MicroHorror

Scratching. Constant scratching. Inside the walls. Scratching that was keeping Alexander up till all hours. Finally he’d had enough. He made a mental note to phone the exterminator the very next day. This had been going on too long to be able to tolerate any longer.

However, the very next morning…

If Alexander hadn’t seen it for himself, he would never have believed it. The old, wooden chair was moving slowly but surely across the floor, seemingly by itself. On closer inspection he noticed that hundreds of tiny ropes had been securely tied around each of the four legs.

Alexander took a tentative step closer and followed the line of ropes with his eyes until they came to rest upon the dozens of tiny creatures working together to pull the chair across the room. He closed his eyes tightly then opened them again and sure enough they had not been playing tricks on him. The creatures were no taller than a pin, humanoid in appearance with large pointed ears and mouths crammed full with jagged, crooked teeth. It also appeared that they were much stronger than their wiry frames would have him believe.

In silence they strained to bring the chair closer to a small hole in the skirting board, completely unaware that they were being observed. With unwavering attention Alexander watched them toiling for as long as he could until he was forced to leave for work.

It was a long day, a busy day, yet Alexander could not stop thinking about his unbelievable discovery. Where had the tiny creatures come from and what did they want with his old and battered kitchen chair? The parade of questions was unending and it was a relief when five o’clock struck. He could go home and search for answers.

Alexander saw the small pile of wood the minute he stepped into the kitchen. It was all that remained of his old chair. Getting down on all fours so as not to startle the creatures, Alexander watched as they broke off matchbox-sized pieces of wood with tiny tools and hauled them back through the hole. They worked as a team, cutting then passing the pieces, grunting and snarling, to each other until the wood disappeared through the hole.

That night Alexander ordered take-away since he didn’t want to disturb the creatures by cooking anything, and he did not go to bed until the chair had completely disappeared.

The moon was full. Bright beams slid in through the window to illuminate Alexander as he slept, unaware that a large contingent of the creatures were shimmying up the bedspread and onto the bed. With all their dwellings built, securely within the wall that separated Alexander’s kitchen and living room, the creatures were ravenous. Removing the long blades from the carry cases they had strapped around their naked, hairless bodies, the creatures began to cut, hacking off pieces of Alexander while he slept until there was nothing left of Alexander except a meaty skeleton.

Melissa took a final drag on her cigarette and flicked the butt into the gutter. She blew the dirty grey smoke into the twilight and watched as car after car drove by. Finally a BMW pulled into the emergency stopping lane. The driver, a middle-aged man with a large gut and an even larger ego, leaned across the passenger seat and wound down the window.

“How much for a headjob, baby?” he leered.

“Bite me,” she snapped.

“How much for that?”

Melissa gave him the finger. He mumbled something incomprehensible and sped off.

“Creep!” she muttered before lighting another cigarette.

The night was claiming whatever scant light there was. Melissa shivered. Running away didn’t seem like such a good idea any more, but she refused to go back home. Her dad was a boozer and her mother worked so much that she probably hadn’t even noticed that her daughter was missing yet.

She began walking, the way ahead lit by the occasional set of headlights and the street lamps that dotted the roadside. It was too early for the moon, though late enough for the evening rush hour to have dwindled to a trickle. Her stomach rumbled so she had another cigarette. She only had a little money so she had to make it last. Why waste it on food when a cigarette would take away her hunger pangs. At least for a while.

Soon she came to a park, shrouded in darkness and still. As she approached, she became aware that she was being followed. She turned but there were too many shadows for whoever it was to hide in.

“Fuck off, why don’t ya!” she shouted with teenage defiance.

But there was no response. Not a giggle. Not an attempt to run away. Nothing.

A figure on a motorbike zoomed past, the jarring noise of its engine making her heart race before man and machine disappeared into the night. She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. Her senses were alive. She took a final look into the shadows then turned her back on them and continued walking, keeping to the path and changing her mind about crossing the park.

Suddenly she heard the sound of breathing, nasal and relaxed, right behind her. There had been no sound of approach. No footsteps. Only silence. The hair on the back of her neck was standing up and it was all she could do to draw breath. She turned around, a slow, deliberate movement and screamed again.

The creature bared its fangs. There was a sharp, violent explosion of pain in her back where it had dug its talons in, clutching her shaking body to its own before it disappeared back into the thin air it had appeared from, taking Melissa with it.

On the paver where she had been standing there was a single, spot of blood. All that remained of her.

A week later Melissa was headline news. “Teen vanishes. Police hopeful.” Melissa’s mother watched the statistics bleary-eyed and exhausted. “30,000 people go missing annually. 99.5 % are found.” More tears. At least there was hope.

Across the border in a smaller city another of the beasts waited in the space between its world and the human world, hungry but patient. It watched as a drunken man stumbled down the lamplit footpath towards it. Long strings of mucous slid from between its teeth, yellow with age, its golden eyes gleaming in anticipation. Its dirty grey fur bristled as the scent of fresh meat filled its large nostrils.

When it moved it became visible. The man’s eyes bulged and he attempted to scream though the creature was lightning fast. In a second its powerful jaws were on his throat and with its quarry secure it stepped back into its own realm where there were others waiting to feed.