The Dance Macabre --

The Riotous Writer

Halloween Horror Story

Following on from my article about the Unique Selling Point, to book sales. I've not written this story in my usual way

As an experiment in style, I've written it in the first person.

I hope you enjoy this short tale of revenge, and retribution, and that you all have a very happy, and enjoyably spooky Halloween night.

The Dance Macabre

I know well the evil that men and women do. I was once such a man.

Born of the Beast I was.

I lived my life in the embrace of evil. No creature knows better than me what lurks deep within the hearts of humankind. My emotions bleached of any sympathy to those I killed.

It is a kinship I share with the kind I seek. The vilest of those who prey upon the defenseless.

My wicked deeds – they are done. Long in the past of my memory. My penance eternal.

I serve justice to those who have the Beast within them.

Swift. Cruel. Lethal.

And the punishment will always fit the crime.

I have so little time. One whole day a year, from midnight to midnight is all I have. So I make my choices in the dark shadows that I inhabit with great care.

As one day slips into the next – I  return to the physical world and seek out my prey-- I am an avenger.

I watch three young people sit idly chatting together on a front porch. Innocuous. They look no different from thousands of other young people sitting in the shade, sheltering from a hot afternoon sun. Only they are different.

You see. These three are the ones I have chosen so carefully. Tammy Winola, Richard Mason and Kevin Mason – will suffer their fates before the day changes to another.

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“I'm bored. An I wish that yapping creature across the fence would shut it's damn noisy mouth.” Tammy Winola, is sixteen, sexually virginal, at least that's what she'd have her parents believe. Nothing about Tammy is what it seems.

The dog continues to bark.

Tammy screams in annoyance, shouting at the two boys sharing the porch with her. “You wanna do something for me? Get the next-door's dog, and bring it here.”

Kevin, and Richard Mason, fifteen and seventeen, want to be her lovers. Her fragrance wafts a sweet scented aroma across the summer afternoon at them. They feel their loins stirring, and hope today will be the day she lets them inside her body.

The elder of the two boys replies, wanting something for something, “What do get if we do?”

“You wanna see me naked?” She knows they do. Maybe she will show them maybe she won't. She knows they will take the chance that she will, and do whatever it is she wants of them.

Two heads nod vigorously.

“Then go get that yapping dog - and bring it here to me.”

Slick smiles light their cunning faces. She's going to entertain them. Neither boy is sure which is best. Her nakedness or what she's about to do.

Filled by an unholy eagerness to find out, they hurry from the porch and head for the neighbour's yard.

Tammy Winola is lovely to look at. She keeps her long blond hair brushed so that it shines like the sun she is hiding from. Her ready laugh and deep blue eyes fool her many admires with what they imagine is a pure soul.

With Tammy beauty is only skin deep. She is as ugly beneath as she is beautiful on the outside. There is nothing pure about her soul. It is as black as the abyss she is destined for.

The dog is easy to steal. It's trusting nature leads it straight into the arms of it's soon to be tormentors.

The Mason boys, bring their sacrificial offering to her, anticipation spreads across two expectant faces. They hope, perhaps this time, she'll show them more than naked. Perhaps she'll get it on with them.

To Tammy it is not a dog. It is merely a thing. An object that will momentarily satiate the demonic need for death gnawing inside her. She is diseased by the desire to kill living beings. It will never go away this feeling she has. She will only stop her killing, when I take her from the world she infects.

Deep blue eyes darken to a maniacal black. That perfect mouth erupts in a torrent of pleasured screams as this monster falls upon the terrified creature. Frenzied, she slams her shoe-less foot into the warm soft body of the small dog. The sensual feel of it's tearing skin connecting to her naked flesh feeds her lust, increasing her savagery. She dances wildly around the whimpering creature, kicking and kicking until it is nothing more that a pulp of matted fur and blood.

Tammy Winola, has danced the dance macabre.

Wiping her feet clean, she pants from her efforts, and points to the lifeless body saying breathlessly to her two grinning companions, “It's disgusting. Dump it back where you got it from.”

There is no pity in this girl for what she has done. She thinks only of what she will do next.

She craves to kill again. This time it is a child that will satisfy her thirst to dance again the dance macabre. The dance of death.

She looks with contempt at the two weak minded fools before her, salivating with desire, for what she has no intention of giving them.

Knowing they will do anything to earn her approval gives her absolute power over them. “I'm bored. Find me something better than just a dog. Get me a kid. Get me your baby sister.” She demands of her familiars.

The boys exchange unsure sideways glances.

Their reticence is not unexpected. No matter. Manipulation, easy. She says, “You're not gonna do what I want? You sure?” Leaning back in the chair she lifts her skirt high. It's impossible for them to hold back as she opens her legs. Her nakedness fuels their evil. They lunge toward her. Snapping her legs shut tight, she says again, “You're not gonna do what I want?” Then laughs opening her legs, two and fro tantalizing their hunger to know what she feels like as they throb within her.

Every soul has two paths to take. One path takes them to righteousness. The other. The other - is the path to hell.

Tammy Winola – has chosen. And her followers have chosen to go where she leads them.

There is no turning back for these three damned souls. And now the time has come for me to show them the error of their ways. And the punishment will fit their crimes.

I have laid my plan well – but then I have had a lot of practise.

I use their weaknesses against them. Their depravity. Their evil. Are my weapons.

Not far from the porch is a large thicket. A dense tree-line hides the place from the houses near by. In the middle of this thicket is a wide clearing. Behind the trees heavy with dark green summer foliage, is a sinister evil.

The three know this place well. It is here they have killed here many times before. Ten bodies lay beneath the earth, covered by a multi coloured carpet of rotting leaves.

Tonight they plan to kill again – but this time, Tammy has taken their grisly game to a new level.

As soon as the sun goes down they meet as planned. The density of the trees around allows only a dim moonlight to penetrate.

“Where is she?” Tammy demands waving a flashlight in their faces.

The boys have come empty handed.

They stammer out their excuses.

“I was going to let you have me tonight. Now you will get nothing.” She again shows them the place between her legs that they have desired for so long.

I speak to Kevin and Richard's evil. And they see me but only they can hear my words clearly spoken. I speak of what they have often thought of but never dared to do.

“Just take her. Why not? Then when you are done with her body. Give to her what she would have given to your baby sister, and then to you. Giver her death.”

“She won't kill us.” I hear the hesitation in their voices. They both know that some day – she will probably kill them both.

“What will happen to us, if we do what you say?” They ask.

“Why nothing.” I reply. “No one will know, how could they? Bury her here. Who can find her here. Have you not buried here before? The old man, homeless and alone. The old man that no one would miss. The little girl whose mother waits everyday for her safe return. And the others. Your school friend. Has anyone found them? But you will have to kill her once you have taken her. If you don't she will kill you both in revenge.”

“Yeah. We know.” They say agreeing with me.

Tammy neither sees nor hears any of our conversation.

“Don't wait too long. You will never get another chance.” They have no idea how right I am.

Heads together they whisper their decision on Tammy's fate.

It is Tammy's turn to listen to my alluring words.

“They should have brought you what you asked for. They are going to turn against you. They are going to rape and kill you. Or worse. Tell the police what you have done. And let you, and you alone, take the blame for all the death hidden here. ” I tell her.

She glances furtively across at the whispering boys.

Lowering her voice, matching their whispers she says, “They wouldn't. They are nothings. Nothings without me and they know it. They do as I tell them. They obey me.”

She is indignant – but fearful. She knows exactly what her two companions are capable of. She has watched them kill, and seen the pleasure on their faces as they did so.

And so it begins.... the dance macabre.

Richard takes her body first. He's the eldest. He says it was his right. Tammy's struggles as he forces himself inside her are sweeter than he had ever imagined. She's not his first. There are five bodies of young women buried, left to rot beneath the thicket earth without so much as a casual thought to who they were. Richard raped each one before Tammy kicked the life out of them. None of them struggled as violently as Tammy. He had told them, “Be still. When it's over. I'll let you go.” He'd lied.

Next time he took a girl he wouldn't lie to her.

Kevin waits, and then it's his turn. Tammy is the first woman he has ever felt inside of. And I shall make sure she is his last.

Tammy never saw the first blow coming.

One after the other they hit, and kick on her fragile frame. They dance the dance macabre, until Tammy Winola's spirit rises up for me to take.

The sound of sirens wailing, and blue lights flashing fill the clearing. The denizens of the law. The upholders of good against evil have answered my call.

Tammy's blood soaked killers know there is nowhere for them to run. Their fate is sealed. They wait in hopeless desperation as the small army of police descend through the trees.

“Looks like there's several bodies buried here. You guys have been real busy ” An officer accuses.

“Those were not us.” Richard and Kevin wail in protest,“Tammy did for them.”

Who will believe their denials? Who will believe lies told by killers of such a beautiful, innocent girl. Her family will morn her, and lay flowers on her undeserving grave never knowing what they had spawned.

“What will happen to us?” Richard and Kevin ask me as their hands are roughly handcuffed behind their backs.

The grim faced policeman cannot see me. “Looking at what you two have done. Death row, and the road to hell, I should think.” He answers their question for me.

Tammy's soul is bound to me for eternity. “Where are we going?” She asks as I lead her along the path of no redemption.

“To hell's eternal damnation.” I reply.

Happy Halloween Folks

have a great weekend everyone and thanks for reading this post...

The Riotous Writer

www.josephine-sanchez-vanner.org.uk

background by 'Stuart Miles'  - Ghost  by hyena reality - Halloween by Salvatore Vuono 

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