Dismemberment - A Collection of Horror Short Stories

Story 1: The Adulterer of the Rhapsody Ball

This was written for my English Lit class (although it was originally for the Horror Smackdown), and is set in the period before the beginning of 'The Tell-Tale Heart' by Edgar Allen Poe. If you haven't read it, then it's okay, but for those who have, this is after the couple have married and are still in their youth. I think of this as the onset of the wife's insanity (or 'acuteness of the senses' if you prefer).

This version is unedited and uncut.

Title: The Adulterer of the Rhapsody Ball

Genre: Historical Fiction/Horror

But a breath--a single, hasty breath. It was my slight exhale as I choked on the air drowning in my throat. It was the split second separating the beginning and the end. It was the catalyst. The words I had being trying to say were strangling me right before they died on my tongue. Everyone's world went on as mine stopped. The eye--that black, soulless eye that was almost grey with the film of age over top--stared not just into me, but right through my pupils and into my soul. His foul, dried lips curled into a smirk. I almost heaved at how disgustingly monstrous he was.

And he was my husband.

I quickly ran through the crowded ballroom, fingers gently pressed against my lips as though it would hold in anything I threw up. I still couldn't breathe normally, but my concentration fought to stay attentive to both my inability to exhale and my incessant need to empty the contents of my churning stomach. There was a noticeably sinister laugh I heard filter through the many conversations of the illustrious party-goers. Dodging another socialite, I looked back to see him-his eyes. He was still glaring at me over top the many heads of the crowd, smirking maliciously.

He knows! I told myself, scuttling to a shadowy corner without people. I caught my breath, placing a soothing hand to my frantic heart. He knows! He knows! He knows! He'll kill me! Clinging to the wall, I tried in a vain attempt to calm my mind and save myself from embarrassment. Nausea rolled over me, the world spinning--twisting, morphing, blurring.

I turned away from the light, drawing myself deeper into the shadowy, private corner. I concentrated on my breathing. In, out. In, out. In, o-

A rough hand grabbed at my arm, tugging me away from my corner. I shrieked, knowing that my assailant would drag me straight to him--my husband, my enemy. I swatted his hands away, feeling my heart slamming against my ribs over and over. I was ripped back. With my body trembling, I looked back to face my tormentor... It was Lucy. A woman. Not anyone I had to be afraid of.

I sighed in relief. I wiped away the tears which had formed in my eyes from struggling. Her big blue eyes studied me concerned. A confused expression washed over her petite, pale features as she ran a comforting hand up my arm. I could see her studying me. Trying to make judgements as well as posing questions and coming to conclusions of her own. Why? It was written all over her face--the eternal question of everything, placed upon me.

"What's the matter Zylphia?" My friend asked, letting my comforting hand fall back to her side. Her huge eyes stared up at me, breaking all my will to contain my secrets inside me. "You ran off in the middle of my story. We were all worried! It was like you had seen a ghost, poor thing!"

She gently raised an eyebrow, expecting an answer I was still unwilling to give. "I just... I saw my husband and..."

Her seriousness broke, and in a second she was letting out an airy laugh. "Your husband? Oh, Zylphia, you poor dear! I can understand why you'd be upset by such a freakish monster, but you are supposed to love him irrelevant of his... unappealing aesthetics." She took a look over her shoulder, eyeing my husband before shivering in disgust. "He's vile, but he's yours. But look at the fortune and status he's given to your family! You've done your kin proud, dear Phia."