Free The Black Lake: Tales of Melancholic Horror by Jon Athan

up, we have to take care of Mary. You can't let her slip through the cracks like this. You know, some teens, when they see weakness in their parents, they'll lie and...”
    Daniel interrupted, “I'm telling you, she's here with us. She didn't sneak out, she didn't take advantage of me. In fact, I took advantage of her.”
    Diana's stony-face suddenly became an infuriated glower. Her blood boiled with vexation, fizzing in her veins like a carbonated beverage. She couldn't conjure a single word as she shambled away from the wall. Her throat was smothered by her uncontrollable fury.
    Diana asked, “What... What did you just say?” Daniel snickered as he stood by the dining table. Diana loured and shook her head as she asked, “What the hell did you just say, Daniel? You took advantage of her? Huh? Who the hell do you think you are?”
    Daniel held his hand to his mouth as he cackled, hopelessly trying to distort his disrespectful guffaw to no avail. He leaned forward, gripping his stomach with his other hand. A vein bulged down the center of his brow as he struggled to breathe from his hysterical laughter.
    Diana slapped Daniel, then shouted, “ Stop! Stop it! Tell me what you did to Mary! Tell me!”
    Daniel staggered away from Diana as he rubbed his crimson cheek. He explained, “I told you already, sweetheart: I fixed that problem. Mary's gone. She's not going to bother us anymore. I think, deep down, she really wanted this. She wanted to... to be a martyr for our relationship.”
    Diana's eyes watered and her teeth chattered upon hearing Daniel's sinister and ambiguous explanation. In a soft, dubious tone, she repeated, “ Martyr? ”
    Diana scrunched her face as tears gushed from her eyes. She lunged at Daniel, tightly gripping his white button-up shirt from the chest. The pair recklessly hurtled towards the kitchen. Daniel grunted as his back collided with the protruding granite countertop.
    Diana glared into Daniel's indecipherable eyes and asked, “Where's my daughter? What did you do to her?”
    Daniel responded, “Part of her is still with us. She's in this very room. Another part... Well, a small part is within us. She wanted to stay with us forever. It won't work out that way for her, but we probably got some protein out of it.” He pointed towards the aluminum pan on the table, then asked, “The meal was delicious, wasn't it?”
    Diana gazed at the mountainous meat. Her bottom lip quivered as the terrifying thought clung to the back of her mind. She shook her head like a dog out of bath as she staggered to her knees and struggled to breathe. The idea was too sinister to accept.
    Diana stuttered, “You–you wouldn't... You wouldn't do that... Where... What...”
    Diana wildly sobbed as the dubiety of the situation clouded her mind. She glanced at the countertop adjacent to the stove. There was a black plastic bag hidden beside the refrigerator. A pink shirt and blue jeans protruded from an opening on the bag – the clothing of a young girl. Diana retched as she considered the possibility.
    Daniel knelt down beside Diana and explained, “She... She didn't know what she was getting into, but she was willing to do anything to get us back together. I knocked her unconscious while she listened to her loud music... I've told her a million times to turn it down. Anyway, I didn't want her to feel any pain, so I had to knock her out...”
    “Stop...”
    “Then, I cut her throat in the bathroom. I drained her blood and everything. It was like a... a movie or something. Then, I sliced her up and baked her in the oven. If you got here an hour or two earlier like you were supposed to, you could have stopped it. You wouldn't have tasted her 'heavenly' flesh, you wouldn't...”
    As she dry-heaved, Diana hopelessly cried, “Stop... Stop! Pl–please... Stop...”
    Daniel smirked as he wrapped his arm around his estranged wife. He pointed at the aluminum pan and joked, “Come on, it's not that bad. It's steak cooked