Serial Vlogger: Part Forty-Two

A horror novel in tiny slices!

Lenore was relieved to be home. She couldn’t wait to dive into her bed and sleep for a week. She was full of bruises, but nothing had been broken. She just needed to be in her apartment and sleep.

She fell asleep on the couch for many hours. When she woke, it was dark outside the window. Nighttime. A normal nighttime. Streetlights shone in through the open curtains.

“Where am I?” She jolted awake, looking around the room. She was shivering. She was wet. She was bruised and bloody and in a hospital gown.

“How did I get home?” She sat up, her head pounded. Every bone in her body ached. She looked at her hands, her arms, smeared with blood and cuts and bruises.

“The hospital. Fuck the hospital.” She stood up, woozy, and nearly collapsed to the floor. She sat back down on the couch.

“Whoah.” She lay back down and stared up at the ceiling. “No, fuck that. I have to pee.”

She pushed herself to sitting again. Despite her dizziness, she stumbled and groped her way to the bathroom. In the dark, she sat on the toilet and contemplated what had happened.

“Who brought me home?” she wondered.

She finished her business and flushed.

“A shower would be so good right now, but I’d probably fall and crack my head open.”

She did her best cleaning her face from mud and blood. She had leaves and mud in her hair. She looked at her mouth and bared her teeth. Good, all still intact despite whatever had happened.

She peeled off her hospital gown. The necklace was still around her neck. The ugly claw with the stone. And it stank.

“Whew, you need a bath more than me!” she told it. She slipped it off her neck and put it in the sink. As she filled the sink with bubbles, she saw that there was a large burn on her chest in the shape of the amulet.

“Wow, that’s going to be one fucked up scar!”

She swirled the necklace around in the vanilla-scented soap and then rinsed it well. She held it up to her nose. The fur didn’t smell as brutal now. The necklace clean, she set to work giving herself a sponge bath for the rest of her body. She worked slowly as she was dizzy and didn’t want to pass out and crack her head open.

At last, she felt good enough to grab the locket and stumble to her bed.

“Ah, sweet bed!” she sighed as she slid into it. She found her remote and clicked on the TV to the 24-hour news station. There was tons of news about the storm. The fallen trees, more accidents. People who had gone missing in the storm and the previous storms. Old news about her own accident with the ice cream truck, news about a goth girl who was attacked by something, and other goth kids who had disappeared. The footage of the lake and how high it had risen through the storm was pretty spectacular to see. The recent storm was insane; she could almost make out faces in the tornados they showed.

“Missing people in Toronto. Nothing new,” she sighed. “but cool how I made the news! Hah!” She watched the footage of her ice cream truck being pulled from the lake several times, clicking replay. “How the hell did I survive? Look at that thing.”

She fingered the locket around her neck. “Insane!”

Lenore’s eyes shut and she dozed. The necklace glowed as she began to lightly snore. The stone in the necklace grew brighter. Lenore sat up, her eyes wide open. She stood up and pulled on a loose dress. She slipped on her crocs at the door and roamed down the hallway. No one saw her as she took the elevator down and went onto the street.

Urgency filled her.

She ran down the street, her crocs slapping the ground. She had to hurry. He’d be angry if she was late.

Tired of clicking endless slices links? Read Serial Vlogger at your leisure! The first six chapters are now out on the Zon in print!