MicroHorror

They’d laid off our entire division. All at once, no warning, no apologies. Word was a loophole had given the higher-ups a golden opportunity to line their own pockets if they got rid of us. So now all forty-something employees from that section were out on the streets. So we’d come together at a local bar, supposedly to say goodbye to one another, but mostly to get drunk and bitch about the fat cats.

At one point the bartender joined in. They were refusing to renew her lease on the property. In a few months her bar would be a strip mall. So she gave us all a free round. Some specialty of the house she called “The Ghul’s Nocturne.” Whatever it was, it turned the night around. Before long we were all laughing and having a great time. After a while, we all got up to leave together. One great madly laughing mob.

We stepped out of the bar into the savanna. The setting sun shone blood red through tall grass as we laughed together and began to run. Swift shapes bounded out of the path of our uproarious pack, but they weren’t our prey tonight. We ran wild through the tall grass, crossing back and forth, snapping at the fleeing things in the night, but always moving toward one destination. My spotted brothers and sisters all shared one goal: the lair of the big cats.

Finally, we were upon them. The big cats were taken by surprise. They roared and blustered, but there were so many of us our laughter drowned out the greatest roars. They tried to flee, but we surrounded them. They tried to fight, but we were many. The sound of our laughter rose over the massacre.

I awoke the next morning to the news on my radio at home. A party at one of the mansions in the rich part of town had been attacked by a pack of wild animals. A few survivors were claiming it had been hyenas.

I got to the bathroom and looked at my blood-covered face in the mirror. Hyenas? Here? The thought was so absurd I began to chuckle, then laugh loudly. I stepped out of the bathroom into the tall grass beyond.