicia turned to me. "Alright, Gabe seemed to need that so, does anyone else have something they need to get off their chest before we start?" Everyone was silent "No? Alright!" Alicia smiled "Okay, so we're going to start with... Sara!" I looked over to the girl, I'm pretty sure I wrote her to be about seventeen. She got possessed by a demon while in her family's bar. The exorcism failed and she died a few hours later. Sara stood up and walked up to me. She had a soft voice, kind of like she was always crying. "Come on. We're going outside." Alicia untied me and took me by my arm and basically dragged me out to the backyard. Sara told Alicia "Just let him go. He can sit right there." Alicia let go of me but gave me a death stare as if I were to run I wouldn't have any chance. I walked over to where Sara told me to sit and sat down. She stood in front of me just looking at me. After a few moments of her not doing anything she just fell to her knees and pulled herself into a ball. I looked over to Alicia and she just stood there with her arms crossed, not scared at all. I looked over to Sara again but it wasn't Sara anymore. It was a ball of black smoke and when I tried to get closer to investigate it burst. I hopped up to my feet and backed up. I looked up at it and when the smoke all faded I was left looking at some black figure with wings. After a few moments the creature opened it eyes and just stared at me. I saw it charge to me and I felt like moving but it was too fast and once it hit me I stood still before I fell back and everything went black.
   When I woke up I was back in the living room in the chair tied up again. I felt a sharp pain up my arms and it felt like my legs were broken. I had this vague feeling of sadness. I saw Alicia pop up in front of me smiling "Ah, he's awake. You know, I think starting off with Sara was a good call, you did quite a number on yourself." Confused I asked "What do you mean?" She smiled "Sara, our friend here wants you to explain what you did." Sara began talking "Well, the demon doesn't kill you it controls you emotions for the most part. So the demon made you feel depressed and like you weren't worth anything so you began to do some dark things. We stopped when it go to far."
   Alicia smiled "Yep! Alright, next we have Dan! Now, this one may not sound as bad but will sure as heck hurt." Dan stood up. I remember writing him. He was one of my favorites, he's this tall grizzly man who worked at the lumber company which was really stereotypical but he was extremely soft and actually didn't cut trees but kept track of how many were cut. He had died because he was at the wrong place at the wrong time, the killer in that book had hit his bike by accident therefore killing him. I looked at Dan as Alicia untied me. I asked him "But you're such a teddy bear." He nodded his head "Yes, though you took me away from seeing my son be born." I sighed and as Alicia was basically dragging me by my arm I could see my arms. It had tons of scars on them and I was baffled. I had a sister who did this to herself and it didn't end well. She was actually the reason I wrote these stories, she always loved horror. It gave her a thrill and made her so happy, I miss her so much. I wish she had known how much everyone missed her and how much I wished that she would have talked to me. I didn't realize but we had gotten out to the road and there was Dan's bike sitting there. Alicia let go of me and I stood next to the bright yellow bike that glowed in the darkness of the night. Dan stood next to me and told me "Get on." I looked back at him and didn't want to but he gave me a hard look and I looked back to the bike where I slowly pulled myself onto the bike. Dan told me "Start the bike and start a drive down the road." I started the bike and turned it around so I could ride to the end of the street. I was wondering how this one was bad but out of now where Dan came running at the bike and pushed me off. I flew off and skid across the road. When I stopped I could feel the blood going down my arms and my head was throbbing. Alicia came up to me and picked me up "Come on, let's get you cleaned up." I was limping a little while walking back to the house I was wondering why none of my neighbors heard us so I asked Alicia and she explained "See, when we planned this all out we placed some sort of dome around where ever we needed to go so that no one could see our hear us." I sighed and I couldn't stop thinking about Julie and how freaking much my arms hurt, they seemed to be the things getting attacked tonight. I looked down at my legs and noticed they were also covered in blood with tons of holes is my pajama pants.
   When we got to the living room I had bandages covering my arms and a few parts of legs. I sighed when I realized that tonight was really the night my life was over and before Alicia could announce the next contestant of this messed up game I asked "What will happen when I'm not around anymore? Won't the police look for me? And my body?" Alicia smiled "We've got everything worked out. We planned that you'll leave note saying you had to go somewhere to write your new book, a more rural place. That'll cover us for about a month or so and eventually everyone will just think you ran away, maybe even faked your own death." It was insane. They'd thought of everything and I was about to die without getting to say goodbye. "In the note tell Julie I love her." Alicia rolled her eyes. "Yes, yes. Come on. next we have Gabe!" I remembered him pretty well too, smart professor type. Had a weird obsession with horror which was kind of ironic. Alicia untied me again and brought us to the back yard with a fire already lit and an axe out there. She set me down and tied me up with one arm free. Curious I was about to untie the rest myself when Alicia warned "Don't untie it!" I pulled my hand away and set it down waiting for Gabe. After a few moments he was outside with us and had gloves on. He picked up the axe and put the blade in the fire. I didn't get what was going on until Gabe pulled the axe out of the fire and said to me "Put out your arm." I shook my head and backed up before Alicia came up behind me and held up my arm. I began to scream when Alicia shoved a sock into my mouth to muffle it and Gabe brought up the axe and I watched as it lowered on my arm. I pulled away and felt this immense amount of pain that is indescribable, I looked over and I could see my arm. It just sat there and I couldn't handle it so I passed out.
   I woke up, again in the living room where I looked around and fearfully I looked down. I saw nub where my arm used to be. I was about to pass out again when Alicia came around in front of me "Hey there! Man you lost a lot of blood and oh boy when you passed out." I looked up at her and I didn't know if I should beg for sympathy or yell in anger. I shook my head and looked down so I didn't have to look Alicia in the eyes. She picked up my face in her hand "Hey! Why you so down?" I wanted to just scream but I swallowed it and told her "I want to finish this already." She laughed and dropped my head "Ha! Alright, moving on to Sal!" Mary shot up behind Alicia and yelled "Stop!" Alicia turned around and saw Mary with an angry expression on her face. Alicia keeled in front of her spoke softly "But dear, we have to. This man had hurt us for so many years." She shook her head "So does that mean we have to do it back? You cut off his arm. This man killed us, none of us every felt any pain, you could have scared him for years but this is the path you take? You became worse than him. I don't want to be a part of this." Mary left the room and went to my office where Alicia being stuck her spot looked back at me before running off to my office. She came back soon and said "She's gone." Everyone looked at me and I looked back. Alicia sighed "She was right." I looked at all them and eventually Gabe, Sal, Sara, and Dan walked into the office. Alicia looked at me, the mess I was. "Look, I'll make this feel like it was all a dream. You'll have your arm back but you'll still have the memory that this happened. I nodded my head. Alicia sighed "Okay, goodnight Michael." Alicia walked out of the room and I sat there waiting. All of a sudden I felt myself drifting off.
   I st up quickly in my bed. I looked around and I could see the sun shining. I looked at my arm and saw it. I moved it, it was okay. Everything was fine, even when I ran down the stairs the couch and sitting chair was there. I went to look on the street and the block looked normal, no bright yellow bike. When I went to the backyard there was no fire or axe and no demon either. When I went into my office I saw the books I wrote scattered on the floor opened and assumed everyone just jumped back into the book. I scooped them all up and placed them all up on the book shelf. I sat down on the computer and thought to myself what to write about. I didn't want to write about last night because it was traumatic and I thought it was kind of cheap. Taking all your other books and making it one big one, cop out. I called Julie and didn't tell her anything that had happened. We talked for a little while before I said I was going to go so I could watch some TV and grab breakfast. I hung up and gave a deep sigh, I survived.

Author's Note

Contains dark subjects. Please read if you are okay and can handle it. If you do read please leave any comments you have.