I'll Tell You a Story

Monster Who?

The streets were quiet and still. With evening crept into town, a chill had set in. Dim streetlights cut through the dark night, illuminating the barren area.

I wasn't walking anywhere specific. After all, I was just a homeless guy—dirty and stinky, typical looney garb. There was a war in my stomach. I'm starving to death. I hadn't found much food in the trash barrels this afternoon. It was overflowing with just styrofoam cups and dirty diapers.

A sardines' can roll along, its metallic clatter rattling in the quiet. I paused, letting a sharp silence elapsed for a while, waiting for anything that may follow. No movement. I just trifled the metal.

A loud and furious honk made me nearly leaped out of my skin. Darkness was chased away by the incoming blinding light. I knew what to expect. A rarely-washed yellow car was heading toward me.

My eyes were squeezed tightly shut. I knew I had no time to save myself anymore. With the body gone rigid, I awaited the moment of impact. But minutes after, nothing happened. I'm relieved.

"Get out of the way, you stupid creature!" snarled the rage-clenched driver. His eyes were like detonating nuclear factories.

Eyes darted at me, he revved his car at idling, before accelerating it. A pall of ashy smoke belched from his wheels and unraveled across the pavement. I decided to edge away but, still, he almost broadsided me. A high-revving whine. All around me fell quiet after.

I walked another hundred feet in silence, coming up on a broken-down car. I trotted over into the driver's seat, made myself comfortable, and started imagining I was in a satin-and-silk, pink-and-plush, marshmallow-and-cotton-candy girl's room.

It was already midnight, I woke up with the smell stale beer flaring my nostrils. I suddenly heard footsteps, quickening, irregular. The breaking of beer-bottle shards signaled they were close enough. The acceleration was slow, but it was a threat to me anyway. A shadow crossed the windshield, a distraction made for me. The rear passenger's door flew open and a man climbed in. I kicked and clawed at the ground as he dragged me out, tearing clumps of dirt as I fought to get free. I felt a sharp tug on my feet and was all aswoon. Everything went black after.

After I ended my unwanted sleep, I found myself inside a deep-freeze, unfriendly cage. I could barely jam myself inside. Moments later, terrifying recognition dawned upon me—I was in a Chevy truck.

The car settled into a quieter grind, roughening as it picked up speed. It was driven slowly down narrow, twisty side roads until it was turned off the highway and onto a nondescript dirt road surrounded by cornfields. I was late to realize how secluded it actually was.

Murmurs and scuffling noises. I then swiveled my eyes in various directions, discovering some homeless creatures in cages too. Some of them paralyzed, mostly wounded. Others were unmoving, dead, heads saturated with flesh blood. Their bellies were open, fleshy cave. Bones peeked through decimated flesh. Flies congregated on their mud-caked and blood-etched skin and flew in and out of their lifeless bodies.

A big-boned male in blue sweatshirt startled us as he appeared on the back of his truck. The same guy who probably abducted me earlier. An unspeakable terror made me sweat-slick and gasping as I look directly into his kohl-rimmed eyes.

I was starting to see the whole scene in a new light. Thoughts circled around my aching head, thinking how cruel humans could be. I guessed the human was still the scariest monster ever created.

"Dog's meat is the best!" A madman-like grin was curled in his lips, tongue soused his lips, and revealed a butcher's knife clutched in his hand.