MicroHorror

Alex was crossing the field behind his house, hurrying home for dinner, when he found the severed head.

It was stuck on the end of a gnarled fencepost that poked up through scorched yellow grass. The hot dry summer had left the whole field dead and brittle.

A line of ants ran from the bottom of the fencepost, up what little neck remained attached to the head, and right into the head’s left nostril.

Its eyes were glassy, and its jaw dangled, slightly open.

“Hey, kid,” the head croaked, squinting to focus on Alex. “Can you brush these ants away? They’re driving me nuts.”

Alex stared at the head and kept his distance. He blinked twice. Once to make sure he was actually seeing a real human head. Another to make sure it was actually talking.

“Just do me this favor, kid. Don’t be afraid. I won’t bite.”

The head grimaced as it spoke. Alex guessed it took a lot of effort for a severed head to say much of anything. He could see fresh blood at the corner of its mouth and more running down the fencepost.

“What happened to you?” Alex asked.

“We can talk about that later,” the head said. “Knock some of these ants off. Help me, and I’ll return the favor.”

Alex wasn’t sure how a severed head was in any position to return favors, but he figured it wouldn’t hurt to help out. Knocking a few ants off wouldn’t make him late for dinner.

He wondered, though, how he would go about explaining to his parents that there was a talking head in the field behind the house.

Alex picked up a discarded fast food wrapper that lay at the bottom of the fencepost. He twisted the ketchup-smeared paper into the shape of a stick and used it to knock a few of the ants off the head’s face and neck.

The ants fell into the dried grass at his feet, but more kept climbing the post to take their place.

Alex kept swatting away ants until a few crawled onto the rolled-up wrapper and toward his fingers. He dropped the wrapper.

“Well, you tried,” the head said. It coughed, and Alex could see fresh blood on its lips. “Thank you.”

Alex waited for a second and looked at the head. The ants continued their steady procession into its left nostril as if nothing had happened.

“So are you going to return the favor?” Alex asked.

The head managed something close to a smile.

“Yes. All I have to give you is a piece of advice: Stay clear of that house over there in the distance. I saw the man who did this to me walking toward it with his machete.

“You seemed to be headed in that direction, and I thought you might appreciate the warning.”