Twilight Nightmares (Twisted Tales Special Edition Book 1) Read Free

hurt anymore. I've been talking to...and he tells me this place can be mine, too. He likes to share. The boy seems nice...he isn't scary anymore.
    Marbol is the name of the water-thing ...which gave birth to the boy. I can't...but not worried. The ocean...it brings food to us, says the boy. I'll not starve...and I'm welcome to stay forever, says the thing. I think I will.

The Demons Among Man
     
     
     
     
    Three weeks ago, the monster came through her window. Three weeks later, his toothy and sharp grin still haunted her. Three weeks passed and she still felt him, still felt the aftermath. She could smell him, the sour and ripe body odor with a sharp flavor of peppermint on his breath.
    She typically had a shitty memory, but those things stuck hard like a knife to the belly. She barely remembered her mother’s face, but him? She recalled every inch of his grinning stubble. Trauma seemed to take sick pleasure in reminding you of the darkest moments in your life, and apparently, it had taken special interest in Laura.
    That night, she smelled him again. The stink of his sweaty, sticky body mixed with cheap cologne. She could feel him, too. She ran her hand through his oddly soft hair, which she expected to be rough. She expected his warm skin to be cold and scaly. His face was still dark, but this time shadowed with fear. Soon it would show the face of pain, the kind of pain she hoped he would remember for the rest of his days. His own Goddamn trauma monster.
    He only wore two things in that garage. The duct tape over his mouth, wrists, and ankles that was so tight it pressed his skin white, and the chair to which she’d bound him. Other than that, she’d stripped him of all his clothes, which she hoped made him feel the same kind of humiliation she felt in her bedroom as she screamed for help.
    She wished she hadn’t started all this in his house because she felt out of place, but it seemed like a fitting location. Like him, she had even busted into his home through his bedroom window, though he was gone at the time—unlike her. She needed to get things just right, and that required time. Where he was impulsive with his desires, she fed hers, savoring every meticulous moment of planning to see it come to fruition.
    She circled him, and he followed her with his eyes. When she could see only the back of his head, she placed her foot on the backrest of the chair and kicked. The seat tipped forward, teetered for a moment, and then fell the rest of the way. His face slammed against the concrete floor, and he let out a grunt. No doubt, he could smell and feel the motor oil between his face and the floor, but that would soon be the least of his concerns.
    The chair she brought into his home was special. She removed the seat panel, which revealed parts of him she never wanted to see again. Hell, she never wanted to see them in the first place, but this time she pushed through it. The determination for revenge was strong in this one. She'd dreamed many nights about how she might bring the man to justice. Tell the police? No, because she didn't want to be a victim. Didn't want her story leaked and broadcast to the world. She wanted to feel empowered, isn't that what women are supposed to do after someone rapes them? She didn’t know. She only cared about how she felt, and she wanted to feel better no matter the cost.
    An eye for an eye, she figured, was the only way. Her only resolve was to make him feel as she felt, make him pay as she paid. Make that violation of human decency, that violation of her , something he could understand.
    She walked to a small table next to him and picked up a small but thick silver ribbed rod. It gleamed from the fluorescent light, and his eyes widened as he shook his head, pleading for her to stop whatever she might do with it. After positioning herself behind the chair again, she made him hurt. She educated him on the things that turned her heart black and her feelings numb.

    Good didn't quiet