So I finally broke down and decided to participate in a writing competition. I’m excited! The downside is that I need to have something submitted within 10 days. I just made this decision within the last day or two!
Instead of writing a completely new work I’ve decided to use it as motivation to edit and finish an existing work! And it is my progress with that work I would like to share with you! Thank you for reading, as always constructive criticism is welcome!
Unnamed Horror
The air was thick with the dense midwest humidity and the unmistakable smell of grease. It wasn’t the burning smell of engine oil, nor the thick greasiness associated with garages. Instead it was the rancid stench of used cooking oil and every other possible tang associated with being in a shitty run-of-the-mill diner in rural Indiana. The stench was thick and heavy, and you had to swim through it to get to your seat. It was the kind of smell that would stay in your clothes even after several washings, a trophy to remind you of the time you subjected yourself to a slimy wad of fat and meat slapped between two starchy pieces of grease-soaked bread in a wretched little diner off of the main highway.
I sighed as I stared down at myself. “Christ. I’ll have to burn these clothes,” I thought to myself, “Or maybe I’ll just save them. They can be my official Diner Outfit”.
The waitress walked up to the table and reached for the remnants of my burger, she winked at me as she pulled the plate from the table. I was pretty sure she was somewhere around my age, though I was also sure that a steady diet of Jim Beam and cigarettes had prematurely aged her by an unknown number of years. She smiled her yellow nicotine-stained smile. I nodded. I smiled a sort of uncomfortable half-smile, and was reminded of what pushed me away from rural Indiana. The Small Town Trap.
Every rural town was the same exact town that existed in multiple points at once. A multitude of portals that open into the same god-forsaken shitty little town. The same greasy diners, the same smoky bars, the same sad people caught in the same small town trap. Everything was always the same, and it was both the appeal and the repulsion. No wonder suicide rates were higher here.
I grabbed my keys from the table, tossed a twenty down and waded through the thick air. The outside wasn’t any less oppressive than the air inside. The sweet smell of mint hung in the air, and was one of the few redeeming memories I had of this place, though the aromatic undertones were hints of manure, crushed dreams, and crippling depression.
The drive to the old farmhouse started off quiet and lonely. My blue cord bounced and swayed on my rearview mirror as I guided my car down the secluded gravel road that led to the old house. I thought back to my youth and how I used to fly down these roads despite the loose gravel and deep slime-filled irrigation ditches that flanked the road. Age and wisdom tempered my speed, and I drove a bit more cautiously than I would have in my youth.
Up ahead I saw the farmhouse, a two-story relic from a time long gone. Its old windows were cracked and boarded up, old rotten wood sagged from the nails that stapled it to the decaying window frame. Fragments of siding hung precariously from dilapidated framing and various spots around the house’s skeleton had sheets of plastic stapled to them. The house was a leper, long cast out by the community and sent to wither and die alone with nothing but its sad memories to keep it company.
The old farmhouse was getting closer and gently brought my already cautious speed down a little more. I glanced into my rearview mirror and a faint hint of movement caught my eye. The cloud of dust that had kicked up from the wheels of my car seemed to have been shifting and moving. It had a certain corpulence to it. I blinked my eyes a few times, shook my head and rolled my neck a bit. Too much time on the road. I glanced back in the mirror. I couldn’t help it. The corpulence started to push through the dust and grotesque fleshy shapes formed from the gaseous lines that crept through the billowing clouds of dust that followed me down the gravel road. I couldn’t take my eyes from the mirror at this point, whatever was chasing me down this dusty gravel road was malformed and unnatural.
The world around me slowly disappeared. I could feel my vision shrink and narrow so that all I could see was the rearview mirror. The sounds of the world slowly faded so that all I could hear was the heart I was choking on. The faint smell of mint in the air slowly faded so that the only scent in my nostrils was the dust kicking up from behind the car, and slowly the dust faded as the monster took on its hideous form.
Dirt and dust coalesced into a mass of putrid amorphous flesh. The fleshy mound grew larger and larger as the central mass writhed and wriggled after me. It grew large fleshy tentacle-like feelers that darted out of its central mass and reached out for the car. All I could do was watch in terrified amazement as the befouled behemoth lumbered toward the rear of my car. It lacked legs, instead large masses of its bulk seemed to ooze forward, pulling the rest of its mass slowly along.
In panic I gripped the wheel, my knuckles turned a ghostly white, and my foot sank hard on the gas pedal. The engine growled as it lapped up fuel from the tank. The writhing tentacles had started to reach toward the back of my car like a mighty Kraken dragging a ship down to its watery grave. In the mirror I had gotten an even closer look at each appendage as it wriggled its way through the air. Each one was covered in countless eyes and mouths that seemed to writhe and flow with the being’s every movement. The mouths were lined in jagged teeth that shifted and flowed within the squirming maws. Nothing on the beast was static, and it was equally putrid and terrifying. As the horror oozed closer to me I stomped on the gas with both feet in an attempt to run it straight through the floorboards. My legs were rigid poles, unbending in the stress, my eyes wide and lidless bulging out of my skull. The gibbering mass was the only thing visible in my mirror at this point, and a hoarse voiceless scream was the only sound that echoed in my ears.
The tires broke loose and the rear of the car began swinging wildly. Without thinking I lumbered my pole-like legs to the brake pedal. The wheels locked instantly and the car started to slide all over the soft rocky road. The car slipped immediately from my control. The outside world blurred by me and the only thing my vision could focus on was the now-gaping central maw of this terrible beast as its slimy flesh tentacles pulled itself quickly in my direction. The central maw was a massive and terrible sight. Pitted teeth were constantly shifting around, and massive strings of sticky spittle slowly seeped down from its fetid mouth. A giant tongue, pitted and rotten rubbed against its mountain-like teeth and I could almost see its fog of rancid breath.
A Sudden and distinct crunching noise was followed by the smack of my head against the steering wheel. The tiny window I had been viewing the world through had shut suddenly and the curtains were drawn down. I only saw the swimming blackness of those heavy curtains, though a few seconds later they slowly lifted again and everything came back into focus. I nearly fell out of the car as my adrenaline surged. It was fueling my thoughts and my actions, and in that moment I was running purely on instinct. I leaned against the car heaving as I pulled myself off of the gravel and onto my feet, the world around me still swaying back and forth. I struggled to land legs back and soon I felt the grease-soaked burger and fries immediately eject itself from my stomach and onto the road.
I stood there shaking, looking nervously in every direction. All was still. I could hear birds chirping and the warm breeze blew through fields of mint, forcing its sweet smell into my nostrils once again. There was no sign of the enormous monster that had just previously reached for my car as if to drag it deep into an aether sea. I looked around and my vision steadied again. The crunching noise was the car stopping as it decapitated the mailbox that once stood in front of the old farmhouse. The metal pole the box was once attached to still stood, concrete filled, and part of my car’s quarter panel had wrapped slightly around it, leaving a head-sized dent.
What the hell? Where is it? I thought. I really didn’t want to know, I just wanted to know that it was gone. I patted myself down, checking for breaks and bleeding, once I decided that I wasn’t injured beyond a headache and what would likely be a lump later on I left my car at the side of the street, still embracing the thick pipe that stood headless at the end of the driveway.
I cautiously made my way toward the house, walking with deliberate intention. One foot in front of the other. With every step I found my head shifting to the left and right, constantly alert for any danger that could be lurking.