Creepy Tales

The Tapes

I. Hate. Moving. Why are we moving anyway? I don't get it. Ever since Mom died he's been talking about moving non-stop. It's not like I have a say in it anyway but I still argued. Before he left to go get groceries for us, he told me to unpack some things. Boring. I've been cutting open boxes for what seems like hours.

I notice a box with the word "Movies" written on it in sharpie and open it with the box cutter. Oh, it's just all his old VHS tapes. I dig through them, reading the names of some as I do. They all range from comedies to romance and all the way to horror. My eyebrows furrow when I notice a tape that doesn't have anything written on it.

I shake my head before opening more boxes to finally find the VHS player and our TV. I get both set up in the floor and insert the tape. It'll bug me if I don't know what's on it. I'll watch it for a few seconds and then continue unpacking. The video starts in what seems like a small cabin. The next thing I see makes my eyes widen. The camera readjusts its position and a woman with a bag over her head is now in frame. She's tied to a chair and looks to be unconscious because of her lack of movement.

She doesn't seem to struggle, not even as a man appears behind her; dressed in a clown costume. His face isn't visible because of his height, the camera cutting off anything above his shoulders. The man pulls a large hammer out from behind his back and then begins to smash the woman's face in, no mercy or hesitation at all. I cringe. I hate these found footage movies, they always get me because of how realistic they look.

I decide to skip a little just to see how it ends and I'm shocked at the sight of the man standing behind her holding an axe at her throat and...decapitating her. I cover my eyes but peek just enough to see her head fall to the floor. The man bends over and picks it up and I see that he's wearing a clown mask.

The man is seen removing the bag off of the woman's head. I gasp and cover my mouth in shock, my widened eyes watering. I most likely wouldn't recognize her if it weren't for the earrings she was wearing. A phone rings. The man takes the phone out of his pocket, answering it. His phone is in one hand, her head in the other. I hear my voice coming from the other end.

"Dad, you coming home soon?" I hear myself say. He responds with a composed tone. "Yeah honey, sorry, traffic is horrible." He says with a fake groan. I shudder, my jaw still dropped. I flinch as I hear the door open. "Hey honey...sorry, traffic was just terrible. Ready for supper?"