Ya Vienen: Chapter Two | Part Five
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Fictional Horror Series
Lola Beltrán’s voice echos in the air as the light around me begins to dim…”Corazón, corazón. No me quieras matar, corazón…”
“Oh no, no no no. Not again” I actually said out loud.
I turned to my tia praying I wouldn’t see that smiling face. To my surprise there she was, patting the dough between alternating hands. Quietly singing along to the song.
She noticed my staring.
“Qué?” my tia said quizzically.
“Nada” I let out with my next exhale. I shook my head back into reality. “…Tia?”
“Sí mami?”
“I love you.” my voice cracked and my eyes swelled with tears.
“Ay, mija! Come here” She stretched out her dough and flour covered hands and grabbed my face. “Te quiero mucho.”
She kissed me hard on the cheek.
With tear blinded eyes I went in for a hug. As my arms wrapped around my Tia Valéria’s body, I fell into her more than I expected. As if she lost weight in the past few seconds. Despite her gaunt frame she held onto me with an irregular strength. That’s when I noticed the odd feeling on my back. Where her hands should be was a growing wetness. I could feel the pressure of the dough pressing against my shirt. I turned my attention to Tia Valéria. She felt damp. Cold.
I quickly ousted myself from her arms. As I passed by her head I was overcome by a foul sickly sweet scent.
I couldn’t help but notice the other scent lingering in the air. Pennies.
Her hands. The counter. They were all covered in blood. The dough itself oozed a dark thick red. I looked down at my own blood stained hands. My eyes twirled in confusion. I looked up and saw my tia lunge forward. She grabbed my hands. She was so strong that despite all that blood on her hands, I was unable to slip away from her grasp.
She began to manipulate my hands into doing the same dance she had just done with the dough. Humming a familiar tune.
“Tortillitas pa’ Mama.” She flipped my index finger all the way back. I groaned in agony.
“Tortillitas pa’ Papa.” This time my middle. I screamed as much as my tightened wincing lungs would allow.
“Tortillitas para…XIMENA!” And with this she grabbed my wrist, placing a foot on my chest. She managed to pull my entire arm towards her with enough strength to pull my shoulder out of its socket. She let me go and I fell to the floor. I managed to get on my knees. My upper body fell forward, right on the afflicted arm. Although it wasn’t as painful as I had braced for. It was then that I realize the floor was covered in a soft soil.
“Fuck! Wake up! Wake up! WAKE UP!” My tia began to laugh hardily as I pled to my sleeping body to rise and run.
An alarm started to howl. Tia Valéria turned to me with a grimace.
“Ya vienen, mijita.” She laughed. “Ya vienen.” Her lips spread into a smile. Soon that smile fell into the slack jawed hammock I had seen at her house the day before.
I turned away. Still screaming. Drowned out by the sound of the blaring alarm.
