Stitched

Everyone's had a regular place where they stick around long enough to notice certain details most people look over, like a jogger who always goes on the same trail and always passes a large stone, or a perhaps a man at a café to get morning coffee always sees a certain painting on the wall. For me, I was a sophomore in high school, and I waited at a bus stop in the morning, which happened to be right next to a nature trail.
I had recently moved to a neighborhood in Oklahoma City, which just so happened to be next to a nature reserve. I would often get to see wildlife early in the morning in the reserve, since my bus stop was at a place where the nature reserve was visible. There was everything from squirrels to deer, and it wasn't too uncommon to see the occasional bobcat.
On a particular day, I saw what looked like a dead dog, lying in the grass on its side at the edge of the woods. Now, it was an ugly little thing; its tail was brown and  hairless, kinda like a rat's, and its face was sunken in - you could almost see the details of the skull underneath the skin with how thin it was. Its eyes were gone, and so were its lips and nose. What I found the most peculiar, however, was how the fur on its face seemed like it hadn't been touched, as well as the fur on it's body. The dark brown fur looked groomed and well kept, like a domesticated dog. Perhaps someone had lost a pet. Maybe it got hit by a car?
The corpse seemed fairly fresh, and almost too fresh to have begun to decompose. How could its fur be so clean and neat, yet its eyes, nose, and lips are gone? I figured that since those were all soft parts, that they'd been eaten by other wild animals, but if the was the case, then why wasn't there any blood?
The bus arrived, and I had to go to school. I watched out my window as the thing grew smaller and smaller as we drove further and further away.
When I got home that day, I was somewhat eager to go take a closer look at the animal, but when I looked to where I'd seen it, the creature was gone. The city must've cleaned it up. Since there was no reason to stay, and I had chemistry homework, I decided to head home and continue on with my day.
That night was awful; there was a really bad thunderstorm that rolled in after dinner, and kept me up until at least one o'clock in the morning. I really needed to sleep; I had school in the morning, and a test in geometry. The thunder and lightning didn't care about my school work, and only proceeded to keep me awake. I decided to surf the web on my phone, finding it pointless to just even try to sleep anymore.
Eventually, 2 AM rolled around, and at about 2:30, I heard tapping on my window. This would scare anyone, of course, but what made it especially scary for me is that my bedroom was upstairs. Not only that, but we didn't have any trees outside my window, or even on that entire side of the house. Frightened yet curious, I hesitantly opened the blinds to see what was making the noise, and when I did, I saw two little white pins of light, and a big red glowing heart.
The heart looked like a child's drawing, and seemed to be in front of something. I tried to get a better look at what it was, but it was too dark to see anything else. Luckily (I can't decide if if was good luck or bad) a flash of lightning lit up the room to reveal a dog-like shadow before me - it was the dead dog I'd seen at my bus stop earlier that day. Suddenly the heart cracked, and the creature let out a piercing cry. It wasn't just any cry, it was the cry of a dying animal in a great deal of pain; the sound an animal makes when it knows that it's going to die. I had NEVER been so terrified in my life.
Out of pure shock I jumped away from the window, fell out of bed and accidentally fell on my dog, Milo, waking him up and causing him to yelp. I hated it when I heard Milo cry; he was such a sweetheart and never deserved any harm. I hugged my dog and calmed him down, feeling bad for squashing him. After Milo had fallen asleep again, I climbed back into bed and checked my phone. 2:59 AM. I looked out my window one more time, since I hadn't heard anymore tapping. I only saw the now distant storm in the sky, nothing at my window. Relieved, I brushed it off as a hallucination from fatigue and eventually fell asleep, only to get up a few hours later for school.
The next morning at school, there was an announcement that there had been a wild animal attacking people, so all outdoor classes had been redirected to the gym, or otherwise cancelled. What they didn't tell us is that the thing had already attacked four people, and every one of them was found with their heart ripped out. The most unsettling part was how each heart was replaced with a stitched up heart of felt. Hearing about this couldn't help but remind me of the creature I'd seen at the bus stop, and outside my window.
When I got home that day, I told my parents, but they said they already knew. I decided not to tell them about the thing I'd seen, since I thought it wasn't all that important. I was probably just imagining things.
After dinner I decided to draw a picture of the creature I'd seen, for shits and giggles. Of course, I had to go to bed for school in the morning, but got to sleep in since I wouldn't be waiting outside for the bus anymore. Not with that vicious creature out there.
Later in the week, while I was at my desk doing homework, I'd noticed someone had touched my drawing: someone had drawn stitches on the heart, which now appeared cracked. It also had bear claws now, which just made it even creepier. I was almost in disbelief when I saw the stitches on the heart. Was this the creature that had been murdering people? Then I saw a small scribbled note in black pen next to it which read, "It can't be fixed." The words freaked me the hell out, so I confronted my parents. They didn't know anything about it. In fact, they thought I was trying to poke fun with them considering how uncanny and coincidental the whole thing was. Frustrated, I stormed into my sister's room and confronted her - she was just learning how to read and write - but she hadn't a clue. I also doubt it was her since she was so young and innocent, and wouldn't write something like that. Not to mention, she hadn't been told about the creature's work.
Again, that night I heard tapping outside my window, and didn't bother to open the blinds. This continued for days, then weeks, and soon a month before I made the choice to swallow my fear and peek through them. Again, it was the thing, hanging on the gutter on the side of our house by its tail. It stared at me, snapping its jaws, teeth glistening in the pale moonlight. With the light of the moon now able reveal its silhouette, I could see it had  large claws, just like those that had partially defaced my drawing. What scared me the most, however, was the dim glow of a torn, stitched up heart on its chest. I shut the blinds, and ran to my light switch. The power was out, which made no sense, as it was a perfectly clear night outside. Still, I wasn't about to argue with a light switch. I could use my phone flashlight, even though it wasn't too great. I had to use it sparingly, though, since my battery was only at 17%.
I crept down the stairs to tell my mom and dad, but for whatever reason, they were gone. I wanted to call out for them, but I was held back by fear. Something felt off... I didn't feel as alone as I should've. I decided to check on my little sister, Emily, and when I got to her room, I saw her in bed. I was relieved, but only for a brief moment before I tried to wake her up. She wasn't breathing. I was startled, and threw off her covers so I could attempt CPR. At that moment, my heart stopped as I stared at my sister's open, bloody chest. Her heart had been ripped out through her chest, leaving her ribs broken and looking like bloody tree limbs the way they splintered. Her innards were showing, too, which almost made me throw up. I had to look away, this was too much for me. My head was spinning, I thought I might faint; this was too much for me. My sister, Emily, was dead. It was obvious who the killer was, but my curiosity got the best of me - I had to be sure, so I looked at her corpse one more time. There it was, a little stuffed felt heart. I turned away again, choking up at the sight of my poor sister. Emily was only 5 years old, and now she would never get to have the privilege to grow up and read properly, or literally do anything. Her life was gone.
Tears streamed down my face as I stared at my sister's mutilated corpse. I was almost catatonic, still stunned and unaccepting of her fate. The worst part was how I knew I couldn't do anything to save her - it was done. After a minute of hard sobbing, I gravely pushed through my tears so I could act. I opened my phone and went to call the police. I dialed up 911, and called. My phone was silent for a moment, before giving me an automated message that the service on my phone was "currently unavailable". This was bullshit. I turned off my phone, and looked over at Emily one more time. I decided to say a prayer to her, just before I put the covers back over her. I couldn't bear to look at her face - she had died with her eyes wide open. Not to mention the amount of gore underneath... It was sickening how anyone, or anything could do that to a child. 
Without my parents or phone, I was about to go outside and try to find help. That's when I heard Milo in the hallway. I caught myself, however, when I listened closer. The sound of the animal was much too big to be a dog, and I knew the sound of Milo by heart. I could hear big claws clicking against the floor as it sauntered around. 
I had to hide fast. There was no way I was about to let this thing win. Without second thoughts, I locked myself in the bathroom, right outside Emily's room. I heard the sound of claws dragging across the floor grow nearer as it made its way through the house.
There were several loud crashes, followed by a disturbing hissing noise... and the sounds only got louder. As much as I wanted to get revenge, I knew that I would never stand a chance against the beast. I would have to make a break for it, to just... run away as fast as I could.
I carefully unlocked the bathroom door, and as soon as it opened, I ran straight for the front door and shot through the house.
The front door was unlocked, strangely, but it helped for me to get out before that thing could get me.
I ran out into the street, screaming for help. I screamed about how I'd seen the thing, and that the god damned "wild animal" was in my house. ... But with every breath I took, with every shout I blared, the more hopeless I felt. Nobody seemed to be noticing.
I went to every neighbor's house I could, and nobody answered. It was only 11:00PM, so you'd think that at least a few people would still be awake. That's when I noticed that nobody was home. Anywhere. The whole neighborhood seemed to have been suddenly quiet, almost like an apocalyptic suburb. I didn't know what else I could do, so I hid in someone's treehouse in their front yard, about a block away from my home, where I had to sleep until daybreak. There was no way I was going to go back to my house. Not tonight, at least.
I awoke in the treehouse the next morning, and ended up being late to school. Not like I cared too much, as I had a little too much on my plate to be concerned with chemistry. I climbed down the dirty rope ladder and walked home to see if it was safe. I also wanted to see if my parents were home yet. Turns out they were standing in the in front of our house, just like the many other families (what was left of them at least) with the cops at every house.
My mom and dad were in tears, hysterical over Emily's death. When they saw me, they ran to me and hugged me. My dad was never one to hug, but even he held me tight. I hugged them back and asked them where they'd gone, but they said they'd gotten a phone call from a relative who needed something, and they thought we'd be okay by ourselves. Although I was upset, I couldn't be mad at them. They'd done this before, but of course, things never ended like this.
It appeared that my almost my entire street was taken out by the thing. Every house I'd gone to had been the site of a recent murder, whether it be just the children, or the entire family. All of the victims had little sewn hearts in place of their real ones, tucked into their chest cavities.
I somewhat wanted to go back into our house and look at the damage, but the police refused to let anyone into any of the houses for investigative purposes. All of our stuff was confiscated, and the authorities never told us why.
I was even interviewed about the drawing of the creature I'd seen, and questioned if I knew anything about it. I told them what I knew, and they seemed to understand that I knew no more than they did. I'm just glad they didn't get all suspicious and pin the whole thing on me.
We ended up moving to another town - a safer and nicer one, too. They never ended up catching the creature, but it did stop attacking people after a while. By the time, it did, though, too many people had already been killed. I will never forget that night, or the things that I saw.
... Now for those of you wondering what happened to my dog, Milo, I will only tell you that he seemed to have disappeared and never came back. No one knows if he was killed, either, but we can only hope that he managed to find somewhere safe, away from the wretched creature.
Category:Animals
Category:Monsters