Close Your Eyes: A Horror Story Collection Read online

  Close Your Eyes

  A Collection of Five Horror Stories

  Alec John Johnson

  This story collection contains five stories ranging from thirty pages up to one-hundred and thirty pages. These stories were some of my first works when I started writing in 2015. I hope that you enjoy them.

  The stories included are the following:

  Baby Teeth - A Short Horror Story

  Sledge - A Horror Suspense Novella

  Stung - A Short Horror Story

  My New Family - A Horror Novel

  Knock Knock - A Horror Novella

  Please visit my website http://alecjohnjohnson.com/short-story-teaser/ to view a snippet of a new story that I am working on and to also sign up for my mailing list. As I come out with new books you will be notified by e-mail.

  Thanks again for reading,

  Alec John Johnson

  Copyright © 2017 by Alec John Johnson

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the following e-mail address: [email protected]

  Please note that this story is a work of fiction. Any resemblances to cities, towns, neighborhoods, or people (living or dead) are a coincidence.

  Baby Teeth

  Alec John Johnson

  Chapter 1 - Loss

  It was two in the morning at the Jeffrey household. Alan Jeffrey was asleep in his king bed next to his wife of fifteen years, Paige. Their only child Kenny, who was six years old, was asleep soundly in his room across the hall. It was in the middle of January in Houghton, Michigan and the nights were cold. Kenny’s Spiderman blankets were pulled up as high as they would go nearly covering his entire head. Above him was his headboard that had multiple shelves on it that were filled with various action figures, trucks, and tractors. Just past the headboard was a window that was frosted with ice. The ice spiraled out in all directions across the pane giving it a certain beauty. Outside of the window the wind howled and moaned across the landscape as fresh snow lazily fell from the sky.

  As Kenny slept he tossed and turned back and forth along the bed. He was dreaming, dreaming of something chasing him. He was running but every time he looked backwards, back to the thing, he could only see its shadow. He was running down a long and winding hallway. The walls were a pale, almost ghostly, white. There were no doors on either side of the hallway but every so often a window would appear. The few times that Kenny stopped running to look out the window he saw blackness. There were no stars, no streetlights, not even moonlight. It was a complete void. As he ran down the hallway trying to escape, his feet clicked on the cold linoleum making an echoing slam with each footfall. Like most dreams, no matter how hard he ran, that thing was still right behind him. It’s looming shadow wanting to drape over him, wanting to shroud him in darkness. He had to get away. He turned the corner of the long hallway he was in and there it was waiting for him. It's black figure towered over him and turned the entire area black. He screamed and as he did he began coughing and choking.

  Kenny woke up immediately. The coughing and choking continued. Something was in his throat. Something had lodged itself there. Panicked, he sat up as fast as he could hoping that it would help him cough out whatever was stuck in there. At first the blankets held onto him like a clinging spider web but after a second of resistance they gave way and Kenny was sitting right up in his bed coughing and hacking on something. The room was mostly dark except for a nightlight in the far corner of the room next to his dresser. The coughing continued. Whatever it was sat just above his Adam’s apple. (That is if he had an Adam’s apple yet.) Kenny’s hands massaged the part of his neck where the obstruction lay. At one point he thought he could even feel it. A lump. A lump sticking out through the skin of his neck.

  With each cough he felt that he was closer to getting it out. His eyes were watering and he wanted to scream, he wanted to cry, but no sounds would escape his mouth. There was only the cough. Then, as if it wasn’t a big deal at all, it popped loose. Whatever it was had popped loose with one last final cough. It propelled itself upwards and outward out of his throat, through his mouth, and into his waiting hand.

  Kenny tried looking at it in the dim light of the room. He couldn’t quite make it out but it was small and white. He curiously rolled it around his palm, watching it flip back and forth leaving a spitty trail on his hand. He was still coughing every now and then but the obstruction was gone.

  It was as he was playing with his new found treasure that the door to his bedroom door opened. Paige, his mother, ran into the room and as she did she flipped the light switch on. Kenny winced at the sudden brightness. He closed his eyes immediately hoping that the light would go away. When it didn’t, he slowly opened his eyes trying to get them used to the new light. When his eyes were fully open again he stared at his mother. Her long brunette hair was a mess with strands this way and that. There were small half circles of blue underneath each of her eyes. She looked tired.

  “Kenny! Are you ok?” As she asked the question she moved across the room with surprising speed. Whenever Kenny ran across the hardwood floor of his room wearing socks he would slip and send himself flying towards the wall but somehow his mother didn’t slip at all even with her wool slippers on. Before he knew it she was by his side sitting on the bed next to him.

  Kenny sniffled slightly trying to hold back tears, “Yes… I had a nightmare.” As he said the word the thought of that shadow chasing him down the hall came back and made him shiver. He pushed himself up against his mother. Her warmth felt good, it felt comforting.

  He then remembered the object in his hand, the one that he had absentmindedly been rolling back and forth. “Mom, what’s this?” He raised his hand up to her so that she could study it.

  She looked down at his palm for only a second and then looked back up at Kenny. “It’s your tooth sweetie. You lost your first tooth!” She sounded excited, like it was a good thing that things were falling out of his mouth.

  “My tooth? Why d-d-did my tooth come out?” As Kenny asked the question his tongue started probing back and forth in his mouth. He was looking for the missing tooth. There on the top of his mouth a few teeth to the right of his front teeth was a hole. He could feel it with his tongue. There was no pain or anything like that. It just felt… empty.

  “Don’t worry honey. Those are your baby teeth. They’re supposed to fall out! Tomorrow night you can put the tooth underneath your pillow and then you’ll get a visit by the tooth fairy.”

  “What’s a tooth fairy,” Kenny asked with suspicion.

  His mother laughed slightly. “There’s nothing to worry about sweetie. Tomorrow night we’ll put your tooth under your pillow and then in the middle of the night the tooth fairy will take your tooth and then leave you a surprise.”

  Kenny was pressed up against his mother and her arm was around his shoulders pulling him tight. As she talked Kenny looked upwards towards her. His eyes grew large and wide at the mention of a surprise. What could it be? He wondered if any of the boys and girls at school had lost a tooth before. Maybe they could tell him what to expect… maybe they could tell him what kind of surprise they got?

  “Well kiddo, that’s enough talk for this late at night. I need to get some sleep” She rose up from the bed and w
as now standing over him looking down. She picked up the tooth that was in Kenny’s palm delicately with two fingers in a pinching manner. When she had it in hand she carried it over to Kenny’s nightstand and sat it right in the middle on top of one of his books. “We’ll sit that there for now and tomorrow night we’ll put it under your pillow for the tooth fairy. Sound good?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. Are you alright to go back to sleep?”

  “I think so.”

  “Ok, then sweetie, goodnight.” He laid back down in bed and she pulled the covers over him, kissed him in the forehead, and then walked out. When she left she turned the lights out and after a few minutes Kenny was back asleep. The rest of the night he dreamt about the tooth fairy and what wonders she would bring.

  Chapter 2 - School

  The next morning was another cold one. Kenny felt it as soon as he climbed out of bed. Even though he was wearing his pajamas the cold still hit him. It was his feet that felt it first. As he sat up and climbed out of bed his bare feet hit the cold of the hardwood and made his whole body shiver. There was a pair of rolled up socks halfway across the room that Kenny walked over and put them on the best he could. With his socks on and feeling a bit warmer he opened his door and walked out into the main hall.

  The bedrooms were upstairs all in a neat row with his parent’s bedroom being right at the edge of the stairs. As he stepped out into the hallway he saw that there door was already open and as he stepped further out he could hear his mother and father talking about something from downstairs in either the kitchen or the living room. There was another sound of a woman talking to someone and at first Kenny was confused but then realized that they probably had the television on in the living room.

  After his usual morning bathroom stop, Kenny made his way down the length of the hallway but before he got to the stairs he stopped. He stopped right outside of his room and peered in. There on the nightstand was the tooth that he had lost last night. It sat there centered on his book unmoving. It’s sharp white color making it stick out from everything else on the table. The thought of the tooth fairy coming tonight came into his head again but this time instead of excitement, a shiver went through his body. He shook it off, continued down the hallway, and eventually down the stairs and into the kitchen for breakfast. When he turned the corner and revealed himself to his parents they were there chatting back and forth with each other. His father, a tall and beefy man, was sitting at the kitchen counter on one of the stools. A steaming mug of coffee sat on the counter in front of him. His hands were gripped around the handle.

  As Kenny turned the corner and his father saw him he said, “There’s my big guy! I heard you lost a tooth last night. Congratulations.”

  “Thanks dad.” Kenny didn’t like all of the attention that this was causing. He looked down at the floor and fiddled nervously with the drawstring of his pants.

  “Are you ready for the tooth fairy to come tonight? I bet she’s got something good for you!”

  There it was again, the mention of that tooth fairy. Who could she be? A feeling of dread came over him again. “Dad, who’s the tooth fairy?”

  “Well…” He stopped for a moment as if to think over what he was going to say and then continued, “She’s the fairy that comes when you lose a tooth. Tonight we’ll put your tooth under your pillow and then when everyone’s asleep she’ll come in and take the tooth and leave you with a surprise.”

  “Why does she want my tooth?”

  His father’s face contorted into a confused expression and then said, “You know… I’m not really sure, but she’ll give you a nice surprise for it!”

  “What’s the surprise?”

  He laughed and then said, “I can’t tell you that! It wouldn’t be a surprise then, would it?”

  “No…”

  Defeated, Kenny walked over to the breakfast table and pulled out a chair. He sat down and rested his head on the table. The table felt cold. The dream that he had last night combined with the coughing fit that he had left his body feeling tired and rundown. He wished that he could go back to sleep. The warmth of his bed was so inviting. As Kenny sat with his head on the table his eyes began to close and he began to drift off.

  A few minutes later his mother came over to the table and dropped off two freshly toasted pop-tarts and a tall glass of orange juice. The plate made a large clunk as it hit the table and as she set the plate down she looked at him and then said, “Is that what you’re wearing to school today? Your pajamas?”

  Kenny looked down and realized he was still wearing his pajamas. “No… sorry mom.”

  “Change after your breakfast, ok? We’ve got to get going soon.”

  --

  The ride to school only ever took a few minutes. They lived in town in a small neighborhood that was just down the block from his elementary school. He was in kindergarten and hadn’t gone to preschool the year before. This year was his first real taste of what school would be like. Parts of him liked interacting with the other kids but a bigger part of him just wanted to stay home and play by himself. Who needed school when he had mountains of Legos in his room that he could build with?

  Today’s journey to school took longer than usual. A fresh snow had fallen over the night and had caused a few of the streets, especially in their neighborhood, to be slicker than usual. It had gotten to the point that a near permanent pack of snow lined the streets. There was no plowing it off as it had gotten too thick over the past month. Every new storm only added to the pile. Instead, the plows just made the snow as even and as level as they could. The fresh powder from overnight added the extra bit of slickness that caused a few people to lose their balance on the road and drive right into a ditch.

  About halfway to school Kenny felt their car begin to swerve to the right. His mother was driving and at first she hit the brakes suddenly and caused the car to swerve violently the other way. Luckily, there were no other cars on the road at the time. They fishtailed back and forth on the main road leading out of the neighborhood for a few seconds but then as if out of nowhere they hit a clean slate of pavement and regained their traction. Kenny barely noticed it. His mind was elsewhere, he was thinking about the tooth fairy. He was thinking of asking the other boys and girls about her.

  Before he knew it, their car was pulled up in the half-circle parking lot of his school. They were parked just to the right of the entrance next to a larger pick-up. Kenny said goodbye to his mom and then opened the back door and carefully hopped out onto what he thought was the sidewalk. The snowpack made it hard to tell. He waved goodbye to his mom as she drove off and then he walked up the path towards the main doors. There were a few other children coming in as well and as they walked little footprints were left in the snow.

  His parents always dropped him off at school early and today was no different, when he arrived in his classroom there were only a few other classmates there along with the teacher. The few that were there were playing in the corner with a collection of crayons and paper. There was a small circular table that was made just for kids. (It only rose about a foot from the ground.) Along with the table sat a collection of multi-colored chairs that matched the height of the table. Kenny walked into the classroom and began taking off his coat, mittens, and hat. When finished he hung them on the rack that was just to the left of the door and then walked over to the coloring table to join the rest of the kids. As he walked by Mrs. Reynolds desk he said, “Hi.” She smiled at him and then went back to her computer.

  On one side of the table Ashley and Kara sat side by side. They were identical twins that both had straight brown hair that ended abruptly at shoulder level. They wore matching floral dresses along with a long sleeved undershirt to stay warm. (Kara’s undershirt was a dark green while Ashley’s was a light pink.) They were jointly working on a depiction of their house. Nearly every color was represented in their drawing and as Kenny walked by them he leaned over to look at their creation. A moment later he sat down across fr
om them and started coloring as well.

  When he sat down they looked up from their drawing and over to him, “Hey Kenny,” Ashley said and waved at him. A second later she was back down working on her drawing with intensity. Kara had stopped though and said, “Hi Kenny. Do you want to help us draw?”

  “Sure!” Kenny moved himself closer to them and grabbed a couple of crayons. As they worked together on their drawing Kenny thought about the tooth fairy again. He then asked Kara, “Kara, have you ever had the tooth fairy come?”

  Kenny regretted asking the question immediately. Kara looked up from her drawing at Kenny and as she did Kenny watched her expression change from happy and playful to a look of absolute fear. Seconds later tears began to roll down her face and she started crying. The crying started quietly but then got louder and louder with each passing moment. The other children in the room turned towards them to see what was happening.

  “I’m sorry… I’m sorry,” Kenny said but he was met with deaf ears. She was full on sobbing now. Her elbows rested on the table and her hands were covering her face as she cried. Her sister, Ashley, looked up from her drawing over at her with a confused expression on her face. Mrs. Reynolds got up from her desk and came over to check on Kara. A moment later Mrs. Reynolds and Kara went to another section of the room as they talked something over. It was just Kenny and Ashley at the table now.