Topic: Off-topic /
[Story] Not Human - Updated Chapter 2
I didn’t feel like searching for the old topic, so I made a new one. I’ll repost Chapter One and put Chapter Two in the next post and link to it here.
Sorry for taking so long with this, I couldn’t decide what I wanted to do with this for a while. Writer’s block, you might say.
Table of Contents
Chapter One – The Beginning
Chapter Two – Problems (link: http://www.kongregate.com/forums/2/topics/46817?page=1#posts-1022242)
Chapter One – The Beginning
It’s summer. The sun is out. The air is warm, but not hot. Best of all, it’s Anna Morris’s birthday. In his opinion, Matt Davis couldn’t be having a more perfect day. There was also a light, feathery breeze sweeping around that wove its way through Matt’s black shaggy hair as he rode his bike down the street. As he was staring down the familiar houses and yards lining the road, he tried his best not to overwork himself. It’s the girl’s sweet sixteen, and he was doing housework at the Morrises’ to get ready for tonight. If he got sweaty now, it wouldn’t wear off.
Rounding the corner, he set his eyes on the brown wood deck that stood two feet off the ground; a porch of sorts for the Morris home. It was Sara’s idea to include that in construction. Sarah was outside watering the house-side garden as Matt rode up and they locked eyes. Her brown hair was shining under the sun, but she kept it short and thin, so the breeze caught it only slightly. “Got you doin’ the dirty work, eh, Sara?” She put on a face as if she was offended by Matt’s remark, but he knew she wasn’t serious.
“If you think it’s so dirty, why don’t we switch places, and you can take care of the flowers.”
“No, thanks.”
Matt glanced over at the dog collared at the corner of the house. Matt didn’t know what kind of dog it was, but he didn’t really care. All he knew was that it was big, black, and had teeth. ‘Avoid it’ is usually the first phrase to come to mind when he sees it. The dog caught his eyes and began barking, louder than Matt’s ever heard a dog before. And more viciously, too. “Hey, Sara, does Bloody ever shut up?” Bloody was the actual name for the dog, and Matt saw it fitting. Sara replied, “Not usually. He hasn’t been fed since early this morning; that might do it. There’s an old T-bone in the fridge that’s probably bad by now. Just give it to him.”
She smiled and signaled him to follow her inside. Matt wasn’t used to the inside of their house; he usually just carpooled Anna to group activities around town. The cleanliness of their home amazes him every time he’s in there. Matt was sure those china plates in the display case didn’t sparkle as bright last time. “Matt, your job is to straighten up the house, things like making beds or putting things back in place. Make sure nothing’s dirty, and if it is, clean it. Those kinds of things. Zack’s handling decorations.” Matt didn’t like the job, but he shrugged and went on as if he didn’t care. “Oh, by the way,” Sara remembered, halfway out the front door, “we need that white sofa over there to go outside. Front or back, doesn’t matter.” She pointed towards the couch as she said that. Matt simply nodded.
After tossing the meat, as instructed, to Bloody, Matt decided to start with the bedrooms, he proceeded that direction and waved to Zack across the room as he walked by. Matt didn’t know what Zack’s head looked like apart from his face. For some odd reason, he always wore a baseball cap (a different one every day) and a hoodie, even in the hottest of conditions. Matt wondered sometimes what it would be like to go somewhere one day and see Zack without the hat or jacket.
Two hours later, four o’clock, Matt was done with the tidying. He almost forgot about the sofa. It would help if it wasn’t all the way across the room, he thought. By the time he started moving it, he was surprised. It was heavy, but still relatively light for such a big sofa. Still amazed, it managed to squeeze through the doorframe just fine, even though he thought it would be too big. “Now, what can I do with this…?” He was talking to himself. The thing was out on the deck, now, but he didn’t have much room to go anywhere. He picked up the end and held it diagonal in the air, out of boredom. “I guess I can just toss it off and then put it right-side up. If I’m careful, it shouldn’t break.” The position of the couch seemed ideal; all he had to do was lean it all the way up from diagonal and ease it off, cartwheel style.
Bloody had been working on the bone of the meat for some time now. He ate the meat quickly and began attempting to smash the end of the bone off. After a bit, it actually did break with a jagged edge. Just what he wanted. The link between collar and wall was just thick rope, and with this, he could cut his way free. That hadn’t gone so well, but he eventually found a way to remove slack from the rope and bend over to it. He was almost through the rope at this point. Not only that, but within seconds, he was free.
Matt was working out details of tossing the sofa over the edge. Right when he started to move again, Bloody leaped on the deck and pounced directly on the opposite end of the sofa, sending it down and Matt with it. Bloody quickly leaned over the armrest and, without wasting time, began snapping for Matt’s face. It was all Matt could do to be eaten alive by this devil dog. Matt tried to roll out from under, and every time he jerked, he only felt immense shoulder pain. He looked over and found that it arm was trapped under the sofa. He had been too worried about Bloody to even notice before. He screamed.
Sara turned the corner of the house and immediately saw the chaos. “Oh no, Matt! Ahh… Just wait, I’ll go get Zack!” The three of them were preparing the party on their own, so she had no one else to go to. Sara quickly ran around the house to the back yard, where Zack was still putting up decorations. As soon as he got the message, he darted to across the back yard, in the wrong direction.
“Where are you going?!”
“Just trust me! Go make sure Matt’s still okay!”
Zack’s destination was the backyard shed. He frantically searched inside, and came out with a pair of hedge clippers — a rather large one. He raced across the house and broke out the front window just to the right of the front door. As much as he tried to bash and cut at Bloody’s head, the dog just kept dodging and quickly returning to its prey. “Hurry! I can’t do this much longer!” Matt called. Trying to think through everything going on, Zack came up with an idea seconds later. He took out his cell phone, dialed a number, and tossed it to Sara, who was standing in the yard, watching every scene. She seemed to understand. With that, Zack opened the clippers and moved down towards Matt’s shoulders.
“Zack! What do you think you’re doing?!”
“Think like a hyena, Matt. Bloody’s too heavy for me to move that couch off of you, and we can’t touch the dog itself. If you don’t get out of here, you’re going to die! Anna’s talking to 911 and the ambulance is already on its way. You’ll be fine.”
Matt wasn’t sure, but then again, he didn’t have any other choice. He wanted to close his eyes tight, but he knew he had to focus on the location of the dog’s mouth. He tried not to let his peripheral vision pick up Zack’s action. With the blades wide open surrounding Matt’s shoulder, Zack closed as hard as he could, hoping the blades would go through first try. To his surprise, they did. Matt felt the pain as it was cut, but oddly, it wasn’t much. Only a sharp pain that lasted a single second, then it was gone. He didn’t have time to investigate.
Matt pushed up as hard as he could to get the dog’s head away from him, then rolled over and stood up as quickly as possible. He searched the floor of the deck and picked up the largest, sharpest window shard he could find. He waited for Bloody to jump, to try to knock him back down. As soon as he did, Matt swung as harder than he knew he had strength for and stabbed Bloody right above the eyes, deep into the brain. Dead.
He looked back at his left shoulder, where Zack had cut. Smooth skin. No blood. Not even a scar. It looked as if he was born without an arm, almost. Unbelievable. He looked back at the floor where he was trapped. The severed arm laid lifeless, blood draining into a pool around it, just like normal. Matt had no idea what was going on. All noise was drowned out. He couldn’t hear Zack and Sara’s constant questioning. His head swam with his own questions. Suddenly, a loud siren cut through the personal silence. The ambulance.
“Argh… Zack, cover for Sara on a fake ambulance call, and don’t tell them anything about this! If anyone finds out, I’ll be the center target of the press.” He ripped his shirt off and tossed it on the blood; Zack understood it was to wipe up the blood. He then picked up his arm and darted off the deck.
“But Matt, where are you—” Zack called.
“Just do it!”
And he took off, into the woods behind their house.
A good ways in, where he was sure he was safe from being found, he stopped running, dropped his arm and stood motionless. He had to figure this out. But he couldn’t. Seconds after he stopped running, searing, intense pain cut through his shoulder and spread through his entire chest. He fell to his knees and doubled over onto his side. The pain was overwhelming, worse than he could have imagined. What was happening? His mind clouded and vision grew dark. “Nngh… No… Stay… Awake… If you go unconscious now, you might… die… Argh…..” He tried as hard as he could, but just couldn’t keep up. Matt passed out.
