CHAIN OF ACCIDENTS – Short Story

*Disclaimer

Reader discretion is advised! Story contains profanity, sex and gore. Please read at your own risk!

CHAIN OF ACCIDENTS

A Short story

Thriller/Horror

They say that everything began by an accident called, The Big Bang. And this accident set off a chain of accidents that led us here. 

I was an accident from the day of my conception. My mother was not exactly known for making great decisions. In fact, my mother did not even know she was pregnant with me. It was not until she was 5 or 6 months into the pregnancy that she went to the hospital thinking she had a tumor growing inside her. She cried and cried for weeks until she received the news that she was pregnant with a baby girl. You would think that she would be happy with this wonderful news. But to my mother, she did not know what was worse – Having a baby, or having a tumor. A tumor was covered by her insurance, but not a baby!

She decided to name me Mallory, which literally translates from French into; unfortunate and luckless. Growing up was tough without a responsible parent around. It forced me to grow up faster than I should have needed to. But hey, accidents are accidents, and if it were not for the careless actions of my mother, I would not be here today — with a swollen black eye and no phone. All in which, I would argue were accidents at all.

I met my boyfriend, Steve, by accident too. It was Christmas Eve, and I was on my way to a friends Christmas party, but I ended up at some random office party instead. Turns out I wrote down the wrong address! Silly me, always making stupid mistakes. Little did I realize, I made one of the biggest mistakes of my life.

I felt, at the time, that it was love at first SLAM that sent my phone smashing to pieces on the marble floor around us. Was not exactly an ideal meeting of the hearts, but I probably would never have met him if it were not for me ‘accidently’ writing down the wrong address and accidently colliding into him head on. In a way, that night was symbolic to our entire relationship. Once whole, then broken down into a billion pieces that it rendered me hopeless. A violent clash between technology and humanity.

With no way to contact my friend, as I never bothered to memorize her bloody number, I was royally screwed! I voiced my frustration in an array of curse words, as I collected all the pieces. There is always hope, until there is not!

Steve insisted that he buy me a new phone and take me out to dinner for all the trouble. Exasperated and charmed at the same time, I really had no choice but to accept. It was either, going out with a handsome charming man and allow him to make my life anew or wonder the streets in my tight short skirt and 3 inch heals in pouring rain. The decision was an easy one, and I was starving!

This was the beginning of the second worst accident of my life. Which leads me to why I have a black shiner. The signs were always there, so staying with him was not an accident, either.

The last memory I am left with is me standing in our living room in the middle of a heated argument about my needless spending on a new phone. The purchase was not an accident. I felt that I deserved to get myself something new. Since all I was seeing from Steven was him wasting our money getting boozed up day and night. I was sick and tired of putting myself last. So yeah, I grabbed the bank card and headed to the mall —

I had no idea that I spent all the money we had on a new phone. That part was an accident! Steve controlled all the finances and kept me in the dark about most things. He brainwashed me into thinking that we were doing very well, and I had no say in the finances. “You’re just a woman. Your place is at home taking care of your husband!”, was his motto.

So, gladly I accepted this, as I really did not want any responsibility anyway. I was still a 25-year-old child myself and I was simply happy that I would not have the same fate as my mother bouncing around from guy to guy, just to feed myself. I was not going to breathe a word of it to Steve, either. In my naïve little mind, I thought he would not find out. Boy, was I wrong!

As soon as I opened that door, all I saw was a blur and a flash of red before I hit the floor. I woke-up on the couch with a cold, wet cloth on my eye, a massive headache, and a thousand questions. Steve said it was an ‘accident’ in-between bouts of anger accusing me of spending all our rent money, and the reason why we were broke. It was all because of me!? I guess he accidently forgot of his daily spending habit, that he figured our lack of money was all my fault. Surely, he could never do any wrong in his eyes.

So, ultimately he claimed he hit me by accident. Like, his hand involuntarily raised itself and connected smack in the middle of my eye with such force that the vessels in my eyeball exploded. I never knew him to have involuntary twitches before.

I refused to believe it was an accident. In an array of hurt, anger and tears flowing out of my eyes like the Niagara Falls, I angrily grabbed my shiny new phone and drove away.

I had no idea where I was going or what I was doing. All I  knew was that at that moment I was just going to drive until I had another accident. I did not care what kind of accident, either. Any other story was better than the one I was currently in, or so I thought.

Just like the day we met, it was pouring rain as I drove down a long dark road heading to nowhere in particular, feeling lost. My tears and anger visibly stained on my face. My phone ringing nonstop. Who else is calling me so late at night, other than my controlling boyfriend? – ex boyfriend!

I decided to answer it to hear his last words. I always seemed to hold hope where hope had no business being. His last words told me everything that I needed to hear to see I needed a new story. There was no hope for us. “Babe, it was an accident! Come back and we will figure out how you are going to get our rent paid!” His tone said another beating was coming.

You could make anything seem like an accident, so, I accidently hung up! I could not contain my tears. My whole life turned upside down! All because of a phone!? Or was it just about the phone? If a phone could cause someone to hurt me, then it was much deeper than a phone.

And now, the bloody thing would not stop ringing! I had enough of it! Of him! Of all of it! I grabbed the phone in a fit of rage and smashed it against my steering wheel. They do not make things that last nowadays, that is for sure! It shattered on first impact. I continued to smash it beyond repair. After the first hit, it was all frustration relief from there.

I screamed at the top of my lungs. Rain pouring down heavier as I drove into the darkness.

What happened next is a bit of a blur. One minute I am screaming into my dashboard, and the next my car is spinning out of control.

I woke to my car stuck in between a fence facing a Warehouse a block or two away. My windshield smashed from the impact. I looked at myself in the broken rear-view mirror and saw my black eye, tearstained face with bits of glass stuck in my forehead. Blood splatter to add to the nightmare. I grabbed my purse from the passenger seat and took out some napkins. Rain was pouring in, soaking me. This day was turning out to be even worse than enduring some abuse. But I made use of it. When God gives you rain, use it to wash your face!

I climbed out through the windshield and headed towards the warehouse. The closer I got I could see what looked like a fire burning inside. I held hope that there was someone in there that could help me. I learned from the last time I broke my phone to memorize important numbers. I was not that stupid! But hey, do the dumb really know they are dumb? I pushed myself through tall thick grass that made my adventure twice as hard. Felt like I was in that movie where people got lost in the cornfield. Watching it is one thing but being in it is a whole different story. No phone, nobody around to help, surrounded by darkness. It leaves you feeling hopeless, scared, and confused. There was no light other than the moon peeking through thick storm clouds for a brief second, giving me just enough time to see that I had a lot more grass to plow through before I reached the warehouse.

It seemed like it took forever to reach one of the windows. There was not much to look at. Mostly darkness. But for me, that was better than being exposed to the natural forces that seemed to want to punish me.

I found an open door and snuck inside. Inside was spacious and stretched out a block or so. It looked like it was an old, abandoned mannequin warehouse. Most of the windows were broken and covered with black plastic bags. The wind whistled through them sounding like ghostly moans. It was much creepier than I imagine anything could be. For a moment, I felt that I would be safer outside.

At the other end of the warehouse, I see a glow of a fire behind thick semi-transparent plastic curtains.  ‘Looked welcoming enough’, I thought. I imagined that some hippies were enjoying a nice bonfire. That would have been something I could look forward to. An accident worth happening! I quietly moved towards the light. Leaves and puddles of water squished under my runners, reminding me that I was not dressed for the type of weather. My socks were soaked along with the rest of me. It is the most uncomfortable feeling to walk in wet socks!

As I got closer I could see a silhouette of a man moving around a few people that looked like they were meditating standing up. The fire flickering and welcoming me to take part.

“Hello?” My high pitch voice echoed throughout the warehouse. The shadow moved quickly towards an opening and peered its decaying face out at me. A creepy yellowed smile forming on his lips. At that moment I regretted announcing my presence.

I swallowed back a lump in my throat. “HI there! I am lost and I was wondering if you had a phone I could use?” I ask with a voice I did not recognize as my own.

With a huge grin he came out from behind the curtain and circled around me, analyzing every part of me. “Excuse me, but I am soaked, and I need to call for a ride. Can you help me — or not?”

He leans into my neck and inhales my perfume, before gazing into my eyes. He was so close I could smell his last dozen meals, consisting mostly of flesh and stomach gases. I had a hard time breathing in his air, it was toxic! I was too afraid to back up, as to not offend him.

“Yah, I can help you – but you got to do something for me first, Cutie pie.”

I nodded my head to signify that I was listening. He eyed me up for a couple more seconds, making my skin crawl. Suddenly, my heart began to pound in my head, and I was not feeling well. I was getting sick and desperately needed to be warmed by the fire. “Can I warm up by your fire, please?” I was desperate to feel some sort of comfort. Some sort of safety. But this day was a day filled with many surprises and no security, at all! I began to wonder if it stemmed from me changing something about myself to make myself happy. Was the universe telling me that I keep making mistakes? Maybe it was telling me that things could be worse off from what I already had, and I was best off returning to, Steven. The longer the day dragged on, the more confused I got.

After several minutes of being eye-fucked by the grossest, strangest man I have ever had the horror of meeting, he finally made his move. And not with his words either. He went straight for the kill and grabbed my breast. No words were needed, as he made it noticeably clear what he wanted with his actions, creepy grin, and devious look in his eyes. I never imagined that my life would take me down a path like this. I tried to convince myself that it all had to be an accident. There is no way that the universe would plan such a thing, right!? How could someone be so intentionally – disturbing?

As a girl that has been hit on by every type, I developed an instant reflex for perverts. One in which, is to slap the bastard who grabs my breasts! I did not think I had much energy left in me to do anything other than dial a phone number. My limbs were numb, my face was numb. In fact, even the breast he touched was numb. But when you’re mad, strength seems to come out of nowhere. I cocked my arm back to make a full impact on his face. Unfortunately, I never did have good aim. So, naturally I missed his face. But, I did connect with his chest!

I do not regret what happened next. Nope, in fact I am happy I gave it my all.  I did not really know what to expect or how it would end. I was on a reactive switch. No thought required!

The force of my punch was enough to send him flying back into the Semi-transparent plastic curtains hiding the fire from my view. He stumbled back one, maybe two steps, before he hit the curtains. He grabbed at them for support. But as curtains are not walls, they did not support his weight. He fell to the ground taking the curtains with him, wrapping him in what could be described as a body sized plastic bag.

That was not even the most shocking part of it. As I stood paralyzed in my wet socks, I watched a horrifying scene unfold before my eyes. My anger was replaced with utter loss for words. A mixture of fear, confusion and sickness welled up in my stomach. The scene made me want to vomit. And maybe I did vomit – it is kind of a blur. So much information revealed to me all at once.

I began to tell myself that me being there at that very precise moment in time, was not an accident. Therefore, my birth was not an accident, either. I was made for this specific moment in time. Everything that happened, right down to meeting Steven and smashing my phone, led me here – to my destiny?

What I was witnessing made it clear to me that nothing was an accident. I watched it like a horror movie playing out in front of me, in ultimate high definition! The more the stranger struggled, the tighter the curtain wrapped around his face and body. He was a fighter and was determined to get out of his own nightmare and close his curtain of shame.

There, before my eyes, behind the man struggling to get out of his tightly woven cocoon, was at least a dozen dead female bodies hung on hooks dangling down from the ceiling. Some of their body parts were replaced with mannequin parts. Some had their arms, legs and even their heads cut off and replaced. Plastic spread under their dangling feet to catch the blood. And boy was there a lot of blood! I could not imagine the horror the victims felt.

I was stunned. Did not know what I should do. I had no phone to call for help. No weapon to protect myself. All that was standing between me and being a dead barbie doll, was the thick plastic that he had wrapped himself in.

It seemed to take a long time before he was able to stand on his feet and make eye contact through the plastic. I still could not move. My feet did not feel like they existed.

This is where I thanked my lucky stars that accidents sometimes can be a good thing. He took one step forward, catching his legs on the plastic that sent him stumbling into the fire pit. He struggled and screamed in agony to free himself, but the plastic melted to his face and skin, gluing him into a tight cocoon that made any attempts to get out, useless.

I watched all life leave his body as he burned. It was satisfying to watch evil disintegrating into a pile of mush. Knowing that I accidently stopped a mass murderer from ever killing again, kept me happy. Of course, I felt sad for the dozen victims displayed before me.

There was nothing else I could do. The murderer was dead, and I was miles away from any living soul, with no phone and caught in a storm. The only thing I could do was put on some of the victim’s clothes kept in a messy pile, and heat myself with the fleshy fire. That was the only thing I could find joy in, in the moment — and I soaked it in!

I technically was a hero! Even if it is by accident.

Or, maybe it was my destiny?

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