Short stories

The Hobo

For the past month there has been a homeless man staying in the back of my apartment building near the trash. He always tries to hide in the shadows when we go to throw our trash bags but he's not very successful with his bright red hair reflecting the moon. Knowing that he's there I always purposely bag food tightly knowing he'll rummage for anything, I try my best to not make it look obvious by ripping bread in half or taking the meat off the chicken bones, anything to make him think it's his lucky day.

Today I had some pizza so I used my hands to rip them into thirds and warmed them in the micro for a couple of seconds before bagging them with a half full water bottle. I smile as I also take the cardboard boxes I found in the storage room at work hoping it'll help him. As I head down I pass the door 180F wondering if the guy who lived there had come back yet. I've only seen him a couple of times and man he was so cute! He looked like a cowboy trying to fit into the city life but not quite able to get rid of his big belt buckle or boots. I tried introducing myself to him but it was almost like he sensed my determination because he would always jog to his truck and speed off.

I sighed as I rounded the corner seeing the huge green trash container. As I got closer I could the red haired man scooting himself towards the brick wall and putting his head between his knees. I quickly threw in the items and turned around. I took about three steps when I heard shuffling behind me and noticed the man was walking backwards toward me. I stood there in confusion as he stopped about two feet away from me, I could smell him. Confused and slightly scared I also started walking backwards not wanting to turn my back to him but as soon as I started moving he suddenly turned towards me smiling.

I yelped and fell backwards as I noticed his third eye, I then noticed his nose. It was so big and brown with a huge sore in the middle it almost looked like a third nostril. And then he smiled flashing four rows of sharp teeth. His skin was gray and shiny almost like wax. He had no eyebrows and each eye looked like it belonged to a different animal. The one on the top was a cats. His left a goat and his right was actually human.

"You're lucky. I'm going to give you a gift! Bring me the heart. Bring me the brain. Bring me the tongue of the one you love and you'll be granted true happiness."

I could only stare as I tried to understand his low garbled voice. He leaned down and I screamed as I tried to turn around and run. I stood up and started to run away.

Immediately I felt that my feet were no longer touching the ground. I looked down and saw myself running in midair, my breath got caught in my chest and I could feel my entire body buzzing. The monster walked around and stood in front of me taking out a knife right from under his skin. I watched as he pulled it out of his forearm drawing blood as he stepped closer to me. In a blink of an eye my body was horizontal and I could only see his shiny rain boots as he pulled on my forearm and pressed the knife right under the bend of my elbow. Instead of cutting he laid it flat and it started sinking onto my skin

My arm felt like it was being sawed off so I screamed as loud as I could as I watched the dirty knife shrink and brand itself to my arm. I shut my eyes and kept screaming as the pain flooded to the rest of my body it was as if I had been set on fire, I could feel the back of my eyes pulsing from the pain. Suddenly my throat closed and I couldn't breathe. I started to claw at my throat as it suddenly felt itchy, soon I could hear the blood trickling down my arms and dripping from my elbows onto the concrete. I kept scratching until I felt bone. I gripped it tightly not knowing what to do to help me breathe. Suddenly I fell asleep.

I woke up with a start and sat up on my bed. I looked around my bedroom and wondered how the hell I got here. I immediately raised my left arm and saw the knife, it looked like a tattoo of an old knife with a colorful handle. The actual blade itself was curved like a banana and had three small sharp teeth close to the base.