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Show elleil feet WASATCH COUNTY COURIER, October 26, 1999 wilh CREEPY STORIES continued from page 16 -“ Be bed, ; strange. He walked freely around the grounds. It felt safer than indoors, even given the | % she The noticed sheets Definitely grimy. Lifting she, phew, what's soiediae’ were, well, the guard dogs, all legs and teeth. Frank’s grey. wandering, however, had purpose. hamper, that smell?, found He left his room as usual one morning. The hall was suddenly unfamiliar. He found himself crawling in a damp cave. The space below him grew narrow, and a pungent pair of pajamas wadded behind it. Good grief, she thought, have they been there? how long only darkness lay below. Then Frank reached forward and felt nothing. Frank sat back, angry. Enough of this game— ~ When Billy came out of the icon Mom. was waiting. She gently pulled back his collar. The aroma did the rest: | he would sit here until it ended. Then, above him, somethmg screamed. An object struck, barely missing his head. He sat, seeing nothing, with no way to It was humiliating, Billy thought, having your Mom watch, making sure you used ~ soap, toothpaste, shampoo.. Dressed in predict where and when the blows would come. He weighed the odds - the - the second clean pajamas of the night, Billy didn’t panic until he realized Mom | unknown was still watching. climbed in. Clean sheets! struck him: Clean aupndd y The dust ruffle shifted. “What's that smell?” Sniff. “What's that ssssmeeellll?” Sniff. “Smells like < flowers, like mint, like rain.” Sniff. “Smells like,” sniff “like fresh boy, like clean boy!” Sniff “Nice - - late. The meal he’d eaten was superb, A year later, after the trial and after all the media oozed away, Billy’s mother finally began to strip his bed and pack and he could have gone on eating him- his clothes. Billy wasn’t. coming back, and although they never found his body, the cops did catch a perv two states over just as he was dragging some other mother’s Billy out the window.As she lifted the sheets, reo nine =rus- tled, like leaves along the sidewalk. She sliding - reached under - the bed and pulled.out an empty Oreo bag. Reaching deeper, she found several candy wrappers, an empty perfume bot_’ tle, a moldy cobbler pan, and a wadded pair of Billy’s pajamas, still with the faint smell of a clean boy. Simon’s Game Rebecca Rice Birkin — | Thirty-something(Ghouls) As the limousine window lowered, a skeletal hand emerged, pale against the tinted glass. Frank shivered, but then, it was a cold night. The trashcan fire did little to stop the chill of the wet pavement. He pulled his ragged quilt closer, wishing he’d. been able to scrape up enough to stay inside the hotel. That bit of irony caught in his throat - he’d once spent that amount on lunch.: But now the hand gestured him closer. He looked at his companions, then shrugged and sf Lh dl I dala lll self into a trance. But his new employer spoke. ‘motioned to his driver. “lust a few odd jobs,” he said. “Free meals, nice bed to - dred could get them all:a room. He nodded, both to say yes and goodbye, and got in. Frank leaned back, the chair more com- fortable than most places he’d slept of he lowered ran again. He heard the barking of dogs, and terror turned to panic as the sound - grew louder. But then he saw. a road. An old truck lumbered up, and Frank waived frantically. The man raised a crooked fine: “Ah,~ but you don’t understand. This is your first job.” He pointed to a bookshelf at the far end of the room.: “Lift that box off the shelf.” | | The But “Trouble?” The driver asked. 7 Frank leaned against the seat. “You have no idea.” * box looked like an old ee set. as he lifted ‘it, Frank heard a tremendous scraping. He turned to find | the man gone, along with every particle of furniture. He was alone on the bare ~ wooden floor. Suddenly, it began to then handéd Frank some money. “Think ‘about it,” he said as he left. Frank hear his fingers squeak as he tried to grab the slippery surface, and then he down into that blackness. He fell for what seemed a lifetime, numb, unable to focus. Then the numbness broke as’ he descended into icy water black as ink. “Help me,” he screamed, “I can’t swim.” The water swallowed his words as he was “A hotel,” he paused, “Anywhere.” ‘Rest. I'll have Tobin bring you more “floor lowered, exposing a gaping black hole. Frank lost his footing. He could falling, “Where to” food.” He rose, visible for the first time, ‘move, tilting like a ship's deck. Frank tried to walk, to grab something solid. But there was nothing. One end of the was swal- lowed, down deep. He gasped for breath and. took in only water. Another bum, dead, he thought as he lost consciousness. — : fingered ie crisp bills in his 2 hand. Five plus a thousand more enough to get him started again-a place of his own, an address,a chance to work once more. He could put up with just “one more day, one more game. - Frank stayed for two more days, by then deciding that the man’s mind was more twisted than his hands. Each day the money was more, but so was the challenge. He never knew when or where the games would start. The old man sent — him to the attic to find an old trunk. But as he opened the door, he saw no out.” “You’re nuts. want out!” Bit Frank-Yell back, then vomited, spewing water. “Stay one more a lees Frank Oe shook his —a “thousand dol- x head. Gonsidedite it showed who was really crazy. But he had lost the benefit of that delicious dinner, - and lightheadedness told him he needed to eat again. The his Een | repeated itself hour upon hour as Frank tried to get away. Then, as Frank felt his ‘sanity collapsing, he lowered himself onto carpet. He was back in the hallway. beneath a pine tree. to wait. At dark he “How about a game?” ‘Frank hesitated, “I’m a little tired.” attic, only cold gray sky. The stairway wound to the top of a narrow precipice. Any misstep meant a stairway down to death. He turned. instirictively to go back. But there again he’ was stopped. »” The driver was holding the ‘door open. Frank glanced back. His companions stared with greedy fixation. Five hun-— blood, early in the morning, Frank ran for the break in- the hedge, then crawled trasted strongly with that barely visible shadowed in a corner. “You disappoint figure. “I’m looking for an employee,” he me. said, emphasizing the last syllable. . Frank lunged at the man, but the but“Interested?” Frank knew there had to. -ler’s hand held him back. “You tried to bea catch. Still, it beat sitting here. He kill me.’ shrugged again, “What can I do for He could hear the soft uaas “There -you?” The man’s laughter was ae and were stairs within a foot of your reach. - gurgling. “An intelligent man,” he nodp With every game, there must be a way ded; “I can. always pick them.” He stay in, and good pay - I'll give you.five hundred the first day.” . Feeling By now Frank knew the man would not easily give up his game. So Frank waited and planned. When Tobin fed the dogs walked to the car. Despite the moonless But Frank awoke, wet and shivering, in night, the man inside wore dark glasses. _ a bed large enough to get lost in it. He His voice, loud and commanding, con- - could hear the chuckle of the old man, Hs ae | dndatiaaieddbeealalnne t Rebecca Rice Birkin “boy! | want that sssmeeeelllll.” autumn or the dark- Then he heard anothér scream. Was it another creature, or the same one? It struck his leg this time, .and he _jumped—another ledge. The cycle Billy flew out of bed to the hoses. Nothing on the floor except shoes! dry above, "into the abyss. His feet struck something - solid—another narrow pathway. He crawled frantically until It, 00, ended. : sheets! Billy’s.mind reeled. “| “Love you. Sweet qeosee ve out the light. creature ness below? Somethmg cold and sharp “C’mon, Billy, P Ih tuck you in.” He AER ca ulin TT man seemed to read Sone him back ne backed along, not daring to turn from the cliff. Frank - the serpents. He slipped, and began to fall. Not again, his mind demanded, and he grasped the step, then began pulling himself up. But the fall had given the cobras an advantage. They poised above him, ready to strike. Suddenly, he had — -an idea. He swung his feet under the stair, then slowly, painfully, pulled himself to the underside of the next ‘one. Frank finally reached the top, and sat, shaking from exertion, just as a door opened. “Well done” the man laughed. must stay another day.” But for his fearseof what “You might come -next, Frank might have enjoyed himself. - Frank entered the small room. Breathing a sigh of relief he sank onto the bed. First he’d sleep, then find the biggest steak ever cut. But he was thirsty. He reached for the bathroom door, but it opened before he reached it. Frank saw, ‘too late, the hand on the knob. guest has returned, Master Simon,” 9 a voice said, and Frank recognized that deep maniacal laughter. “Your The Two Little Boys | a Annette Johnson | Age 28 Ghouls I haven’t thought about this for many years, but I just moved to the Heber Valley and it’s so much like that little town, and the autumn weather this year is so much like it was there..... I worked in a small town hospital like the one here. Usually the little emergency room: wasn’t too: busy but on thisday it was awful. A young child, a boy about 2 years’old had fallen down a well, not a small well but a big open hole. His mother called the fire department and . they got there as fast as they could but it was a volunteer service and it was way ‘out on Old River Road. By the time they got him to us he was still breathing but barely. At times. like these emotion turns off and you just do your job. The doctor intubated the baby, I started 2 IV’s- and we called the helicopter to transport him to the traurna center in the nearest city. The parents drove down frantic; ] didn’t know them well but recognized them as the Carlisles. CREEPY STORIES Continued on page 19 |