Intercepts: a horror novel by T.J. Payne

Author:T.J. Payne [Payne, T.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tunnel Falls
Published: 2019-04-22T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 19

Riley felt numb.

Her experience at the park had rattled her. She had almost slashed an entire soccer team of little girls, all out of fear of the woman. Riley had been able to explain her situation to the police at the park. She put on quite a show, tearing up as she explained how she couldn’t sleep after her mom’s suicide and needed to take a walk but passed out in the park. She told them that the soccer team had simply startled and disoriented her, but she was alright now.

The lucidness with which she was able to lie to the cops surprised Riley. Maybe she hadn’t gone crazy. A crazy person couldn’t wave a knife at children in a public park and then talk the police into giving her a ride home. Not to the hospital. Not to jail. They took pity on her and drove her all the way to her father’s house.

The woman had been there in the police car for that drive.

She sat right beside Riley, twitching and chattering her teeth as her head lolled on her shoulders. The woman talked about goats and phone numbers, or something. But Riley ignored her. The cops told Riley to be good and get some rest, and then they let her out and drove away.

When she arrived back home, the woman followed her in. She screamed and lunged and clawed at her own face until her flesh peeled off into her fingernails. Riley tried to ask the woman questions but, between her screams, she only muttered things about guns and street intersections.

At one point, Riley took out her phone and filmed the woman. At least she would have evidence, something she could show to the police or to her father. But the pictures and the video played back with only a bare shot of the living room. No screams, no blood, and certainly no woman.

After that, the woman vanished for a while.

In some ways, this unnerved Riley more than having the woman screaming and lunging at her. As much as she thought she had regained control over her fear, she realized that she couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat, couldn’t do anything as long as she knew that the woman might appear.

It was then that she considered that there was only one potential sure-fire way to rid herself of the woman. One way for her to sleep. One way to see her mom again. She envisioned pressing a knife against her wrist. She imagined the cuts opening wider, ever wider, until they were deep and expansive enough for the woman to flow out from Riley. All the woman’s darkness would drip down into the bathtub. And Riley would be free.

It seemed to be the only solution. Like leeches sucking out poison, Riley could drain the woman from her system, her mind, her body. And then she could sleep. A quiet, black sleep.

The fantasy was so attractive that it scared her. She called her dad. He came home quickly. Quicker than she ever expected.

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