Another Man's Wife plus 3 Other Tales of Horror Read Online Free

stainless steel operating table, a gag filling his
mouth. Standing above him was Harold, holding a scalpel, dressed in
a surgeon’s garb, face mask and all.
    “Glad you’re finally awake.”
    Garrett tried speaking, but the gag made his
words intelligible.
    “You’re going to scream a lot and I hate
that.” Harold lowered the scalpel to Garrett’s stomach. Garrett
tried pleading through his gag. Harold paused, taking the scalpel
away. “I can’t understand what you’re saying, but I suppose you
want to know what I’m going to do?” Garrett mumbled something
inaudible. “I’m going to remove small pieces of you, skin, bone,
organs, building to bigger, more significant parts, and see how
long I can keep you alive while doing it.” Garrett tried speaking
again. Harold shook his head. “My record is ten hours, I’m hoping
to improve that with you.” Harold lowered the scalpel and began
cutting.
    Garrett screamed for the next twelve
hours.
     
     

 
     
    Comes with Baggage
     
    Corbin Ray couldn’t use a straw or speak
clearly, certain words ripped from his vernacular. He lay in his
hospital bed, listening as the physicians and surgeons spoke. He’d
heard all of it before, numerous times, but formalities were part
of the process.
    The procedure had only been performed on a
handful of patients within the last four years, each one with set
backs, rejection and infection the most prevalent, but ultimately
all had succeeded.
    Corbin was given a list and told about the
plethora of drugs he’d have to take for the rest of his life,
immune suppressants the most crucial. There was also the chance of
his body rejecting the transplant, leaving him more scarred and
disfigured than he already was.
    “How much worse could I look?” he joked, to
the crowded room, drool oozing down his chin. Everywhere he went
people gawked or turned away, disgusted. In his mind, there was no
downside.
    After the pre-op question and answer session,
Corbin picked up the handheld mirror. The image staring back at him
was grotesque. No amount of time would get him used to himself. It
had taken him months, numerous visits to psychologists and
anti-anxiety drugs, to build up the courage to look at himself. A
day didn’t pass without that nightmarish day ripping through him
like a chainsaw.
    He’d been on vacation, surfing off the coast
of Malibu when a Great White shark sunk its teeth into Corbin’s
face, ripping it off before swimming away as if the flesh had
tasted rotten. His upper lip, nose, right cheek, ear and part of
his jaw had been taken, including nerves and the ability to smell.
The worst thing of all for Corbin had been his inability to smile.
Something he’d taken for granted, but loved doing.
    He’d lost his fiancée, job, and many friends,
even shutting out the ones who’d stuck by him.
    He lived alone in his downtown Poughkeepsie
apartment, almost never leaving. He worked on projects from his
home, doing interior design jobs for companies and took a position
as an online customer service representative, using chat as the
form of communication.
    Groceries, DVD’s, magazines, were all
delivered, always left outside his door. He had become a recluse,
only speaking with his mother on occasion. His only friends became
internet chat buddies and ones without the use of a video
camera.
    The operation took twenty hours. The doctors
replaced bone, nerves, before finally placing the new face over his
gutted old one.
    Corbin was in and out of consciousness,
supplied intravenously with pain medicine, for hours after the
surgery, his mother by his side the entire time.
    When he awoke, fully, the reality of the
procedure hit home like a baseball bat, his face feeling as if
thousands of needles were being driven into his skull.
    Recovery was a bitch, but the nurses made
sure he did what he was supposed to do, including taking walks up
and down the hallway, using his breathing device to expand his lung
function, and always making sure he