Over Her Dead Body by Bradley Bigato

bed asleep, oblivious to the fact that her husband had left her bed several hours ago. She remained oblivious to all the flashing lights passing in front of the house. And now she lay there semi oblivious to the knocking that came at the door. There were three hard knocks, a pause, and then another three hard knocks. She was at an amusement park feeding food to the fish. She had just put another quarter in the machine and turned the handle. A heaping pile of pellets rolled out into her hand. Michael was next to her. He held out his hands and made a scoop with them. April poured half of the pellets into his hands. She looked up and he was smiling at her. They both laughed and turned and sprinkled the food into the water a little at a time. It seemed like hundreds of big carp skimmed the surface sucking the pellets in with their little carp mouths. They looked like little vacuum cleaners and they made funny little noises each time they sucked a pellet into their mouth. After they emptied their hands, April turned toward Michael and their eyes connected. Michael smiled at her and reached up and tucked a stray hair back from her face. He pulled her close and she embraced him. It was beautiful out; there were kids and families all around running excitedly. Then Michael pulled back a little. April felt something tugging at her pant leg. She looked down and found a beautiful little girl smiling up at her. She had beautiful brown curly hair, warm brown eyes that glistened as she smiled, and a beautiful face of an angel. The little girl was smiling. She was holding an ice cream cone in her right hand. She held it out and offered it to April. April smiled and took the cone. She gave it a single lick and said “yummy” to the little girl and handed back the cone. The little girl smiled and then something like a look of concern crossed her face. April and Michael both bent down. “What’s wrong sweetie?” April asked the little girl. A tear had begun to fall down her left cheek and Michael scooped it up with his finger.
    “Why are you crying?” He asked.
    The little girl looked up at both of them. “Please. Please help me.”
    “Help you what honey?” April asked.
    “I can’t find her. Can you help me find her?” The little girl said.
    “Who are you looking for sweetie? Are you lost?” asked Michael.
    “I can’t find my sister. She’s lost.” A big gust of wind blew past kicking up dirt and debris into April and Michael’s face. April shielded her eyes with her hand. It grew darker as clouds filled the sky and blotted out the sun.
    “Where’s your mommy honey? Is your mommy with you?” April asked.
    The little girl turned her head so that she was staring straight into April’s eyes. Her ice cream slid sideways and fell from her cone to the ground. Her eyes reflected concern, fear, and welled up with tears. “You’re my mommy silly” the little girl said and threw her arms around April. April hugged the girl and smiled at Michael who was smiling back at her. The sky grew darker and April looked around to see people running and screaming. She looked back at Michael and he had blood running down his chin. His clothes were gone and he was wearing nothing but his briefs and a t-shirt. Then a loud knocking sound came from nowhere and April sat straight up in her bed gasping for air. She took a deep breath and listened to the silence. The knocking returned. It had followed her out of her dream, or interrupted it.
    You’re my mommy silly . The voice came back to her in her head as she slid out of bed and grabbed her robe off the closet door. She looked at the bed and made a note that Michael wasn’t there again. She hoped he was in the other room and not out digging…but if that were the case he would have answered the door. She shook her head as she tied the robe around her waist and headed for the door. The door was slightly ajar.  “Who is it?” She hollered through the crack in the door. Where the hell was