"Frau" #ReedsyTwist

Frau

Trigger Warning: This short story contains some Language, Sexual Content, partial Nudity, strong Bloody Violence, Gore, some Substance Abuse, and Suspense.

“I have an idea! I found some old board games in my late grandmother’s attic. One had this dice with six sides. One dot on two sides, two dots on two sides, and three dots on two sides. So, here’s what you do…” said the host of the Christmas Eve party, Sarah, but before she could explain the rules of the game, the front door of the cabin flew open, and snow blew inside with the blustery, cold wind. Then he walked in on the coldest day of the year. 

His name was Ethan. He had blue, short hair, and he was dressed all in black. He was fit. He wore a black trench coat. For some reason, this made Sarah nervous. He tracked in lots of snow and mud as he made his way inside. His heavy boots were actually quite sexy. 

“Can I help you? Are you okay?” asked Sarah. Her heart was pounding. She had questions. Who are you, and what the fuck are you doing in my cabin? Instead, she asked, 

“Would you like some Hot Apple Cider?”

“Please, I’ve been walking for miles.” 

Sarah poured him a mug of cider, and whispered to him, 

“I added something special to help you get warmed up.” Sarah was a giver around the holidays. She just loved people. She had a big heart. A heart that Ethan would soon see with his own eyes. “We were about to play a game. Would you care to join us?”

“Anything. I’ll do anything to get out of the cold. Thank you.” said Ethan. “You have the Christmas spirit.”

“Okay, so, someone rolls the dice, and whichever number comes up, the person who rolled the dice gets asked that many questions. For every question you deny answering, you gotta take off a piece of clothing!” said Sarah as she clapped her hands together and laughed. 

The fire was roaring, and they were all bundled up. This was going to be an interesting game! 

“Must I take off my coat? I need my coat.” said Ethan. 

“Whatever you take off is up to you. Let us just have some adult fun!” said Sarah. 

Polly was nervous. She had a lot of dark secrets. She did not want to play, and neither did Oscar- whose biggest fear was being strip searched again. There was Mischa and Ti- who recently married. And there was Martha and Ben- who recently miscarried. Sarah lived on a dead-end drive. 

“I’ll go first! I’ve got nothing to hide!” said Martha. She picked up the dice and rolled it. “One! Make it a good question!” she said as she sipped her expensive brandy. Martha only drank at parties. This made her a lot of fun- even though she embarrassed Ben. Ben was quite the shy one. 

“I know! I know of the perfect question!” exclaimed Polly. If they were going to make her play- then she was going to play hard. Determined to keep on all her clothing, Polly asked, “Where was the first place you had sex? Elaborate.”  

“Well, I don’t know why you’d want to know that. Umm, well, I was homeless, and needed a place to stay, so I…”

“Oh… my… sweet… goodness. You’re a ho! You whored yourself out for a roof over your head?” asked Polly with a certain type of shrewdness. A shrewdness the others had never witnessed.

“Hey, I’ve done it.” said Ethen. Everyone was shocked. There was an awkward moment of silence. “It’s not that big of a deal. What’s your name?”

“Martha.” 

“It’s okay, Martha. It’s okay.” Then he mumbled under his breath, “I’ll get you first. Don’t you worry.”

“What’s that?” asked Martha.

“Merry Christmas.” He replied.

“Thank you. Thanks for understanding.” she said as she patted his knee. That made Ben cringe.

Then Ethan grabbed the dice now that Martha had just passed the first round. He rolled it onto a coffee table. It rolled off the edge, and he got up to fetch it. Sarah heard an odd sound. It was as if he had knives in his jacket. Several large knives that scraped together as he stood up. He mumbled the word, fuck, under his breath. He had rolled a three. 

Sarah quickly raised her hand. 

“May I go first? Can I have the first question?” She asked the group. Everyone accepted her request. “Okay then. What is with you and your jacket?” she asked Ethan as she ran her hand down his sleeve. “It’s so soft!”

“It was the last thing my grandfather got me before he died, so, can I please, keep it on?”

“Of course you can. It is a very nice trench coat. Question number two. Oh, this is a hard one. Why were you out in the cold?” 

Polly leaned in close to Ethan. She was really curious about Mr. Ethan. They all were. 

“I got lost is all,” is all he said.

Sarah squinted as she thought about his answer. The night before Christmas, and he simply got lost? Was he homeless? Did he have a car break down? What? She needed to know more, but she also knew that she had to pick the next question wisely. 

“Have you ever been arrested?” asked Sarah.

Ethan quietly removed his left boot. He did not say a word. He passed his round. Now Polly was up. She got nervous. She began to sweat. She removed her jacket and scarf without thinking about it. She wiped sweat from her brow as the others laughed and pointed at her. All except for Ethan. 

“What?” Polly asked. 

Then Sarah said, 

“Once you take off a piece of clothing. You can’t put it back on.”

“Oh, shit. I just wasn’t thinking.” She moved away from Ethan, and the fire, and sat next to Mischa, and Ti. She rolled a three.

“I have a question.” said the mysterious Ethan. “What do your tits look like?” He had changed his mind. He was going to go after Polly first. He wanted to unnerve her.

“What?” she asked. 

“Umm, what is not an answer.” said Sarah.

“Why don’t you show me in the downstairs bathroom?” asked Ethan as he stared her intensely in the eye.

“What?” Polly began to panic. 

“What if I show you something I’ve got?” said Ethan as he touched himself briefly. Then Oscar got uncomfortable. What were they going to ask him? He thought of his panic attacks. He refused to give into it, but he had never played these kinds of games. 

“Well, that was three questions.” said Polly. “I guess I’ll show you to the bathroom. You’ll see what you want to see.” 

Ethan salivated and put his hand in his front jacket pocket where he fidgeted with several condoms looking for the blue labeled spermicidal ones. As he followed Polly downstairs to the bathroom, he wondered: 

Was Sarah a matchmaker? 

Polly led Ethan down into the cabin’s musty basement where she struggled to find the light switch. Once she found it, she breathed a huge sigh of relief. When she turned around, Ethan was right there behind her, breathing heavily and ready to see what she would show him. 

Polly then said, 

“I don’t mean to be unladylike, but, well, here.” She removed her blouse and unfastened her brassiere. The clasp was a little bit stuck, but she got it. 

Ethan wanted to touch, and to help, but instead, he might act on that urge later, he hoped. Oh, did he hope he would have the chance. She adjusted her brassiere, and that was all that Polly wanted to share with Ethan.

“Thanks. Thank you for that. Here. I’ll remove my scarf and show you what you want. lol.” Ethan actually said lol as he removed his black scarf. 

“I wanna see what’s in your jacket.” said Polly as she giggled, but this was no joke to the stranger they called, “Ethan.”

“You really want that?” Ethan said as he clenched his scarf so tightly that his hands were turning purple. He did not want her to see his chest.

“Sure. Why not? Are you hiding something from me? I showed you mine. Now, you show me yours. I bet you’re really fit. I am all about upper-body workouts. Do you lift?” Polly said playfully as she reached for Ethan’s jacket zipper. 

Ethan then crammed that scarf right down her throat. He grabbed her nose and held on tight as he pushed her to the ground. Then, in one quick motion, he slammed her head so hard against the concrete floor that she never breathed again. He took off his cross necklace and held a lighter to it. He then stuck it on Polly’s forehead, thus, branding her skin. He used two fingers to close her eyes.

“In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit… I now put you to rest. You shall live with our Father, and that is the best gift I can give you this Christmas.”

“Thank God, no one heard you squeal.” Murder. He had committed murder again. His impulses were so out of control these days. He grabbed one of his knives that he had hidden under his trench coat and disemboweled her there on the spot as if he were the half-witch, half-demon, Frau Perchta, spreading Christmas cheer from hell. 

He threw her body into the bathtub for she weighed a lot less than him. He put her in the tub as quickly as he could. He urinated into her stomach before he stitched her up. He was prepared for this. He was always prepared for this. He touched her breasts, and blood flowed straight to his groin. 

Then, as if wild beasts had possessed him, he chose his favorite knife and bludgeon he had hidden in his trench coat. Before he climbed the stairs, he looked in the mirror. There was no hiding what he had done, not with six people upstairs, as he was covered in blood.

“Curse the wretches who do not follow our orders. They shall spend the rest of their days with wolves!” He then howled, and scratched, and took a bite out of the entrails.

“What the fuck was that? How long are they going to go at it down there?” Sarah asked the group as they all heard howling coming from below, but before anyone else could respond, Ethan kicked open the basement door and appeared before them with Polly’s entrails slung over his shoulder. With knife and bludgeon in hands, Frau Perchta, I’m sorry- Ethan charged towards Sarah. He swung the bludgeon so hard that Sarah was absolutely unrecognizable. He, with his own hands, opened up Sarah’s chest cavity. He wanted to see her last heartbeats. With a smile on his face, he stabbed her in the kidney and pulled out her innards. No one believed what they were seeing, and Oscar pissed his pants for the first time since adolescence. 

Ethan loved the taste of blood. He howled again with great pleasure and smelled the scent of Oscar’s urine in the air. Oscar was easy. Probably Ethan’s easiest kill yet. Ethen threw the knife across the room, thus nailing poor Oscar right in the forehead. He then took his bludgeon in both hands and chased Mischa, Ti, Martha, and Ben right out the front door, and into the cold, snowy Christmas Eve night.

Mischa and Ti stuck together, while Martha and Ben split up. Ben, with whom we know nothing about, died in the woods after stepping into a bear trap. He was quickly eaten by feral wolves. A local search crew later discovered his remains. They were strewn out all over three acres, thus, causing most of the crew to throw up, and seek immediate counseling.

Frau, I mean, Ethan, searched for Martha, who was a fast runner, but her brandy had kicked in while Ethan was downstairs in the basement killing Polly. She had followed Ben to the cabin in a Harley. This was useless in the snow, and Ben just took off without her into the woods- what an idiot. Martha did not have a key to his Ford Taurus. She raced to the unlocked shed in the back yard. She could hear Ethan howling. Was she trapped? There was no light- just tools that she did not know how to operate. A machete caught her eye, but before she grabbed it, something took her breath away. She looked down and saw the prongs of a pitchfork sticking out through her abdomen. Then she heard laughter. She turned her head and saw Ethan. Ethan was excited to taste the expensive brandy in her intestines. He would roast them later with chestnuts, he thought, as he slowly pulled out the slimy innards. He wrapped them around her throat and pulled on them hard. No more breathing for poor Martha, either.

Ethan wondered if he should just let Mischa and Ti go. He could leave the innards he had collected outside to freeze in the cold. It was going to be freezing for the entire twelve days of Christmas. With the cabin being isolated by the snow, he could safely hang tight until he could take to the streets.

Ethan decided to lay the innards out on the snow. Then he licked his hands clean like an animal. Like a Pacarana all covered in soap. He went to the upstairs bathroom and turned on a nice hot shower as he was covered in blood. He hummed intense opera. He removed his trench coat, and the rest of his clothes while he celebrated in his mind that he had not been injured in all of the excitement. It had, overall, been a successful Christmas Eve, and there would be more festivities to enjoy in the future, he hoped, but then the bathroom door opened, and Mischa and Ti, both quietly entered the bathroom. They were dying to get their hands on Frau’s, Blast! Ethan’s bludgeon. They opened up his trench coat that he had hung up on a hook, and were shocked by how sticky it was with blood. Then they finally saw what was inside. A bag of hard tack, gum, a pack of cheap cigarettes, a lighter, and the bludgeon. Mischa reached for the bludgeon, as Ti reached for the smokes and lighter.

It was a beautiful moment that happened in slow motion. Ethan hummed the ending of his song from behind the shower curtain as Mischa opened the shower curtain carefully. By then, Ethan had his back to her. She saw horrible burn scars all over his body from his shoulder blades down to the back of his thighs, and just as he broke out into full song singing the lyrics, he went to hit the final note in French, and Mischa swung the bludgeon at his head as if it was not her first time. She swung again, and again, and Ethan never saw it coming. Ti lit a cigarette causing the smoke alarm to go off, but neither of them cared. Blood, there was blood everywhere. The skull was busted wide-open, and his eyeballs hung from his distorted face. Victory! Victory for them! Then Ti noticed something odd in dead Ethan’s trench coat. A hideous, green, Pagan mask of Frau Perchta. It was beautifully designed out of a material that was unfamiliar to the two survivors. Ti sat the cigarette down. This was a real gift! As he picked up the mask, he felt an oppressive feeling overwhelm him. He, as if driven by wild beasts, picked up the bludgeon and the knife. As he held them in his hands, he felt a great power, and he heard a voice say,

“Kill! Gut her for me! Avenge me! Now! Just fucking do it!”

And he did. He plunged the knife sideways into Mischa’s ribs. When he pulled out the knife, her blood spilled out all over his feet, and Ti grinned a horrible grin.

Mischa never stood a chance. She fell backwards into the tub with Ethan. Ti reached into the wound he had created, and carefully pulled out her innards as she labored for each of her dying breaths. Ti’s eyes grew bloodshot as he put on the green mask of Frau Perchta that covered down to his nose, thus allowing him to ingest the innards fresh on the spot. More. He needed more. Nothing had ever tasted better. He then choked on a bone fragment and purged all over Mischa’s open abdomen. Tears fled his eyes, but not from sadness. They were tears of joy! It tasted as good as it did going down. As a dog devours his own cud- Ti enjoyed his. It was a beautiful thing! A great first experience. He trussed-up her abdomen, as if it belonged to a duck. He then put on Ethan’s bloody, sticky jacket. Armed with Ethan’s weapons, he descended the steps and walked out into the cold. The snow had stopped. The innards were frozen, and Frau Perchta looked up at the moon, and howled for the first time as the clock struck midnight.