in

Story Time with Ms. Von Doom

image

Hello boys and girls. Welcome to Story time with Ms. Von Doom. (That’s me, in case you were confused) Every week for the next several weeks (or until I run out of submissions I like) I will be featuring one of you lovely readers short stories. If you have submitted, and your story isn’t chosen this week, fret not, it may still be featured in the future. Interested in submitting? It’s as easy as emailing me a copy of your story to hollyvondoom@horrorsociety.com . Now on with the story. Enjoy…

The Parasitic Anomaly
by Emory Slone

The following is an account by a survivor 20 years after The Parasitic
Anomaly’s last encounters with the people of Catton, Kentucky…

“From deep within the eastern hills of Kentucky arose the stench of
death and decay. Once known to the locals only as an urban legend, in
1993 The Parasitic Anomaly went on what was to be known as one of the
most brutal killing sprees in the U.S. ever recorded. The men of an
entire community were basically wiped out, but I somehow survived. The
townsfolk got word that the Anomaly had been stealing cattle from the
stockyard late at night. An eye witness claimed he saw it lumber into
the yard and with a clubbing blow from it’s fist kill a cow. Then
literally picked it up and threw it over his massive shoulder before
walking off into the nearby woods. He said from what he saw in the
darkness, the giant form stood over 7 feet tall, walked with a severe
limp and had a great hump on it’s back. It wore what appeared to be a
loosely fitting robe made of frayed burlap. The man could barely tell
the story to police before he had to be sedated and taken to the
psych-ward the next morning.

The town was shocked and terrified that something so horrific could
exist, let alone the fact it was stocking around their community. What
if it decided to take, rape and kill the children or women? Questions
like these arose and so did anger and hate for this diabolical
abomination.

After a heated and emotional meeting of the people, our small town
decided in unity that the search for this hideous creature was on.
Using the stockyard as an unofficial headquarters, we rounded up the
town’s most formidable team of hunters, stronghands, and good old boys
looking for the fight of their lives. The women and children were told
to keep the doors locked tight and only open up if they knew for sure
it was someone that was known and trusted. With all our firepower,
weapons, and supplies to last at least a week, we were ready to set
out in search of this bastard of a creation.

We split into two teams and drove 4×4 trucks to either side of the
hills where it had been sited, with a plan to close in on a one mile
radius meeting in the middle. Driving ever so slowly down the old
bumpy dirt road with men in the bed of the trucks at the ready with
their shotguns and rifles, we had our CB radios tuned to the same
channel so a call for backup could be made at a given moment.
Eventually we met up at the chosen center spot, but to no avail on
spotting the blasted creature.

It was time to take an approach on foot. Keeping our two teams
together and each of us careful not to fray from the pack, we stalked
around the side of the hill with the plan of meeting back at the
trucks in one hour. About 20 minutes later, I heard a “Psst”, then a
whisper, “Hey guys, what’s that over there?” We crept down the hill
and walked up on a makeshift shed halfway back in a cubbyhole on the
hillside. The smell damn near could have knocked a man out. There were
big bloody handprints on the plywood propped up as a door. With our
guns ready, one man grabbed the door and threw it back.

It was the most disgusting scene I had looked at in my life. It was
the cow from the night before. Looked more like it had been torn
apart, instead of cut. Legs hanging, broken bones, ribs exposed,
innards on the ground, and head dangling on by a thread of flesh and
tendons. A few men couldn’t help but to gag. We picked up the plywood
and closed it back up. We now knew what The Anomaly was capable of.

About that time, out of nowhere, an enormous figure jumped down from
overtop the shed and let out a bellowing scream as deep as a damn
lion. The Parasitic Anomaly had made his presence clearly known. One
man shot it almost immediately with his 30/30. We stood there
expecting it to go down, but instead it turned to him and with one
quick swoop of it’s huge arm knocked the man’s head clear off. His
spine and vertebrae flew with it. His body fell crumpled. It turned to
us as if to say “who’s next?” We opened fire on it at close range. I
could tell the shots were taking effect, but it also seemed to enrage
it even more. It started grabbing at the barrels of the guns jerking
them from their owner’s hands. I guess one of us had a death grip on
his, because both of his arms were pulled clean off.

With all of us disarmed, The Anomaly started swinging wildly. He was
knocking the grown men about like ragdolls. It occurred to me, I
should try and get the other team over here to help fend this beast
off. I took off towards the trucks hoping I’d run into them along the
way. As I ran I heard all of the men’s screams of anguish behind me.
That made me run faster than I had since I was a kid. When I got to
the trucks the others were not there. Surely they had heard the
gunfire.

I stood there for a few seconds looking in all directions and catching
my breath. I started hearing gunshots from over where I had just left
my team. In my frazzled state of mind I didn’t know what the Hell was
going on, so I started running back over to the site. The gunfire had
stopped, but the closer I got the more screams and yelling I was
hearing. I must have somehow missed the other team somewhere. I
finally made it over there and what I saw put the mangled cow from
earlier to shame. It wasn’t the fact that I was looking at dissected,
bone-crushed, and decimated remains of every man I ever knew in my
life, but it was the site of that foul, hideous being known as The
Parasitic Anomaly.

It’s burlap robe had been torn away in the scuffle revealing it’s
horrendous deformity. It was a disgusting little devilish head with
little arms growing from it’s back and they were both devouring the
flesh of the dead men as if they hadn’t had a meal in a month. The
sound alone of the gore gnashing in their rotted teeth was enough to
make me sick. They didn’t see me and I was glad. What could have I
done at that point?

I turned and ran back to the trucks, got in mine and hauled ass back
to town. I had to be the one who told all those wives and children the
fate of their brave husbands and fathers. That was harder than seeing
what I saw up there. We called in the state and federal authorities,
but they didn’t believe my story. They knew it was something not human
though, so they called in the Army to do a widespread search. Came
back empty.

We had to lay all the remains to rest and after that, try to regain
some sense of normality in our lives, but to this day The Parasitic
Anomaly haunts me and the whole town of Catton. It’s been 20 years and
it hasn’t been seen since that day of blasphemy, but if I did see it I
would still run like Hell.”

One Comment

Leave a Reply
  1. I see that you like slasher flicks lady face! May I suggest The Splatter House Rules by Jeff O’Brien??? it’s a great slasher book ;)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.