CHEEZY-BITS: By Robert C. Eccles
Friday, October 23rd, 2009Steve was sent to bed without supper. He had cut the blooms off his mother’s prize roses, which didn’t go over well with his parents. He had also recently gotten into a fight that left one of his 8th grade classmates in the hospital. And there was some question as to the whereabouts of the neighbor’s cat.
So Steve was banished to his bedroom.
Later that night, Steve had the laptop on under his blanket, reading short horror stories. He was also munching on some Cheezy-Bits crackers. He kept a box hidden in his dresser.
A low, growling sound sent a chill up Steve’s spine. He slowly peeked out from under his blanket and grabbed a flashlight from his bedside table. He snapped it on and directed the beam of light around the room to try and find the source of the noise.
He moved the flashlight left and right, but saw nothing. Then the growl came again, and when Steve pointed the light into the far corner of his room he saw a hideous creature. It was about the size of a large dog, but it crawled on six spindly legs. Its body was hairless and covered with what looked like bloody blisters or boils. Its head was cone-shaped – similar to the head of an armadillo, but with beady red eyes and a long snout tipped with a circle of pointy teeth.
Steve crawled as far back on his bed as he could. The creature lumbered toward him, growling and dragging a long, thin tail behind it. The tail left a wet streak on the floor.
Steve tried to scream, but his voice wouldn’t work. The strange beast was at his bedside now, growling and gnashing its teeth. It stood up on its two back legs and reached toward Steve with the other four legs, each of them tipped with sharp claws. Steve squeezed his eyes shut, waiting to be disemboweled.
The creature stopped in its tracks. It sniffed the air, and then looked at Steve’s bed. The box of Cheezy-Bits had tipped over, spilling a few of the crackers onto the blanket. The monster reached out and picked up one of the small, orange squares. It held the cracker to what might have been its nose, sniffed, and then popped the cracker into its mouth.
The monster’s eyes close as its pointy teeth pulverized the Cheezy-Bit. The thing threw its head back and swallowed. A satisfied rumble arose from the creature’s stomach.
Steve grabbed the box of crackers and jumped off the bed.
“You like these, boy?” he asked the monster, which grunted and nodded its head. Steve reached into the box and took out a cracker. He placed the Cheezy-Bit on the floor.
“Here, boy,” Steve called, and the monster crawled to the cracker, picked it up and ate it.
“Good boy!” Steve put another cracker on the floor, this time a little closer to his bedroom door. The monster followed him and gobbled up the cracker. Steve left his bedroom and made his way down the hallway, leaving a trail of Cheezy-Bits as he went. The creature followed, eating the crackers.
Steve made a trail of crackers leading into his parents’ bedroom. He sprinkled the rest of the box over the sleeping shapes of his mother and father. The monster followed him into the room. Once the creature was inside, Steve snuck out of the room and closed the door.
For a moment all was quiet, until either the monster ran out of crackers or his parents woke up. The creature roared, his parents screamed, and the sound of cloth tearing, skin ripping, bones crunching, glass breaking and wood splintering filled the upstairs hallway. Steve ran to his bedroom, jumped in bed and pulled the covers over his head.
In the morning Steve dialed 9-1-1. A fat police officer questioned Steve as the coroner rolled the remains of his parents past him in a single black zipper bag on a stretcher.
“And you didn’t see who did this?” the cop asked.
Steve shrugged. The cop couldn’t tell Steve was grinning as he opened a fresh box of Cheezy-Bits.
© 2009 Robert C. Eccles
