Category: Microfiction

Jacob lived a quiet life until that disturbing night when he heard from an old girlfriend that his wife was cheating on him. He didn’t take it well. He went a little crazy. It was 9 pm and she wasn’t home. He sensed she was with the guy she was cheating on him with. He hunted all over the city for her. And he had a gun.

Jacob found her in a fast food restaurant with one of his friends named Larry. That made him more crazy. He burst in the restaurant pulled out his gun and shot them both and ran out of the restaurant. His wife died, but his friend survived. He called his old girlfriend and confessed what he’d done. She said you better go on the run, and I will go with you.

He and his old girlfriend crossed the border to Mexico. When driving toward Tijuana, a Mexican Cartel gang blocked off their car, pulled them out and shot them both to death and robbed them of their money, jewelry and the car.

When Larry recovered in the hospital, the news reported he and Jacob’s wife were planning a big, secret birthday party for Jacob before Jacob shot his wife to death.

Bob Boyd

He had followed all the rules in high school when he was a teenager. His life was impeccably clean. His academic record was exemplary. His IQ was in the Mensa range. But he had a dark side that he kept scrupulously hidden. He loved torturing dogs. And he captured, tortured, and killed them in his cellar of horrors.

To those who knew him, he was a straight arrow. He worked as an accountant for a prestigious accounting firm, attended church every Sunday, delivered meals to elderly shut in church members, and volunteered for the Red Cross.

He caught his prey dogs under the cover of the night. He tempted them with dog treats and render them unconscious. He bound and gagged them, and toss them in his car’s trunk. He always picked small dogs rather than take risks with bigger dogs that could harm him like pit bulls that he was phobic about. He drove the dogs back to his isolated country home, hauled them down his cellar and did unspeakable tortures on them for hours before slicing them to death with a machete.

Maybe it was a twist of fate. Maybe it was his bad karma. One overcast night when he got out of his car, three snarling dark shapes sprang out of the darkness. Pit bulls, he screamed, before the dogs attacked him, and according to the police, appeared to torture him for hours before they bit off his head.

Bob Boyd

My friend Matt skipped school all the time and was called “hell on wheels” because of all the trouble he got in at school and all the fights he got in after school. In all honesty, I felt that way myself and worried that he’d get so out of control someday he’d be sent to jail.

When Matt met a girl as wild as him named Rhonda after he barely graduated from high school, I felt for sure Matt and wild Rhonda would become like another Bonnie and Clyde and probably run away from their homes, get guns, and go on cross country robbing sprees.

Other people who knew Matt felt that way too. They believed one would be like a match to gasoline and set off the other and they’d be all over the news. Maybe worse, they end up killing somebody, possible a cop trying to arrest them.

But to the surprise of everyone who knew them or heard of them, after Rhonda became pregnant and they got married they became like model citizens and cleaned up their acts.

Maybe sometimes two wrongs make a right.

Bob Boyd

She felt uneasy that night driving home alone on that old highway where few cars traveled. She saw the moon was full and for a moment she felt it was an ominous sign before she came to her senses. Minutes later, two car headlights like a distant monster eyes began catching up with her car. She felt unnecessarily nervous. She shrugged off her fears and a pickup truck caught up with her her. She slowed down to let the truck pass her, but the truck slowed down too.

Mayday alarms began to go off in her head. Her hands trembled at the wheel. She decided to speed up. The truck did the same and drove so close to her that she saw two men sitting in it. Frightened, feeling those men meant to rape or kill her, she put the gas pedal to the floor and raced down the highway. Luckily for her, her car was faster than the pickup truck. She passed a white car going 100 miles and hour, and surprisingly, the men in the truck didn’t follow her after that.

She kept driving fast to get as far away from the men as she could. She made it home safely. She got out of her car and walked into her house and went to bed feeling safe and able to calm down from what she saw as a close call.

The next day on the nightly news she saw a woman who drove a white car had been raped and murdered on the old highway she had driven in and escaped from what would have been her. She called the police in hopes of helping the victim. Eventually the two men were arrested and sent to prison for life.

Bob Boyd

Every right five year old Jimmy told his parents a monster was in his bedroom closet. His mother or his father would open the closet and show him no monster was there. Jimmy and his parents went through what became like a ritual every single night from when Jimmy was age five to age ten.

When Jimmy was ten, the monster came out of the closet and dragged Jimmy into it. His parents woke up hearing his faint screams. They dashed to his bedroom wondering what was wrong. Upon reaching his bedroom in a panic, Jimmy wasn’t there. The looked under his bed, check the windows, and searched the closet, but never found a trace of Jimmy. Even the police were puzzled and wondered if Jimmy’s parents had murdered Jimmy and stashed his body somewhere.

Now Jimmy, as if somehow infected by a monster virus, has morphed into a bedroom closet monster and scares and kidnaps little kids whose mommys and daddys don’t believe he is in the closet when Jimmy vanishes before they look for him.

Bob Boyd

Jason and Brenda had been hiking into the night through the trail in the forest. A pale moon bathed the forest providing a little light to guide their way. They came to an opening in the forest where they decided to camp for the night. They set up their tent, got into their sleeping bags, and fell asleep.

Right before dawn they awoke and heard a baby crying in the forest. Brenda said to Jason, “Maybe someone left their unwanted baby there. We must go and save it.”

They trudged through the forests and followed the sound of the baby’s cry. They heard it crying behind a large boulder. Brenda rushed toward the boulder to help the baby.

When she peered behind the boulder looking for the baby, a giant, hairy monster with large sharp teeth rose up and grabbed her.

Brenda screamed and shouted, “Help me Jason!”

Jason, too terrified to help, ran away hearing Brenda screams behind him. He reached his car and sped away, crying and guilty for not trying to help Brenda, he soothed his conscience by thinking their was nothing he could have done.

He drove to the police department and recounted the incident. They had him accompany them in their squad car driving to the forest. When they hiked to the spot where Brenda had been attacked by the giant, hairy monster, the police found no signs of Brenda or a monster.

Days later, when Brenda was reported missing, the police began to build a case against Jason for the murder of Brenda and worked on finding the location of Brenda’s body, and Jason was convicted of murder, nobody believing his bizarre monster tale.

Bob Boyd

His car began to sputter on a dark country road far from the city or any houses. When his car conked out, he became afraid. He’d seen horror movie scenes like the setting before him, the situation he was in. The night was terribly dark. Trees blocked out the moon. He felt everything was eerie. He didn’t know what to do. He feared walking anywhere. What if dangerous people or something evil lurked outside the car? And he had driven by a gas station about ten miles back and didn’t know if it would be open. He decided to just wait in his car until the morning light.

Hours passed, and he saw a glowing object approaching him in the sky. When he drew nearer, he saw it was a UFO. A moment later, he was sucked out of his car through the car roof, as though the car roof didn’t exist. The aliens looked like eight-foot tall reptiles. They examined his body and mind as if he were a lab specimen and caused him a great deal of pain and trauma. He felt like the torturous ordeal would never end until he woke up in his car with a state cop knocking on his car door.

The state cop jump started his car and he drove home. He never told the state cop about the aliens. He didn’t know if his experience was just a dream or real and didn’t want the cop to think he was crazy.

Upon arriving home, he showered and got ready for bed. He looked out his bedroom window before closing the shades and saw a glowing object approaching him in the sky….

Bob Boyd

The days kept getting shorter. Darkness kept coming sooner. Plants and flowers began to fade away. More people became sick. More people became terrified. The world was in turmoil. The climate was askew. The oceans revolted with giant waves. Animals, like sensing bad weather, sensed something bad was coming. Birds hid away from the sky. The clouds got thinner. The weather men and weather women issued dire warnings. Scientists and governments issued dire warnings too. Then with a hiss and a boom the sun finally fizzled out, and the earth spun out of orbit and blew up. And all lifeforms on earth died out, except those people who had colonized other planets in other galaxies.

Bob Boyd

The first time Jed saw the Dogman he was in his backyard staring at him menacingly. Jed thought quickly and gave it a dish of the dog food he had left over before his old dog died. He hoped his kindness would save him from becoming killed by the beast. Jed’s quick thinking saved his life. The Dogman ate the food and left, but he kept coming back for more dog food.

Jed grew annoyed with the Dogman. He felt he was shaking him down for the food. He decided to buy a gun to shoot the Dogman to death.

The night Jed decided to kill the Dogman his house was broken into by two burglars while he slept. They heard he had a lot of money in his house and kept it in a safe. They climbed the stairs to his bedroom and woke him up demanding he open the safe. He told them there was no money in it; it was just an item he had been given as a gift. He opened it and the burglars became enraged when they found no money in the safe.  They thought he must have hid money somewhere else in his house. When he denied having any money in his house, they began beating him brutally trying to make him tell them where he hid the money.

Before he was beaten to death, a loud howl vibrated through the house terrifying the burglars. The Dogman appeared. The burglars screamed. And the Dogman ripped them both to shreds in seconds, saving Jed’s life.

After that, Jed treated the dogman differently. He not only fed him but let him live in his home as a protector and honored guest.

Bob Boyd

First there was one. Then two. Then three. Then hundreds and more kept coming. The people of earth saw them in the sky, legions of giant snakes like supersized anacondas. The reports on the news said they came from outer space. People all over the world were trembling and screaming. Governments across the planet tried to shot them down with missiles and drones. Nothing worked. The missiles and drones had no effect on them They were like unkillable, mammoth snake gods with glowing green eyes and black serpentine bodies that seemed as long as football fields.

People ran for cover as the space snakes descended and slithered upon the planet. Government officials hid in fortified, underground bunkers. Regular people locked their doors and windows and prayed. Some people had old-fashioned bomb shelters they hunkered down in. Crowds of people lost their minds and were running and screaming in the streets.

The snakes attacked the screaming humans in the crowds and starting eating them as if they were gourmet treats. Moments later, they spit them out, swirled in unison, and headed back into space and vanished. Apparently, they found humans distasteful.

Bob Boyd

He watched the MMA fight fascinated. His brother was winning, outpointing the Muay Thai fighter. He was faster, had better striking power, and he dominated the Muay Thai fighter with his ground game. The crowd was on his brother’s side, roaring each time he connected with the Muay Thai fighter’s face and body. The betting odds were on his brother. He made a big bet his brother would win, easy money.

In the final round his brother was way ahead on points, and it looked like a sure win. He thought his brother was going to knock the Muay Thai fighter out as hard as his shots were to his head. But that fighter seemed to have a chin made of iron the way he kept coming forward despite taking so much punishment.

He couldn’t believe how the Muay Thai fighter absorbed even his brothers flurry of killer punches thirty seconds before the final round bell. The fight was down to ten seconds, a clear win for his brother, until the Muay Thai fighter executed a kick that seemed to come out of nowhere that stuck his brother on the temple. And his brother sank to the ground and was taken out of the ring on a stretcher. A day later, his brother was dead, and he never watched MMA after that.

Bob Boyd

The grave robbers began their new dig in a grave in Hanson Cemetery. They would get a pretty price for another corpse from the medical college that never could get enough dead bodies to dissect and study.

The moon was faint that night. The air was warm. The ground they began digging into was soft. They joked and talked about how they would spend the doctor’s pay for the fresh dead body. They talked about women at a bar they frequented they yearned to seduce. And they talked about all the money they had made plying their ghoulish trade.

When they dug deeper, they saw a coffin with a large crucifix lock on it. They busted the crucifix lock with their shovels and twisted what remained of it to open the coffin. In shock they drew back when the corpse inside it rose up, smiled an evil smile, and bared large fangs.

Horrified, they tried to scramble out of the open grave but fell back into it. The corpse transformed into a living vampire, laughed like a madman, and sunk its fangs into the neck of one of the grave robbers. The other grave robber grabbed his shovel and raised it over his head, but as if paralyzed, froze unable to strike the vampire with it. After the vampire killed the first grave robber, it seized the second frozen one, drained all his blood killing him, and flew out of the grave. Reborn and renewed, he vanished into a dark night of many blood feasting opportunities.

Bob Boyd

The serial killer nabbed Maria on Spring Street under a moonlit night. He tied her up and shoved her in the back of his van. Her heart beat one hundred beats a minute. She knew she was going to die. She hoped he wouldn’t rape or torture her before he ended her life.

She had one chance to be rescued; she hoped it would come in time. But she knew in this life there were never any guarantees.

The serial killing sang to songs on the radio as he drove his van. She was surprised an evil man could sing so good. As he sang, she struggled to get untied and free.

The serial killer was elated. He bagged another one to torture, rape, and kill. He fantasized about the delicious things he would do with her, the excitement of hearing her beg and cry and scream – and the climatic moment she died.

He turned a corner and heard her howl like a wolf. She had gotten the duct tape off her mouth. He jammed on the brakes, jumped out of the van, throw the van doors open and a werewolf sprung out of the van and tore him into a thousand pieces. Her revenge rescue complete, Maria had added the serial killer to her kills of human monsters. Another one done. A good nights work.

Bob Boyd

She wonders why they don’t understand that she’s not in the grave they are weeping over and talking to her at. Her husband who passed away years before her said, “That’s just how they are. They don’t really get it. And can you blame them? We didn’t get it either when people we knew died. We wept and talked to them at their graves too.”

The loved ones kept coming to the grave and talking to it as if her lifeless corpse buried there had alive ears to hear them. Never mind her body was buried deep in the ground and wouldn’t have been able to hear them even if her ears were still in working order.

She tried to poke through the veil between the living and the dead for a moment to let her loved ones know she was beside them and not in the ground and alive and happy. But her attempts were useless. The loved ones still thought she was under that tombstone and magically could hear them from six feet under the ground.

After a few more attempts to make contact with them, she gave up and took her husband’s hand and together they drifted through the light and into the heavens. From there she silently visited her loved ones in dreams where she smiled and hugged them to let them know she was happy and living blissfully in a better afterlife than she had ever know when she was alive on earth.

Bob Boyd

He’d been hiking during the winter and hadn’t expected a blizzard that day. He was dressed warmly but not warm enough for the coming storm. When he saw the first signs of it, snow falling fast on the trail and in the pine trees, he turned around to trek back to his car five miles away while the snow storm became more menacing and it got harder to see in front of him. The snow piled up on the ground fast and accumulated over and into his hiking boots. The temperature dropped, his socks were wet. and he began to freeze. He worried about his feet getting frostbitten or freezing to death.

He had trouble walking in the deep snow and the drifts until the snow became so deep he  struggled to get through it. He tried to continue on, but he fell in the snow and attempted to get up and fell in the snow again exhausted.

Through the increasing blizzard he spied a large dark form lumbering toward him. Frightened, he scrambled to get up and run but fell again. As the form drew nearer, he began to tremble in horror when he saw an apelike animal and realized it was the cryptid known as Bigfoot.  When the terrifying creature stood face to face with him, he screamed and passed out from fright and exhaustion. Awhile later,  he woke up and was sitting in his car with the heater on and Bigfoot had vanished.

Bob Boyd