Horror Stories from Horrified - Volume One (2)

He leapt off the ver anda and char ged back up the br ae. The w ind was blow ing
again, so that he r an against that as w ell as against the gr adient and the night?s
aw ful blackness. The distur bing, disembodied sensations he?d had ear lier r etur ned.
The blade of the w ind seemed to cut his body into pieces, w hich spun off into
differ ent r egions of the dar k. His mind fr agmented too and became a blizzar d of
dispar ate thoughts and images. Gr anny Ander son mocking him fr om her door step.
Jimmy flicker ing out of and back into existence w hen a light tur ned on. David
Bow ie dead. Pr ince dead. Amer ica electing a black pr esident. Wullie MacNeill in his
Stetson. Lachie?s dead mother w ishing him a Happy New Year. Plastic cow -gals. A
vir us. Abstr act paintings. An ar tist dying under some plastic sheeting. A
madw oman w ith a shotgun. Jimmy?s head exploding ?
Even as he br oke apar t, he kept r unning ?
Suddenly he r ealised he was passing the edge of the hollow that contained Gr anny
Ander son?s cottage. Despite the old w oman?s cantanker ousness, the thought of her
cottage evoked feelings of war mth and safety. He halted and found to his sur pr ise
that he was in one piece again, w ith legs, ar ms, a tor so, a head, a functioning br ain.
He tur ned off the r oad and r an dow n the path. ?Oh God,? he sobbed, ?Oh shite. She
killed Jimmy. That w oman killed Jimmy!?
The cottage was in dar kness. He r eached the fr ont door , but befor e he could star t
pounding his fists against it he discover ed it was no longer in its fr ame. One low er
hinge kept it attached to the door post w hile its upper par t tilted back into the
cottage?s inter ior. A r eek of decay seeped thr ough the space cr eated by the leaning
door. Lachie stepped back. The sky wasn?t the cloud-smother ed expanse it?d been
ear lier but was clear and star r y, a cr escent moon embedded in the middle of it like
a shining buckle. This let him see the outlines of the thick leafy gr ow ths that
enveloped the cottage?s fr ont walls and gr oped in ar ound the fr ames of its br oken
w indow s.
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