It’s been awhile, hasn’t it? I’m still around. Still existing. Still….writing?
Kind of. It’s been a pretty dry couple of years since I completed Cemetery Drive. Dry may be an understatement. I hadn’t completed a single story, short or long, in six years. Six years to the date, almost. Cemetery Drive came out on October 13, 2020. On October 9, 2026, I completed and read the only story I had completed since then. Wild. Even more wild, was the fact that I decided this would be the best time to do my first ever public reading. I will spare everyone the video.
I’m slowly working back into it. I want to write more, I need to write more. We’ll get there. Hopefully there will be more coming after this. I had started and stopped several projects this year which meant this year I have written more words than I have in the previous five combined. I’m starting to look at submission calls, zines, and working on my own little stories. Will I have anything to show for it any time soon? Probably not. But, the work is being done.
Below is that story I read out loud to a group of people at a local indie bookstore. It was for a scary story competition. I did not win, but I did something that was absolutely terrifying to me: reading my own work to a crowd of friends and strangers. For once, the friends were the more terrifying part.
Happy Halloween and I hope you enjoy “Don’t Leave”.
Don’t Leave
The evening’s argument played over and over and over in Marissa’s mind. There had been no warning to tonight’s cataclysmic event. Alex had called her both clingy and distant at. She was also cold and yet overbearing. Alex said she couldn’t think let alone breathe in their relationship. Marissa was just ‘too much’. According to Alex this had been building for a long time now, but when pressed for how long, she couldn’t say. Alex wanted out and she wanted out now. She told Marissa she had already found another place, in California, and she was moving out from their small apartment in New Jersey. Though she never explicitly stated – Marissa knew it was to get as far away from her as possible. There had been yelling and tears from both parties. Marissa had punched a hole in the wall. Alex threatened to call the police.
Now, Marisa stared at Alex like an owl with eyes large and unblinking. They even contained the reflective glint of tears. She scanned for any sign of movement, ready to catch Alex in the lie of sleep. These efforts were only greeted by gentle snoring that she had grown to adore. How could she be sleeping so peacefully after everything she had just said? Three years down the drain and Alex was sleeping like a baby.
At some point, Marissa must have fallen asleep too. Her alarm screamed at her, growing in volume by the second. The third alarm by the ringtone. Grumbling, she reached for the offending phone while peeling herself free from the pillow. Gross. Did she spend the night drooling? There was a wet spot making a rough outline of her head and some vague facial features, darkest by where her mouth had been. Alex was long gone, her side of the bed icy cold. Whatever revelations about their relationship that remained untold would have to wait until after they both returned home from work.
Focusing on said work was difficult. Everything around felt grey and muted. She was working through a fog so deep that she could almost feel it on her skin and taste it on her tongue. To add to the difficulty, someone on night shift had used her workstation and left everything sticky. No matter how many times she washed her hands, wiped down the keyboard, mouse, and even the doorknobs – it all remained tacky. Just enough to be skin peelingly annoying. Marissa rubbed her fingers together in attempt to ponder the unseen substance.
She glanced up at the clock. Somehow, it had become 4:55pm. Did she even do any work today? Did it matter? She was sure most of her day had been spent attempting to clean. Marissa rose from her office chair, thighs separating from pleather with an uncomfortable ripping sound and leaving the back of her thighs burning. Even her skin was trying to leave, she thought with a sigh. Without saying goodbye, and most likely forgetting to clock out, she slunk to her car.
Within the pit of Marissa’s stomach, a black hole had formed – starting during the breakdown last night and steadily growing through the night and the day. Soon, it would hit a critical mass. Within the confines of the car her own growing anxiety fed the hungering beast. Going home meant seeing Alex and continuing the fight. How long had her girlfriend been planning her escape? Would she even still be there? Had she pretended to go to work only to come back, pack everything up, and leave behind Marissa’s back? A sharp metallic taste in her mouth pulled her from the anxiety spiral. She had ripped off a cuticle. The pain was grounding yet confirmed the reality of the situation. Pulling up the the apartment, there was a moving truck parked in the driveway, confirming her greatest fear.
“Just stay one more night.” Marissa begged in between sobs that shook her whole body with deep inhales that felt and sounded like fire down her throat. “Please…” The word came out a long, high-pitched whine.
“I don’t know what box my clothes are in.” Alex snapped, gesturing at the now half-empty bedroom. “Plus, you think I’d want to stay here after all this?” The last three words spat out like a piece of spent chewing gum. That’s how she felt anyway, like gum on the bottom of her girlfriend’s boot.
“Then leave after I fall asleep. Please…I can’t fall asleep alone.” Marissa whimpered.
“Can’t or won’t?” Every word was full of teeth and vitriol. Barbs aimed at every insecurity that Alex knew so well. When had Alex grown to loathe her?
“After everything, please, just this one thing.” Tears fell freely now. Marissa let out a hiccupping sob. She could feel the snot dripping from her nose and down her lips. Alex’s features twisted in disgust at the display. She must look as disgusting as Alex had made her feel.
“Fine. You have until midnight.” Alex said while staring at the cat clock that had watched over them for the last three years. That stupid Cheshire grin. That wagging tail keeping time with its ticking eyes. A gag gift Marissa loved. Now it mocked her, locking its twitching eyes with hers and counting down to the end of the world as she knew it. Currently, the white stomach read 10:15pm.
It felt unnatural for Alex to be in her clothes still, rough jeans rubbing against Marissa’s satin sheets like a cat tongue on skin. As she wrapped her arms around the other woman she had spent the last three years next to, she could feel Alex stiffen and growl. Slowly, Alex settled back with an apprehensive unease. Pressing her forehead hard against the back of Alex’s head, she felt the stubble of her girlfriend’s buzz cut pressing into her pores like tiny needles. She didn’t care that it kind of hurt. This would likely be the last time she’d be able to do this. She had to make it last. Biting back a sob, Marissa fell into the deep darkness of sleep.
An elbow to the ribs jolted her back to consciousness faster than the heavy hand of sleep could release her.
“What the hell, dude? Let go!” Alex thrashed, grunting in frustration. Was she tangled in the sheets or was she having a nightmare? Marissa wondered groggily.
“I said let go!” Alex bellowed, fear creeping into the cracking of her voice. Marissa, still sifting through the sludge of a deep sleep, started to surface assisted by the back of Alex’s head meeting her nose. Breaking the thick crust of sleep which had held her eyes closed until now, they snapped open and started to adjust to the dim light of the room.
Alex was still contained in her arms with her back starting to sink into Marissa’s chest. Cloth and skin had congealed together into a dark, undulating, cancerous looking mass between their bodies. Marissa stared transfixed at this horrific amalgamation of flesh. The black hole had exited her body, beginning to pull everything around into the endless depths of it’s hunger.
As more of Alex slid into the hungering void, the electric sensation of pins and needles from once severed nerves reconnecting and exploring their new pathways spread through Marissa’s ribs. With every thrash, the pulling on the raw, newly connected flesh felt like a scab being ripped off too soon. Marissa held on tigher, arms beginning to knit together across and with the larger woman’s chest. Maybe if they both fell back asleep, this would all be over. But, did she want it to be over? Nuzzling between Alex’s shoulders, Marissa gave into the warming electrified sensation spreading across her body where they connected. This is what love felt like.
Another elbow, this time to the chin, pulled Marissa back into the shifting reality around her. Blood ran down her face, dripping off her chin and onto the writhing mass between them. The churning flesh swallowed the blood drops, gaping to wrap itself around the offering like a toothless mouth gumming down gruel. Acrid bile filled the back of her throat to join with the metallic tang of her own blood. An awful taste that reminded her too much of her early 20s overdose.
Stunned by the blow, Marissa’s arms loosened around Alex. The sound of ripping filled the room as Alex began to separate from Marissa. Oh god. It hurt so much. Marissa’s eyes rolled back in pain and she clenched her jaw hard enough against it that the sound of crunching enamel replaced the ringing sensation echoing throughout her head.
“N..No…” Marissa groaned through barely parted lips, reaching forward and grabbing onto a trailing flap of skin and muscle from Alex’s back. When did her mouth become so dry? Pieces of her chapped lips stuck to her teeth, flesh and fluids dripping from her mouth.
“Don’t leave.” Mustering what remained of her strength, Marissa pulled Alex back into her. Alex’s scream of agony was cut short by arms wrapping like a bear trap around the other’s partially-dissolved frame. The raw and exposed muscles of Marissa’s arms latched onto Alex, sucking like hungry, toothless leeches as they found purchase. Through the tears of pain, Marissa watched as Alex’s eyes rolled in her head, the whites of her eyes flashing with hatred and misery.
In an animalistic attempt to escape, Alex started to chew on Marissa’s arms, but her mouth and teeth quickly became a part of the writhing mass. Skin, muscle, bone, and blood melting and fusing at an increasingly rapid pace. Caught in the all-consuming abomination, bed and blankets soon became part of what had once been Marissa and Alex. A hell of Marissa’s own making.
(No part of my work is ever made with AI. No drafting, editing, covers, etc.)
(No part of my work or website may be used to train AI)