Melissa the Heartless



Dan pulls out his daily morning newspaper, as his wife Vicky cleans the dishes and his beautiful daughter Alice eats her cereal. The front page of his newspaper reads "Another woman missing. Has black hair and blue eyes, Last seen wearing a black dress and matching shoes"

Dan shakes his head "So many young woman have been going missing this past year." Dan says ruffling the paper. "All in the neighboring towns, you don't think it’s the same person?" His wife asks with concern on her face as she looks over to her daughter.

"Could be, they say this woman has the same M.O. as the other missing women." Dan replies then folds the paper looking at his watch. "Time to leave, see you after 8pm honey." He says and gives his wife a kiss. "Another long day at work? They have you staying late a lot!" She replies, giving him a upset look. "Yeah, we're just doing a big work project." He says making his way to the door for work.

They live in a happy, friendly neighborhood with nothing to complain about; the houses are far apart enough where noise are never an issue, and they also had woods just behind them adding to the charm of the place. Dan's work goes by as per usual, at lunch he gets his daily call from his wife and child to cheer him on, and at 5 pm Dan leaves work.

Instead of heading home he heads to his normal after work location in the woods behind the house, Dan drives down the familiar dirt road and comes up to his hidden sanctuary. Dan stops the engine and steps out of the car, already hearing the thrilling sounds coming from his hand built shack.

"Now, now, now sweetheart, no more screaming, I'm here now… Melissa was it? Or so the paper says…" Dan says as he steps in and locks the door to the shack, he starts removing his work clothes and replacing them with his blood soaked ones from his prior work in the shack. He turns to the woman in a torn black dress on the table, stretched in a manner that could break her very arms if she thrashes around which is what he hoped for.

He studies his work from yesterday, in which he had "accidently" spilled bleach into her eyes. "You should be happy! You are a star, or maybe I'm the star ha ha….anyway how your eyes? I didn't mean to spill the bleach honestly, but hey looks like one eye is better… though…." Dan says staring into the semi-blind woman's pain stricken face, Dan sighs and grabs his scalpel of choice "I don't think the other should stay in, I can fix that for you." Dan pauses, watching his victim start to shake and whimper. "Do you trust me?" He laughs and lingers over her scalpel in hand.

"I'm home!" Dan says cheerfully as he opens the front door of his house.

"Welcome back! You're late" His wife says crossing her arms.

"Sorry, worked later than I thought" He says and looks at his watch "9:36 p.m." .

"Well next time call me!" She exclaims

"I will, where is Alice? Already in bed?" He asks

"I was about to tuck her in." She says, looking up the stairs.

"I can do that for you, Honey." He says cheerfully.

Dan turns and heads upstairs and to his Daughters room, "Hey sweetheart, did you have any fun today?" Dan asks walking over to his daughter, who was already sitting in bed. "Yes daddy! I played on the swing again all by myself! And I made a new friend!" She says cheerfully, "Oh who is the new friend?" Dan asks smiling back at his child "Her name is Milly, and she is a princess that wears a black dress!" his daughter explains. Dan frowned for only a second getting a feeling of dread come over him but then quickly brushes it off "Must be her new imaginary friend" He thinks to himself then tells his daughter goodnight and tucks her in.

That night Dan woke to an strange sound, as he came out of his daze he heard it again more clearly. Sounds of someone crying, accompanied by a loud creaking of a metal linger in the air. "Dan do you hear that too?" His wife says sitting up. "Yeah, sounds like the swing. Do you think Alice is up?" He asks getting up from the bed. "I'm not sure." His wife says.

"I'll go check, you go back to sleep." Dan says making his way downstairs and to the back door. He peers out but nothing seems to be there. "Odd…" He whispers to himself and makes his way to Alice's room, and quietly he opens the door. Alice was there fast asleep, not even moved from where he tucked her in at.

Dan shrugs it off and went back to bed. A few days go by, but for some reason Dan couldn't shake the feeling of dread. Dan skips his after work activities once again and went home instead. When he got there, he notices police cars parked outside, so He hurries inside to be greeted by his Wife with tear streaked face. "What's going on!?" He asks seeing the look on her face, "Its..its Alice." She says beginning to sob, "What? What happened?! Is she alright?!" He asks her feeling his heart pound in his chest. "No…no she…she found an eye..a..a. human eye ..blue…bloody! It..it was outside by the swing!" She says going into hysteric crying, His heart began to pound at a even more alarming rate.

"It will be fine Ma'am, though we are going to search the area for anything else." a Police man say then bows his hat, taking his leave. That night none of them said too much, Dan tucks in Alice who still was scared out of her mind. "Daddy…" Alice says as her father goes to leave. "Yes honey?" He asks. "She.. told me she was going to kill me..that's what Milly said..she had the same eyes..as the one I say" Dan looks to his daughter with shock but then hugs her tightly. "It was just a dream, as long as I'm here no one with touch you, got it?!" He says, Alice nods then lays back down.

That night Dan tosses and turns but can't rest. His thoughts drift to the eye, then to where his sanctuary is, then back to the eye. "She's dead! I pulled out her still beating heart with my bare hands! …… and all the bodies have been buried. The shack was too far from here for the police to search as well. So there's no way it was HER." He thinks to himself. A loud metal creaking sound interrupt his thoughts, this time even louder than the other night before.

Dan's heart starts to pound in his chest, he quietly goes downstairs and steps outside; walking over to the swing. It's fine… hadn't even moved an inch, he turns to go back inside when he stops in shock. The words "Do you…" are written above the door in what looks like blood. A jolt of fear takes over him and he runs back into his house, fearing that someone had found out his activities. He decides to wake his family and leave.

Dan rushes upstairs to his bedroom, "Honey, we gotta to leave!" He says ripping the door open only to have a face staring him down. A scream catches in his throat and with his eyes adjusting to the lighting his sees what was once his beautiful Wife a now disfigured mess; she was stretched in in-human contortions in front of the doorway. Her face looked to be removed off its bone up to the skull as it held a terrified and pained look. He notice quotation marks with three bloody dots in the middle on her forehead. Her innards are in a mess on the floor below her.

Dan backs away, unable to form a sound. The room spins then he realizes something even more terrifying. "ALICE!!!" He yells at the top of his lungs as he runs to her door, without hesitation he barges into the room. To his worse fears she too had been attacked. He looks in horrified anguish at his daughter to see that her heart and eyes are gone and sitting on the nightstand below her;  but her frail body looks even worse that his mind can't even register it completely.

Dan just stands there unable to think or move, "Nooo….who…WHY them?!" Dan finally yells, shaking in horror as the images of his family flash through his head. That's when he notices something dark is bundling up in the corner of Alice's room. His eyes linger from the dark bundle to the wall above it, with the words "…Trust me?" Written violently on the wall in blood that trailed from Alice and to the dark mass in the corner of the room. The bundle then began to move and get up with stiff movements, its shape forming into one of a persons.

It slowly turns its head to him, with his voice stuck in his throat as a woman with a missing eye faces him. Her clothes covered in dirt and dried blood. It was Melissa! He tries to move but the woman let out a blood curdling scream causing him to freeze in fear. She twitches and slowly starts to move towards him. Her arms reaching for him, with bloody finger tips. "Why!?...." He shouts at her and she pauses. "Why did you kill them?!....Why Not just me?!" He Shrieks and she tilts her head. "Because…you must suffer what I suffered! You removed my organs…I removed there's…and now… I'll rip out YOURS!" She responses with a dry, low voice then lunges for him. He gains control of his body, but it was too late, and with one more shriek she attacks.

After a week had passed, a curious neighbor found  the wife and daughter in their terrifying state but the husband was nowhere to be found within the house. When the police checked outside the found a trail of blood that lead to a shack deep in the woods. The words "Do you trust me?" written in blood all over the shacks walls. The bodies of the missing girls were found mutilated from the past year and buried behind the shack, all except one. People in the area have gone missing every month since.