They did this.
They came to my house in the middle of the night and took my family from me. Now I’ll make them pay for what they’ve done.
My body moves beneath me at my command. Vines that were once my hands shoot out and grip my former best friend, Martin, around the neck. Squeezing just enough to make him squirm. The others around us try to run away, shouting about demons, but I stop them in their tracks. The vines multiply and soon, I have the whole host of traitors bound and at my mercy.
I drag Martin’s body close to me, staring down into his frightened, sputtering face.
He claws at the vines as I lift him from the ground.
“I— I’m sorry,” he struggles to say as his feet kick and his face turns a sickly shade of purple.
“Sorry? You haven’t begun to be sorry,” I hear myself say in a voice that doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to a monster. To what they’ve made me.
His face contorts as I keep squeezing the life out of him in front of me. I watch with sick satisfaction as he struggles to stayalive. He foams at the mouth, and I know he won’t last long. None of them will.
For my family, I exact my revenge on every soul that came here tonight.
Blood soaks into the fertile ground as I kill each and every person, leaving Martin for last.
I drop him and watch as he tries to get away. Pathetic.
“P-please,” he croaks out as he crawls on his hands and knees. “We’re friends, Jack. I’m so sorry. My family?—”
I lunge for him, landing on his back and feel the bones in his spine break beneath me as he screams out in pain. The bodies of our former friends and neighbors lie strewn about us in a heap of broken bones and blood.
Their corpses will curse this land for anyone of their ilk. This will not be a safe haven for those with black hearts and tainted souls.
“Fuck you, Martin. I hope you burn in hell for all eternity for what you’ve done.”
I take my time with him. Making sure he feels every bit of pain before his soul cleaves from his body, and he slumps into the ground below.
I look around me at the carnage. Smoke still trails from what was once my home. I make my way over to it, finding my family’s charred bodies in the rubble.
My body crumples beneath me as I lean down over them and cry for what seems like hours. As the dawn begins to crest in the distance, I see a cracked mirror sitting tilted a few feet away. At first, I don’t know what I’m looking at, but then it hits me that the creature staring back at me is what I’ve become. A monster.
Where my face and head once were is now a crude orange pumpkin with gaping eyes and crooked smile. My torso is imposing and wide, and my limbs have become stalks, swirling into vines at the ends.
A true nightmare come to life.
That tonic I drank must have done this, I realize.
The vines begin to shift back into a human form as the sun rises, but there are black lines still engraved onto my skin that reach up my arms and neck. My face returns to normal but it’s no longer a reflection I recognize. Gone is any joy that once lived in those eyes. I look haunted, and I decide that is what I’ll do.
I’ll live my life haunting the people who are capable of this kind of evil. And I’ll make sure they don’t get the chance to hurt anyone ever again.
Chapter 1
Lydia
PRESENT DAY
“Stop whining. It’s going to be fun, I promise,” my friend Audrey, says into my AirPods.
I shove another pair of underwear into my backpack.
“Eleven pairs of underwear should be enough, right?” I ask her.
“Eleven? Are you planning to shit your pants or what?” She answers laughing.
