Horror logo

A Series of Errie

Short Horror Stories

By Olivia J EdensPublished 3 years ago 13 min read
1

Freezer - Part One

My front tooth slightly overlaps my other front tooth. I’m a nightmare when I get hungry. I laugh at my own jokes. When he fell in love with me he fell in love with my flaws, and I accepted his - without really understanding the depth of what that meant.

The trees were leafless. The wind howled, especially in the early hours. White snow didn’t fall, it actively plummeted from above as if it wanted to trap us inside. Something about the white snow seemed innocent, like it didn’t know it was dangerous; beautifully mischievous.

I worked from home so it didn’t bother me as much, I could order food and groceries and was admittedly a happy introvert. Not Ethan, Ethan was the prime example of an extravert he could talk confidently to anyone. He was a trainer turned business owner, very proud of the gym he owned and insisted on being there every day, rain, snow, whenever. Fortunately the gym was in walking distance but I would still get a knot in my stomach thinking about him on the icy road.

I was the one that worried, he was the one that reassured. Anytime I was anxious he was so good at calming my nerves. We met years ago at a gas station of all places, he struck up a conversation with me when we were standing in line, three years later we were living together and engaged, planning to marry in the spring.

He had gorgeous reddish brown hair. Clear skin. Strong arms, strong everywhere. When we first started dating I didn’t even know we were dating, I assumed someone so good looking only wanted to be friends with me. I’d been told I’m pretty, but I was clumsy and dorky and stared at the ground too much. The first time he kissed me I actually felt like I could be better, like I could rewrite myself and be a poised, powerful woman...but then again I had Ethan, he could be poised and powerful enough for both of us.

There was one thing wrong with Ethan - he was a slob. He would leave his dirty clothes on the floor instead of putting them in the hamper. He would finish eating and leave his plate on the table like he was out at a restaurant. He would never clean out the fridge or freezer. Seeing as he was perfect in every other category I didn’t really nag him for being a slob, I weirdly enjoyed knowing he had at least one flaw, I felt like it put us more on the same level. I would clean up after him, but he hated when I cleaned the kitchen.

‘You clean everything everywhere, don’t worry about the kitchen.’

He would explain.

Ugh. We never thought, but would come the closest to fighting when we talked about the kitchen.

‘If I don’t clean it, it doesn’t get cleaned. The kitchen is important, it’s where we keep our food, it has to be clean.’

I would explain.

Days and days would go by and I would have to go in there and clean the dishes, clean out the refrigerator, and wipe down the counters. He would come home and groan, ‘I told you I’d clean the kitchen. Please don’t clean the kitchen, I feel bad when you clean the kitchen because it’s my responsibility.’

Some days I’d have to stay on the other half of the house because seeing dishes in the sink would drive me crazy. He would clean everything, eventually but I hated the way he waited. I found myself not going into my own kitchen - I was ordering food or keeping non-refrigerated items in our bedroom. After two weeks I had to go into the kitchen and I was scared - scared there would be bugs and a terrible smell. I slowly and reluctantly made my way to the kitchen...I tightly closed my eyes and took a deep breath as I crossed from the living room to the kitchen...I opened my eyes and saw...nothing. Nothing out of the ordinary, I mean. The counters were clear, there were no dishes in the sink, no creepy crawlers...he had actually, finally kept up with cleaning the kitchen and I felt like I could finally go back to using the whole house.

The days were peacefully routine. Ethan woke up to open the gym at 5 am, he would kiss me, making a pot of coffee, and leave. I would roll out of bed around 7 am, the coffee would still be warm. I’d sit at the table in the kitchen, looking out at the snow. I’d make lunch, Ethan would stop by to eat with me and then leave again. He was teaching a yoga class. Then I’d make dinner, Ethan would come home - make a mess, take a shower and while he showered I would clean the living room & dining room.

I did notice a slight smell coming from the kitchen, I peered in there and noticed dishes starting to pile up. I was going to take care of them but Ethan had been doing such a good job keeping up with his chores, I didn’t want to hinder that. Maybe if he kept cleaning the kitchen he would start wanting to help clean other areas of the house.

He got out of the shower, I was watching TV in our room. He explained that he would be right there and I knew he was going to clean the kitchen. He came back roughly 30 minutes later and we fell asleep to the sound of the wind outside.

That morning I went to pour a cup of coffee and sit at the table, the way I always did. I looked up and was startled by what I thought was a woman standing outside our window. I gasped and dropped the mug, shattering it into pieces. I looked back up and she was gone, I couldn’t even describe her because I had only seen her for a second, I only vaguely remember her long dark hair. My hands shook as I cleaned up the spilled coffee and broken mug. I called Ethan and I was hysterical.

‘It’s okay, you were half asleep, you were obviously seeing things.’

I had never seen anything like that before. I took slow deep breaths and started to feel better. He asked if he should come home and I said no, though I really wanted him to...I knew he had an important meeting about opening more gym locations that day.

Hours had passed and I finally started to forget the blur of a woman I thought I saw. I went back to work, which was proofreading product descriptions. A knock at the door echoed and I hoped it was real, having sudden doubts on my own perceptions. I got up, put a sweater on and answered the front door. It was a police officer. My stomach was in my throat, I thought he could be there telling me something awful happened to Ethan.

“Hello Ma'am, I’m Officer Wynn. Have you seen this woman?”

He held up a photo of a woman with her hair in a tight bun, she had dark brown hair and icy blue eyes. She had tan skin and a freckle above her lip.

“No I haven’t. Sorry.”

“Please give us a call if you see her. Also, I don’t mean to alarm you but we’ve gotten reports of a stalker in the area. Please refrain from answering your door late at night and don’t hesitate to call us if you hear or see anything suspicious.”

“Yes, absolutely. Thank you for letting me know, Officer Wynn.”

I looked at the clock and realized Ethan didn’t come home on his lunch break. He probably ran late with that meeting, I dismissed it in my head. Though it was strange he wouldn’t come home to check on me after what happened in the morning. He came home around the same time as normal for dinner. That evening after his shower he took longer to clean the kitchen. That night it took him nearly two hours to finish cleaning the kitchen and come to bed. He smelled like bleach and it was hard to fall asleep next to him.

I woke up in the middle of the night. I didn’t want to wake up Ethan so I was going to go watch tv in the living room. I glanced over towards Ethan and realized he wasn’t in bed. I looked in the living room, the kitchen, the bathroom...he wasn’t there. I texted him. I called and it went to voicemail. I hoped he didn’t see this stalker and tried confronting him. To calm my nerves, I turned on the TV in the bedroom. I watched random YouTube videos until I finally fell asleep. I heard Ethan get up for work at 5am ...maybe he was next to me all night and whatever I thought happened was a vivid dream.

I had groceries delivered right before Ethan’s break. He arrived home a few minutes early. I started to put away items and he frantically grabbed items, specifically frozen items and started putting them away for me.

‘I have it babe, don’t worry. Enjoy your break.’ I explained

‘I never get to help you put food away, I’m making up for lost times.’ He smiled and jokingly tried juggling items.

‘I never got to tell you but a police officer stopped by yesterday.’

‘What? Why?’

‘Umm, he said there’s a missing girl.’

‘That’s sad. I hope the family is okay.’

‘Well, she could be a runaway, hopefully she’ll be back home soon.’

Ethan changed the subject, ‘We’ll be opening two new locations in the next year.’

‘That’s great, congratulations!’ I hugged him, he picked me up and spun me.

‘It’s going to be a great year.’ He beamed and then we sat down for lunch.

He started his car, letting it warm up before he returned to work.

Meanwhile, I was pondering what we should have for dinner. We had ordered food for a week straight. I opened the freezer, he quickly closed the freezer, ‘it wastes energy when you stand with the door open like that.’

I was taken back by how rude he sounded.

‘Just trying to figure out what we should do for dinner.’

He opened the door, grabbed something out without really looking and put it in the fridge. ‘Saves time, saves energy.’ He said sharply and kissed me on the forehead.

When he left I couldn’t shake off this strange feeling that he was keeping something.

I had to go through the freezer, it wasn’t a choice anymore - something was off and I couldn’t think about anything else.

My heart was pounding. I felt sick to my stomach. I got a garbage bag and decided to push through my discomfort and figure out what was hiding in the freezer.

The top shelf - nothing unusual. Ice Cream, frozen yogurt, fish sticks, and freezer burned chicken nuggets.

2nd Shelf - frozen chicken, frozen beef...and a bag...a bag wrapped tightly and taped. I peeled back the tape carefully, so I could put it back over when I was done. I finally got to the middle to discover a cheesecake. A home-made cheesecake from Leigh-Anne’s, the bakery my family-owned...the bakery that was put out of business a year ago. He must’ve been hiding this, saving it for our anniversary or maybe our engagement party. I wrapped it back up the way I found it, I felt silly for thinking...I don’t know what I thought - that my soon-to-be husband could’ve done something awful to that missing woman and left some clue in the freezer but instead he was only trying to do something romantic for me.

The shelf underneath that did have a strong odor. There were old packages that looked like some frozen dinners Ethan never made. I noticed the boxes were open and folded close. I opened one and discovered there was old meat placed in this cardboard box. As gross as it was, I put it back where I found it because I didn’t want Ethan thinking I didn’t trust him. He really was just a slob. A weird slob.

I figured I should turn my attention to the wedding - that was something positive I could focus on. I decided I wanted to slightly alter my Grandmother’s wedding dress and wear that. I thought I put the dress in the attic, so as much as I hated it - I pulled down the ladder and walked into the attic. It was cold, dusty, and dark - like every other attic. Ethan did a great job of labeling and keeping everything organized. There was a box labeled Jeana’s Family Items. There were some old clothes my mom gave me, some childhood Halloween costumes, and photo albums; no wedding dress though. I could’ve sworn I put it in the attic. Then I remembered after we filled the attic with boxes Ethan offered to let me keep some other storage items in the storage room outside.

The snow started at 5 am when Ethan left for work and continued into the early afternoon. I had on a sweater, long sleeve shirt, long pants, long socks, gloves, a scarf, and hat and still felt underdressed in the fresh frost. I recalled the storage room being pretty empty last time I was in there, but this time it was difficult for me to open the door. Ethan had made a mess of this storage room, there were heavy boxes stacked high on one side. He had full garbage bags on the other side. It smelled awful and I thought he forgot to take some garbage out and simply left the bags in here.

I was most surprised to see a vintage chest freezer in the back. It was a pretty pale pink color. Ethan knew I loved that vintage style so maybe it was a gift or something he forgot to bring in the house. I walked up to it and realized it was plugged in. Why did he need a freezer outside? He wasn’t a hunter. Maybe he kept extra food in case of some emergency. I continued to look for a box my Grandmother’s wedding dress could be in and finally found a box labeled Jeana family #2. I couldn’t believe I would leave such an important item out here in the cold. I opened the box and was so excited to see the dress was in there and still looked gorgeous. Distracted and clumsy, on my way out of the room I tripped over the freezer’s cord. I bent down to plug it back in -

Through the dim lighting in the small room I saw red spots on the ground. Maybe it was paint drops or…

The room wasn’t painted. The room was wooden and brick and never painted. There was no reason to paint it, that couldn’t be paint. I instantly felt sick when I discovered these red droplets came from the freezer. It had to be blood…

fiction
1

About the Creator

Olivia J Edens

Published Author, experience in writing fiction, coming of age, product descriptions, copywriting, and proofreading.

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.