Unholy Trinity: Delivered To Your Door, One Door Too Many and Unexpected News by Scarlet Berry
Our church worships at the altar of the Unholy Trinity. Its gospels are delivered as a trio of dark drabbles, linked so that Three become One. All hail the power of the Three.
Delivered to Your Door
“It’ll cost you,’” the man on the phone told me.
“No problem,” I replied and gave him my credit card information. “How soon can I get it?”
“Well, with the pandemic, we have a no contact delivery policy. We can drop it off at your door in a few hours.”
The doorbell rang promptly at midnight. I counted to ten and opened the door. A full body bag greeted me. As I eagerly tried to carry it into the house, I threw my back out.
I should have known better. What had I expected? After all, it was dead weight.
One Door Too Many
Anthony walked down another long, empty corridor, his footsteps echoing off the grey walls. He had passed many doors that refused to open. It had seemed like hours since he had entered the building, trying to find an unlocked door.
Finally, Anthony found one. He turned the doorknob and entered. He was surprised to find a room full of seated people. Anthony found an empty chair and quickly sat down.
He whispered to the woman on his left. “Quite a crowd, eh? Been here long?”
Anthony was startled by her reply, “Don’t you know? This is where the dead wait.”
Unexpected News
“Read this,” said my wife, shaking hands holding the newspaper.
Neighbors were complaining of an odd smell coming from the house next door. The police were called and found the body of the homeowner, who had apparently died in his sleep.
Upon further investigation, the police discovered a pot on the kitchen stove containing rotting human fingers and toes. They also found at least 6 human heads in the freezer.
They could possibly be connected to the missing persons cases of the past year.
The next line made my stomach lurch.
The deceased homeowner’s name was my brother’s, Dedd Wayte.
Scarlet Berry
Scarlet Berry is a Yooper. She’s been married over forty years to the same man and they raised four children together. She enjoys writing drabbles and sending them to Horror Tree’s Trembling With Fear.
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Stephanie Ellis writes dark speculative prose and poetry and has been published in a variety of magazines and anthologies. Her longer work includes the folk horror novels, The Five Turns of the Wheel, Reborn, and The Woodcutter, and the post-apocalyptic/horror/sci-fi The Barricade, and the novellas, Bottled and Paused. Her dark poetry has been published in her collections Lilith Rising (co-authored with Shane Douglas Keene), Foundlings (co-authored with Cindy O’Quinn) and Metallurgy, as well as the HWA Poetry Showcase Volumes VI, VII, VIII, and IX and Black Spot Books Under Her Skin. She can be found supporting indie authors at HorrorTree.com via the weekly Indie Bookshelf Releases. She can be found at https://stephanieellis.org and on Blue Sky as stephellis.bsky.social.
