Tales From Twistwood

Dogs

When I opened my eyes, all I could see was darkness.

The last thing I remembered was that damn dog running into the road. It was a Border Collie, and a real pretty one too, but it ran right out in front of my car. I swerved to the side, and the last thing I thought before my car drove right into the ditch was, Those kids around here never lock up their dogs. One day I'm going to hit one, and they'll learn their lesson.

Now, I wasn't sure where I was. Was I dead? Was this heaven? Hell? All I knew is that I had a splitting headache, and I was wrapped in rope from head to toe. There was a gag shoved down my throat, too. Yeah, this definitely wasn't heaven. But it didn't quite seem like hell, either. Do they truss you up like a Thanksgiving turkey in limbo?

My eyes started to adjust to the darkness. I could barely make out wood paneling, and a something even darker than the dark of the room in the corner. It didn't really look like a person, but I could never be sure. Could I hear breathing?

I stopped breathing and stood stock-still for a moment. And then I confirmed it - the thing in the corner of the room was a someone, not a something, and they had most likely kidnapped me. Great.

I started to scream as best I could around the gag, and I wriggled and tried to escape my bonds. This was not my day to die, that I was sure.

The figure in the corner moved towards me. I couldn't see what they looked like at all, save for the fact that they seemed pretty tall. As I moved, I realized the reason for my headache. The ropes were tied to the ceiling, and my body was upside-down.

The person placed a finger against my lips and shushed me. I didn't stop screaming.

"No one can hear you all the way out here." Their voice was low, but not particularly masculine. As of right now, I didn't even know if they were a man or a woman.

I kept screaming.

"I said, shut up!" There was a sharp pain in my back, near my ribs. It felt like they had hit me with a stick. The pain spread across my body, and my headache grew even worse. I stopped screaming after that.

"I'm sorry I wasn't able to bring you into the house," they said. "But we couldn't have you seeing my friends. They don't like to be seen."

I was starting to panic. What was this crazy planning to do to me? And why hadn't they done it yet?

"If you promise to stop screaming, I'll take the gag out. You want to talk, don't you? Of course you do. Of course you want to talk. My friends want to talk to you. I want to talk to you, too."

They slid the gag out of my mouth, and saliva dripped down from it onto the floor. I felt like I was going to vomit. Was that even possible, if I was hanging upside down? I decided I didn't want to find out.

I could scream, but then I would get hit again. And they'd said no one could hear me here.

When I spoke, my voice was hoarse. "Why are you doing this?"

There was a moment of silence. Finally, they spoke again.

"That's not a good question. Let's talk about something else."

I squeezed my eyes shut. My head was really killing me.

"Can... Can you put me on the ground? Please, I-"

"No. Next question."

"Please let me go, I have a family and I-"

I heard a growl, and the gag was roughly shoved back in my mouth. A tear slipped from my stinging eyes.

"I really wish we could talk. My friends do, too. But you're only speaking nonsense. I'd rather talk about fun things. Besides, all you do is blubber."

I started to sob quietly. This was it, then. I was going to die here, by the hands of some psycho with imaginary friends.

"What do you think, friends? Should we let him talk again?"

There was silence, as if they were waiting for an answer.

"My friends think you cry too much. They want to cut out your tongue, so you can't say your nonsense words. But we can't do that right now. Not right now."

I clenched my fists at my sides. Not right now? Later, then? Tears streamed down my cheeks. I heard them drip to the floor.

"I'm sorry about this. I really am. But, see, my friends need you. And it was better you then the nice girls a mile down the street. They make us food, and say we aren't crazy. I like those girls. I don't want to hurt them."

They were quiet for another moment. I wondered when they were going to do something. I just wanted this over with.

"It's about time," they whispered. "About time."

I felt the gag being taken out of my mouth again. I sobbed loudly.

"Do you have any last words? I don't want to be rude, see. They always like it when I ask if they have any last words."

"A-Are you going to kill me?" I whispered.

They leaned in very, very close. "No," they said. Their breath smelled strange, like roadkill, or meatloaf after it goes bad. "We're not going to kill you."

Behind them, I saw dozens of shiny, shiny eyes open in the darkness. My breath caught in my throat.

"We're not going to kill you," they said again, in their strange, inhuman voice that I wondered how I hadn't noticed wasn't quite right. "We're going to eat you."