~Love At Death's Door~

Alabama, 1923

It was close to midnight on a hot summer evening. Crickets were chirping and fireflies were lazily flitting through the fields. A scream broke the silence, shattering it into pieces. A dog barked once. Twice. Another scream pierced the air. Then silence.

The next morning the police arrived at the small cottage on the edge of town, where young Hattie Baker lived. Hattie’s mother was concerned that Hattie was ill, for she had not come to visit this morning like she always did on Saturdays. But when the police got to Hattie’s front door, they found a black rose pinned to the front, freshly cut. The Aphrodite Killer had claimed another victim.

Chicago, Present Day

“Millie, I don’t know what we’ll ever do with ourselves in this heat. I feel like I’m melting!” “Oh hush Liz, it’s only 89 today. It was hotter yesterday,” replied Mildred Blackthorn, sunning herself on the porch. Her complaining neighbor was Lizbeth Evergreen, a young college student who’d moved into the house next to Millie’s a year ago. The two became quick friends and were constantly seen together. “Honestly, it never gets this hot up in the mountains in Colorado. You’re from the South and I’m from the North. Two completely different areas,” remarked Liz. Millie looked up from her latest novel, another horror classic, and rolled her eyes at Liz. They had had this exact conversation just yesterday, and it was only resolved when Liz’s boyfriend Caleb came out with lemonade. Unfortunately, Caleb had to work today, so no fresh lemonade to settle this dispute.

Suddenly, Millie stood up and rushed back inside her house. Liz paid no attention, as this was something Millie did often. But she usually did this when it was about to storm. PLINK! “Argh! Spoke too soon!” Liz quickly rushed to pick up the book Millie left on her chair, tripping over it at the same time. Landing with a thud on the porch, Liz only then noticed the day’s newspaper lying under the chair. Picking it up along with the dropped book, Liz rushed inside just as the thunder started. “That’s Chicago for you I guess. One minute it’s nice out and the next it’s storming. Talk about being bipolar.” Liz threw the newspaper on the table along with the book and went to go towel off. When she returned to the table, the title page of the paper caught her eye: “Second College Student Goes Missing.” Now intrigued, Liz opened up to page two of the story and read: “On Thursday evening, 23 year-old August Fairview went missing after eyewitnesses saw her leaving the local Dominick’s off of Clybourn Avenue. When she failed to show up for classes at DePaul University on Friday morning, concerned classmates tried to get in touch to no avail. Upon further review…” Liz put down the paper and sighed. But then another sentence stuck out at her: “…these disappearances are similar to the ones that have plagued many states dating all the way back to 1923 in Alabama. The police were not available to comment on whether these are merely coincidental or if someone is continuing the line of previous occurrences.”

Liz couldn’t believe that someone could be twisted enough to look up kidnappings from over eighty years ago and mimic them. “And it’s not as if the same person who was kidnapping people back then is the same person today,” Liz thought out loud. “I wonder if Millie knows about this. I’m pretty sure they were in the same class together. And didn’t she like the guy August was going out with?” Just then Liz remembered Millie’s book she had saved from the rain. Picking it up, a bookmark fell out of the place where Millie closed the pages last. Liz recognized a Greek goddess on the front, but she couldn’t imagine why Millie would have this bookmark. “She always told me she hated Greek mythology, especially the love stories,” Liz wondered. “Well I better go return it to her. She seemed really engrossed in this one and I bet she can’t wait to get back to it.”

Leaving with her rain slicker and Millie’s book, Liz headed over to Millie’s house next door. The house always made Liz uncomfortable, for it was right down the street from the house that burned down on its own a few years ago. “But that’s what makes it so interesting,” Millie had explained to Liz when Liz first moved in to her house a year before. “Anything that has to do with death and destruction is fascinating. How we can be so strong in life but even the smallest thing can either crush us or kill us. That’s why I study biology and chemistry; two subjects that can truly explain how our world works and what destroys what.”

By now the rain had worsened and the wind had picked up enough to blow over the trash cans left out from Friday night after garbage pick-up. Upon arriving at Millie’s front door, Liz noticed that all the lights were off in Millie’s house. When she tried the front door, she found it unlocked. Not bothering to knock, Liz entered the house. “Hey Millie, I brought your book back!” Liz shouted to the silent house. No response. “That’s funny, where could she have gone off to?” Just then Liz noticed there were black petals of some flower littering the floor. Following them, she came upon Millie’s room. This was the only place in the house Millie never let people into. “Way too messy, what with all my art projects and school books. Someone could die in there and not be found for weeks,” Millie joked one time. But it really did smell like something dead was in there. Bracing herself against the stench, Liz opened the door.

At first, the bright lights from all the candles made Liz’s eyes tear up. But her eyes quickly adjusted to the cavernous room, filled with dozens upon dozens of black roses. Then she noticed the stench coming from the lit end of the room. She saw a dark figure, which appeared to be decaying right before her eyes, looming over a covered body. The sheet fell slightly, revealing the dead face of August Fairview, twisted in terror. Backing up, Liz fell over a stack of newspapers. The titles all jumped out at her: “Fifth Kidnapping Victim Found With Missing Heart and Black Rose”, “Young Woman Seen Fleeing Scene of Latest Kidnapping”, “Still No Clue to the Whereabouts of the Aphrodite Killer” and so on. Then Liz noticed the dates: 1923, 1947, 1993, 2011. “I see you’ve found the collection of articles about my past,” rasped a voice from the corner. Liz turned in response and stared at the decaying figure before her. “Men are such fools when you think about it. They say they love you one minute, but then they go off with some other woman once you turn your back. You can only be betrayed so many times in life until your heart eventually turns as black as these roses. But young hearts are so much nicer. They jumpstart the blood long ago frozen in my veins,” cackled the figure. Liz could only stare. “But why are you doing this? What did they ever do to you?” The figure sighed. “They stole from me my friends, my love, my life. Long ago, when I was once your age, I too loved someone. But he betrayed my love for him and killed me for another woman. But I was given a chance for revenge.” The figure paused before continuing, as if to build suspense. “As long as I brought before my maker the heart of the young woman whom my love killed me for, I would be given eternal life. But death has funny ways of twisting the rules, so to keep myself as ‘alive’ as I can be, I must bring Him the hearts of young women who steal away any man I look at, keeping me from ever loving again.”

“So you’re…a zombie?” asked Liz. The figure screeched in response. “We prefer not to be called such degrading names such as that! But you stupid living have discriminated against my kind for generations. We have suffered, but have been given new life at the price of love. And you are loved and your heart still beats, while mine has stopped loving long ago. But I still possess jealousy, and it is a terror in its own right. Don’t think you have gone unwatched. There are plenty of women who would die for your place in life right now. But seeing as I’m already dead, I’m already ahead of the game.”

Turning back to the body on the table, the figure pulled out a long, deadly knife. It then plunged the knife into August’s chest and twisted. There was no blood, but when the knife slipped out, the heart came with it. Then the figure plunged the knife into its own chest and pulled out what looked like a human heart. But this didn’t appear to be any human heart Liz had ever seen. It was pitch black, twisted, and scarred. “You see what love does to you?” sighed the figure. It then slipped the stolen heart into its chest and removed the knife. Where the knife had cut a gaping hole, the skin promptly grew around it. The whole process took but a few minutes. “And tonight I seem to have gotten lucky. Two young hearts right here for the harvesting. Oh but I can’t use you right away. Perhaps in a few months time you will become useful to me. Until then, I’m sorry to say, you will have to stay here in this room with my dearly departed friend here.”

The figure then turned toward Liz. Before, the decaying skin and dark robe and room had masked the appearance of the figure. But now Liz recognized it immediately. “M-Millie?”

It was close to midnight on that rainy summer evening. The sounds of the city were muffled and slowed. A scream broke the quiet, shattering it into pieces. A dog barked once. Twice. Another scream pierced the air. Then silence.