About the author and series.
This book is part of a series, written by IP Spall, consisting of 22 short stories in total. To find out more about this book series or any of IP Spall’s other publications, head to https://linktr.ee/ipspallbooks
Many of these short stories are free, and if you enjoy reading this book, you can even buy a total collection of all the short stories for a low price! Follow the link above to find out more.
This story can be found on Amazon at: https://amzn.to/2VKj1tg
An uncomfortable foreword
It has been said that a series of short stories must emanate unexpectedness and a sense of chilling surprise. Such a collection of stories would require a character framework that is present throughout the whole book; from tale to tale, offering the reader a chance to relate to the individual characters — their pain, their horror, their paranoia. Such a collation would also contain an underlying subplot, so all of the stories connect and relate to one another, in a weblike manner, allowing each entry to follow on from the last with some continuity, while still retaining individuality.
I gave this some thought and decided to do the complete opposite. For me, each story should be read as an individual tale of terror, and certainly not as a collective.
Each of my short stories should evoke thought, emotion, and hopefully, leaves the reader wondering what the hell happens next. Let’s face it; not everyone looks for a happy ending in the stories they read. With this in mind, let your imaginations run wild, and enjoy the unpredictability; often an uncomfortable ride.
Curry Night
A small part of the devil lived inside Mallory. It was something that she had been born with, and she had no idea how or why it existed inside of her. The only knowledge she had of its existence, was only in times of fear; an intense burning feeling would rise inside of her, bringing her anger and fear to an extreme level, the only time she communicated with it, whatever it was. She would feel like she was about to burst, full of hate and anger, as a voice would speak to her inside her head. Apart from a few rare incidents as a little girl, the beast stayed hidden; but her anger still managed to hospitalise a few spiteful kids throughout her childhood. Her parents had taught her to control her feelings, especially her temper; she learnt to walk away from the things that brought upset, but it was a hard learning curve that seemingly took her whole life to learn. As a young child, it was a difficult task, causing many difficult scenarios for her parents to deal with, but over time, she eventually began to manage her feelings, as she made slow but good progress, hiding the entity from everyone she knew and loved. Now older and wiser, she hadn’t felt the entity for many years; in fact, she had forgotten about it, so one fateful day, in an ugly event down near the harbour, an unholy act of violence suddenly brought the unwanted beast back into her life.
“Do you fancy a curry tonight? I’d cook one of my specials, a fish curry. No ones had the pleasure yet, have they?
“Do you think everyone will be up for it?” she said, with mental images of the last delicious curry she made, ages ago.
“Oh yeah, that sound’s good… ” Dan replied, with his mouth already salivating, just at the thought of it. He also revisited Mallory’s last attempt, and although it was a while back, he could even remember just how beautiful it was.
“Ok then, should I let everyone know?” Ellie enquired, hoping to get in on the shopping trip.
“Yes please; we’ll make a big night of it then. It can be our leaving do” Mallory said, still quite excited at the prospect.
“I’ll do for around 7 pm then.”
A short time later, Mallory kissed Dan goodbye and started the slow and tedious long walk down to the town centre, on her own. She arrived at the market and almost instantly started buying the ingredients she needed for that evening’s supper. Everything was going well, except for the fact that she couldn’t find anyone selling some Pangasius fish, a specific type of fish found locally, The locals just called it a Pang fish and of course, today of all days, every fishmonger seemed to be out of stock, which was just typical. The last stallholder directed her down towards the other side of the harbour where a lone boat was due in. The stallholder suggested that they may have some onboard, but didn’t know for sure. She glanced in that general direction, thinking about the long walk, potentially for nothing. For a few moments, she hummed and hard as to whether it was worth the effort, finally deciding to go for it.
“What the hell” she quietly muttered to herself, knowing that all her efforts will be rewarded, if only the boat comes good. The area of the harbour in which she had been directed to was unknown, partly because it looked so derelict and unfriendly down there. When she first arrived on the island, about a year ago, she got the grand tour from her friends. They took her down through the town, the chaos of the markets and the harbour, but in all that time, she hadn’t known anyone going down to that area. She’d only heard bad things about it, some of which were pretty gruesome, which the local news reporters were describing as horrible. She wasn’t sure exactly what she’d be facing down there, but if it’s part of the harbour, surely it can’t be that bad, she thought to herself.
Mallory now had some form of evil presence burning inside of her. She’d had since she was little, with no knowledge of how it arrived or even why it was there, but over the last twenty years or so, somehow the two of them learnt to share her body. The entity, or spirit as she’d like to think of it, stayed surpassed, but as she’d got older, especially when she got angry or stressed, she found it increasingly difficult to keep it hidden and under control. The last time it reared up, was years ago, when her now ex-boyfriend was beaten up outside a pub one night. She lost control; while this colossal gorilla of a man was beating her lover, she saw red, and in a fit of rage, she somehow threw the man into the undergrowth, breaking his back in two places, as well as his left arm. Luckily, there were no witnesses. The thoughts of the night stayed with her, and if she told the truth, it was a constant worry, even though she never showed it. She also figured that now she had the evil presence inside her, nothing could scare her quickly, so with an air of confidence, she chose to continue on her quest.
She casually strolled down towards the harbour, traversing all the narrow little streets, until it opened up to the vast expanse of water. Boats bobbed around gently, tied up and seemingly redundant, as there wasn’t anyone around. The place that she had directed to was a mooring halfway up the harbour, on the opposite side, still some distance away. She momentarily looked around the unsightly place and didn’t fancy the walk one bit, but as she’d come this far, she thought that she might as well get on it. As she went, she noticed just how much it stank. A few unfriendly looking fishermen appeared in one of the sheds, and admittedly, she thought they looked more like pirates than fishermen. These men didn’t make her feel welcome at all, and although the presence inside her seem to offer some reassurance somehow, knowing that nothing could harm her, it didn’t feel like it made the situation any better than what it was.
The harbour was huge; with a large number of private moorings and jetties located on the rich side, she now found herself obviously on the opposite side, where everything was shabby and generally undesirable.
“Do you know where the Mary Rose dock’s?” she said to a rather large fisherman, just sitting on a pile of crab pots, smoking and staring at her. He just pointed; with no smile or conversation, and with as little interaction as possible. Right up to the other end, much further than she’d been informed, the boat had arrived; it was the only boat up there. With yet more walking involved, she eventually came to find just a few fishermen, busy offloading their catch. She spoke to the captain; the first person she met; in an opposite, blunt manner, he informed her that the fish she wanted, was the first to be taken off to their fishmongers already. He pointed up another hill, again, even further away, towards the next village, yet another fifteen to twenty minute walk away.
“I suggest you get a taxi, my dear” the captain finally spoke; in a profound unsettling way.
“It’s not very pleasant up there,” he added, with a dead-eyed unfriendly tone in his voice.
With the smell of disgusting blooms of cigarette smoke, Mallory sighed and looked disappointed.
The journey was becoming a bloody pilgrimage, she thought, but she was adamant that she was going to get the fish, one way, or another. She walked off, leaving the harbour, heading up a grubby narrow side street. She only gained about fifty yards up the hill before suddenly, and entirely out of the blue, she felt a massive whack to the back of her head. For a brief, split second of time, she acknowledged the attack, slowly wanting to turn around to see her assailant, but she turned, moving her body, she Fell. She felt dizzy, and her vision became blurry, as the pain aggressively started to burn inside her head. She stumbled and fell forwards, dropping her bag, as her body failed, slamming down onto the cold stone cobbled floor. The last thing she remembered was her assailant grabbing her jacket by the shoulders, as he dragged her into a small side alley. She’s lost all sense of time and direction, living in a weird sort of dreamscape, unable to help herself in any way. She felt the uneasy banging on the underside of her legs, as she was dragged across the uneven surface; drifting in and out of consciousness, knowing that she was being taken somewhere; Mallory slipped in and out of darkness, with no concept of where she was, or what the hell was going on.
She woke up sometime later, bleary-eyed, with a tremendous pain throbbing at the back of her head. She reached up and brought back a few fingers covered in blood. Confused and disorientated, she struggled to comprehend what was going on. As she struggled, groaning in pain, she realised that someone had taken her top off and that a strange man was kneeling in front of her, groping her. She then felt another pair of hands, grabbing and yanking at her trousers. A bolt of panic rippled through her body. She quickly focused, feeling an enormous pressure build from within. In her state of fear, flaying her arms around to defend herself, she felt the darkness inside rising. Her eyes turned a deep shade of black as the entity inside rose up to take control of the situation. The men were now shouting her in a language she didn’t know, but it didn’t matter, as it was all about to change. The evil inside lashed out with immense strength, throwing the men one by one, violently off into the alley side walls; she threw them at such a high velocity that most of them were instantly knocked out unconscious. She thought there were two, but there were re more, as another three tried to help their friends.
Once the alley fell quiet, she slowly sat slowly and looked around. She pulled her top together, and got up to her feet; she felt no pain, the entity inside had now consumed it for her; she was now angry and upset, and looked for vengeance.
Her bra lay on the floor, as she leant down to pull her trousers up, knowing that she had a few moments before her victims woke. Mallory stood up, pulled herself together, and looked around the alley at each one of the men, now sprawled out on the floor. To her surprise, there were a total of six men, but she looked at them all, there was one of them still alive and moving. She raised her right hand; the man was lifted off the ground like a puppet. As he floated there, he suddenly became aware of his surroundings and frantically started to cry, pleading for forgiveness. With an angry, scornful look on her face, Mallory muttered something under her breath before she screamed at him; with teeth clenched, making an intense and unsettling growling noise, she whispered angry words, which slowly got louder and louder. The intensity of her instruction grew exponentially, to such a point where she openly screamed so loud, surely the town must have heard. She then slowly and sadistically, all while she continued her chanting under her breath, bit by bit, starting to pull the man’s body apart, while he floated in mid-air. Slowly, with the sounds of skin ripping and bones breaking, his body was yanked and pulled in all directions. Shots of blood, shot out in all directions, all accompanied by the unaided scream of pure fear and pain, as his body took the ultimate punishment for the crimes he committed. The injury’s burned, as he desperately tried to plead his innocence, shouting out about his family and children; but it was too late. She inflicted her revenge, as slowly and as painfully as she could. Noticeably, the first injury was to his fingers; with arms and legs outstretched, his fingers were yanked hard by the unseen force. The men’s screams coordinated themselves with the tears and rips that followed as his fingers were aggressively removed at their sockets. As the first one came off, it stretched out along an elastic thread of ligament, which made a loud popping sound as it finally snapped. The rest of his fingers followed before the pull-apart moved to other parts of his body. The screams were deafening and uncomfortable to listen too, as parts of the body slowly fell to the floor, into a broad spread of red, located below his body. His body popped and snapped, as his flesh ripped and split; eventually, the intensity of his screams started to soften, only for another of his colleagues, to suddenly jump to his feet, in a desperate bid to escape.
The man’s endeavour was futile, as Mallory just turned her head to look at him. With her unseen force, ready at her will, the man was stopped in his tracks, slowly being yanked back into the yard, to where a bloodied mess was found. The second man also screamed for his life, as Mallory again started to mutter her chanting. With the same intensity, June again started to yank the man’s arms and legs, although compared to the other man; his torture was quicker, as his body ripped apart. From the bottom of his diaphragm and his waist, the two halves separated in an awful splash of blood and entrails. Mallory smiled as his body parts fell into their mess, on the cold stone floor.
When Mallory had finished dissecting and toying with her assailants, a couple of other men started to moan. Without hesitation, Mallory picked them both up in a similar fashion. This time, in a collective move, she just slammed them both down onto the stone cobbles, hard and fast. With incredibly strong and aggressive movements, she repeated the step over and over again. With such force, eventually, their bodies just squashed onto the floor, like dropping over-ripped soft fruit. The two remaining men never seemed to recover; Mallory looked and listened in all directions before she felt a sense of calm finally begin to rise inside. She made her exit without a look back. The evil inside stayed awake, knowing how upset she’d be, s for now, it was to wait and control her movements until she was safe.
She walked down the hill, back towards the harbour, albeit in a slightly different route. A few streets away, the evil inside retracted and Mallory momentarily fell into a squat position, as her consciousness returned. She couldn’t remember what had happened, but for now, the burning intensity of her injury ran rampant around her head. Mallory instinctively felt the back of her head, feeling a sizeable wet lump and a mass of wet, matted hair. She looked at her fingers to see all the blood. Shocked, Mallory looked down, to see her blouse ripped and blood pretty much everywhere. She was now scared and anxious, not knowing what she’d done. She quickly buttoned her shirt and pulled her coat together. Looking about at the empty street, all she wanted to do now was to go home. She wanted Dan.
She patted her coat pocket and felt her phone. With a very mournful tone, she struggled to her words out, as she called Dan and tried to explain where she was and what had happened.
As she arrived down at the harbour, she heard the screeching of tyres and looked to see Dan speeding towards her. As soon as she saw him, they ran to each other and embraced tightly; Mallory couldn’t console herself.
About the author and series.
This book is part of a series, written by IP Spall, consisting of 22 short stories in total. To find out more about this book series or any of IP Spall’s other publications, head to https://linktr.ee/ipspallbooks
Many of these short stories are free, and if you enjoy reading this book, you can even buy a total collection of all the short stories for a low price! Follow the link above to find out more.
This story can be found on Amazon at: https://amzn.to/2VKj1tg
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