Black Coats

“There are no doctors in black lab coats,” the doctor said. The patient looked behind the doctor at the man in the black lab coat causing the fat patient to moan and scream. “You were bit… by something. We gave you morphine. You’re hallucinating. That’s all.” A thin man in a black lab coat approached the patient’s bed

“Please, doctor,” the patient said. “Please stop him.” The doctor looked tired. He shook his head and left the room. The thin man in the black lab coat smiled.

Patience

The man in the dark red pickup waited until the child was in the middle of the street. He hit him then. “He is not human,” the man said. In his rear view mirror he saw a small gray mass claw its way from the street. He heard a woman on the sidewalk scream. The man put his dark red pickup in reverse.

Out of Service

“Sir, there is no elevator,” the bellhop said.

“Impossible,” the man said. “I saw my wife and boy step in.” The bellhop pulled the man away from the lobby into a dark corner.

“Gone, sir, gone. My condolences.” The man grabbed the bellhop by his collar and threw him into the wall. “There was an elevator, sir. Unholy thing. They’d go in, and it would not appear again until they’d starved to death or dehydrated. Their fingers turned to stumps of dried blood from clawing at the door. We destroyed the elevator and dry walled over the doors.”

“I saw them step in.”

“I know, sir, I know.” The bellhop said. “My condolences.”

The Executioner

His television came on at night and spoke in static. It flashed and whispered the addresses of rapists, of the drunk driver who killed that girl whom justice never found, of fathers who beat their children. He could not sleep. The same names kept coming. So he killed. All of them in search of his lost sleep. But new names came. The wicked did not sleep and neither did their executioner.

For Thine Is The Kingdom

The churchyard was quiet but for the grunts and uneven steps of the undead. Father Paul barricaded the church doors and hoped his small cloister held enough wafers and holy water to last him through Armageddon. That’s when he heard the moans of the resurrected Silent Sisters stalking down the pews towards him. He made the sign of the cross and gave into what, he believed, was God’s will.

Page Not Found

The Wikipedia article was titled The Day The World Ends. James only read it once. His first reaction was to laugh at it. He linked it to several others, but they all said the page could not be found. Goosebumps formed all over him. His breathing, agitated.

The Magician's Fear

The audience laughed when the magician did not bring the child back from the Magic Box. “He’s lost,” the magician said. “Into the abyss.” Laughter. The magician, his face drained of blood, stepped into the box. His last words: “I’ll try and bring him back.” The audience sat in silence for two hours. They left when the police came. The child’s mother cried as the theatre manager told her it was time to leave.

Birthday Candles

“You smell like birthday candles,” the clown said. “May I blow you out?” He giggled. One of the children cried. Another wet himself. Their mother had hired the clown. He stabbed her first.

Little Boy Lost

The child ran from his mother down a dark corridor of the mall he’d never seen. The store names were strange to him: Blankets Stolen From Infants, Coffin Nails Of Evil Men and Ambitions Ripped From Talented Youth. The child asked the janitor who smelled of sour milk for help. The janitor smiled, placed a hand on the child’s back, and led him into a store called Lost Boys Never To Be Seen Again.

Happy Thoughts

The boy’s room was dark but for the fairy’s glow. The fairy smiled at him. “Do you know how to fly?” the fairy said.

“Fairy dust and happy thoughts,” the boy said. He leapt from his bed and the fairy sprinkled gold dust all around him. The fairy led the boy to the open window and flew out. The boy followed. Falling two stories, he did not die but was in the hospital for some time. The fairy laughed at him all that night till the ambulance came and would wake him every night in the hospital only to laugh some more.