For Those Who Dream Monsters (25 page)

It was getting late by the time Emily returned from the internet cafe, hiding a
bunch of printouts behind her back as her mother questioned her about what she
had been doing with the girls from the grocery store. Emily seemed calmer at
dinner than she had been for a while, and her mother was pleased that her new
friends were helping her to get over Bagpuss’s disappearance.

But Emily was more
anxious than ever, and that night she had the nightmare again. She was
stumbling after Bagpuss through the meadow at the back of her house, the sky
lit up by dry lightning, and the flowers and weeds mutating painfully into
grotesque animals and birds that pecked and snapped at her heels, screeching
wildly. The sky grew darker and, as Emily reached the river, she heard a splash
and threw herself into the inky water, crying out her pet’s name. But as Emily
reached the spot where her cat had gone under the water for the last time, as
she dived down and grabbed him, it was not Bagpuss she pulled out of the murky
depths, it was the pale-faced corpse of her mother. Emily screamed and woke
herself up. She got out of bed and crept to her mother’s room, standing
silently for long minutes and listening to her mother’s regular breathing as
she slept.

Emily was determined to
go through with her plan. And she had to act fast as Saturday was only two days
away. The poison was easy enough to buy, as many of the rural houses had
problems with rats, and the local store stocked a variety of rodent-killing
products. Emily’s research provided her with all the information she needed to
carry out her plan. The idea had first come to her when she remembered a murder
mystery she had seen on television: a man had killed his wife over the period
of a year by giving her small amounts of poison in her food – too small to kill
her immediately, but enough to make his wife progressively more sick until
eventually she died. Of course Emily did not want to kill her mother – quite
the opposite. She wanted her mother to stay with her forever. She would never
give her mother enough poison to make her really sick; just enough to make her
feel a little poorly. Emily would look after her mother and tend to her every
need, so that after a while her mother would not even want to go out; she would
come to rely on Emily, to appreciate her and be grateful for her company. And
she certainly would not want to leave with the cab driver.

That evening Emily’s
mother was in a strange mood. It would have been her fourteenth wedding
anniversary if her husband hadn’t left her. She couldn’t for the life of her
remember if she had taken her Valium or not. Emily was being neurotic again,
following her around the house and trying to talk to her, but she was far too
tired to cope with Emily’s quirks today. When Emily surprised her by making her
a cup of hot chocolate, she took the mug, but decided to drink it in bed.

Emily’s mother placed
the mug on her bedside table and went to the bathroom cabinet. Perhaps she
hadn’t taken her Valium after all. She took one out of the prescription bottle
and, after a moment’s hesitation, she took out another. She carried the pills
through to her bedroom and, climbing into bed, washed them down with the hot chocolate.
After a while she started to feel sick. She doubled up in pain and reached out
for the bedside table to steady herself, knocking off the lamp, which smashed
on the floor.

Emily heard the noise in her mother’s room and rushed over. The sight that
greeted her was more terrifying than any nightmare she had ever had. Her mother
was thrashing around in the bed, blood and vomit all over her nightgown.

“Mummy!”

By the time the ambulance arrived, the suffering of Emily’s mother was over.
After pronouncing the woman dead, the paramedic looked around the house for the
girl who had called in to say that her mother was very sick.

Emily
headed across the wilderness, her movements slowed by the stones and pebbles
that were stretching the pockets of her coat. She barely noticed the nettles
that stung her ankles and the thistles that scratched her arms. Her eyes were
fixed on the tree line beyond the river and she thought she could see the tip
of Bagpuss’s tail ahead of her in the darkness. As she reached the riverbank,
there was a splash, and the inky water closed over her head as she fell forward
and allowed the stones and the current to pull her down.

Anna Taborska is a
British filmmaker and horror writer.
 
She has
written and directed two short fiction films, two documentaries and an
award-winning TV drama. She has also worked on over twenty other film and
television productions, including the BBC TV series
 
Auschwitz: The Nazis and the Final Solution
 
and
 
World War
Two: Behind Closed Doors - Stalin, the Nazis and the West
.
 
Anna's
short stories have appeared in a number of 'Year's Best' anthologies, and her
debut short story collection
,
 
For
Those who Dream Monsters
, published by Mortbury Press in 2013, won the
Dracula Society's Children of the Night Award and was nominated for a British
Fantasy Award.
 
A new collection of
novelettes and short stories (working title:
 
Bloody
Britain
) is planned for release next year
.

SCHRÖDINGER’S HUMAN
–
The Fifth Black
Book of Horror
(2009) ed. Charles Black, pub. Mortbury Press.

LITTLE PIG
–
The Eighth Black Book of
Horror
(2011) ed. Charles Black, pub. Mortbury Press;
Best Horror of the
Year Volume Four
(2012) ed. Ellen Datlow, pub. Night Shade Books.

BUY A GOAT FOR CHRISTMAS –
Best New Werewolf Tales
(2012) ed. Carolina
Smart, pub. Books of the Dead Press.

CUT! –
The Screaming Book of Horror
(2012) ed. Johnny Mains, pub.
Screaming Dreams.

ARTHUR'S CELLAR –
No Monsters Allowed
 
(2013) ed. Alex Davis, publ. Dog Horn
Publishing.

THE APPRENTICE
–
The Ninth Black Book
of Horror
(2012) ed. Charles Black, pub. Mortbury Press.

THE GIRL IN THE BLUE COAT
–
Exotic
Gothic 5 [Volume 1]
(2013) ed. Danel Olson, pub. PS Publishing.

RUSALKA
–
Postscripts #28/29 Exotic
Gothic 4
(2012) ed. Danel Olson, pub. PS Publishing.

FIRST NIGHT
–
Dark World
(2013)
ed. Timothy Parker Russell, pub. Tartarus Press.

HALLOWEEN LIGHTS –
And Now The Nightmare Begins: The Horror Zine
(2009)
ed. Jeani Rector, pub. BearManor Media;
Halloween Dances with the Dead
(2010), ed. Jean Goldstrom, pub. Whortleberry Press.

THE COFFIN
–
His Red Eyes Again
(2013) ed. Julia Kruk and Tracy Lee, pub. The Dracula Society.

THE CREAKING
–
The Seventh Black Book of Horror
(2010) ed.
Charles Black, pub. Mortbury Press.

UNDERBELLY
–
The Unspoken
(2013)
ed. William Meikle, pub. Karōshi Books.

TEA WITH THE DEVIL
–
Strange Halloween
(2012), ed. Jean Goldstrom, pub. Whortleberry Press.

ELEGY
–
This Hermetic Legislature: A Homage to Bruno Schulz
(2012) ed. D.P. Watt and D.T. Ghetu, pub. Ex Occidente Press, (published under
the title ETUDE).

BAGPUSS –
The Sixth Black Book of Horror
(2010) ed. Charles Black, pub.
Mortbury Press (short version);
Best New Writing 2011
(2010), exec. ed.
Christopher Klim, pub. Hopewell Publications LLC (full version).

FISH and DIRTY DYBBUK original to this collection.

ALSO AVAILABLE FROM MORTBURY PRESS

Eleven volumes of THE BLACK BOOK OF HORROR anthology series.

Reggie Oliver’s prints can be bought
here
.