Free The Tooth Collector (and Other Tales of Terror) by Lindsey Goddard

flashed like a strobe
light behind rows of enormous pumpkins. The wind picked up,
whipping the leaves.
     
    Steve's skin tingled where she touched him.
Her fingers felt amazing, even through his jeans. He wondered how
much further he had to drive. She nuzzled her soft hair against his
shoulder, and her closeness made his heart begin to pound.
     
    That's when he noticed it—a strange movement
in the fields. The pumpkins seemed to swell and pulsate, throbbing
in time with his heart. He blinked and rubbed his eyes, but the
motion continued, a rhythmic vibration up and down the rows.
     
    They came to a clearing at the end of the
road. Massive pumpkins formed a circle around it. Steve couldn't
see anything beyond those giant gourds, and he suddenly felt very
small. He barely had time to put the truck in park and kill the
engine before Aiyana sprang from her seat, leaving the door hanging
open.
     
    She danced through the clearing, heading for
a large, flat stone near its center. Her hips swayed, body
undulating to the tempo of the strange, silent lightning that lit
up the clouds. And the clouds, they swirled unnaturally fast.
     
    And then—he couldn't believe it—Aiyana
gripped the bottom of her brown halter top and yanked it over her
head. She stood atop the flat rock, topless and dancing. She
beckoned with her finger for Steve to come.
     
    He practically leaped from the truck. He
approached her, stepping onto the stone.
     
    She wiggled her hips, moved close to him.
“You're not shy,” he said, smiling.
     
    “No, I am proud to be woman.” She lifted her
chin. “Wyandot legend says that the first human was a woman who
fell from the heavens.”
     
    “Just like you,” he said. She grinned at him,
gyrating her hips.
     
    The lightning flashed, casting eerie shadows
across her features. Her rhythmic movements were fluid and
hypnotic. Steve couldn't look away. “This woman who fell from the
sky, she gave birth to a daughter who gave birth to twin boys. One
of the boys was evil and decided to kill his mother during
childbirth.” She smiled. “I know, this all sounds like nonsense,
but my favorite part is next...” She did a spin, then faced him
again. “The first crops sprang from her body when she was buried in
the earth. Maize from her chest. Beans from her legs. And the
pumpkins... they grew from her head.”
     
    Aiyana threw herself into the dance. All
around, the pumpkins thumped like the beating of a thousand hearts.
Their steady rhythm grew louder.
     
    Her eyes rolled. She whipped her head from
side to side and shook her ass, arms pumping to the beat of the
crops as they pulsed, vines swelling and deflating like
arteries.
     
    Steve broke a sweat, no longer turned on, but
terrified. “Maybe we should go,” he said, pointing to the sky.
“Heat lightning is a warning that a storm is coming.”
     
    She slowed her movement enough to steady her
breathing. “Do you know why that's my favorite part, Steve? About
the crops growing from her body?” She glared at him, and the
lightning flickered, distorting her beauty into something sinister.
Her bare breasts glistened with sweat.
     
    She moved close, and he found himself unable
to avoid her predatory advance. She was on him in an instant, hot
breath in his ear canal. Her lips caressed his ear lobe as she
whispered, “Because it's just like these crops.”
     
    She pulled away... stared at him. Her pupils
swirled, two black pits of madness. “You see, my family has an
arrangement with the crops. They grow big and ripe every year, and
in return we offer a sacrifice.”
     
    Something like regret wrinkled her brow. “I'm
sorry it has to be you.”
     
    Her palms slammed into his chest, and he flew
back, landing a few feet from the rock with his ass against the
cold, hard earth. He was dead center of the clearing; he realized
that now, and the vines... they moved like snakes through the
grass, slithering away from the pumpkins and into the brush. Tall
weeds