Read Online Twilight Nightmares (Twisted Tales Special Edition Book 1) by Jay Wilson - Free Book Online Page B

scratched the pit of her elbow. Though three months sober from the needle, she still felt a soft tickle on her skin. She still had the desire to alleviate that itch with a fresh new prick, but she couldn't. She'd almost killed herself the last time, and made a promise to herself never to do it again.
    She looked into the hole, fully expecting to see nothing but darkness. Instead, it was her childhood bedroom. The dark room contained many stuffed animals along with her favorite animatronic teddy bear, Mr. Ruxy . Snuggled in a warm white blanket, she saw eleven-year-old California, sleeping soundly upon the bed.
    She looked up again, and wondered if she should find someone and tell them about it, but she soon remembered that night, which stole away her interest in other people. It wasn’t just any one of the many black night in her life. It was the one that started her down a path of self-destruction, and the memories suddenly caused tears to roll down her face.
    She didn’t know for sure what would happen if she stepped into that dark room, into the hole that showed a moment in her life that changed her forever, but she found herself climbing into it. The bottom half of her body seemed to fall down, consistent with the gravity change since she climbed in though the wall from the ground.
    When she entered the bedroom completely, she remained quiet. The soft tick of a Barbie clock on the wall slowly counted down to one of the darkest moments a young girl could ever experience. She looked down at the girl wrapped in the soft white blanket, and began to weep for herself. It was a moment in time she’d wished she could go back and change, and suddenly, she wondered if she could. She wondered if that hole had appeared to allow her a second chance. She didn’t know if it was real or only a dream, but she had to try nevertheless.
    California quietly left the room, crossed the hall, and entered the guest room. A light burned brightly from an emerald lamp that sat in the corner upon a small brown nightstand. The cream and tan bed was ruffled as though someone had slept in it recently, and she knew exactly whom.
    To her left, steam billowed from a cracked door, which she recalled led to a bathroom. She approached the door, and her heart raced. Twenty-two years had passed, and he still had an effect on her. Twenty-two years and she still wanted to run and hide, but this time, she wouldn’t. Not only for her sake, but also for the sake of that little girl.
    She pushed the door open, and the steam wetted her face, making her skin feel clammy. As she approached the running shower, she reached down to a sheath and retrieved the small trowel she used to dig out weeds. She reached up as her heart slammed even harder, threatening to explode through her chest, and she threw the shower curtain aside.
    “Who the fuck?” The man screamed.
    With zero hesitation, she stabbed the makeshift knife into him. Each thrust was a comparative thrust to all the times he’d stabbed her. Tears bled from her eyes as he bled into the shower, swirling and swirling with the water just as her blood had done so long ago.
    He screamed with pain and attempted to fight her off, but the sweat on her skin had mixed with the water and made her slippery. She stabbed, stabbed, and stabbed, absolving her life of the future destruction of the innocence of a child.
    California didn’t stop until she realized she was stabbing the water spraying from the showerhead. She looked down, and the man stared back at her, choking on blood and water. She wanted so badly to keep stabbing him, make him pay for three years of emotional and physical torture, but she couldn’t. She needed to get away before anyone saw her.
    She snuck back into her old room, and she looked down at the girl in the bed. Young California snuggled into Mr. Rux and turned over toward the window. The moon now shined softly into a room that no would no longer wreak of that man’s disturbing