He’s Returned
20 years ago…
Mason remembered it well…
It was a Friday afternoon; he had just finished school. The whole day, he had a feeling that he just couldn’t shake off.
“Mum, I’m home from school! Was such a boring day!” Flinging open the orange front door of their bungalow, he threw his school bag onto the floor in the hallway, and turned the corner into the dining room to find everyone seated at the table.
His mum, dad and sister all had a bright red apple in front of them. Very unusual for all of his family to be home on a Friday afternoon. Especially with an apple; no one in the family liked them…
Normally, it was just his Mum rushing around trying to tidy up before his father got home with Megan. Usually he was very angry and never ate dinner with the family.
Walking closer to his family seated in the dining room, he noticed that something just wasn’t quite right.
“Mum, Dad!”
No one turned their head, no one moved.
Dead silence.
He started to walk to his seat at the table next to his sister. He noticed a sharp knife sticking out of the apples. A puddle of bright red underneath where they sat. He looked at his mum; she looked different, almost strange. He just could not put his finger on it.
“Mum!”
No response, no movement, nothing.
The bad feeling was back, the strange feeling he’d had all day in the pit of his stomach.
He walked over to his mum, shook her.
Nothing.
He shook her again. Still nothing.
This time, he shook her so hard that her head fell off her body and rolled onto the floor.
Mason took one look: his mother was sitting at the dining room table, missing a head.
Screaming, he ran out of the room. They were dead, all of them, dead.
He ran outside as fast as he could, running to the payphone down the road to call the police…
Mason always had these sorts of flashbacks. He arrived at his office on a Monday morning, dazed after a long weekend on the booze. He sat in a black leather chair behind his big desk, a wooden plaque with “Detective” written on it. He opened the new case file that was already on his desk.
Another murder had happened. The exact same signature: an apple on the table with a knife sticking out of it, decapitation.
The killer was back…
