Uneasy Reading: 4 Horror Shorts Read Free

you to help me make things right.
Since I'm dead, I can't really do much to the people who made me
that way."
    Martin set his spoon back into the bowl.
Fruity Pebbles, tasty as they might be, suddenly didn't seem very
appealing. "What do you need me to do?"
    "I need you to kill two men for me."
    "Oh," Martin said. He sighed. Kill two
people. That was all he had to do. "Okay, but you should know I
don't have a car."
    Transportation seemed like it would be very
important if he hoped to get away with murder.
    7.
    Cooper was tougher than Martin had
anticipated. He was wiry and fast, and he could swing a frying pan
with the best of them. Cooper had a mad look in his eyes when he
whirled and came at Martin with the sizzling pan full of bacon and
grease. From the toothless smile that split the old man's face,
Martin gathered that the old man was enjoying the fight.
    Martin barely ducked out of the way from a
second and then a third swing of the pan. When he ducked the last
attack, he slipped on the hot bacon grease that coated the linoleum
floor and nearly fell. Cooper's eyes flashed when he saw the
opening. He lunged and tackled Martin.
    Martin grunted as he fell to the floor and
the air burst from his lungs. Cooper was suddenly on top of him
with bony hands trying to wrap around Martin's throat.
    "Knew you'd try something, boy," Cooper said
in a growl. "Your daddy said you weren't right in the head."
    Martin grasped Cooper's hands and squeezed
his wrists. He pushed upward with his left hand while pushing his
right hand along with Cooper's across his body. This unbalanced
Cooper so Martin was able to push the elderly man off to the side.
Martin was quick to get on top of Cooper and press his weight down
on the old man. After a few minutes of struggling, Cooper began to
wheeze and choke on his own spit. Martin laid his forearm across
Cooper's throat until the man was unconscious.
    Martin rolled away and lay in the bacon
grease on the dirty floor, breathing heavily.
    Just kill two men.
    Cassie made is sound so easy.
    8.
    Both of the soon-to-be victims were there
now. They lay in the same shed where they and his father had raped
and then killed his sister when she was sixteen. Martin watched
them wriggle and try to escape from the bonds around their wrists
and ankles. They reminded Martin of worms.
    The work light that hung over them was
intense enough to chase away all the shadows in the shed. It
offered an almost antiseptic feel although the shed was filthy and
covered in years of dirt and dust. Cassie stood over them, looking
angelic in the bright light that shone through her.
    "It's time," she said. "Ask them if they
remember this place."
    Martin nodded and asked the question.
    "What the hell are you talking about, boy?"
Cooper asked. He squinted at Martin, the light obviously too much
for his cataracts.
    "He's crazy," Bertram said. Both dried and
fresh blood coated his wrists from where the handcuffs had dug into
him. His eyes had the glazed over look of an animal that had just
enough intelligence to know that the end was near.
    "I'm not crazy," Martin said. He opened a
small blue toolbox and pulled out a high-tension hacksaw, a hammer,
and an eight-inch chef's knife. He made sure to lay them where
Cooper and Bertram could see. "She told me everything that you did
to her."
    Cooper started laughing until he began to
cough. It took him a few seconds to calm his breathing down to the
point where he could speak again. "So that's what this is
about?"
    "Shut up," Bertram said to Cooper. He turned
his attention to Martin. "Look, you should just let us out of here
so we can talk about all this. You've got problems, but we can work
this out."
    "He's trying to talk you down," Cassie
said.
    "I know what he's trying to do. Don't worry,
I've got this," Martin said, trying to keep the exasperation out of
his voice. No sense in letting Cooper and Bertram know this was his
first time.
    "Who in the hell are you talking to?" Cooper
asked. "Son,