The Cat's Tongue (Horror Story)

Originally published on Triond

 Tony Wilson sat on the couch and picked up the newspaper. The headlines were about a murder. The killer had not been caught and the police had published a special phone number for anonymous tips.

 Tony's cat rubbed against his leg. "Meow."

 "Aye, Tiger. What's the matter?" Tony picked up the cat. "You hungry?" After petting the cat for a few seconds, he gently placed it on the floor.

 He placed some dry cat food in the cat's bowl and ensured that the other bowl was filled with water. The cat walked up to the bowl and ate the food.

 Tony heard his son, Jason, talking to a friend as the front door opened. "Bye" Jason waved and turned toward Tony. Jason removed his backpack and laid it on the chair.

 "What's the matter?" Tony saw the tears rolling down Jason's face.

 Tony led Jason to the couch where they both sat down. He waited for Jason to stop crying.

 Alice came out of the kitchen. She sat on the other side of Jason.

 Jason barely voiced the words. "Mom."

 "Yes, honey." Alice kissed Jason on the forehead.

 "Timmy died." Jason wiped his tears with his shirt sleeve.

 Alice and Tony glanced at each other. Timmy was Jason's best friend. Timmy would come over and play with Jason every day.

 Tony used the remote control to turn on the television. They listened to the latest reports about the murder. A eye witness claimed the killer was six feet tall. The eye witness only saw a silhouette of the killer but he said it looked like the killer was dressed in some sort of oversize cloak that covered the killer from head to toe.

 "Where do people go when they die?" asked Jason.

 "They go to Heaven." Alice smiled.

 "Can they ever come back?"

 "No, honey." Alice kissed Jason on the forehead. "They stay in Heaven and they watch over us from there. " Alice looked tenderly at Jason. "I think heaven is the kind of place folks just don't want to leave."

 "Can we see them when they are in heaven?"

 "We can always see them with our hearts." Alice suddenly remembered Jason's birthday party. "Would you like a picture of Timmy for your bedroom? Pictures can help the heart remember."

 "Yeah. Maybe that would be good."

 Alice left the room for a few moments and returned with a photo of all Jason's friends gathered round the kitchen table while Jason blew out the birthday cake candles. She pointed to Timmy. "See? There he is."

 Jason grabbed the picture. "Gee. Thanks, Mom! Do you think Timmy would like my having this?"

 "Of course, he would!" Alice smiled.

 The cat jumped up on Jason's lap and licked his hand. Jason giggled and said. "Awe, go on! Tiger! Stop kissing me. You silly old cat."

 Jason fell asleep on the couch. Tony carried Jason into his bedroom. Alice removed Jason's shoes and laid him on the bed. The she covered Jason up to his shoulders with a blanket and kissed him goodnight.

 Tony and Alice entered the living room just on time to see the news broadcast about Timmy. The reporter said Timmy's family was killed by a person dressed from head to toe in a long cloak.

 "Its good that Jason fell asleep and did not hear this." Alice turned off the television. "Would you like some tea before heading to bed?"

 "Sure." Tony entered the kitchen and sat at the table.

 Alice poured water into the coffee maker and turned it on. The kitchen window was facing the back yard. Suddenly Alice gasped as she pointed out the window. The moon light shone on a cloaked figure about seven feet tall.

 Tony ran into the bedroom and got his gun out of the closet. Then he ran out the back door yelling "Stop!"

 The cloaked figure tried to run but fell to the ground. Tony removed the cloak only to find a 14 year old boy on stilts. The boy was laughing.

 "That's not funny, Frank Watts!" Tony picked up the cloak. "Get up!" He grabbed the boy by the arm. "We're going to see your dad. Now!"

 Alice had been watching from the kitchen window. She ran out into the backyard and approached Frank and Tony. She was about to tell Frank about Timmy.

 "Tim ..." Her voice faded as Tony shook his head back and forth.

 Then she returned to the house.

 Frank Watts was the neighborhood prankster. He had frightened young children on many occasions. On the previous Halloween he had dressed as a bear and recorded the sound of a bear on a digital recorder. Then he had hid in the shadows and played the tape whenever a youngster came by.

 Alice opened the back door and entered the kitchen. She sat in the chair and realized her hand was shaking. She thought about the tea. Then she opened the cabinet door and removed some brandy from the top shelf. She put a tea bag in the cup, poured some hot water in and let it brew. Then she poured some brandy in. She sipped it slowly.

 She heard Jason moving around. She walked into his bedroom. "What's the matter, honey?"

 Before Jason could answer, Alice saw the open window. "Who opened the window?"

 She picked up Jason and turned toward the door. That's when she saw the cloaked figure. It was upright in the doorway. The surface of the cloak had numerous knobs designed to hold its victim. It looked more like a large tongue than a cloak.

 Alice backed up toward the window. She turned and held Jason out the window, looking at the ground five feet below. She did not drop Jason for fear he would get hurt. She screamed as the cloaked figure grabbed her leg and pulled both her and Jason back into the bedroom.

 Alice and Jason laid on the bedroom floor. She was unable to free her leg. She let go of Jason and told him to run. The cloaked figure wrapped the cloak around her and pressed the cloak against her face. She let out a smothered scream as she felt excruciating pain.

 Jason darted around the figure and grabbed a souvenir miniature baseball bat from his dresser. He repeatedly hit the cloaked figure with the bat. "Leave my mom alone!"

 Tony was outside the front door. As he opened the front door, he heard Jason. He ran into the bedroom. He released the safety pin on his gun and shot the cloaked figure. The cloaked figure lay lifeless on Alice.

 Alice laid there after Tony pulled the cloaked figure off her. She had been stabbed several times. Tony phoned the police and an ambulance.

 The police arrived and removed the cloak from the killer. The ambulance arrived a few moments later and took Alice to the hospital. Alice's operation lasted seven hours. Doctors expected her to survive.

 Headlines appeared in the local newspapers and on the Internet. The story described Alice's horrible experience and the heroic efforts a her five year old son Jason. From that moment on, Alice referred to Jason as "My little hero."

Phantasm

PHANTASM

Let me tell you a story about a guy named Joe. Joe was the last surviving member of his family. His parents passed away many years ago and his brother passed away within the past two years. Joe did not seem lonely at all. He was quite content to live by himself and rarely had any visitors. Often he would be in his home for days without any contact with the outside world.

When Joe went out, he would visit the local donut shop and converse with a few old friends. He often talked about how rich he was. But people misinterpreted what he meant. One day he told his friend, Ralph, that the riches he was talking about were not temporal goods. Ralph did not believe him. The rumors about Joe being rich were widespread. People heard that he had a wall safe. As these rumors spread from person to person, the story become more and more exaggerated until some people said he kept $500,000 in thousand dollar bills in that safe. Ralph believed the rumors and made plans with his friend Frank.

The road was pitch black. The only light was the light of the half moon and a living room light in the house across the street. Joe's house was dark. Only a night light was illuminated.

Ralph walked around the side of Joe's house and removed a window cutter and a suction cup from his tool box.

Joe did not hear the window cutter cutting a large hole in his living room window or the suction cup used to pull the window out. He was in his second floor bedroom. He was viewing videos of his family. He was laughing and talking even though no one was present in the room.

Ralph peered in the window. There was nothing unusual about the room. The wall to wall carpeting looked new and was clean. The couch sat in against the far wall. A beautiful coffee table was on the far side of the room. An ash tray on the coffee table contained three cigarette butts. A pack of cigarettes and a cigarette lighter lay beside the ash tray. A shot glass and a bottle of liquor lay next to the cigarette lighter. The couch was behind the coffee table. Two pillows were on the couch. On the wall above the couch was a framed picture of Elvis Presley with a guitar in his hand and a microphone in front of him.

Ralph climbed in and walked slowly and quietly to the front door. He was wearing gloves. He remembered that the front door squeaked. He removed a small container of oil and a cloth from his tool box. He dabbed the oil on the hinges. Then he unlocked and opened the door.

Ralph's accomplice, Frank, entered the living room. Ralph gently closed the door and proceeded to the far end of the coffee table. He removed the shot glass from the table and placed it on the floor. Then they moved the table to the center of the room.

Ralph and Frank removed the pillows from the couch and stood up on top of the couch. They worked together to remove the framed picture from the wall and gently lean it against the same wall near the floor. Then Frank got back on the couch and inspected the lock on the wall safe. He picked the lock with a pin and opened the safe. Frank searched through the papers in the safe. He uttered a four letter word and said, "It's not here!"

Frank closed and locked the safe. Then they hung the picture on the wall. That's when they heard footsteps. The sound appeared to be coming from the kitchen. They withdrew their guns and slowly approached the kitchen entrance. As they reached the kitchen entrance, they saw the back door. It was closed. The kitchen table was surrounded by four chairs. A box of donuts and two cups of hot steaming coffee were on the table. Beside each cup was a napkin. They heard the sound of someone shutting the refrigerator door.

Ralph and Frank looked at each other. They stood perfectly still and silent. No sounds came from the kitchen for the next few minutes. Frank peered into the kitchen. He pointed his gun at the refrigerator only to find no one was there. Where could the person be? Inside the refrigerator? He opened the refrigerator door. There was nothing inside except a quart of milk, some cold cuts and a loaf of bread.

Ralph was perplexed. "I don't get it."

Frank put his gun away. "Lets get out of here."

As they came back into the living room, Ralph spotted a shadow moving across the window he had cut a hole in. Ralph pointed his gun toward the window, but Frank grabbed Ralph's arm and pointed to the front door.

Someone was knocking at the door. Ralph fired his gun three times, leaving two bullet holes in the front door. The front door opened. Nobody was there. The porch light went on. The kitchen radio started blasting music.

The third bullet hit Frank. Frank fell to the floor with blood seeping out of his shoulder.

A neighbor heard the gunshots and called the police.

Ralph saw depressions in the shape of the shoe appear and disappear on the wall to wall carpeting. Then he heard a soft taunting voice, "The coffee and donuts are waiting for you. Come and have some."

Ralph fired his gun in the direction of the footsteps. He felt something grab his arm, but he did not see anyone. Something was pulling him toward the kitchen.

"Let me go!" Ralph yelled as he flailed his free arm. His arm was released.

Ralph was perspiring. His hands were shaking. His face was pale. He dropped his gun. It didn't make any sound when it hit the plush carpet.

In the bedroom, Joe was laughing as he watched his favorite video. He mumbled something about how wonderful it was to live with his deceased family members.

Between the bed and the wall there was a blank outlet cover with two screws holding it to an outlet box. It was about twelve inches above the floor, but it did not contain an electrical outlet. It did not contain any money either. It contained something much more valuable. It contained all Joe's memories of the good times he and his family had on a single electronic chip. This chip provided the medium of communication between Joe and his deceased family. And every time Joe watched the videos, the spirits of his deceased family would roam the house.

Joe heard sirens as the police car pulled up in front of the house. He turned off the monitor and walked down the stairs. He walked across the living room and opened the front door. The police entered and placed Ralph and Frank under arrest. Frank was sent to the hospital for a few days. Then the police sent Frank and Ralph for psychiatric evaluation after hearing their mumbling about ghosts.

Consequences of a Malicious Act

Sam Maxwell was sitting on the couch reading a newspaper. He periodically glanced at his cleaning robot. Sam was proud of this robot. It was his first prototype and it was selling like mad. He had designed this robot to handle all household chores except preparing and serving meals. His second design was a landscape robot that took care of the lawn and bushes and also shoveled the snow. His third design was the kitchen robot who prepared and served meals. The kitchen robot was malfunctioning.

Sam's laptop was on the coffee table. It was powered up and displayed the design of the coordination unit inside the kitchen robot. The coordination unit coordinated the software unit with the mechanical movements of the robot.

Sam had detected malicious viral activity in the coordination unit. Sam figured that the virus probably infected the computer before the software was transferred from the computer to the robot. The aim was clearly sabotage. Sam suspected that the culprit was a disgruntled employee who had been fired six months ago.

The doorbell rang. The cleaning robot opened the door and invited Sam's good friend, Jack Wilson, in.

Jack had designed the maintenance robot which was capable of repairing all other robots. It was also capable of finding it's way to any home. This was the maintenance robots first repair off the site.

The first thing Jack noted was the cabinet blocking the kitchen door, but he did not say anything.

"Hi Jack", Sam closed his laptop and rose from the couch. He extended his hand across the coffee table. After shaking hands, Sam offered Jack the reclining chair adjacent to the couch.

Jack thanked Sam and sat down. "Hi Sam, How are you?"

"Fine. And you?"

"I'm okay." Jack took out his remote control and activated the maintenance robot which was in Jack's truck. "So what is the problem?"

Sam lifted his leg up and rested it on the coffee table. Then he pulled up his blood stained pants and unwrapped a nasty cut on his leg. The blood had begun to clot. Sam pointed to the cut.

"How did that happen?" asked Jack.

"I requested a cup of coffee. The kitchen robot came out and attacked me." Sam took the remote control out of his pocket, "I deactivated the robot, but it can reactivate itself at will."

"That's what I figured when I saw your kitchen door."

They heard a loud noise. The kitchen robot had slammed it's mechanical arm against the door.

Then they heard the doorbell ring.

The cleaning robot opened the door. The maintenance robot came in and proceeded toward the kitchen door.

"We have to manually remove the power source from the robot."

Immediately after the maintenance robot moved the cabinet over, the kitchen robot pushed the kitchen door open real hard. It tackled the maintenance robot and both fell to the floor.

Sam limped over to the kitchen robot and laid over it. He grabbed the kitchen robot's arms.

The kitchen robot stood up and bent over while yanking it's arms forward slamming Sam on the floor beside the maintenance robot.

The maintenance robot grabbed the kitchen robot by both arms and pushed the robot against the cabinet.

Sam was stunned. It took him a few moments to rise to his feet. The kitchen robot grabbed Sam's legs and slammed Sam body against the floor again. Then the kitchen robot started twisting Sam's leg.

"Jack, Jack, Where are you?" Sam yelled.

The front door opened and Jack came in. He pointed a gun at the kitchen robot.

The kitchen robot released Sam and grabbed the maintenance robot, using it as a shield.

Jack hesitated. The history of the maintenance robot flashed through his mind. He recalled the years of research, the repeated request for government funding, the assembly of the maintenance robot, the programming and testing of the robot. Not knowing about the virus; Jack assumed that after this incident, there is no way he would receive funding to build any robot.

Jack lowered the gun.

The kitchen robot lowered the maintenance robot to see what Jack was up to. Jack quickly raised the gun and fired in an attempt to disable the robot's visual cortex. The bullet went through the kitchen robots head and into the door. The kitchen robot fell to the floor.

The maintenance robot quickly rolled the kitchen robot over and loosened the cover on the kitchen robots upper back. Then the maintenance robot reached in and removed the power source.

Sam sighed in relief. Suddenly the kitchen robot grabbed Sam's leg and squeezed. Sam yelled in pain. Jack fired the gun again and the kitchen robot released Sam's leg.

Sam looked at Jack. "Residual energy."

Jack shook his head in agreement. He took out his cell phone and dialed the police. He told them to send an ambulance.