by Mike Miller
The song struck a note to hold a long yowl which echoed louder than before. The extended wailing helped Felix to pinpoint the singer. Once he found it, he could not trust his weak eyes. All he saw was a blur.
As it joyfully began the next section of its melody, he crept closer to sharpen his vision. Now standing just a few feet away from the trunk of its roost, Felix could very clearly see the strange visitor perched in the canopy and blissfully singing its ditty.
It was a lean, yellow creature with large black eyes, the same as from last night. Its face tapered to a snout like a weasel’s. The scrawny body was covered in a light golden fur with some brown spots, though the morning light and shadows made its true coloring difficult to pinpoint. The neck was unnaturally long, snaking into a spade head which bulged outwards at the jaw. Above the shoulders, it resembled more eel than mammal. Its paws had elongated prehensile fingers tipped in sharp, curved claws.
Currently the little beast lay reclined in the highest branches. The leisurely posture made it look like it was on vacation. A limp corpse of another animal lay draped across its lap like a blanket. The thing sang inhuman lyrics. It enunciated sounds with the cadence of speech but was pure gibberish otherwise.
Felix was at a loss for his next move. He could only stand and watch, hypnotized by the bizarre woodland neighbor.
The thing began to sway with the music, passionately closing its eyes and moving its arms with the rhythms. It paused occasionally to chomp down on its catch, but would then continue the show with a bloody mouth full of bone and sinew. The crunching and slurping of its chewing rivaled the volume of its song.
Whatever odd genus the creature may have belonged to, it was harmless and posed no threat.
Felix decided he had seen enough. To attack it or question it was pointless. Perhaps a picture might hold some value.
When Felix turned to leave for his camera, the singing stopped.
When he turned back around, he found the tiny monster staring directly at him. Its black pupils were wide and focused. Save for the thing’s gently heaving chest, it remained perfectly still.
Frightened for but a moment, Felix then became bold. “You!” he shouted, pointing menacingly at the beast with the poker. “Get outta here!”
The thing hissed at him like an angry cat. Small hairs on its neck and shoulders shot outwards as if electrified.
The aggression made him step backwards. “Come on,” he said in a less authoritative tone. “Scoot?”
The animal flipped over to its stomach, crouching on all fours. Its lunch tumbled to the ground, splattering off the branches as it fell. The thing was readying to pounce. Its jaw dropped wide to reveal rows of sharp teeth in a big smile.
Felix ran. The animal called aloud as it pursued. The shriek was more akin to its animal roots. Claws scratched apart the wood as it scampered down the tree.
The back door was closer, but Felix was unsure whether it was unlocked or not. He did not want to take the risk and waste the time.
As he rounded the back corner of the house, the nails on the thing’s feet clacked onto the porch deck. It began to quickly gallop towards him. He dropped the poker to improve his stride as he dashed around the next corner of the house.
The front entrance drew closer with the strange thing but a few feet behind. One hand flung the screen door outwards. The other shoved the wood door into the house.
As he slid through the opening portal, he immediately set to closing it behind him.
The door slammed shut as the monster reached it.
The little beast clawed furiously at the entrance while its mouth emitted a strange string of jabber. Felix held tightly to the knob while bracing the clattering door with his shoulder.
They wrestled for only a moment. The angry monster surrendered first and ceased its harassment. With a snort, its claws clicked slowly away from the cabin.
The distraught man felt his heart exploding. His head was wet with sweat. He took deep breaths to slow the pounding mania wracking his body. Eventually he calmed down enough to let go of the metal knob. His hands ached from the strain.
Felix went over to the nearby window and cautiously lifted the curtain for a peek.
The monster stood just outside the glass, staring directly at him. It was as if it knew where he would look.
Felix was too scared to flee.
The beast patiently crouched on all fours. But its stance was not horizontal like a dog’s. Its elongated arms made the position more like a primate’s hunch. Including its serpentine neck, it stood almost four-feet tall.
He saw now a long tail which hung from its behind. The appendage was capped in a rough patch of black bulbous scales like a club.
From its shoulders up, the beast now resembled a dragon. Its snaking head cocked sideways to better study Felix. The yellowish fur covered only its cheeks. The rest had some brown spotting and black scales. Small slivers along its jaw and neck opened and closed like gills.
Its pupils were wholly black, yet shined with intelligence. The lips parted to reveal long fangs, but the thing was silent.
“What do you want?” murmured Felix. He instantly began to regret his visit to this old cabin.
In response, the creature’s mouth opened and began to talk. A thin dark-green tongue splashed around to form its voice. Its throat spat harsh, gurgled noises. From its size and speed, the thing could easily have crashed through the glass, but opted to remain politely seated on the front porch to converse with him.
A plan finally formulated for Felix. He ran to his suitcase and found his phone. No signal still, but he gathered it anyways, as well as another item he finally remembered to bring.
Running back to the door, he first took a deep breath, then opened it back up.
First, he lifted the camera phone, cursing the delay of the autofocus.
The yellow thing casually lumbered towards him. With a leap, it could be atop him.
He snapped the picture.
Then from his other pocket, he whipped out a small can of mace. He yelled a battle cry as the noxious spray whizzed out and onto his visitor’s face.
The creature howled in agony, which delighted Felix to no end. He vigorously continued his screaming attack.
The thing stumbled backwards, knocking its head against a wooden banister. It stumbled over the barrier to land awkwardly on the ground.
Though its head was turned away, Felix rained more chemical onto its retreating body.
After rubbing its face against a pile of leaves, the beast darted off into the woods. It ricocheted off some trunks before it disappeared from sight.
Felix laughed and clapped his hands together. “That’s right!” he announced. His victory was soon compromised by the creeping stench of the mace’s lingering mist.
He covered his nose and retreated back into his house. Another toxic smell to make him gag.
After positioning himself over the sink to spit, the gleeful rush of the encounter made him pace anxiously throughout the room. The unbridled joy within him was exhilarating. A victory at last. While he had regretted the trip at other points, now he was elated to have come. The sense of conquest, of control - these were forgotten feelings he now lovingly cherished.
Fetching his phone, he inspected his picture. It was blurred, but still caught the shape and idea of the weird animal. To Felix, it did not resemble a poor attempt to falsify the subject matter. The picture should be sufficient to retrieve some sort of handsome reward upon his return to civilized cell service. He would be known as some sort of hero or adventurer. Maybe like a scientist.
He normally would have spent the day outdoors, perhaps with some sort of hike. Or at least an exotic locale to get drunk in. A mystical commune with nature, wasn’t that the whole point of coming all the way out here? But while he had convinced himself of his successful vanquishing of the beast, he was still reluctant to leave the cabin.
So Felix spent the day inside, reflecting on his life. In a near meditative
state, the man rested in the big chair in the living room, sipping on some whiskey to jog his memories. His mind went back into time, revisiting all of his history’s defining moments. Parts good and bad, better and worse, it was an interesting journey through his life. As the day wore on and the bottle emptied, he noticed certain trends marking his path. He realized how he’d been a victim of others’ blunders, and never really made mistakes of his own. The epiphany to take charge more in the future made him happy.
It was the conclusion he needed to reach. And it delighted him further to see the research and review properly supporting that theory.
As the sun set on the lonely cabin, he fell asleep drunk in his seat with a smile on his face.
* * *
He awoke to blackness. With a small hangover throbbing in his temples, Felix vigorously rubbed his eyes to be sure that they were still working, that he had not passed away in his sleep. A quick glance around the room revealed ghostly beams of nocturnal light drifting in through the windows. He chuckled at his foolish confusion.
When he rose to his feet, he stumbled over something soft and shaggy at his foot. He cursed his clumsiness, but was glad it was only a blanket or pillow, and not something harder. He reached over to throw it aside, but got a palm of damp and crusty fuzz. He recoiled his hand in disgust and wiped the grime away on his jeans. He was not sure how such a mess could have been made. But stranger things had happened in his drunken stupors.
He scooted carefully around the filth and over towards the dim light in the kitchen. He cracked open the refrigerator and thirstily drank some juice straight from the container. Once he could not stomach another gulp, he lowered the bottle and gasped loudly.
Felix stared plaintively out the window, looking for any disturbance. While the sky was brighter than last night, the woods seemed darker than ever. Small bits of light broke through the branches to look like a deformed jack o’ lantern, one with too many small eyes and teeth.
The world was silent as could be. No screams or growls. No sounds of wildlife.
Felix was content to have restored mankind’s natural dominion over the world.
Then he heard a rustling behind him. It was a soft shuffle, a low stirring. Maybe he had made the noise, but it seemed to have come from the living room.
Squinting did not aid his night vision. He cracked open the refrigerator, allowing its bulb to shine through the sliver.
The cooler cast a limited glow throughout the small house. While Felix could not see everything from the sparse light, he saw enough. At the base of the chair at which he had slept, he saw a slender, furry torso rising and falling. A clawed foot rested by its side, folded up on the floor. It was coated with yellow fuzz.
Felix closed the fridge to hide in the shadows. Panic and fear began to consume him. But he pondered his next move only briefly, before steeling himself to the decision.
He moved comfortably in the dark now, carefully sliding around the kitchen corner, into the hallway, and on to the bedroom. His footfalls were completely silent, like a ghost.
He unzipped the suitcase slowly. The tiny grind of its separating teeth felt tremendously loud and violent in the silent home. Once he was done, he remained motionless for a moment, listening for any noises from the living room. He heard nothing.
Beneath the folded clothes, Felix retrieved his pistol. Knowing it was already loaded, he cocked it and returned to the living room.
The slumbering beast was still there.
He aimed the gun at the unconscious target. This time he would show no mercy to the invader. He had given it one chance already, and would be a fool to offer another. Especially after such an outrageous intrusion into his own home.
But then he began to doubt the location of its head in the dense darkness. So he slid closer.
From the pitch black, the full silhouette began to emerge. When standing just a foot away, he could now clearly discern its half-coiled head. The slender neck bent its slim skull back into its body, where its face was tucked away into its armpit.
As the weapon’s site leveled onto the beast’s head, he hesitated. He began to calculate what the strange thing might be worth alive. Surely, there was some value in its death, be it for scientific research or display at a freak show. But the monster had to be worth more alive. He could always kill it later.
Perhaps sensing his doubt, the thing’s head sprang to life, rising up like a camel’s. Its mouth made a short, confused murmur as its head cocked to one side.
Felix lunged forward and smashed his gun against the beast’s temple. It squealed and reared back drunkenly. The man viciously lunged on the creature again, hammering its head fiercely like its cranium was a stubborn nail.
Even after the yellow animal slumped weakly to the ground, he added another pair of blows for good measure. With panting breath and bloody fist, Felix stood proudly over his motionless conquest.
He flicked on the lights to find the thing laying in a small pool of red blood. Its chest still breathed with life. Indeed, the strange and silly thing had been lying at his feet like a loyal dog. A dirty black coat of grim with matching trail across the floor revealed that the beast had crawled down through the chimney.
Now that it was incapacitated, Felix worked on a phase two for his plan. He quickly scoured the room for something to restrain the thing. A rope or chain would be ideal. Perhaps the bed sheets.
A murmur from the monster startled him. He readied his gun, but the thing remained unconscious.
Inspiration struck Felix again.
He carefully gathered up the beast in his arms as if it were a napping child. The thing was surprisingly light. Though its length was significant, like that of a greyhound’s, its lean body provided little mass. At this short distance, the mysterious animal smelled horrific. An unwashed life filled with death among the woods.
With its long neck drooping towards the floor, Felix walked it over to the small laundry area beside the kitchen. Once he lifted the top of the washing machine, he poured the unsuspecting beast into the contraption like a pile of old clothes. Its head thudded against the metal drum, but it did not awake.
Across from the machine was a bookshelf stuffed with some cans of food, cleaning chemicals, and other miscellaneous supplies. He scooted the furniture across the narrow aisle, spun it around, then laid it back-first atop the washing machine’s lid, pinning it down under a 45-degree incline. With the items on the shelves leaning into the weight, Felix figured the animal too small and weak to escape.
As he confidently walked away, he heard some scratching behind him. From within the makeshift prison came the sounds of scraping. Of bone on metal. The defiant noises began to grow louder and stronger.
He walked back and slammed his gun against the side of the unit. “Shut up!” he barked. The scratching continued, and now the thing began jabbering along too. Slow and sad syllables muffled by the hull.
“Shut up!” demanded Felix, banging his gun against the box angrily.
A shrill scream overpowered his yell. It was loud and piercing. And it came from outside.
The ruckus from the trapped animal silenced.
Felix’s head swiveled back and forth from the window to the washing machine.
Again, the howl blasted at him from the woods beyond the house. As the wail continued with more volume and anger than before, the cry was soon accompanied by feverish yowls from the laundry machine.
Now the machine’s lid begin to quake. It rattled the blocking bookcase enough so that some of the items began to topple from the shelves. The yellow creature was wildly yammering as it struggled to free itself.
From outside, the bellowing sounded again, increasing in power as it drew nearer to the house.
Felix rushed over to the window to look outside for whatever was making such horrific noise. He flicked on the porch light to aid his view.
The halo of illumination only spread a few dozen feet before the blackness of night shrouded the forest. But within those s
hadows, he detected movement. It was something large and coming right at him. It was perhaps as tall as the house, and had an almost round, bulbous shape. This new thing resembled a hill sliding along the ground.
From behind, the trapped beast’s yells reached a new intensity. He spun about to see that the thing was escaping. Its head peered out from a small gap. Clawed fingers had wedged open the hatch. Its eyes stared mercifully to Felix as its mouth spewed rapid gibberish.
The entire house shook from an awesome blow. Pictures and books fell from the walls and shelves. Glass broke in the windows. Chairs clattered and toppled. Felix was hurled to the ground from the seismic force.
He gathered himself to his knees in time to see something unlike anything he had ever seen before.
As the recent commotion lapsed into disarming silence, a soft hiss began to fill the void. Along the gaps of the front wall – the seams in the front door and the holes of two shattered windows – a brown substance began to seep into the home. Through the broken glass, Felix could see a large mass pressed up against the house. The strange material quickly bubbled indoors, forming foam outlines at each portal. It was a chunky substance which was dotted with small bits and shapes, like dirty oatmeal.
Felix crawled backwards at the bizarre phenomena. Though the osmosis was not quick and far enough away, he was repelled by a feeling of dread.
Inside the washing machine, the little beast thrashed violently for release, shouting its odd language at the frightened man.
As the brown substance grew inside the home, it congregated into larger pieces. It spilled into itself, collecting on the wall and floor in bigger clumps.
As its size increased, small tendrils began to spout from the surface like angry roots. Tiny holes began to open everywhere as well, making the brown goo look porous.
The alien substance began to coalesce into a single pile at the front of the house. It began as a small mound which then swelled into a larger hill like the bubbles on a pot of boiling water.
The small strings across its body became larger tentacles, wildly thrashing the air like electrocuted tails. The blossoming pockets became filled with small red eyes or rows of sharp red teeth.