Two Page Shorts by Nick Venom (best large ebook reader TXT) 📕

A man drenched in his blood trudged down a gravel road, limping forward. In the far distance were police sirens, filling the air with their noise. The sound was echoing off the trees that surrounded him; suffocating him with their screechy echos. 

The man grabbed at his wound, covering a bullethole. He had been shot, hoping to block the blood from spilling out. However, his hand was only a temporary solution to a long-term problem. He needed medical attention, soon. 

“I… need…” He muttered, gasping for air in between words. His breathing had become erratic over time. He could barely speak, barely walk, and barely breathe. Everything inside him was deteriorating. 

On his belt was a switchblade, jabbed harshly into a makeshift holster, a single-bladed glove with blood attached to it, and empty spots where daggers used to live at. The belt was emptier than it used to be. The tools had been lost or discarded. 

“To…” The man croaked, his voice becoming coarse. “Kill… him!” The man grabbed at the air, choking it. However, his grip loosened and he staggered forward. He faceplanted on the harsh gravel, cutting into his already bloodied skin. 

A sign that he passed, read, “East Emerald Forest Preserve.” It was planted at the main entrance of the forest reserve. A large bloody handprint was imprinted on the entrance, exposing the man’s escape route; however, a person dressed in a black cloak found the handprint before the police did. The person wiped the handprint off the sign before disappearing through the forest preserve. 

A man dressed in solid black clothing hid in the darkness of a garage that was connected to a two-story house. The man---a nametag hidden behind the black clothing, reading “Max”---waited for the family living in the house to fall asleep. He waited for the last light to be extinguished before creeping towards the garage door that led to the inside of the house. 

He opened the door and walked inside, brandishing an ax. On his belt were an arsenal of weapons---a switchblade, a single-bladed globe, a long piece of rope, and several daggers. However, Max picked the ax instead of the other weapons in his arsenal. He felt like the ax would prove to be more vicious and personal to use. He needed that feeling.

He crept past the first floor and up the flight of stairs to the second floor. Using the night’s darkness as his cover, he walked proudly up the stairs. He was granted the best opportunity to strike.

With an ax in hand, he scanned his surroundings. There were four doors; three of them belonging to the parents and children with the fourth being the bathroom. 

He ignored the bathroom door, noticing one of the doors shielding faint light. One of the children was still awake, watching a video in semi-darkness. A nightlight was activated, slightly brightening up her vision. 

The child, Grace Riser, was still awake past her curfew, watching a strange video on her small laptop. The video was of a terrorist execution video, showing extremely cruel violence. Grace, however, was unfazed by the gruesome deaths of the terrorists. Instead, she seemed excited, almost delighted with the video’s outcome. 

Meanwhile, Max hesitated to approach Grace’s room. He felt something was off, deciding to ignore her and her sibling’s room. Instead, he went towards the parents’ room. He then opened the door ajar, peeking into the room, checking to see if his targets were sleeping or faking it. 

He waited for a few seconds, rattling his knuckles on the door, before pushing his way into the room silently. He approached his main target, the father of the family---Toby Riser. With one last glance, he raised his ax into the air and launched it downward. The swing fell for a few brief moments before colliding with Toby’s chest. His chest jerked up before falling back into place, spurting out blood. 

By this time, Toby had awoken, his body was in bad condition. He stared at his chest, watching as blood puddled around him. Fortunately, he couldn’t feel the pain yet, but he could imagine it. He let out a loud shriek, waking his wife. His wife, Allison Hanson, awoke to Toby’s screams. This led to her screaming her lungs out at the sight, waking up her children and a nearby neighbor. 

“Honey!” She shouted. 

Max, who was getting irritated by the loud shouting and had noticed the neighbor’s room lighting up, decided to rip the ax out of Toby’s chest and embed it in his face. He was killed almost instantly. 

His wife witnessed the entire incident, jumping out of bed and rushing out of the room. Max noticed her trying to escape, pulling out a dagger from his belt and launching it towards her. She managed to dodge the dagger, bolting out of her room to collect her children.

“Angry,” He muttered, ripping the ax out of Toby’s face. He then stomped out of the room, following Allison as she tried to escape with her children. She ran down the stairs and charged to the front door.

Unbeknownst to her, Max had a clear line of sight from the top of the stairs to the front door. He was able to equip another dagger and throw it at her. The dagger, ripping through the air, nicked her dirty-blonde hair. It then found itself embedded in the wooden frame of the front door. 

“Angry,” He repeated, equipping the ax. With two hands on it, he launched it at her. The ax flew through the air before digging into her back. She took the blow, falling to the ground with a heavy thud. Her children---Grace and Alexis---watched with wide eyes as their mother’s body was surrounded by blood caused by the ax nearly splitting her back open like a chip bag. 

“Leave me!” She cried out. “Go and get help from the neighbors! I’ll be alright, so go! Go before he catches up!” 

Grace tearfully nodded, grabbing ahold of her brother’s hand and leading him away to a neighbor’s house. She regretfully left her mother in the hands of a killer. Unfortunately, she couldn’t help her mother aside from going and asking for help from others. She was disgusted at herself for that feeling.

Meanwhile, Max took his time going down the stairs. He watched as Allison tried to desperately crawl away to no avail. Max was quicker than her, catching up with her without breaking a sweat. He then equipped the single-bladed glove, grabbing ahold of Allison’s collar and taking her out of the house. 

Once out of the house, he threw her to the ground. He then laughed menacingly at her expense. He was having fun teasing Allison, tormenting her. However, his free time would soon be over, forcing him to hammer in the final nail of her coffin.

Raising her by her collar, he stared directly into her eyes. She stared back defiantly, spitting in his face. 

“I should’ve known you were going to do something like this.” She remarked. “They should’ve kept you in that mental asylum!” She then spat in his face again.

Max, now irritated, raised the glove and was about to stab her when a distinct sound of a revolver clicking a bullet into place, distracted him. He glanced around, noticing one of Allison’s neighbors pointing a gun at him. 

“Irritated,” He remarked, turning Allison into the neighbor's line of sight. Now the middle-aged balding man couldn’t fire without wounding Allison. 

“Funny,” Max remarked, furiously stabbing Allison in the gut. He pummeled her stomach to gory bits, watching with glee as her intestines dropped to the ground. Her blood joined her organs on their descent, staining the once greenish grass with a reddish tint. 

With her body being drained, he pushed the blade in further, raising her body into the air before unceremoniously dropping it on the ground. He discarded it like a bag of worthless trash.

The neighbor---who watched Max kill Allison---regained his line of sight. With no hostages in the way, he fired off a few shots that made contact with Max. He took the bullets in the arms, legs, and torso before being sprawled out on the grass. His blood joined Allison’s blood, except the shots never hit his vital organs.

The neighbor, satisfied with his execution of Max, turned away from the body. He focused on the children, who he shielded from their mother’s corpse. 

“Are you okay? Where's your father?” He asked, attempting to attract their curious eyes. Seeing the corpse of their mother was something that he didn’t want them to witness. It would forever scar them. 

“Inside,” Grace remarked, pointing at her home. The neighbor then nodded, frowning at her answer. He expected that their father was already dead, similar to their mother.

“Okay, then the police will arrive soon. For now, sit tight.” He told them. He then turned around, scanning the active crime scene. With wide eyes, he noticed that Max’s body was gone; disappearing into thin air. Allison’s body, on the other hand, remained on the ground. 

Meanwhile, a crowd began forming around the scene as lights from a police car started flashing. The sirens then echoed into the air, seeping into the forest preserve a couple of miles away.

The police, once they arrived, discovered Max’s daggers. They also analyzed his blood on the grass, sending them to the crime lab where it was revealed that the owner was a mental asylum patient named Max Riser. With Max confirmed as the killer, linking the double homicides and house invasion, police then questioned the warden of the mental asylum Max was last thought to be in. The warden, Hendrick Johnson, informed police that Max broke out of the asylum and was being tracked down. However, they couldn’t track him down in time to prevent the incident. 

With the double homicide case being blamed on him, Johnson’s hands were being tied. He now had to undergo a police investigation that would leak his secrets to the public. All because of Max escaping his cell. All because of him, the truth had to be revealed. 

Hello All!

The Halloween Riser franchise will be made up of six-installments. The first four installments will follow a linear storyline while the last two installments wrap up his story in a prequel duology. 

Aside from the remaining installments, there aren’t any plans concerning The Halloween Riser’s characters. These characters won’t crossover with the Jayhawk Monster Connected Universe or with any other property. Instead, the story of Max Riser will remain isolated and fixed.

The last thing to add is that I will be remastering the current three installments out---Part One, Apprentice, and Hunter & Prey---before the end of 2021. These installments were released on an annual basis, but it will not be true for the fourth installment. Two Page Shorts’ (home of The Halloween Riser) fourth volume has been delayed a year; now being released in 2022 instead of 2021. 

Thank you for reading and I wish you all the best of luck in 2021; let's hope it’s better than 2020. So until next time, I bid you all a good day.

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