4-23-2020 300 Horror Writing Prompts- Book Written By Julie Wenzel
Prompt #46
Prompt- A plague is spreading across Europe causing people to act out in murderous ways. The only signs of the plague growing in your system before it consumes you is a rise in blood pressure and insomnia. Write about the wild murder spree caused by this plague. Can anyone stop it?
My Short Story
Warning- This story is a bit gory so if you do not like reading gore then pass on my story. There are also a few cuss words. If you read it, I hope you liked it.
Shannon sits on her couch staring at the blank TV as the clock on her phone shines at 2:00 am. She groans as she stands up for the fourth time to try to get to bed for some needed sleep. She heads into her room, and looks at her husband, Paul passed out and snoring away peacefully. Shannon makes a face as she crawls under the covers and lays her head on the cold pillow. She lies on her back, staring up at the ceiling as she listens to the beating of her own heart, her husband snoring, and the far-off sounds of cars driving on the street east of the house where the highway entrance is situated. She closes her eyes and forces her body to relax, willing herself to fall asleep.
Shannon groans three hours later when her husband’s alarm goes off, signaling that he has to get up and get to his job as a manager at a coffee shop that sits twenty minutes away from their home. She rolls over and roughly shakes her husband awake since he doesn’t always get up with his alarm, driving her nuts but she still loves the blockhead. That morning however since she barely had any sleep even with taking the sleeping pills her doctor had prescribed her, she is very cranky.
“Daniel, get up! Your damn alarm is going off,” she hisses under her breath before she rolls over, facing her back to him.
He grumbles and slips out of bed, yawning and glancing back at his wife, “You okay?”
“No, Daniel, I am not okay. I finally had fallen asleep maybe three hours ago and then low and behold your alarm goes off and you don’t get up.” She throws her covers off and stands facing him, placing her hands on her hips. “I am getting sick of this. I can’t sleep even while on these stupid sleeping pills. My blood pressure is only going up instead of down no matter what I do. Pills, diets, nothing is working for me. I need sleep and I want to feel normal again but I can’t get both, apparently.”
Daniel rushes around the bed, taking his angry wife into his arms and holds her tight to his chest, “Hey, hey, hey, calm down, Hunny. I am right here.” He holds her closer as she struggles to get out o his arms. “You have another doctor’s appointment today and I promise to meet you there so that we can go in and talk to your doctor together. We will find out what the next step is and get you back to being you again.”
Shannon finally gets her arms up to where she can push him away and does so, “Daniel, let me go.” Without thinking, she grabs the lamp that sits on her nightstand once he finally sets her free. She spins on her heel and lifts it over her head. “I will never be me again,” she spits out.
Daniel’s eyes grow wide and he lifts his hands to fend off the lamp, but she slams it against his arms with brute force, a force he didn’t know she could muster since she is such a small woman. He cries out and backs away from her but the bed stops him. He hits the bed, and it causes him to fall helplessly onto his back on the mattress. She lifts the lamp over her head again then slams it down repeatedly on her poor defenseless husband until he was no longer moving.
Shannon wipes back her long stringy brown hair from her face as it sticks to the blood that has splattered across her face. She drops the bloody lamp on the ground beside the bed, smiling and sighing happily as she stares down at the bloody pulp that was once her husband.
Shannon goes into the restroom, strips off her bloody clothes, and starts the shower. Soon she is inside the warm water, humming and washing off Daniel’s blood. She watches the red water swirling around the drain, slowly going down in the tiny holes. She giggles to herself as she dries off, stepping back into the bedroom. She steps around the bloody mess on the ground, drying her hair.
“Jeez Daniel, you’ve made such a mess, haven’t you?” Shannon shakes her head as she turns on the little TV to watch the news as she gets ready for the day.
She enters her walk-in closet to pick out a nice outfit to wear for that day. She wants to look pretty since it is the beginning of her new life. On the TV, two men sit behind a desk discussing the weather for the next few days with the nice older weather woman. Then one stops as a piece of paper are handed to him quite urgently. He quickly reads the paper to himself, his eyebrows raising up as he reads it for a second time, confused by the information.
“I have just been handed an urgent message. If you or a loved one is suffering from high blood pressure and insomnia, seek medical attention immediately. These two medical issues apparently trigger something in the brain that makes the suffering person murder others.” He pauses as he looks around the newsroom. “Is this a joke? No?” He shakes his head and continues to read, “There have already been ten cases where there have been attacks resulting in murders. Please again if you yourself are suffering from high blood pressure and insomnia or someone you know, seek immediate help. If you see someone murdering another person, seek shelter and call the police. Do not approach the person or people because they are considered very dangerous. The doctors are doing all that they can in order to subdue the feelings of murdering others but as of right now there are no known cures.”
Shannon continues to go through her clothes in her closet until she finds a deep plum purple skirt and jacket and a lavender buttoned-up shirt that will go under the jacket. She grabs a pair of midnight black heels from the rows of shows below her clothes and pulls out a pair of nylons bra, and underwear from a cabinet that she recently placed inside the closet to keep her undergarments in so she could easily grab them with her outfit for the day. She walks out and places her clothes on the bed furthest from the body. She gets dressed, dropping her sleeping clothes on the ground, and hums as she buttons her shirt.
She glances at the TV and giggles when she sees the weather woman running away screaming while one of the newsmen kills his partner with his chair, blood spraying everywhere. A security guard shows up and shoots the man dead where he stood. The bloody chair drops beside the two bodies while the guard turns his gun around and shoots the cameraman. The TV goes blank as the news station goes off the air. Once dressed, Shannon grabs her husband’s hidden machete and gun. She loads the gun with the bullets that sit in a box in the drawer where he had hidden the gun and places it in her purse while she carries the machete.
She steps outside to see smoke billowing up from crashed cars and homes that have been set on fire on purpose; the sun looking sad. She sets the machete down on the ground, leaning it up against the side of her front door before she slips her hair back into a ponytail. Shannon picks up the machete and hums as she walks down her driveway, watching as an old man runs over a neighbor all the while laughing as he does so. She waves at the man who waves back at her as he backs his car up over the neighbor to make sure that they are dead.
Shannon walks along the sidewalk and lifts her machete high above her head, slicing it down hard on the back of a man who is about to kill his wife. Once he is on the ground dead beside his wife, she continues where he left off and murders his wife by decapitating her.
Behind her, she hears a car speeding towards her. She turns just as the old man slams his foot on the gas pedal which causes his already bloody car to leap onto the curb and hit her with his old blue Buick. Her body folds over the front of the car like a rag doll, her head hitting the front of the car. She doesn’t even scream as her body goes under the tires and the old man drives off to find a new victim. Shannon coughs, blood from her smashed organs leaking up into her throat.
She laughs and stares up at the perfect blue sky as more blood fills her throat and lungs. She begins to cough again as the blood pouring into her throat cuts off her oxygen, the red liquid seeping out of her nose, mouth, and ears. Her head slowly falls to the side as her coughing ceases and a rattling last breath escaped her lips.
Love it!