Short Horror Stories

Blistering Heat and Hungry Kitties

It was the blistering summer time in the Arizona desert. The sun scorched everything in its sight, leaving no mercy.

Terry was working for the local sheriff's office. He wasn't technically a police officer, but he worked the desk. Terry loved his job, couldn't find a single flaw with it until the summer of '68.

Terry had a couple come into his office due to the fact of many lacking telephones. They were trembling despite the heat outside, evidently shaken up by something quite startling. The couple told Terry that they had not seen their neighbor in a couple of days and they were concerned about her. They said they knocked on her door but she did not appear to be home.

No other officers were present at the time, given that it was a small town, and it was sunset, so Terry checked out of work. He walked the short distance home, and told his son, Tracey, that he needed his help, because if the neighbor is hurt, he couldn't physically lift anybody alone in his autumnal age. Terry was a rather feeble, old man and Tracey was strong like no other.

So the two climbed into their little pick up truck and went to the address. Terry knocked on the door and tried to call through it. There was no answer, and Tracey was looking around, trying to peer into windows, but all of the curtains were drawn. Wiping away a bead of sweat from his brow, Terry shrugged his shoulders and went for the front door. They assumed she wasn't home, but the front door was unlocked, so he pushed it open.

Tracey pinched his nose the very second the door was pried open and fanned the air with his other hand. The smell that came out of the house hit them like a tank. It didn't just stink, the smell felt like it was absorbed into both of them.

The house was dark and humid and the two shuffled about, running into furniture and tripping over rugs. Throughout the dark, Terry spied a throng of glowing eyes amidst the darkness. It startled him for a moment, to spy such piercing eyes glaring back, until he heard a soft meow and the small ring of bell.

"Cats," Terry muttered under his breath.

When they find a light switch, they flipped it on and flickering lights filled the musty air. Their eyes slowly adjusted, only to find the elderly neighbor woman surrounded by a swarm of cats. She's dead on the floor, and had apparently been dead for some time. She was already decomposing in the summer heat. She was face down, utterly motionless.

Terry didn't exactly mind the pungent odor, but the state that the neighbor was in was what really bothered him. This old woman lived with no other people, but had several cats. More than enough cats one would say. Having no one to feed them, the cats had to settle on a new meal; the old lady's dead body. Her face and most of her hands were chewed up. Gnawed nearly to bone and puss and blood festered about. Tracey gagged and ran for the door. Terry, with an iron stomach, shooed away the lingering cats whose ribs stabbed through their thin, velvet skin, and approached the old woman. She was very much deceased, had been for at least a week or so.

Terry sighed, waved at the putrid air and stepped back out the door where Tracey was on the porch throwing up his dinner. Terry told his son to stay right there at the scene, and that he was going to get in the truck and get the sheriff and paramedics. Tracey wasn't exactly thrilled about the plan, but he couldn't argue. As Terry returned to the truck, Tracey peered back inside the small home. He could see the lady's legs sprawled about. A fabric recliner blocked the rest of her limp body. The cats scampered about, some leering towards the mutilated body, craving for more.