Kill All Monsters
By Gary McMahon, first published in Shadows & Tall Trees #3, spring
An English family is on the run because the father has become paranoid about the monsters that he sees everywhere, and the mother wonders how long they can continue like this.
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Driving down an English road, a father and mother pull into a diner to get some food, although they acknowledge that they can't stay for long because the father gets triggered by so many people and because it is likely people are looking for them. They quickly eat dinner, with the wife trying to appease her husband, but with every passing moment, she can see him become angrier. When a smug-looking man passes by, entering the bathroom, she knows that it is best to let him release his anger here, lest he release it on her or their daughter. She tells him to go ahead, and they'll get ready to leave. He follows the man into the bathroom with a knife and returns within thirty seconds with bruised knuckles and spots of blood on his jacket. In the car, he expresses guilt for having to put his family through this, but he insists that he has to kill every monster. He always hopes that each new monster is the last one, but he always seems to find another. The mother contemplates at what point she will need to kill him. She's appeased him thus far, but if she continues to allow him to kill people, then she is just as insane as he is. Considering getting a gun to kill him, he interrupts her when he spots another monster on the road and begins speeding to catch up to them.
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