"All in the Family" - Horror Hill

Erik Peabody (0:00)

Greetings, listeners, Erik Peabody here, and tonight I'm bringing you another taste of Horror Hill's past with a special performance from the program's original host, Jason Hill. Jason established the voice and atmosphere of Horror Hill during its formative seasons, guiding listeners through some of the program's most memorable journeys into the macabre. Should tonight's performance leave you wanting more, the first few seasons are waiting, filled with stories he both hosted and brought to life. I'll be here every Thursday with new tales of Terror of my own. Tonight's featured author requires little introduction. Brian Warner is better known by his stage name, Marilyn Manson, and as the frontman of the band bearing that name. Over the course of a career spanning more than three decades, Marilyn Manson has become one of the most recognizable and provocative acts in modern rock, building a multi-platinum catalogue earning Grammy recognition and sending two albums, Mechanical Animals and The Golden Age of Grotesque, to the top of the Billboard 200 Warner wrote All in the Family in 1988 and submitted it to Night Terrors magazine. His correspondence with the publication, along with the short story itself, was later included in his autobiography, The Long Hard Road Out of Hell.

Before we continue, please be advised that tonight's story contains graphic violence as well as abuses of a sexual and familial nature. Listener discretion is advised.

Tonight's story takes us inside a decaying household ruled by repression, resentment, and a mother's ruthless ideas about discipline. Teddy has spent years concealing his darkest impulses from his family, along with an unnatural attachment that has become the center of his isolated existence. When his sister destroys the one thing he believes he truly loves, the fragile order of his world begins to collapse, threatening to expose everything he has worked to conceal, just as mother is due home. Teddy may believe he understands punishment, but in this family, mother always has the final word.

Written by Brian Warner, as performed by Jason Hill, with production by Craig Groshek, and original music by Luke Hodgkinson and Jesse Cornett, this is All in the Family.

Jason Hill (2:34)

He hoped the tape recorder would still work. It was one of those small portable ones often used in schools or libraries. Teddy didn't even realize the irony of his action. Angie was, in fact, the one who had brought it for him. He wiped the hair and blood off the corner and released a sigh of frustration.

Mother will probably ground me from the television, he considered, looking to the mess he had made. Damn her! Damn them all! Why did she have to hurt Peg? Why?

Balefully, he kicked the corpse beside him. Her glazed eyes stared back at him with empty fascination. You bitch! You killed Peg! His sister's dead look gave no response. He wondered why. Her face looked so shadowed. He lifted her head up by her clotted hair and saw that it was dried blood on her cheek that created the mock shadow. He saw, too, that the dent in her skull had stopped gushing. The coagulated blood had formed a gelatinous plug. Mother would be home soon. It would have to dig a grave. Teddy got up and walked to his bedroom, where Peg's plastic body lay deflated. Atop her bloodless chest was a kitchen knife, and she stared at the ceiling with her permanent expression, mouth in the shape of an O.

She looked as if she would scream. He picked up the doll's head and looked tearfully at the flat terrain of her airless life-sized figure. Cradling her head, he began to cry. Each tear held a thousand wishes to bring her back. He was glad Angie was dead. She had deserved every last blow.

As Teddy stroked Peg's artificial hair, he noticed the stench coming from his sister, who lay several feet away. He knew it was urine. He had heard her bladder release when he struck the final deadly blow. He had hit her once more for good measure. She killed Peg. He had every right. Carefully, he let Peg's head rest on the carpet. Bending down, he kissed her cheek and wiped some sticky stuff from her rubber limb. Mom had told him before not to touch Peg or to make the nasty in her mouth, but he couldn't help it. He loved her too much just to leave her be. If mom found out he had done the nasty, then she would take Peg away.

Like before, he would have to find her too.

As Teddy went back to Angie's body, he stopped for a moment to marvel at her nudity. He had always watched her dress from the closet, but he never seen her thing up close. He was fascinated by the dark tuft of hair between her legs. Peg didn't have that. Cautiously, he touched her thigh and jerked away as if her flesh was hot. It wasn't though. In fact, she was starting to get cold. It had been four hours.