Tethered Dogs
By Gary McMahon, first published in Some Bruising May Occur
Two regulars at a bar are left questioning life and death when the prostitute of one of the barmen commits suicide, but instead of dying, her body has become reanimated with a supernatural spirit.
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A man approaches a regular at his usual bar, inquiring about the disturbed look on his face. The regular, Joel, answers that tonight, one of the girls he manages, Jenny, hanged herself. She had been suffering for a long time after the death of her child, using drugs to numb herself and selling her body to afford the drugs. Trying to stop her, Joel watched as Jenny's neck broke on the rope, causing her head to make a 180-degree rotation, forever locking her in that position. Her suicide was disturbing enough, but Joel admits that he became unsettled because of what came after. Jenny's body never stopped speaking; Joel checked her heart and breathing, and despite hearing nothing, Jenny continued to speak. At first, she began listing the death dates of everyone she knew in life, but soon, the dates began to be for people she couldn't have possibly known, such as future deaths. Jenny not only listed the days of their death but the method as well. Needing to flee and reencounter society, Joel came to the bar. Feeling obliged to act, the man insists on seeing Jenny; he knows that Joel is too weak to do what needs to be done, so he sets out to do it himself. Upon arriving at Jenny's body, the narrator realizes why Joel fears the body so much: she must've told him when and how he will die. Coming to fear this same fate of knowing his death, the man wraps his hands around Jenny's head and wrings it, snapping her neck back into place and instantaneously silencing her.
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