Nightmare at 20,000 Feet: Horror Stories (6 page)

  Come on, son, we're trying to help you.

Swish

  L-Leo.

  Last name.

  I d-don't… Leo.

  What's your last name, son?

  Vo… Vo…

  All right, son. Take it easy.

  V-Vogel.

  Leo Vogel. That it?

  Yeah.

  Address?

  T-twenny two thirty, avena J.

  Age?

  I'm… almost… Where's… my ma?

Swish swish

  Turn it off a minute, Sergeant.

  Right.

Click

Click

Swish

  All right, son. Okay now?

  Y-yeah. But where…?

  You're how old?

  Fi-fifteen.

  Now, uh, where were you last night from six o'clock till you went home?

  I was… at… at the show. Ma give… give me the dough.

  How come you didn't stay home to watch television with your parents?

  'Cause. Because…

  Yes?

  The Le-Lenottis was comin' over to watch it with them.

  They came often?

  N-no. It was the first time they'd… ever come.

  Uh-huh. So your mother sent you to the movies.

  Y-yeah.

  Sergeant, give the kid some of that coffee. And see if you can him find a blanket.

  Right away, chief

  Now, uh, son. What time did you get out of the movies?

  Time? I… don't know what time.

  About nine-thirty, would you say?

  I guess. I don't know… w-what time. All I…

  Yes?

  Nothin'.

  Well, you saw the show only once, didn't you?

Swish

  Huh?

  You saw it only once. You didn't see any picture twice, did you?

  No. No, I only seen it once.

  Okay. That would make it, uh…

Swish

  … roughly about nine-thirty, then, that you got out of the movies. You went home right away?

  Yeah… I mean no.

  Where did you stop?

  I had a Coke at the… at the drugstore.

  I see. Then you went home.

  Ye-

Swish.

  … yeah, then I went home.

  The house was dark?

  Yeah. But… they never used no lights when they watched TV.

  Uh-huh. You went in?

  Y-yeah.

  Take a sip of that coffee, son, before it gets cold. Take it easy, take it easy. Don't choke on it. There. Okay?

  Yeah.

  All right then. Now… oh, good. Put it over his shoulders, Sergeant. There we go. Better?

  Mmmm

  Okay. Let's get on with it. And believe me, son, this is no more fun for us than it is for you. We saw it too.

  I want mama. I want her. Please, can I…

  Oh. What did I… well, shut it off, Sergeant. Here kid. You don't have a handkerchief, do you? Here. Did you shut it off, Sergeant?

  Oh. Right away.

Swish click

Click

  When you went in, was there anything… peculiar?

  What?

  You told us last night you smelled something.

  Yeah. It… it… There was a funny smell.

  Anything you know?

  Huh?

  Did it smell like anything you ever smelled before?

  No. It wasn't much. Not in the… hall.

  All right. So you went into the living room.

  No. No. I went… Ma. Can I…

Swish swish

  Come on, son, snap out of it. We know you've had a bad time. But we're trying to help.

Swish swish swish

  You, uh, didn't go in the living room. Didn't you think you should mention that smell?

  I… h-heard the set on and…

  Set?

  The TV set. I thought-I figured they were still watchin'.

  And?

  And ma didn't like me to… b-bust in on them. So I went up to my room so's I wouldn't… you know.

  Bother them.

  Y-yeah.

  Okay. How long were you up there?

  I was… I don't know how long. Maybe an hour.

  And?

  There… wasn't no sound downstairs.

  Nothing at all?

  No. There wasn't nothing at all.

  Didn't that make you suspicious?

  Yeah. Well, I figured… they'd… laugh at somethin' or talk loud or…

  Dead quiet.

  Yeah. Dead quiet.

  Did you go down then?

  L-later I went. I was goin' to bed. I figured I…

  You wanted to say goodnight.

  Yeah. I…

Swish

  You went down and opened the living room door?

  Yeah, I… yeah.

  What did you see?

  I… I… Oh, can't ya… I want my ma. Lemme alone. I want her!

  Kid! Hold him, Sergeant. Take it easy!

Swish swish

  I'm sorry, kid. Did it hurt? I had to calm you. I know…how you feel, Leo. We saw it too. We feel sick and… awful too.

Swish

  Just a few more questions and we'll take you to your aunt's. Now first. The television set. Was it on?

  Yeah. It was on.

  And you… smelled something?

  Yeah. Like in the hall. Only worse. Only lots worse.

  That smell.

  That smell. Dead. A dead stink. Like a pile o' dead… dead… I don't know. Garbage. Piles of it.

  No one was talking?

  No, there was no thin'. 'Cept the TV.

  What was on it?

  I already told ya.

  I know, I know. Tell us again. For the record.

  It was… like I said…just them letters. Great big letters.

  What were they?

  F… uh… F-E-E-D.

  F-E-E-D?

  Y-yeah. Big crooked-like letters.

  You'd seen them before?

  Yeah. I told ya. They was on our set all the time… Not all the time. Plenty though.

  Your parents never wondered about it?

  No. They said… they figured it was a sort of commercial. You know.

  But the things you saw.

  I don't know. Ma said… it was for kids. Some, I mean.

  What-did you see?

Swish swish swish

  Sort of… mouths. Big ones. Wide. Open, all open. They wasn't p-people.

Swish

  What did it look like? I mean, couldn't you tell what it was?

  No. I mean… they was like… bugs, maybe, or maybe… w-worms. Big ones. All mouths. Wide open.

  All right.

Swish

  You, uh, said the letters flashed on, then off and you saw the… mouths, and then the letters again?

  Yeah. Like that.

  This happen every night?

  Yeah.

  Same time?

  No. Different times.

  Between programs?

  No. Anytime.

  Was it always on the same channel?

  No. All different ones. No matter which one we had… we seen them.

  And…

  I wanna go. Can't I… Ma! Where is she? I want her. I want her.

Swish click

Click

  A few more questions, Leo, and that's it. Now, you said your parents never had the set checked.

  No, I told you. They thought it was-

  All right.

Swish

  You went in the living room. You said something about slipping, didn't you?

  Yeah. On that stuff.

  What stuff?

  I don't know. Greasy stuff. Like hot grease. It stunk awful.

  And then you… you found…

Swish

  I found them. Ma. And Pa. And the Lenottis. They was… Ohhh, I wanna…

  Leo! What about the set, Leo? What about it?

  Huh, what?

  The picture on the set. You said something about it.

  I, yeah… I…

  It was the letters, wasn't it, Leo?

  Yeah, yeah. Them letters. Them big crooked letters. They was up there. On the set. I seen them. And… and…

  What?

  One of the E's. It kinda… faded. It went away. And… and…

  What, Leo?

  The other letters. They come together. So… so there was only three.

  And it was a word.

Swish swish swish

  Take him to his aunt, Sergeant.

  And the tube went black…

  All right, Leo. The sergeant'll take you ho-to your aunt's.

  I turned on the lights.

  All right, Leo.

  I turned on the light! Ma! MAMA!

Click

5 - WITCH WAR

  Seven pretty little girls sitting in a row.

  Outside, night, pouring rain-war weather. Inside, toasty warm. Seven overalled little girls chatting. Plaque on the wall saying: P.G. CENTER. Sky clearing its throat with thunder, picking and dropping lint lightning from immeasurable shoulders. Rain hushing the world, bowing the trees, pocking earth. Square building, low, with one wall plastic. Inside, the buzzing talk of seven pretty little girls. "So I say to him-'Don't give me that, Mr. High and Mighty.' So he says, 'Oh yeah?' And I say, 'Yeah!' "

  "Honest, will I ever be glad when this thing's over. I saw the cutest hat on my last furlough. Oh, what I wouldn't give to wear it!"

  "You too? Don't I
know
it! You just can't get your hair right.

  Not in
this
weather. Why don't they let us get rid of it?"
"Men!
They make me sick." Seven gestures, seven postures, seven laughter’s ringing thin beneath thunder. Teeth showing in girl giggles. Hands tireless, painting pictures in the air.

  P.G. Centre. Girls. Seven of them. Pretty. Not one over sixteen. Curls. Pigtails. Bangs. Pouting little lips-smiling, frowning, shaping emotion on emotion. Sparkling young eyes- glittering, twinkling, narrowing, cold or warm.

  Seven healthy young bodies restive on wooden chairs. Smooth adolescent limbs. Girls-pretty girls-seven of them.

  An army of ugly shapeless men, stumbling in mud, struggling along the pitch black muddy road.

  Rain a torrent. Buckets of it thrown on each exhausted man. Sucking sound of great boots sinking into oozy yellow-brown mud, pulling loose. Mud dripping from heels and soles.

  Plodding men-hundreds of them-soaked, miserable, depleted. Young men bent over like old men. Jaws hanging loosely, mouth gasping at black wet air, tongues lolling, sunken eyes looking at nothing, betraying nothing.

  Rest.

  Men sink down in the mud, fall on their packs. Heads thrown back, mouths open, rain splashing on yellow teeth. Hands immobile-scrawny heaps of flesh and bone. Legs without motion-khaki lengths of worm-eaten wood. Hundreds of useless limbs fixed to hundreds of useless trunks.

  In back, ahead, beside, rumble trucks and tanks and tiny cars. Thick tires splattering mud. Fat treads sinking, tearing at mucky slime. Rain drumming wet fingers on metal and canvas.

  Lightning flashbulbs without pictures. Momentary burst of light. The face of war seen for a second-made of rusty guns and turning wheels and faces staring.

  Blackness. A night hand blotting out the brief storm glow. Windblown rain flitting over fields and roads, drenching trees and trucks. Rivulets of bubbly rain tearing scars from the earth. Thunder, lightning.

  A whistle. Dead men resurrected. Boots in sucking mud again-deeper, closer, nearer. Approach to a city that bars the way to a city that bars the way to a…

  An officer sat in the communication room of the P.G. Centre. He peered at the operator, who sat hunched over the control board, phones over his ears, writing down a message.