Another Man's Wife plus 3 Other Tales of Horror by David Bernstein Read Free Book Online

other hand gripped Brian’s
other ankle and squeezed, crushing it to a pulp of mangled flesh
and splintered bone. It released its hold and Brian’s legs flopped
painfully and uselessly to the ground. He screamed in agony, but
sat up and began punching the ghoul in the head. A piece of rotten
skin flaked off, stuck to his knuckles. The ghoul shot an arm out,
seizing Brian by the neck. With a flick, the monster snapped it.
Brian’s eyes rolled up, he stopped crying out and fell to the
mattress, still alive. His spinal column had been severed,
paralyzing him from the neck down.
    Starting at his feet--the toes, the ghoul
began taking large bites out of Brian. The creature chewed slowly,
cow-like. Tears streaked Brian’s face as he could only watch and
listen to the ghoul eat him alive. With only dread upon his mind,
he wondered if he was truly alive, because ghouls were only
supposed to eat dead things.
     
     

 
     
    The Lake
Pact
     
    He saw the creature lunge from the depths of
Beaver Dam Lake, wrap its scaly long arms around the woman in the
canoe and pull her under. It was only a moment, but the image would
stay in his mind forever, as if branded there. The creature had
dark olive colored scales, large bulbous black eyes and gills down
its sides.
    Billy wasn’t supposed to go near the lake.
His mother told him it was dangerous, especially without an adult.
No one from the neighborhood used the lake. Only outsiders were
seen swimming and boating, parking their cars alongside Lake Road,
and enjoying themselves in one of nature’s pools.
    Billy was never told why he or any of the
other neighborhood kids weren’t allowed by the lake. Every time he
asked his father he received the same response: “Because I said
so.”
    The woman in the canoe was a visitor. He’d
seen her Jeep parked along the road on his way toward the lake.
Everyone knew everyone from the neighborhood and Billy didn’t
recognize her. Apparently she’d never learned the basic rules of
swimming: never do it alone. He doubted it would’ve mattered
whether she had one other person or ten, because she would still be
dead. Standing on the hillside, his legs trembling, he turned and
went home.
    The next day, while sitting on the school
bus, Billy passed the spot where the woman’s Jeep had been parked.
It was gone. He felt an uneasiness fall over him, a creeping dread.
He should’ve told his parents about her, but didn’t want to get
punished, and they most likely wouldn’t have believed him anyway. A
belt whipping combined with a grounding was never welcomed.
    “I saw something,” he said to his best friend
Mack as they sat alone at the end of a lunchroom bench.
    “Your sister naked?” Mack asked,
laughing.
    Billy reached over the table and nailed him
in the arm. “No, something awful; unbelievable.”
    “Your mother naked?” Mack asked, avoiding
Billy’s fist.
    “I’m serious.”
    “What was it?”
    Billy leaned in, whispering, “I saw a woman
get killed yesterday.”
    “Bullshit,” Mark said, shoving his sandwich
into his mouth.
    “I went down to the lake,” Billy said,
coldly.
    Mack stopped chewing and with a mouthful of
food said, “Beaver Dam Lake?”
    “You know any other?”
    Mack quickly finished chewing and swallowed.
“Your parents would’ve killed you if they found out you went
there.”
    “I know.”
    “So, what happened?” Mack asked, his
attention solely on Billy.
    Billy told him what he saw, and how the
woman’s Jeep was gone the next day.
    “I want to see it,” Mack said,
eager-eyed.
    “See it? We have to kill it.”
    “Kill it?”
    “Yeah,” Billy said. “It must be why no one
from the neighborhood goes swimming or boating.”
    “You think they know about the creature?”
    “No, it’d be all over the news if they did. I
think people must go disappearing or get found mutilated, so people
simply stay away. They probably don’t tell us kids because they
don’t want to scare us with grisly