Short Story | Fiction | Thriller
Strangers
You shouldn’t have trusted me
Trigger warning: includes violence and potentially offensive language
It is midnight. Anna is driving in a remote area called M-16. The music on the radio suddenly fades out, and a male announcer’s voice breaks in to fill the silence.
‘Breaking news! Another missing woman, Sandra Mills, has been found on a remote sidewalk in M-16. It was reported that this woman had gone missing two days ago while camping near the area. Her companions said that the woman was last seen on that morning at six o’clock. She allegedly said that she’d find a nice spot for her drone, and she never returned.’
As Anna listens to the announcer, she sees a woman walking alone on the sidewalk. ‘A hitchhiker, huh?’ she mumbles to herself as she slows down and winds down her window.
‘Hey, what are you doing wandering at this time? Don’t you know what happens to hitchhikers here?’ Anna asks.
‘I’m sorry. I got lost. Can you help me? I badly need help.’
Anna scans the woman standing outside her car.
‘Sure. What can I help you with?’
‘I just need a ride to the next town. I promise I will get off in the next town.’
Anna gazes at the woman’s belt.
The woman looks at her, and she immediately removes the gun and gives it to Anna.
‘It’s just for protection. It’s licensed. Here, you can take it in the meantime. Trust me. I just need a ride.’
Anna takes the gun.
‘Well, maybe you shouldn’t have trusted me.’ Anna pulls the trigger once and then once more, and the woman outside her car collapses into a lifeless heap. She drags the woman to the back of her car.
‘Anna, stop it! What are you doing?’ Linda says as she follows Anna.
‘Shut up, Linda! If you’re not gonna help then shut your mouth.’
Linda stops.
Anna arrives at a cabin hidden in the middle of a forest. As she opens the door, a draught of cold air welcomes her.
‘You got something for me,’ a man sitting in front of the TV says.
‘Shut up, Chase!’ She then hauls the woman’s body to her basement and closes the door.
‘You won’t share just a taste?’ Chase adds as he follows Anna.
‘Quit it, Chase! Anna, listen to me you have to stop doing this,’ Linda says as she also follows Anna.
Anna covers her ears and shouts, “I said, you two shut up! I need to prepare. Vanessa will be here soon. She’ll kill us if the blood isn’t ready yet, so shut the fuck up!’
‘Anna, you have to listen to me,’ Linda protests.
Anna goes to her room and locks the door.
In the basement, a suffocating stillness hangs in the air. Creaking worn floorboards and stained walls seem to absorb what little sunlight manages to come through the dirty window in the corner.
A flickering lamp struggles to illuminate the space, revealing shelves lined with dusty, mismatched containers. The wounded woman, miraculously still breathing, opens her eyes. Her name is Sandra Grey, a detective working on a case in the town.
Sandra opens her eyes, and in one corner she sees a crude table laden with knives, cords, and ominous tools meticulously arranged. As she gazes at the ceiling, she sees chains hanging from the ceiling looking as though something had been hung in there. She then turns her attention to a board full of IDs in front of her. They all look familiar to her, and she remembers seeing them before; they were the victims of the case she currently handles. She shivers as she recalls how they retrieved those bodies.
Their necks were lacerated, their blood was drained, and there were marks and signs of them being tied upside down. Sandra cries. She is angry and scared. She wonders why she is alive, remembering clearly that she was shot two times; one round hit her shoulder, and the other went into her chest. She is sure it was near her heart.
Sandra remembers that she is wearing her mother’s locket, closes her eyes, looks up and whispers, ‘Thank you, Mom.’ After taking a few moments to compose herself, she gets to work on the rope and manages to free herself. As she creeps up the dark stairs, concentrating on not making any noise, she hears voices or maybe a voice. It’s Anna’s. She sounds as though she is arguing with someone. Then, the sudden sound of a door closing.
Sandra carefully opens the door. Pushing through the pain of the bullet wounds, she steps out and is about to run towards Anna’s car but senses a presence behind her. She looks back…
‘Where do you think you are going?’ Anna says, grabbing her hair. ‘Nobody’s leaving! She will be here soon, and I have to offer you to her, so she’ll spare me and my brother and sister,’ and she slams Sandra’s head into the wall. Sandra’s head begins to bleed.
‘Please, I beg you. Don’t kill me! I can help you escape. Let’s escape together. Are you being forced to do this? Let’s get help. I can help you. Who’s doing this to you?’
‘Shut up!’ Anna interrupts. ‘You can’t help us. She will find us no matter where we go. She’s everywhere.’
‘Trust me. We can sort this out,’ Sandra says, doing her utmost to sound calm and collected.
‘Shut up, bitch! You will not try to convince my sister because you are mine now!’
Anna slams her into the wall again.
‘Stop it, Charles!’ Anna says to herself. ‘She is not yours. She’s for her.’ Sandra looks at Anna, confused about what was going on. Anna seems to be talking to herself.
Suddenly Anna stops, looking down at her hands, which are covered in blood. She looks at Sandra who’s struggling to stand.
‘You have to run now!’ Anna says. ‘I can’t take over this long! Here’s the key. Run now!’
‘Why don’t you come with me? I will help you. Who’s making you do this?’ Sandra asks.
‘You don’t understand! We can’t run from her because she’s inside us! We are all inside Anna’s head!’
Anna slumps to the floor.
‘We are already dead. Our mother killed me when Anna didn’t find her a woman. Please, I can’t take it anymore. You have to run! She will soon take over. Before that happens, please run!’ It is Linda. It is Linda who is speaking in Anna’s body.
Sandra realizes that all along, it was just Anna speaking and arguing with herself. It was just Anna arguing with the personalities stored in her head. Scared, confused, and hurt, Sandra runs as fast as she can to the car. She doesn’t look back.
As the sun rises, she makes her way to the highway.
Anna is sitting in the rocking chair in front of the porch. She watches as the sun illuminates the sky.
‘Anna, I just cooked us dinner. Come on. Let’s eat!’
‘Really? When did you learn to cook Linda?’
‘I just learned it at school today.’
‘That’s good! Come on. Let’s try it!’ Anna says excitedly.
They walk into the kitchen and find Chase in there already eating.
‘Linda, it’s so good!’ Chase says.
‘Chase, why didn’t you wait for me and Anna?’
‘I’m sorry. I can’t help it!’
‘That’s fine Linda. Come on. Let’s eat too.’
These are nothing but memories… good memories… happy memories. After their mother died, she and her siblings lived together happily. At least, they were happy until one day, their mother returned and made Anna do things.
Anna realized that it was not her mother who was doing those things anymore. She got a glimpse of herself unliving her sister and then her brother, and bathing herself with their blood just as her mother liked it.
‘Where’s my present, Anna? You know what’s the consequence if you don’t bring me the present.’
Anna knows she is possessed by her mother.
‘I don’t have it, Mother.’
‘What do you mean? You know the consequences if you disobey me.’
‘You can no longer threaten me, Mother. Linda and Chase are already dead, remember?’
There’s silence.
‘Right. You wouldn’t remember ’cause you are not true. You are just me after all,’ Anna says, talking to herself.
‘What are you talking about?’
‘I killed them. I killed them and bathed with their blood too.’
It becomes silent again.
‘This has to end now, Mother. I can’t do this anymore.’
Anna points a gun to her head. Soon all she sees is red.
Note
I wrote this story as an ending I have in mind for one of the platforms I am currently writing on called Story3, which allows you to add your own twists to the end of stories. It is in response to a fiction story by Una_Hart called M-61, which you can find here — Story3.
— Your Asian Writer—
