Amayah's Vengeance

A criminal murders a little girl, and her family makes sure that it is the last person he ever kills.

Ty sat back on his stained maroon futon as he lit a black & mild with a wide smile. “A lot of s**t been going right for me lately…First the corner store, then the bank, then that hit! I’m practically rolling in money!” He thought as he put his black & mild out, pulled a slim shiny mirror out and slid a little white baggy closer to him. As he stared in the mirror, a sugar cookie colored boy with dark sloppy hair and bags under his piercing green eyes stared back over a strong clean shaven chin, full lips, and a large neck tattoo of snakes slithering out of a pair of dice. People had often said that he looked Hispanic, and asked him where he was from. He didn’t know and he didn’t care, his s****y abusive father just said his mother was a w***e whenever Ty brought her up. God how he hated his father, Ty cut some lines of white powder on the mirror with a razor as he thought back to his first kill. His father had beaten him horribly in one of his drunken rages, and Ty decided that enough was enough, he knew where his father’s “hidden” .38 snub nose revolver was stashed, and set off to get it. His smile had grown wider and wider as he got closer and closer to his father, the gunshot woke the neighbors up, but by the time they got there Ty had already left. That day marked the start of a long bloody road for Ty, he rolled two one hundred dollar bills into a tube, snorted the lines from the mirror and then sat back, he sometimes wondered how his road would end, how he would die. If he could choose how, then he’d pick suicide, he wanted to die on his terms.

Samantha cried uncontrollably into her pillow as her father rubbed her back soothingly, fighting back tears himself, she couldn’t believe that Amayah was gone, dead. Never coming back. A part of her blamed her father; he knew that many dangerous people didn’t want him testifying in the Carson case, he had gotten death threats, been called racial slurs, and people had even tried to attack him in public! It was his fault; if not for him then her sister would still be alive. Her mother, Marianna sat in the living room with Gran Gran, anguished sobs shaking her petite frame. Marianna buried her head in her mother’s lap like a hurting 5 year old instead of the 35 year old lawyer she was. “My daughter Mama…my baby girl…..how could somebody do that to a little girl…I want him to PAY!!” Marianna sobbed as Gran Gran stroked her hair and nodded. “You know, there is something we can do to make him suffer Mija…but it will cost you.” Marianna’s head snapped up. “Mama……do you mean…” Gran softly put a finger to Marianna’s lips, shushing her. “I will handle it, do not worry. I have lived a full life.” Marianna’s eyes filled with new tears as she pulled Gran Gran into a tight hug.  

Darryl kissed his wife and daughter on the forehead then made his way to the basement to meet Gran Gran, she met him with a wide smile and pointed to a tall shelf. “Hello Mijo, can you pull that down for me? I’m not as young as I used to be.” She asked sweetly as she pointed with her cane. Darryl nodded, reached above her and pulled a dust laden wooden chest down. “You know I don’t believe in this stuff, I’m a man of science…but I’m desperate…Are you sure this will work?” Darryl asked as Gran Gran lifted the lid of the blackened chest, and then began removing and lighting black candles from the chest... “Trust me son…it will work.” Gran Gran replied as she began drawing on the floor with a strange looking piece of chalk, she paused to hand Darryl a small leather-bound black book, her wrinkled fingers holding a page open. “Keep reading, and don’t stop no matter what happens, you’re a great papa and I couldn’t have wished for a better son-in-law…and Darryl?” She drew a strange blood caked blade from the chest, the handle seemed to be made of thick horn, and the blade made of some form of bone covered in eldritch symbols. “Tell my girls that I love them.” Gran Gran whispered as she stepped into the middle of her drawing with a strange blade made of bone, the room seemed to darken as Darryl read through his tears and the thick smell of sulfur permeated the air.

Ty snapped awake covered in cold sweat; he had the weirdest dream…everything had started fine. He was walking through an abandoned town bathed in bright sunlight, when suddenly a bell sounded so hard it made his head hurt and every person he’d ever killed or hurt came stumbling and crawling out of the empty buildings, chanting his name as the sky darkened and his blood bubbled out of his eyes, ears, and mouth. Ty shuddered then grabbed the glass off of the table and made his way to the bathroom; he sat the glass on the counter and stared into the mirror at his anxious face, then took a deep breath and turned the faucet on. He splashed his face with cold water, grabbed a dingy purple towel and dried his face with one hand as he filled the glass with the other. He went to put the towel back and take a sip, when suddenly the towel grew heavy in his hands, a wet bloodstain appeared on the towel, spreading until the entire towel was soggy and dripping with fresh warm blood as it pulsed like a heartbeat in his hands. Ty screamed and dropped his glass of water as a pretty hazelnut brown girl appeared behind him, her white dress ruined by the blood that pumped continuously from her chest. It ran from the hole in her ruined dress, down her white stockings, splattering all over her white shoes and pooling on the floor, meeting up with the blood pool from the bloody towel. She languidly made her way to him, everyone of her footsteps splashed down in a pool of her own blood, as she whispered through bloody lips. “Ask not for whom the bell tolls….” A gunshot sounded and suddenly the little girl sat beside Ty, she leaned in as she wheezed in his ear softly. “It tolls for thee.” She appeared in front of the mirror, and let out a blood curdling scream as she clutched her chest and fell to her knees, blood bubbled into her mouth as she screeched, turning her scream into a horrid gurgling sound. Ty’s mouth moved in silent horror as the mirror cracked and shattered, he ran from the bathroom into the kitchen; and yanked up the nine millimeter Beretta he kept duct taped to the kitchen table. The little girl drug herself out of the bathroom, gurgling and twitching, Ty shut his eyes tight and the screaming gurgle stopped. He let a breath out as he glanced into the bathroom, everything was clean and white, except for the broken glass of water and the dingy purple towel. Ty shakily lit a cigarette. “I’m losing my s**t man, never party before bed again…need some fresh air.” He remarked as he snatched his iPod and coat up and hurried out into the warm night air, popping his headphones in as he began walking in no particular direction.

Samantha stared blankly at her Grandmother’s cold blueish body as the medics covered it with a white sheet; her eyes were as dry as her mother and fathers. She knew how and why her grandmother died, to pay the price of revenge. Of justice. She hoped the sick murderer was being dragged to hell right now, oh how she wished she could see it! Her father patted her on the back; it was time to go inside, they had much to do tomorrow.

Ty blinked twice as his the music blaring through his headphones abruptly stopped, he glanced at his iPod, the battery was dead. “How is that possible? It was fully charged when I left……oh well…where the hell am I?” He thought as he looked around, his feet made no noise as he stepped on the soft moist dirt, huge dilapidated house loomed in the distance. “Well f*ck! How long have I been walking?” Ty thought as he turned in a complete circle, seeing nothing but moonlit road for miles. “S**t!” He cursed under his breath as he started trudging toward the house; he wasn’t going to sleep outside tonight.

Samantha sat up in her bed and kicked the blanket off anxiously; she’d felt something touch her, but nothing was there. A whisper. A touch. Another whisper. Samantha’s dark brown eyes widened as the whisper grew louder. “Sssamantha…Saaammie……ssissster…” Samantha shrieked and called her father as she tried to run, she made it halfway down the hall when suddenly her eyes rolled back into her head as images of a young man in a foggy patch of barren land filled her head. Darryl caught his daughter as she fell, but before he could respond his eyes rolled back into his head, Marianna grabbed her nightgown and tried to rush to see what had happened, she made it as far as the bedroom door before her eyes did the same.

A thick fog rolled in, as Ty begrudgingly made his way to the house in the distance, he couldn’t see anything under his knees, so from time to time he would trip and fall into the damp loamy earth, he had tried his cell phone, but it was dead too. He pulled another cigarette out and lit it with a shiver; the temperature seemed to have dropped several degrees since he had been walking,a low moan emanated from behind him, freezing him in his tracks “Heeelp…mmeee…pleeeease..” A woman moaned. Ty whipped around and saw a woman crawling towards him, her ruined, broken legs dragged behind her as her rotted face twisted into a grimace of ultimate agony, a fat juicy worm slid from a hole in her skull to her nostril. “Why did you do this? I only asked for help…..why? WHHHY??” Suddenly Ty recognized the woman; a while ago he was making his way through the state when a nice woman asked him if he knew how to change a tire. He changed her tire then pulled her from the car and savagely beat her, and ran over her legs before putting a bullet in her skull. Ty stood, petrified with fear when suddenly a charred hand shot from the ground and grabbed his ankle, Ty kicked and screamed as a burnt husk of a man pulled itself from the ground, several others followed. The man gurgled, began smoking, and then burst aflame, his flesh returned in sizzling popping strips and he screamed and Ty’s cigarette exploded into a little fireball, followed by his lighter. “WHY?? WHY? WHY?” Ty remembered this man too, and every single charred person, they clawed their way into his memory. All of them had burned down in an apartment fire Ty started, he had been paid by a gang to destroy a meth lab, and he wanted to see if he could make the whole building burn. Ty kicked at the charred man’s hand harder, breaking it off and then he took off towards the house with a terrified scream, his scream mingled with the scream of a falling man, the man fell from above and crashed onto the rooftop of the house, sending bits and pieces of himself flying, Ty remembered pushing the man from the top of a building that he had been caught sleeping on, more bodies crawled out of the foggy ground, and Ty remembered each and every one. A shotgun victim reached for him with a shredded arm as a rape victim, sprinted towards him, blood flowing freely from her nether regions, a red corvette slammed into her, it’s headlights bloodied by a fatal joyride, men and woman who had been beaten to a pulp pulled themselves out of the out of the foggy ground, he remembered every single one, and they all chanted the same question in unison as tombstones  and coffins exploded from the ground. “WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY?” Ty made it to the large building, and noticed that it was abandoned church. “HAHAHA!!! SANCTUARY F*CKERS!!” Ty laughed hysterically as he kicked the doors open and then slammed then closed, pushing a pew against them. There was a loud splintering sound as the walls began to crack, splitting open as rotted and blackened hands jutted out of the crack, grabbing, reaching, clawing and scratching  as Ty’s iPod snapped to life, the little girl from the bathroom appeared on its screen, her dress even bloodier than before. Everything came rushing back as Ty remembered, he had been hired to scare the scientist, to kidnap his daughters, but Ty took it upon himself, and shot one of the little girls as they were leaving church Sunday morning. An ethereal song began to play on his iPod, Ty had never heard the song before in his life, he threw his iPod across the room but the song grew louder and louder, as blackened bodies began to writhe and twitch out of the wall, almost in a dance. Their bodies twisted at impossible angles as the bass hit, shaking the church walls and splitting the church floor open, Ty screamed in terror the black figures danced closer to him, gnarled horns began to sprout from their heads and long tails snapped out of their backs. The church doors burst open and the dead rushed in, yelling and as they began to writhe and dance in unison with the black figures. The figures grew closer and closer as Ty backed himself against the pulpit, suddenly the music stopped along with the demons and of all dead stopped their dance staring at him with soulless eyes. A bell began to softly toll, growing louder and louder as the dead and the black creatures parted for the little brown girl in the bloody white dress, she seemed to float across the floor as she. She jabbed an icy finger into Ty’s chest, as an inhumanly deep voice boomed out of her mouth, the bell hurt Ty’s ears. “ASK NOT FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS!!!!” Ty sobbed as his hand slowly drew his gun, he couldn’t control his body, he began to bawl even louder as his hand placed the gun against his temple. “IT TOLLS FOR THEE!!!!!” Ty’s hand pulled the trigger.

Darryl, Marianna, and Samantha’s eyes returned to normal as a soft ghostly kiss planted itself upon their foreheads. Tears streamed down their faces as they hugged tightly, justice had been served, Amayah had her vengeance.

                           THE NEXT MORNING

Samantha and her father watched the morning news as they ate their waffles. “David “Ty” Hernandez was found dead this morning in a local catholic church, the SAME church a young girl named Amayah Brookes was shot and killed in this previous week. Authorities believe the cause of death to be suicide and, get this, with the SAME weapon that was believed to be used to murder young Amayah. Police are still investigating, but they believe…” Samantha turned the television off and looked to her father. “Shouldn’t you be getting ready for the trial?” She asked with a smile. “Shouldn’t you be getting ready for auntie Kendra’s house?” He replied as he hugged her tight. “Daddy, I miss Amayah…” She whispered. “Me too baby, but she’s in a better place now.” Darryl said as he stroked his daughter’s hair. “I know daddy…I love you.” Samantha whispered as she hugged her father even tighter. “Me and mommy love you too; now go get ready! Shoo munchkin!” Darryl said, after his daughter left he lowered his head and closed his eyes. “Daddy loves you too Amayah, and Gran Gran, thank you for your sacrifice.” A gentle breeze blew through the house, shaking a painting Amayah had drawn for her father from the fridge, Darryl picked it up as a wide teary eyed smile crossed his face.

Reviews

[natasha rawls aka "simo..]

Deep...
Loving all of the details

[Karleem Johnson]

Thank you very much :) Out of all the horror stories that I've written, this is my favorite so far