The Horror Megapack_ 25 Classic and Modern Horror Stories ( PDFDrive )

father had told him the one time he’d gotten up the nerve to call. He’d just hung
up, been too scared to ask to speak to her. But now, tonight, it would all be
different.
He climbed the steps. Stood breathing the cool night air. Turned and walked
slowly and purposefully toward the right house. In his mind, he rehearsed what
he’d say to her. Something debonair, something romantic.
When he rang the bell, she answered. Her eyes widened when she saw him,
and she started to close the door.
He blocked it with his foot.
“Joanne—”
“I have nothing to say to you,” she said. “Go away or I’ll call the police!”
“I—I’m sorry,” he said. “I miss you. I just wanted you to know that. And…”
“What?” she said. She opened the door a bit.
“I’m sorry.” Her eyes, he saw, brimmed with tears. She missed him! She still
loved him! “May I come in?” he asked. “Please?”
She moved back. He entered. The TV blared from the living room, showing
the end of some weepy romance. Hugh Grant skidded across a room, a bunch of
red roses in his hand.
“Are your parents here?” he asked.
“They went to a play.”
“Good,” he said. “I wanted—I needed—to talk to you. Alone. I love you,
Joanne.”
She bit her lip and said nothing.
“Look,” he said. “I brought you something.”
He began to unwrap the cavalry saber. As soon as she saw it, she’d know what
it meant to him, to them, and then she’d come to her senses and everything
would be perfect. The saber would do it. The creature had promised.
But when she saw what he held, she flinched back.
“Get out!” she screamed. “I’m sick of you and your swords! Get out!”
He stepped forward, and she hit him. He blinked in surprise.
She hit him again and again, flailing wildly, shrieking and screaming
“Now!” the creature commanded.
And he swept the saber up, backhanded, cleanly severing her head. Blood
sprayed across the far wall in a huge, silent arc. Her body slumped, twitching;
her head bounced a dozen feet, then fetched up against a the coffee-table and
stopped, grinning back at him with an impossibly happy expression.
He hacked at her body again and again, stabbing, chopping, killing until blood