Small Town Dead End

Chapter Two

Eric paced the floor of his apartment, his body shaking from the experience. It had been nearly two hours and, other than the initial sirens, he had heard nothing. No reports from the radio, television, or his police scanner. It was as if the entire ordeal had never happened. He shivered at the thought of that thing wrapped around the mayor's throat. The man had known something was coming after him and he tried to warn Eric, but ultimately they, whoever they were, got to him.

What was that thing? What was the mayor trying to tell me? Eric thought as he stopped pacing long enough to nervously peer out the window. He saw no sign of anyone or anything in the dark, downtown district of New Bound. It was nearly 3am and everyone was probably asleep. He continued his frantic pacing, replaying everything through his mind.

“Theres an evil in this town, an ancient evil…” the mayor had said. In fact, those were the last words he spoke. A chill shot up Eric's spine. His lasts words.

Mayor Williams had been in office as long as Eric could remember. He's sure there was an election to put him in the role, but he couldn't remember when it had been. Eric had only briefly met the man one other instance, when Small Town Monsters had been read in a court hearing. After giving his statement on the events he had witnessed and investigated, Eric passed by the mayor in the courthouse hallway. The man had congratulated him on such a great story and thanked him for helping take out the trash as he so eloquently put it. After that encounter, Eric had respected the mayor for his candor.

Now, however, he was sure Mayor Williams was dead and by means he surely could not explain. In fact, when he said it aloud, it was preposterous and he couldn't finish the story without laughing. After trying to say out loud for a third time, Mayor Williams was killed by some monster hiding in the shadows, his laughter went from one with a humorous tone to one sounding maniacal and mad. He then broke down and fell onto the floor in a messy heap of laughter, crying, and blubbering. He felt like he was going insane. He shook as he curled into a fetal position and felt tears stream down his cheeks. He heard them splash onto the floor in-between gasps, gurgles, and whimpers. Eric Myers felt like he was losing his mind.

An ancient evil…

He heard the mayor's words echo through his mind, as if they were on some constant audio loop from an unseen machine. When he closed his eyes, he saw the look of horror on the mayor's face as he was strangled by some unknown tentacle emanating from the shadows. He felt as if his mind had instantly broken and he was plunging into madness.

For no reason at all, or maybe all of the reasons in the world that made sense at that very moment, Eric remembered his digital recorder. He scrambled to his feet, feeling his knees buckle as he stood, and fumbled across the room to a small table by the door. When he had arrived home after the incident, he had emptied his pockets and, as if in a trance, walked to the window and stared out for nearly an hour before the pacing began. On the table were his keys, phone, handgun, and digital recorder among other odds and ends. The recorder was still on, recording.

He stopped the device and retrieved the digital file through the simplistic menu. He loaded it up and it started playing through the tiny speaker. Eric held the recorder to his ear and listened as the mayor arrived and he accused the man of having had too much to drink. Then, as the tentacle appeared and Eric warned the mayor, he heard something. It was distant, in the background of the commotion, and sounded like a low, guttural rumbling. He jumped the file back and listened to it again but couldn’t make out what it was. Certainly he hadn't heard anything when he was there that sounded like that. If he had, he would have remembered. His stomach dropped as he began to play it over and over. Each time, he couldn't make out the noise. The only thing Eric did know about it was the more he heard it, the more unnerved he become.

He removed the memory card from the recorder and began searching for his laptop. His mind was going in a thousand directions at once and he couldn't remember where he had put it. His body still felt shaky and weak while his mind seemed cloudy and dreamy. Finally, he found the laptop, an older MacBook, under a pillow on his sofa. He inserted the memory card, took a seat, and began transferring the file.

It didn't take long to get the file loaded into an audio program. He was used to the process, as he would interview people and do the same thing. He'd clean up the audio, applying certain filters for background noise, and import it directly or transcribe what was said into his blog. This time, the scenario was different. He clicked away, trying to apply a noise-reduction filter to the audio, but selected something else entirely. He felt like he couldn't focus, like he was trying to control a dream. Finally, his mind and body synched up and he was able to properly play the newly altered file.

Eric heard himself say "Look out” and then the sound of the mayor being strangled. Then, he heard the low, rumble. It sounded almost like a bear growling but he knew better. It was a low-pitched, guttural sound that unnerved him to his core. It almost sounded as if it was speaking, but he couldn’t tell. Eric tried to make out the noise, to see if it was a familiar sound, but after repeated attempts, couldn't figure it out. It would take a lot more experimenting with his audio program to determine what the sound was.

He closed the laptop and sighed. The incident felt so far away, like it had happened a lifetime ago. Eric felt his eyes close. He clutched the laptop and within seconds, was fast asleep.

Eric bolted upright at the ringing sound. It took him a second to determine what the noise was exactly. It was his phone and it had pulled him from a deep sleep. He had been dreaming so vividly, which was a totally random occurrence for him. He normally couldn't remember his dreams, but this one he felt like he was still in- like it had paused for him to wake up.

The mayor had contacted him about all of the corruption in New Bound. After his story went public, Mayor Williams had many more stories for Eric to cover. There was a supposed vampire running the morgue, a witch in charge of the local education, and some sort of demonic creature possessing all of the councilmen. He had taken all of the information down on his recorder, dictating into it as the mayor paced in his office. Mayor Williams had been puffing on a large cigar and, when Eric jumped awake from his sleep, he smelt the faint odor of tobacco.

He looked around and realized it had been a dream. A vampire running the morgue? A witch over the schools? Give me a break! Eric thought to himself as he leaped from the couch and searched for his ringing phone. He wearily found the phone on the small table by the door and, as he reached down to grab it, the device quit ringing. Eric clicked the button on the side, turning the display back on and saw the clock read 11:43. It was nearly noon and way later than Eric had woken up in almost fifteen years. Groggily, he switched the phone over to check the recent calls and saw the last caller was Unknown.

Figures… Eric thought, wondering who would have been calling him. He rarely received phone calls, and when he did, the number usually showed up on his phone. He pocketed the phone and walked back to the couch, thinking of the recording he put on his computer. He wanted to hear it again. He felt drawn to it. He wanted to know what was being said, what that growling was. At this point he had more questions than answers.

He sat on his couch and opened his computer. The audio program was still up and running, so he figured he would see what else he could do to alter the file and hear what that sound was in the background.

Filter after filter, Eric tested and played with different variations of the audio. He was not a sound technician by any means and knew very little about audio manipulation. Everything he tried was strictly trial and error.

An hour later, Eric had made no ground. When he thought he was getting somewhere with the sound, he would play the updated file and it would be even more distorted than before. Then, realizing he was getting hungry, he decided to just give up and maybe come back to it later. He had things to do. Stories don't write themselves he told himself often.

He stood and stretched, debating on what kind of bachelor meal to whip together before sitting down to write for the day. After a quick debate with himself he was in the small kitchen staring into his barren refrigerator. He stared longingly, thinking of the types of foods he should have. It wasn't enough, as his hunger wanted nothing from the eggs, random condiments, and questionable milk sitting on the shelves.

Knowing fresh air would do him some good, he decided on walking a block away for lunch to a local pizza parlor. He would take his recorder and laptop and get some work done. Maybe he would snoop around the park and see if he had dreamed the events from the night before.

As Eric changed his clothes, his phone rang again. Unknown showed on the display screen as he pulled the device from his pocket. He assumed someone was trying to get a hold of him, so he clicked the Answer button.

“Hello?” Eric said, looking himself over in the mirror. He swiped his hand through his thinning hair, straightening it slightly. “Hello?”

The same guttural, low growl filled the speaker on the phone. Eric froze and felt his stomach drop. The hand holding the phone began to tremble. Eric listened as the growling intensified.

“Hello?”he said, his voice cracking. "Who is this?”

The growl stopped.

“Hello?”Eric said again, thinking someone may just be messing with him. He wasn't sure why he thought it was a prank at that moment, but the idea just hit him. “Whoever this is, this isn't funny!”

The growl sound turned from menacing to a maniacal laugh. It was as if the thing on the other end of the phone suddenly mocked his terror. Eric clicked the End Call button and threw the phone down, the low, growling laugh still echoing in his head.

His entire body began to shake as fear washed completely over him. He felt nauseated and faint. The sound of the laugh shook him completely to his core. It was dark and deep. It sounded evil.

Eric stared at the phone between his feet. Certainly he had imagined what had just happened. It was the same as last night. He was imagining things. Then, as he stared at his phone, it began to ring. Unknown appeared on the display once again.

Anger swelled up within him. Eric reached down and picked up the phone, answering it in the process. “Hello?” he said, his voice stern and confident.

“Hello…,” a voice returned. It was deep, low, and raspy. It paused, forcing Eric to wonder who this caller was. Then they spoke his name. “…Eric.”

The same guttural laugh filled his ear. He hung up and dropped the phone. Then, something caught his attention in the mirror. A small tentacle slithered up from his back and started to travel across the front of his neck. His eyes grew wide as the feeler gripped his throat tightly.

Eric suddenly felt strangled, as if all of the air was escaping his lungs. He tried to scream and felt as if his voice was trapped in his chest, far below the tentacle. Then, as soon as it appeared, the small, green appendage was gone. It was if it had never been there. He could breathe again.

As Eric stared at himself in the mirror, questioning his sanity, he suddenly felt light-headed. The room began to spin and everything suddenly went black.