RESTITUTION

Genre: Horror

 

 

RESTITUTION

By Randy Romero

 

 

 

It was cold, dark, and damp when Lucy Simmons woke. It took her a moment to realize she was in an abandoned basement. It took her another moment to realize she was unable to sit up or move around.

She was bound hand and foot to a stone cold metal slab. A small source of light emanated from a window her captors must’ve tried to black out. She was exhausted and weak. Too weak to struggle against the ropes holding her down. She had a vague recollection of that evening’s events. She saw Josie and Tanya around eight or nine o’clock. They had pizza, or sushi. Or both. She couldn’t remember. Then they went their separate ways. She remembered walking home by herself.

More details started to rise in the back of her mind. A car pulling up next to her, hands grabbing her and stuffing her inside the trunk. A long, terrifying car ride that ended with her tied to that slab.

Pipes rattled and dripped overhead, raining down on her makeup smeared face. Lucy, a natural redhead, bleached her hair blonde and used a tremendous amount of concealer to hide her freckles. The pain of high school and pretending to be someone you’re not…Lucy knew it all too well. Constantly judging and questioning herself, changing herself to suit the needs of others. But none of that mattered a bit now.

Out of the shadows, a figure approached. Then another appeared, and another, and another. Eight in total, adorned in red robes and wearing full white face masks. Cold, emotionless faces.

They formed a tight circle around her, all brandishing long, sharp knives. Lucy sobbed, pleaded, begged for mercy, said she wouldn’t go to the police or breathe a word of this to anyone.

They all began to laugh and pulled off their masks. The first face Lucy recognized was Josie’s. Then Aubrey. Tanya was there too. And Phil Myers, the captain of the high school football team. And with Phil, his buddies were never too far behind. Kent, Leo, and Tyler were all there with him. Even Lisa Newman, the quietest girl in school, was there laughing it up with the rest of them.

Lisa helped Aubrey and Josie untie Lucy, still laughing up a storm.

“Very funny,” Lucy groaned. “Some prank. I’m dying.”

“You almost did,” Aubrey joked.

“You should’ve seen the look on your face,” Tyler said, his own face red from laughter.

“Look familiar?” Josie asked Lucy.

“South Oaks,” Lucy said, taking a look around. “The abandoned mental hospital. Nice touch. Very creepy.”

“We figured that since we come here to drink all the time anyway, why not kill two birds with one stone?” Josie said.

Lucy rubbed the rope burns on her wrists and ankles.

“You guys didn’t have to tie me up so tight,” she said. “That wasn’t part of the plan.”

“What plan?” Phil asked.

“Oh, nothing,” Lucy said.

“Well that was fun,” Phil said, shrugging his broad shoulders. “Can we party now? The beers are getting cold.”

“Sure, we could drink,” Tanya said. “But I feel like we’re missing somebody.”

“Yeah, feels like we’re missing somebody,” Josie repeated.

“Has anybody seen Jenny around?” Lisa asked.

The guys were quiet. Phil’s body seemed to tense up. Kent, Leo, and Tyler didn’t utter a word.

“She transferred to another school,” Phil finally spoke up.

“Oh, that’s right,” Lisa said. The shy girl suddenly not so shy anymore. “She did transfer to another school. Moved to another town. Right after you violated her. What about LeeAnn?”

“What about her?” Phil asked, defensive.

“You know what about her,” Tanya said. “You see, tonight wasn’t about pranking Lucy. This whole setup was all about you, Phil.”

“What do you mean me? I didn’t do anything wrong. And I don’t know anything about LeeAnn.”

“Tsk, tsk,” Tyler said. “Confess bro. You’ll feel better. It’ll be like a weight lifted off of your shoulders.”

“Confess to what? I didn’t do anything,” Phil said, starting to sweat.

“But you did,” Lisa said. “And you’ve been getting away with it for far too long with that rich daddy of yours pulling the strings for you, chasing girls out of town, threatening them so they refuse to testify. It all stops tonight, Phil.”

“You really thought you were invincible, huh?” Leo said. “That this shit wasn’t going to catch up to you someday?”

“Everyone on the team secretly hates your guts,” Kent said. We only played along because we had to. Well, we’re done being your lackeys.”

“Last but not least, Amy,” Tanya said.

“I didn’t do anything to Amy,” Phil said vehemently.

“Tell that to Amy,” Lucy finally took a turn to speak. “She spent weeks in the hospital after she slit her wrists. Sliced through her radial arteries. Doctors said it was a miracle she didn’t bleed out. But of course, none of that mattered. She was dead a few weeks after she left the hospital. She couldn’t live with what you did to her, you twisted monster. She was my best friend.”

“I…I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt anybody. It was always consensual.”

“Not for them, it wasn’t,” Lisa said.

Josie approached him with daggers in her eyes.

“This is for Amy,” Josie said, plunging the knife deep into his gut and twisting the blade before she retracted it. Phil was still on his feet, too shocked to move, too stunned to speak.

“For Amy, Aubrey said, and Phil felt that cold, stainless steel enter his body again.

“For Amy,” Tanya said, stabbing him once, right above the waistline.

“For Amy,” Kent said, taking a turn.

Lucy, Amy’s sister, went last. “For Amy,” she said, delivering the fatal stab wound to his heart.

MISFORTUNE

Genre: Horror

 

 

MISFORTUNE

By Randy Romero

 

Frank Caster was worried he’d stick out like an atheist in church at the Rockland County Fair. A thirty-four-year-old man, no kids, no date. Black leather jacket, faded and frayed blue jeans, his dark hair all greasy and slicked back. But nobody seemed to take notice.

He wandered the fairgrounds, treating himself to cotton candy and fried zeppoles. His eyes wandered as much as the rest of his body, perusing the fairgrounds, as if he was searching for someone in particular.

Everywhere he turned, vendors and carnies barked for his attention, and his money. But Frank wasn’t going to be suckered into spending his hard earned cash on rigged games or poorly constructed rides. He walked right past them, ignoring their calls and cries. He walked past the bumper cars, past the Ferris wheel, past dozens and dozens of screaming kids and their exhausted looking parents, stopping only when one attraction caught his eye.

A red tent at one end of the fairgrounds that housed a “real” fortune teller. Normally, Frank wouldn’t go for that sort of thing. And this certainly wasn’t what Frank had been looking for that evening, but something about it intrigued him. For starters, she didn’t have a cliché fortune teller name like Tatiana or Esmerelda or Madame Zorro. She didn’t use a crystal ball or tarot cards, either. Her name was Carissa and for just fifteen dollars, she offered to tell Frank his future.

“Take a seat,” she welcomed him. “I’m Carissa. Sign says fifteen dollars. Price is non-negotiable, despite what some of the drunks in this town think. You can call me Carissa if you’d like. Some guys prefer Madame Carissa…or Mistress Carissa. Those dudes are usually kind of creepy. I’d prefer if we could just stick with Carissa for this session.”

He sat across from her and put a ten and a five on the small, round table between them.

She was young, attractive. A brunette. Short but tough looking, athletic. A girl who probably knew how to fight, knew how to take care of herself. Frank pictured her taking kickboxing classes on the weekends and spin classes during the week. Maybe a Pilates class somewhere in between. Frank couldn’t imagine this was her real job. He couldn’t see her doing this sort of thing for a living. He guessed it was a hobby, something she did on the side for extra cash.

“What is your name?” she asked.

“You tell me,” he said with a smug smile.

She was silent for a moment. “Francis.”

“Well, Frank. But my mother used to call me Francis when I was a boy. So close enough. Not bad. You got to tell me, was that just a wild guess? Or are you the real McCoy?”

“Only one way to find out, Mr. Caster.”

A slight chill danced down his spine. It gave him a rush he found exhilarating. This was getting interesting.

“Take off your jacket,” Carissa said. It wasn’t a request. Frank obliged, liking where this was going.

“Give me your hand,” she said. Ugh, here it comes, he thought. A phony palm reading. I’ve been duped.

But instead, she merely maintained a steady grip on his hand while meeting his steely blue eyes. She never broke eye contact, never looked away.

“You’re not going to read my palm?” Frank asked, confused by her process.

“I don’t read palms. I read people.” She was silent for a moment. Then she spoke again. “You are a loner. But you are not lonely. You prefer it that way.”

“What gave it away?” Frank chortled.

“You’re calm on the outside, but inside you are filled with rage. I can feel it. It’s palpable. You…you’ve hurt people before. Emotionally…physically.”

She seemed to have touched a nerve with that line. She felt his hand twitch, but she held her grip.

“I don’t know what you’re suggesting,” Frank said. “But I’m not a bad person. I’ve never hit anybody. Never raised my hand to a woman. Never in my life.”

“Wait, I’m getting something else. A girl. Her name starts with a J. Jessica? No. Jennifer. That’s it, isn’t it?”

Frank gasped. “Don’t you dare say her name,” he snapped.

“You did something to Jennifer, didn’t you? Something terrible. Something you can’t forgive yourself for. I can’t see what it is, but don’t let guilt drag you down, Frank. I’m sure you didn’t mean to hurt Jennifer. And she’s just one of many girls. It’s not worth beating yourself up over. It’s okay to forgive yourself.”

Frank didn’t say anything.

“Was she your wife, an ex girlfriend?” Carissa asked.

“You tell me,” Frank said again, though not quite as smug as before. “You know I thought you were supposed to be telling me my future, not my past.”

“Fortune telling isn’t an exact science. Readings can be vague and mysterious. Past, present, and future can all merge into one. But be patient. We’ll get there.”

Frank was silent again. Then he said quietly, “If you must know, Jennifer was the only woman I ever really loved.” She was my first.

“Wait…hold on, I’m picking up on something else.”

Carissa’s brown eyes widened. A plethora of names came flooding to her. All women that Frank had hurt over the years. Not just broken hearts, but broken bones and cartilage.

Frank jerked his hand away. “So what’s your summary?” Frank asked, grinning from ear to ear.

“I can see that you’re an evil man. You’ve hurt a lot of women in your life, Frank Caster. You should be rotting away behind bars. And if I have anything to say about it, you will be soon.”

Well, I’ll be damned, he thought. In more ways than one. She’s the real deal. But I’m afraid I can’t let her turn me in. My work isn’t done yet. It’s a shame I have to kill her now. I wonder if she can see it coming…