life sucks big balls right now.. I have no idea how I am going to make my car payment now..

sigh

The Patient

The Patient

By Shannon Burton

The nurse left work at 5 o'clock, a little later than she usually left. She always had the early shift, but today she had to stay longer because of that last patient... the one who had shown up after not being there for a few months now.

Last time he had been discharged, all the nurses thought he was going to be fine; even the judge said as much. The patient left with a smile on his face, talking about how he was going to go back to his wife and kids and get his whole life back together. Everyone had been so happy for him; but now the only thing everyone thought when they looked at him was horror.

The nurse shuddered at the thought of him first entering the hospital. Some of the other patients were wondering around, some were watching t.v., and still others were waiting for their medication. The nurse was getting ready to leave; and then the screams started. Screams were not uncommon at this place; in fact they were constant. These screams, however, were screams of horror, not the usual screams of the insane.

The nurse ran from her station to a terrible sight and almost could not force herself forward to help. The patient was being held down by three interns, and each person had blood all over them. One of the interns was holding the patient with only one arm because the other arm had lost two fingers. The patient seemed to be chewing something, and the nurse prayed that it was not that interns fingers.

Her prayers were not answered, however, as the patient spit out one of the fingers. She saw his throat move as he managed to swallow the other one. The intern started to silently cry as he left the patient un-attended to salvage his other finger.

"What happened?" the words feeling forced out of her mouth as she stared into the crazed eyes of the patient. His mouth turned into a scary grin, and without the help of the third intern, the patient was able to dive at the nurse and grab her around the neck. The nurse's eyes bulged as the patient started to squeeze, blood dripping from his clothes onto her white uniform.

"Do you see how good I am? Do you see how I went home and took care of my family? I got my life back on track! I got it back!! You helped me so much!" He was now shouting and laughing hysterically in her face, spit flying from his mouth to land on her cheek.

Finally, the rest of the interns, after their shock of him reacting so quickly to grab the nurse, were able to pry the patient off her and wrestle him to the ground. The nurse fell to her knees, gasping for air and holding her throat.

She managed to gasp out, "What did you do? What happened to your wife and kids?"

The patient looked at her with confusion in his eyes and just as the interns shot him with Vicadin the patient said in a quiet voice, "What wife and kids? I don't have a wife and kids..."

The nurse sat in her car, thinking over the night’s events and wondering how long it would be before she forgot them. As she started her car and headed home to her own family, she could not help but wonder what the patient had meant at the end. Did he ever have a wife and kids? Or did he mean that he did not have a wife and kids anymore...

Toby

Toby

I didn’t know who the orange tabby belonged to, but when I saw him I wanted him to be mine. He came up to me as if he knew me, started rubbing against my legs and meowing, like I was supposed to be his owner. I had noticed this cat following me for a couple days, but this was the first time he had finally come up to me. I looked around; making sure no one was watching me, grabbed the cat and ran into my apartment. I had just gotten home from shopping when this cat had run up to me. I held the cat up to my face looking into his yellow eyes; all of a sudden thoughts of my ex, Toby, came into my mind, stills of our life together flashing through my mind like looking through a photo album.

“You shall be named… Toby! Yeah… that is a good cat name”. Toby meowed again, as if in approval and I shook my head to get the images of the human Toby out of my head. It had been a long time since I had last owned a cat; and in fact that cat wasn’t even mine but belonged to human Toby when we had lived together. I sat on my couch, petting Toby, enjoying the purrs that were coming from his throat. “Well… I guess I should go get you some food, even though I just came from the store… I guess you need to eat as much as I do… I say ‘I guess’ a lot, don’t I?” I looked at Toby as if expecting an answer, when of course one did not come; I let out a sigh, set him on the couch and got ready to leave. “Alright Toby, I will be right back… don’t miss me too much now!” Toby seemed to have a smirk on his little cat face as I stared at him for a moment longer, getting lost in his cat eyes. I shook my head, looked around my apartment and saw that it was completely trashed; pictures torn up, my bottle collection smashed on the ground, books knocked off the shelves with the pages torn out. “What the hell?” I looked at the clock and saw that two hours had passed and I had no recollection of what had happened during those two hours. I looked at Toby, sitting so innocently on the couch, as if he had done nothing.

“Toby! Why would you do this??” I went to grab him then noticed a torn piece of paper in my hand. I looked closer at it and saw it was a page from one of my books. ‘What? Why would I have this in my hand if Toby trashed the apartment? I must have tried to clean up during that random black out I just had…’ I threw the torn up page on the floor, grabbed Toby and smacked him on his nose. “Bad Kitty! You don’t mess up my apartment!” He hissed at me and dropped from my arms, obviously not very happy that I had punished him. “Well, I better start cleaning.”

That night I fell asleep pretty easily, even after all the stuff that had happened that day, but had terrible dreams. They were all about Toby, about our relationship, about what had happened to him. I was tossing and turning all night and at one point woke up with a scream, remembering that night. After that nightmare, I wasn’t able to go back to sleep and lay in bed until the sun starting streaming through the window. Finally I got up and then noticed that my right arm was hurting. I thought it was just from sleeping on it wrong, but when I looked down I saw blood slightly dripping from a long scratch. “What the hell? Now what?” I got out of bed and went to the bathroom to clean up the blood. “Why would Toby do this?” I looked closely at the scratch and saw it was a vertical slash on my wrist. It had only bled a little, thank goodness, but it still hurt. “How the hell did I not wake up when he did this?” I washed the excess blood off of my hands then noticed how dirty my nails were. I used a nail file to clean them out and what looked like skin came out of one of the nails. ‘Did I do this to myself? No way I could have… it had to have been Toby’. I went to go find the cat again and when I was able to find him, I scolded him again. “No scratching Toby, it’s not nice!” I looked into his cat eyes and once again was hypnotized by them; they looked so human…

I shook my head and looked around the apartment; the sun was setting? What? I looked at a clock and saw that it was nearly five o’clock. “What the hell?!” I shouted out loud, “I lost a whole day? What just happened?” I looked around the apartment, trying to remember something that had happened during the last 11 hours of the day, but could remember nothing. I sat on the couch and saw a box sitting on the coffee table. I brought the box towards me and saw that they were pictures. I let out a gasps when I held a few of them up, seeing that they were pictures of human Toby and I, but in all of the pictures my eyes had been burned out. I let out a little scream when I noticed Toby sitting right next to the box, staring at me. “What on earth is going on?!” I asked Toby. He titled his head a bit at the sound of my voice, meowed, and then jumped off the table. “Well you were no help”, I muttered, staying on the couch because I didn’t know what else to do. Looking at the pictures, my mind started filling up with thoughts of human Toby again. I thought back to that night, to his pleading eyes, asking me to help him, to save him. But I hadn’t been able to. I blinked and noticed that I was now lying in bed again and it was ten o’clock at night. “Well apparently it is my bed time.” After the past couple of days, I didn’t think I would be able to fall asleep, but it happened quite easily. That night I dreamed again of human Toby, of the screaming, of the baseball bat. These weren’t just dreams either; they were the worst nightmares I had had since that night. I saw all the blood again and his eyes looked more pathetic then the night it happened. I shrieked myself awake almost braining myself on something I was holding in my hand. I looked down and saw that it was the bat from that night. “No… no no no no no… how is this possible? I thought I burned you. How are you in my hands right now? No… this can’t be happening.” I threw the bat off the bed, not noticing Toby sitting on the bed next to me, with almost a smile on his cat face. I jumped up and ran to the bathroom to wash my hands and saw a huge cut down my cheek. I started crying then, washing my face and noticing chunks of skin in my fingernails. Why was I doing this to myself? I kept muttering “no” the whole time I was cleaning, hoping it was stop whatever was happening from happening.

Once I was cleaned up I grabbed Toby, hoping for some comfort, and sat on the couch. I couldn’t stop thinking about the bat and the cut on my face, like the one he had given me that night… “Oh Toby… what is going on with me… I had to do it; he was going to kill me!” I looked into Toby’s face again, but this time his eyes were the same dark blue color that human Toby’s were. I screamed again and threw Toby off my lap. “No! No! You can’t! You just… can’t! I killed you!! I killed you! You are dead!” I couldn’t stop screaming and I couldn’t stop seeing human Toby’s face as I hit him in the head with the bat. His dark blue eyes as he looked up at me and tried to grab me, scratching my face instead. His head as I beat him again and again with the bat. His hands as they were the last thing to go under the water where I had dropped him. I started scratching at my eyes, trying to get the images out of my head. Toby the cat was staring at me, those dark blue eyes never leaving my face, what looked like a grin on his face. I didn’t want to see Toby anymore. I didn’t want to look into those blue eyes again; I knew he had come back to kill me to take his revenge. “No! No! I won’t let you! You are dead! No!! You can’t take me! You can’t kill me!” Toby’s laughter filled the apartment and I screamed at the top of my lungs, trying to drown it out. “NO!”

A few hours later the cops knocked on the door, trying to find out what had caused the neighbors to call them to report a noise disturbance. They didn’t hear anything, no parties were going on, but they had called so the cops had to check it out. When no one answered their knock, John, the cop in front, tried the knob. When it turned in his hands he looked at his partner, shrugged, then pushed the door open.

“Hello? Anyone home? We got a noise complaint about your place and wanted to make sure everyone was OK.” John cringed as an acrid smell hit his noise. “Something isn’t right here, Steve.” John unlocked his gun and kept his hand poised by it, just in case.

“Hello! Anyone?” John located a light switch and flipped it on. He heard Steve let out a little gasp. “What is it Steve?” John looked in Steve’s direction and saw in the middle of the room a young girl with both of her eyes scratched out and her mouth open wide in an ugly scream. Her hair was completely white and sitting on top of her was an orange tabby. The cat seemed to be licking the blood out of the girl’s eye sockets. John let out a disgusted noise. “Steve get the damn cat off her while I call this in.” Steve went over and grabbed the cat, looking into it’s yellow eyes. “You know, it might just be me John, but this cat looks like it’s smiling.” Steve continued to stare into the cats eyes while thoughts of the little girl he had buried in his basement came to mind. “I think I will keep you… and I will call you Betsy.”

I didn't write this last week, but I did submit it, so I thought I would still include it here! =)

Perkins Park

The moment she left the house she knew that this night was going to be a mistake. It did not matter that, a month ago, he had given her the monogrammed handkerchief that she had always wanted; he still made her apprehensive. They were finally going out again and it was a beautiful night. They were just going to “Dave and Busters” so they would be out in public, but she was still nervous. As they continued to walk he became increasingly agitated; laughing unnecessarily and poking her, which is something he had never done. He then tried to pull her into an alley, grabbing her arm forcefully and not letting her pull away. She became frightened and vowed to run as soon as the chance arose. He forced her into the alley and shoved her up against the closest wall, slapping her incessantly. Her terror overtook her, clouding her mind from rational thought. All she wanted to do was escape from this maniac. With her free hand she reached up and raked her nails across his face, bringing blood. With a loud cry, he put his own two hands to his face and she was free.

She ran towards the cluster of trees, not caring where she entered, just wanting, no needing, to enter. She lunged into the first opening that she saw, not noticing the branches tearing up her clothes and skin. Blood immediately started to drip down her arms, soaking the handkerchief. She stumbled over logs and pushed bushes out of her way as she got deeper into the forest, gasping for breath; she could herself muttering the words “oh god oh god” over and over again. She finally saw the edge of the clearing and even though she was completely out of breath she pushed herself just a little bit more to reach that clearing. Just as she hit the clearing, she stumbled, falling to the ground, using her already bruised arms and hands to protect herself from the brunt of the fall. She stayed where she was, on hands and knees, panting, not daring to look up just in case he had seen her, just in case he was there with her right now. She didn’t think she would survive if she saw him again. Then a low chuckle started to fill the clearing and dread pierced her heart as if she had been stabbed.

“You didn’t really think that you could get away from me, did you? I grew up in this city, in these trees. I know them like a fat kid knows his pastries.” He laughed, this time more than a chuckle. She held her breath, afraid that if she didn’t she would scream. Moving her head slightly, she peered up at him through a parting in her stringy, brown hair.

“Leave me alone!” She breathed heavily through her mouth. She watched as he crossed his arms over his chest, his shadow under the bright streetlight looking like his evil twin coming to get her.

All of a sudden she heard him scream, a hitch pitched scream that she never thought him capable of. It was cut off with a snapping noise, with only silence to fill where his scream had been. She raised her head in a hurry, using the hand not holding the handkerchief to shove her hair out of her face. What she saw made her blood run cold and her body filled with terror. Blood was spurting out of the place where his head and shoulders used to be, saturating the rest of him and the brown ground around his feet. It was amazing his body was still standing, but there it was, the blood turning the ground to mud. Immediately she got her feet underneath her, still clutching the handkerchief. It had meant so much to her when he had given it to her, she was not going to let it go now. Although she did not love him anymore, she had loved him then. Her feet started backing her body towards the trees, trying not to rush as to not draw any attention to herself. She looked frantically around, trying to see how to get out when this black thing, looking almost like a giant spider leg, come out of the bushes and snatched the rest of his body away. A scream was lodged in the back of her throat, wanting to get out. Her eyes saw what her mind did not want to believe: a shadow slowly formed under the light. It looked almost human but the shadow was disjointed, disconnected somehow. She stumbled to the edge of the trees, not wanting to see that shadow take its complete form. She did not think she had the strength to force her way through the bushes, but she knew that if she didn’t she would die.

I applied the brakes to my bike, thinking I had heard a scream. I took my bike light off the front of the handlebars and shone the yellow light into the trees at the edge of Perkins Park. ‘There is no way that someone is in there at this time of night’ I thought, a coldness creeping into my spine. I was unsure if I should check it out, fear making me stay at the edge instead of entering. Everyone knew that Perkins Park was dangerous at night. One could easily get lost in there, or worse, get attacked. Wood City was not one of the nicest or safest cities in the United States. I finally came to a decision; I hit the kickstand so I wouldn’t have to leave the bike on the ground, tucked the light into my pocket and started walking towards the trees. I looked around, making sure that no one was following me and entered the trees.

I winched as the bare branches of the underbrush scratched my arms and legs. ‘Next time I will make sure I am wearing longs sleeves… as if I am going to do this again!’ I thought, brushing branches out of my way. I was not really sure of where the scream, if in fact that was what it was, had come from, and I did not hear any other noises, but I thought I was heading in the general direction. Perkins Park was big, but not that big. I was almost positive that I would be able to find out where that scream had come from; trying to convince myself that it hadn’t been a scream and that nothing terrifying and horrible was happening in the trees that I was tromping through at the moment. To pass the time as I was hiking, I came up with a scenario in my mind: I was coming to the rescue of some damsel in distress and I would find her and save her from some dire situation and then we would fall in love and live happily ever after. I let out a sigh, ‘if only… man I need a girlfriend’. It had been a few years since I had had one and I was starting to get lonely. I was jerked out of my thoughts when I heard something coming towards me, and coming fast.

She came crashing through the trees right into my arms. Blood was dripping down her arms and I could see that she was exhausted. She let out a scream as she ran into me; I tried to hold her up but her momentum brought us both to the dry leaves on the ground. I landed hard, a moan escaping my lips, covered by the sounds of the leaves crunching under me. I tried to cushion her fall, but she had passed out and she rolled off me, making a rough landing on the ground next to me. I lay there for a few moments, not really sure what I should do next, thinking that I really should have brought my Iphone so that I could just call the police or something. Then I remembered my bike; what on earth was I going to do with that? Although by this time, it was probably stolen anyways. ‘Forget the bike’ I thought begrudgingly, getting to my knees after my little hiatus. ‘I can do this. She can’t be that heavy… she doesn’t look fat or anything’. My knees popped as I stretched and stood all the way up. Grabbing her by the armpits, I started to drag her across the dead leaves. After a few moments guilt started to trickle into my heart because soil from the ground was being added to the dirt and blood that she was already covered in; not that she noticed or anything, but I still felt like I should at least try and pick her completely up.

A heavy weight abruptly fell on my back, pushing me and the girl back onto the dead leaves. A growling noise was heard throughout the clearing, encircling us as if we had surround sound out in the wilderness with us. I could see nothing around me, not even the trees anymore, as I scrambled to my feet, grabbing the girl’s hand so that I could protect her; she was my “damsel in distress” after all. A large hairy arm enclosed around my waist, pulling me off the ground; I tried to hold on to the girl, but her hands were slippery with blood and my hand was pulled from hers. I was lifted high into the air, the hairy arm digging painfully into my waist. The hair was coarse, not soft like human hair, and it dug into my skin, making the skin raw and bloody. My body unexpectedly stopped about ten feet off the ground and the arm turned me around; I had no idea which way I was facing, the strange darkness that had enveloped the area had still not lifted. All I knew was that I was not facing whatever it was that had a hold of me, and I still did not know what it was. I tried to pry the arm off of me, but every time I touched it, the arm gave me a squeeze almost like a lover’s squeeze. This squeeze, however, made the pain excruciating so I did not enjoy it. I felt myself slipping away from the world, my eyelids grew heavy and I felt like I could pass out at any time, and all I could think about was if the girl was still alive. The thought of the girl made my eyes snap open. I looked around, as if I could see, and tried to spot the girl in all of this darkness. My movements, however, made the arm dig in again so I kept as still as the tenderness in my skin would allow me.

My eyes grew wide as I saw a face suddenly appear in front of me. It did not have a body; it was just a large floating, pale face. I tried to look down, but what was below the face was pure madness; it just couldn’t exist. I had heard stories of these creatures that walked the night but had no body; that lived on the flesh and blood of humans but I couldn’t believe it, I wouldn’t believe it. I closed my eyes, trying to shut out the madness, hoping this was all a dream; that I would wake up in my nice apartment, with my roommates and we would all laugh about this crazy dream. The growling from earlier once again filled the space, but I kept my eyes shut, not particularly wanting to see where it was coming from. To make matters worse, a very low laughter intermixed with the growling. The laughter and the growling became one, ringing in my head as well as in my ears. It was the worst sound I had ever heard and it felt like my head was going to split in half if it didn’t end. I could sense something trying to force my eyelids open and I tried my hardest to fight against this thing that was in my head, but I was powerless to stop it. The pale visage swam in front of my face as my eyes were forced open.

“How dare you try and steal my dinner from me…” a voice whispered, seemingly coming from nowhere. I felt the insanity enclose my mind as the thing in front of me started to smile. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from it and I started to smile too. Beautiful images of me with lots of women started dancing in my mind, my mind doing what my body couldn’t; fighting against the unbelievable, leading me to believe I was just having a dream. Unexpectedly these pleasant images turned into nightmares as I felt my right arm ripped from its socket. I looked at where my arm used to be and could not believe that it wasn’t there. I saw the blood pouring from it, but my mind would not take it in. My mind wanted to focus on those beautiful images, not the pain that was spewing forth from my shoulder. The world started to turn gray, but I was brought violently back into that world when my other arm was ripped off. The attractive images in my mind completely forgotten, maniacal laughter could be heard from my mouth and I did not believe that it was mine. All at once the pain started seeping into my body; my laughter turning into crazed screams.

I didn’t think that I could feel any more pain than what I had just experienced, but the face started to move slowly towards me. His laughter covered my screams as he came closer and closer, his mouth opening widely, two teeth in particular longer and pointier than the others. A pain like I had never felt before in my life ripped through my body as those two teeth pierced my skin. I could feel the blood being sucked from my body, drop by drop. I kicked my legs feebly, trying to find contact, still trying to live although I knew my life was a lost cause. As my blood was taken forcefully from me I had one last comprehensive thought: if my “damsel in distress” was alright and if she would have made a good girlfriend.

Her eyelids fluttered as she came back into the world. She groaned, trying to move but everything on her body was stiff and in pain. She felt sticky all over and she was not sure as to why. She could also feel something licking her legs and could hear the lapping noise of the tongue. She lay there, not opening her eyes, hoping that it was a dog that was licking her and she had somehow spilled gravy on herself. That she was outside of “Dave and Busters” and she had tripped and fell. She knew these thoughts to be untrue, but she was not willing to open her eyes to find out the truth. She could sense the tongue moving up and that scared her more than what she thought the truth was, so she opened her eyes. What she saw made her immediately go insane. Her pupils rolled into the tops of her eyelids and she had no more thoughts. What looked to be a pale, body-less face was floating an inch or so above her legs, licking all the blood off her body. And this creature was doing it with a large, joker-like smile on its face. When the creature had licked her clean it picked up her lifeless body, looking as if it was floating on thin air, and stole into the night, its laughter fading as light pierced the darkness with the rising of the sun.

Shannon Burton

Soldier Boys

Prologue:

Michael let out a hefty sigh, wondering if he should even write this story; knowing that no one would believe him. He looked at his arm, wondering why it felt so heavy all of a sudden, not noticing the blood trickling down from a cut. He turned back to the blank paper; his mind turning back to that horrible night. ‘If only Brian had listened to me and thrown those things away’, Michael thought, not knowing how to begin. Once again thinking ‘What’s the point? No one is going to believe me anyways”, with heavy arms and a heavy heart, Michael began to write his story.

Chapter 1

It was Christmas morning and Brian, being the younger of the two brothers, was much more excited than I was. I was almost an adult now, turning 21 in just two months, too cool for these family functions; even Christmas. But deep down inside I was just as excited as Brian was; I wanted to rip open all the brightly covered packages, already knowing what was in each one. I had always had some sort of sixth sense like that; people always found it really hard to keep secrets from me. It was like I knew if something was malicious, evil or morally wrong, and even though presents were not malicious, they were still considered a secret so I knew what the secret was. There was one gift in particular that seemed to be pulsing and I did not want to open it. Whatever it was I wish we would just throw away and forget about it. I walked over to it while the rest of my family started on making the coffee, Brian trying to help as much as he could, and pushed the gift back behind the tree, hoping that with everything else going on, no one would notice it. Finally! It was time to open gifts! As usual I was trying to play it cool as Brian was tearing through is gifts, opening two at a time so he wouldn’t have to wait, but eventually the spirit of Christmas got to me and Brian and I started racing to see who could open their gifts faster. We all appropriately exclaimed over each other gifts and everyone was very happy with their haul. And then my mom said the words that will haunt me for the rest of my life:

“Wait… I know there is one more around here somewhere! Brian! Look behind the tree… there should be one more for my little guy!”

“Mo-om! Don’t call me little guy! I am a teenager now!” He tried to pout, but he was so excited about the prospect of another gift that the pout did not last long. I tried to will him to not find the gift but my will was not strong enough. He found the gift I had hidden, exclaiming over the size of it and the paper it was wrapped in.

“What can this be?!” He shouted, tearing the paper away before he had even sat back down. I cringed as the paper started falling off and I saw the words “Toy Soldiers” on the side of the container. What could be so malicious about toy soldiers, I wondered. Another set of words I would regret for the rest of my life.

“Toy Soldiers??” Brian exclaimed. Our mom started to explain:

“Now, I know you are a teenager now, but your dad has soldiers like this until he was an adult! And you loved the movie ‘Toy Story’ so much and these were your favorite characters in that movie, I thought they might be fun for you to play with!”

Brian looked at the box skeptically for a second then shrugged his shoulders. I knew he would find something to do with them; he was an imaginative kid and always loved new toys; even if they seemed too young for his age group.

I stood up and stretched, looking happily at my stuff, trying to think of a way to get Brian by himself so that I could tell him to throw those soldiers away. “Well… I am going to bring all my new stuff to my room and start putting things away… hey Brian want to come with me to test out this new video game I got?” Brian’s eyes lit up and he forgot all about his toys; it was a wonder when his big brother asked him to play! Brian leapt up and ran into my room before I even had a chance to grab the video game. I walked slowly to my room, wondering what exactly I could say to him so that he would throw those things away. I was his big brother after all; he should just listen to me. But he was a stubborn kid and those were new toys, so I had to try and be subtle about it. We started playing the game and talking about all our new stuff and then I brought it up; “So… toy soldiers huh? Do you really want those? I mean, aren’t they for babies? You should just give them away… better yet just throw them away… I mean, who wants toy soldiers now and days anyways? They are just cheap plastic and I bet you can’t even play any fun games with them.” I kept playing the video game, noticing Brian giving me a sidelong glance… I knew I had blown it already. I had said too much and I think the baby comment had hurt him.

“Dad played with toy soldiers when he was a kid and I think I like them. I can play a lot of games with them! I am not a baby just because I like toy soldiers. They were cool in the movie!” Brian put his controller down and stood up. I sighed and also stood up.

“Look… I just don’t like the feel I get from them. I am sorry but I just don’t think you should keep them. They are… how do I say this… hiding something from you…” I shrugged, hoping he would just understand and get rid of them. Then I saw the look in his eyes; oh great… I lost him.

“Hiding something? They are just toys! You’ve told me about your ‘sixth sense’ thingie, but you are probably just using that to get attention from girls! They are toys! They can’t hide anything! You probably want me to throw them away so that you can take them later! You’re the baby!” With that he stormed off, going into his own room to play with his new Christmas toys. My mom came in, wondering what had happened. I just told her that I kept beating Brian at the video game and he had gotten upset and stormed off. She scolded me about that, telling me he was my little brother, I should let him win sometimes… blah blah blah. I closed the door to my room after she left, flopped on my bed and thought of what I should do.

Chapter 2

After constantly trying to tell Brian to get rid of the soldiers and failing, school started up again and I forgot about it for a time; especially since I lived on campus. I would think about it every once in a while, but when I didn’t hear any stories about anything happening to Brian, it slowly left my mind. Then spring break finally came and I went back home to stay with my parents for my weeks’ vacation from school.

When I got home I said my hello’s to my parents and went to see Brian. When I opened his door a wave of maliciousness hit me like a blast of wind. It knocked the breath out of me and caused me to take a step back. I tried to regain my composure and then looked around his room; on every surface there was a toy soldier. On each bookshelf, nightstand, dresser; everywhere you looked there was a toy soldier. To me, each one seemed to be pulsing, each one red when they should be green. I knew I was the only one that could see this and it terrified me. I finally say Brian amidst all his toys, in the center of his room.

“Hey buddy… still playing with these toy soldiers I see.” He looked up sharply, his face taut; an ugly face, trying to see if I was making fun of him or not. When he saw that I was not, his face relaxed into a smile. That initial reaction had scared me, however. It was a face I had never seen my brother make before. Were the toy soldiers doing this? Brian ran up and hugged me and pulled me into his room.

“I’ve missed you, Michael! I don’t have anyone to play with when you are gone! No one but my toy soldiers of course. They are so fun to play with and we play so many games together and I don’t let anyone else touch them or play with them; they don’t like anyone else…” Brian rambled on like this for a while as I looked around his room again, afraid the toy soldiers had surrounded us and were about to start attacking. To my relief they were in the same place they had been in when I had first opened the door. I didn’t like the way Brian was talking about these soldiers, but decided to let it go for now; that first face he had shown me still scared me and I did not want to see it again. I sat on Brian’s floor and let him explain his soldier games to me as well as his other toys and games. After a couple hours that way, I told Brian it was time for bed. The pulse from the toy soldiers was wearing on me and I didn’t want to feel it anymore; I needed to rest.

That night, lying in bed for what felt like hours, I tried to think of what I could do to either have Brian get rid of those soldiers or just get rid of them myself. There was obviously something wrong with them, even if I was the only one that could see it, and I needed to get them away from my family. I finally fell asleep thinking these thoughts and trying to come up with what to do. A few hours later I woke up covered in sweat, not sure what had woken me, but knowing it was a bad dream of sorts. I lay with my eyes open, trying to remember the dream when I realized I could feel the pulsing that I felt from the soldiers when I had been in my brother’s room. I looked around and saw that two of the toy soldiers had been placed on my chest and a few more on the floor around my bed. I groaned, not wanting them that close to me. I was going to kill Brian in the morning. I grabbed the two on my chest, stabbing my finger on the one who was carrying the bayonet. “Ouch! Stupid toy soldiers!” That made me even angrier at Brian and I grabbed the rest of them as quick as could and threw them in the trash. ‘Stupid things!’ I thought again; well at least I threw some of them away. Maybe Brian won’t notice these few missing. I looked one more time at the soldiers in the trash can, holding my finger to my mouth to make sure it wasn’t bleeding, not sure if I wanted to have them in my room overnight. I took the can and set it on the other side of the room, as far away as possible, but not in a spot that Brian would notice them in the trash.

The next morning the first thing I did was look in the trash to see if they were still there; they weren’t. I saw that my bedroom door was opened as well. ‘Brian…’ I went to his room set on yelling at him, but he wasn’t there. In fact, none of the soldiers were either. That was a relief and I thought that maybe he had finally listened to me. When I got to the kitchen, however, I saw that Brian had the whole bucket with him and was playing with them on the table. The pulsating once again bothered me so much that I didn’t want to eat the pancake breakfast our dad had made. I just sat at the table and drank orange juice, eyeing the soldiers, scared they were going to make a move at the table.

“Brian… I would appreciate it if you would not sneak into my room at night and place the soldiers around my bed. I just… don’t like toy soldiers so please just keep them out of my room.” I said this calmly, trying not to sound scared. Brian looked at me, for a split second that scary expression back on his face, then smiled and said “But… Michael, I didn’t! After you left my room I put all my toys away and went to sleep!”

“Well then how did they get into my room? And how did they get out of my room?”

“Well I don’t know… maybe they moved by themselves…” He gave me an evil grin, then went back to playing.

“Brian! Don’t lie to your brother. They are toys and they can’t move by themselves. Just leave the soldiers out of Michael’s room”, our mom chimed in.

“But! I didn’t do it! I swear!” Brian looked at me pleadingly, trying to convince me.

“I don’t know why you are lying, Brian, just don’t do it again or I will take them away!” Brian looked scared at that prospect then whispered under his breath so low that only I could hear, “she can try.” I didn’t know what had gotten into him and I stared at him playing so intently with those toy soldiers, so insistent that he didn’t put them in my room. I kept staring at him until I realized that my mom was trying to talk to me.

“Earth to Michael! Your dad and I would like to go out Friday night and since you are here, would you mind watching your brother so that we don’t have to get a baby sitter? Before you protest Brian, I know you are old enough to be on your own but we just feel safer having someone else here, so now if your brother agrees, we don’t have to hire anyone and you can have a fun night with your brother!” “Uh… yeah that should be fine… I didn’t make plans with anyone and I am seeing all my friends during the next couple of days, so that’s no problem.” Mom looked really happy and with all that out of the way, we went our separate ways.

Chapter 3

The next couple of days went by without incident, and even though every time I passed by Brian’s room I felt the pulsing, they never ended up in my room again and they started to slip my mind. I had fun with my friends while I was in town and paid as much attention to my family as I could while there. Then when I thought everything was once again going to be fine, things went to hell and worse.

On Wednesday night, I had just gotten home, late, from a day and night out with my friends. I tried to ignore the pulsing as I walked by Brian’s room but it seemed to be worse than usual. I peeked into his room and what I saw frightened me; Brian was sleeping soundly in his bed, but all the toy soldiers were covering him from head to toe. It looked like they were trying to hold him down for some reason; but they were just toys, right? Despite all the signs I had seen, there could be no maliciousness in them… right? Either way it scared the hell out of me so I crept into the room and started gathering the toys up. Brian stirred a little bit thankfully did not wake. I put them all in their bucket and took it out to the big garbage can in our back yard. I buried it under all the other trash and closed the lid tight making sure to hear the click that let me know it was locked in place, certain that it was taken care of and that I would never see the soldiers again. I went back to the house, tried to get the image of the soldiers out of me head and tried to fall asleep.

Just like that first night, I woke a few hours later covered in sweat, this time I knew it had been a bad dream about the toy soldiers that had woken me. I felt a weight on my chest and looked down. I gave a little yelp, not sure what I was expecting but not expecting this; about 20 toy soldiers were on my chest all facing my way. If I hadn’t known better, I’d say they were staring at me. They were all glowing red again and it was a darker red then I remember. Was there a reason for the changing of color? Were they getting more evil, more powerful, what? Despite the fact that these were little toys, I was terrified. I had buried them with at least ten pounds of garbage and clicked the lid shut; how did they get out? What was wrong with these toy soldiers? I sat up and they all fell off my chest but they all fell face up onto my lap, still seeming to stare at me. It was very unnerving so I grabbed them all and threw them in the trash outside again. I was awake for the rest of the night, not being able to get their stares out of my head.

The next morning, there was Brian sitting at the table, playing with the toy soldiers again. I was really starting to be afraid for him and I did not want my parents to leave us alone. I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I had a feeling it was going to happen that night they left the two of us alone. The deepening of their color, because I could see it, made me think they were getting more evil or gathering their evil in some way to make something happen; I wish I knew what it was. And if I could not get rid of them by throwing them away and practically locking them in a garbage can, how was I able to get rid of them at all? I stayed by Brian’s side that whole day and the next day, waiting to see if they would make their move and dreading that time when my parents said they were heading out. Nothing happened during those two days I was playing with him, Brian was just so intent on playing with them and them alone, never going to other toys or even video games when I promised to let him win. I had no idea what I would do if they tried something with him.

The time came when my parents had to leave for their night out. I tried to think of a way to ask them to stay home without sounding crazy, but couldn’t think of one so I kept my mouth shut. After my parents left I did not let Brian leave my side. He started complaining that he was bored, that he didn’t want to play with me, that he would have more fun with his soldiers, but I made him stay. I told him he had to listen to me because I would tell Mom if he didn’t and he begrudgingly accepted that reasoning. Finally around ten, Brian started yawning and couldn’t keep his eyes open so I let him go into his room to sleep, but not before I took the container of toy soldiers out of his room. The container was vibrating like a hive of bees would and I could feel their anger towards me. I didn’t want to accept it, but I had to; they were angry at me for trying to stop them from doing whatever it is they were going to do, but I had to, they were not going to hurt my little brother. I took them into the garage, found an old lock box we had in there, put the container in the lock box, but the box into a cabinet then locked the garage door on my way back into the house. There was no way they could get out of that!

Back in the house, I sat on the couch and vegged in front of the TV. After an hour and a half or so, I was so engrossed in the TV that it took me a few minutes to notice the moaning noise coming from my brother’s room. I jumped up from the couch and ran to his room. The door was blocked by something heavy and I could not get in right away. I could see a little into the room but could only see the color red; it was like a living thing in Brian’s room, touching every corner and seeming to breathe. I shoved as hard as I could against the door and was able to slowly nudge my way into the room. When my eyes had adjusted to the living being that was the red color, they focused on what was happening in the center of the room. I dropped to the floor, not able to stand or breathe, not unable to un-see what I had just seen. My breath came out in rages gasps as I tried to comprehend what was happening in front of me.

My brother… my dear sweet, wonderful younger brother, was in the center of the room. There was a huge cut down the center of his chest and toy soldiers were pouring into that cut. They were filling up his body with their own little bodies. There was a cut on his left arm and I could see toy soldiers filing into that cut as well… I saw his left arm move once that arm had been filled with soldiers; they were moving it, not my brother. They were overtaking his body, controlling it with their bodies. These… toys… these creatures were taking over my brother! I then realized that the moaning had stopped and I looked at my brother’s face. He was gone… I started to cry out but stopped myself. They were so busy filing up my brother they hadn’t noticed me. I had to stop them I had to stop what was happening.

I ran out of the room and back into the garage. It didn’t register in my mind that the door wasn’t locked; I was focused on getting what I needed and getting back into that room. I found the bottle of lighter fluid and ran back into the house; into the kitchen where I got the lighter we always keep there for when my mom wants to light candles. I then walk calmly back to my brother’s room, not wanting them to hear me. I almost don’t make it all the way in because when I look into the room again, I see that the soldiers have filled up his legs and have now started to move his limbs so that he will stand up. ‘I can’t do this… I can’t kill my own brother’, I think trying to frantically come up with some other plan. And then, I hear it; “Michael… come play with me. We just want to play. You can’t hurt us, Michael.” It is a mixture of Brian’s voice and a darker, more evil voice. I can’t stand hearing them use his voice to talk to me and tears start streaming down my face.

“Don’t cry Michael… just come play with us. We can play forever and ever.” The Brian creature is saying. He is flailing around, as if he doesn’t have bones… or as if the toy soldiers don’t quite know how to use a human to walk. It is this flailing around walking that gets me moving again. I walk into the room and stare at this creature that used to be my brother. Tears are streaming down my face as I start to spray the lighter fluid on the body. The toy soldiers don’t have control over Brian’s limbs yet so they can’t try to attack me, they can only try to walk towards me. I empty the bottle on Brian’s body and whisper “I am so sorry Brian” as I light his body on fire. I clasp my hands to my ears as a hundred screams fill the air and my head. I am sobbing now as I watch my brother’s body burn and turn black. The last thing I notice before I run out of the room is wax bubbling up from the cuts in his body.

Epilogue

Michael cries out as he finishes the story. It is the next day and his parents have not been home yet. They called him to tell him they had both drank so they were spending the night and would be home late Saturday afternoon. Michael does not want to be here when they get home and is planning on leaving now that the story is complete. But why is his arm so heavy? Through his tears he focuses on his arm again and this time notices the blood trickling down. ‘Why am I bleeding?’ He thinks, and traces the blood to it’s source. “How did I get this cut?” He thinks out loud and sits, staring at it. After a while he notices something poking out of the cut and goes to grab it. Whatever it is, it’s stuck in his arm. He pulls at it, yelling at the pain and it finally starts coming out. Once he has the whole thing pulled out he starts screaming.

“We told you Michael, you can’t hurt us…” he hears in that evil voice, this time Brian’s voice is not mixed in with it. The toy soldier that Michael had pulled out of his arm turns his head to face Michael, “You will never be rid of us…” toy soldiers start to fill the gap that is Michael’s screaming mouth and his voice is soon cut off by the laughter of a hundred toy soldiers.