Horror Flash Fiction
End of Life
On his way home, Adam stopped at the city’s public library to return the look he had borrowed the previous week. Adam loved to read, and that the library was between the commuter train station and his house was an added incentive. He used the hour-long train commute to read a lot.
Nonfiction held his interest and on very rare occasions, he ventured through the fiction aisles. He picked up a book written by Edward Gibbon about the decline of the Roman empire. That evening, the fiction aisle beckoned him and he picked another one of Isaac Asimov’s books. Two women and a man stood close to where Asimov’s books were stacked. They spoke about the three Laws of Robotics. Smiling, Adam remembered a similar discussion he had with one of his colleagues. He gave them some privacy and walked into the next aisle. As he browsed, one book caught his attention. The title on the spine said, ‘End of Life’. He pulled it from the shelf to read the blurb at the back.
It was a horror novel. Adam had never read a horror story before. With a shrug, he told himself that it was a good start, especially since it was a small book and not a lot of time would be wasted.
Later that night, he picked the novel and sat on the couch. He was surprised to see a checkout form stuck to the title page. The library had changed to barcodes and scanners a long time ago. His name and date were written in one of the rows. He hadn’t seen the library assistant fill out the form. What stunned him was the five people who had checked out the book before him. They had borrowed and returned the book on the same day during the past five years. The book had less than a hundred and fifty pages, and it was not a problem for those people to have finished it within a day.
It was a book about a man who was left to die in the woods in the fifteenth century. A witch used her spells to help him. Even though the spells saved his life, the humanity in him died a violent death. He turned him into a beast. He targeted everybody who had hurt him. After his thirst for revenge was quenched, he returned once a year to satisfy his hunger.
When Adam was near the ninetieth page, he heard an inhuman growl. One of his neighbors had a dog, and it made weird noises whenever it was hungry or wanted to go out. Guessing that the growl had come from the dog, Adam ignored it and continued with the book.
A second later, a louder growl followed, and it sounded closer than the initial one.
Adam lowered the book to investigate the origin of the sound. His eyes widened and his heart almost stopped when he saw a man standing in front of him. He wore a pair of black pants and a black tunic. His eyes were blood red and when he growled again, his teeth looked like the ones Adam had seen in wolves.
‘I am hungry,’ the beast roared.
‘Who…’ Adam stammered. ‘Who… are you?’
‘I am hungry.’
Saliva dripped from the corner of the beast’s mouth, and he took a step towards Adam.
Adam noticed the enormous claws on his fingers. Suddenly, realization dawned, and he stared at the book in his hand. He threw the book on the floor. The beast’s lips curled into a horrifying grin as Adam took slow steps away from him.
Goosebumps prickled every inch of his skin and his heart raced to escape the beast who wanted to devour him. With no way out of the mess, he cursed himself for breaking habit by borrowing the book.
The beast raised his arm and Adam felt the claws tear through his body. With a scream, he fell to the ground right next to the book.
The book fluttered open and as he felt his life drain out of his body, a date appeared on the checkout form in the returned column.
