Inanimate (26 page)

“
Earl, that
is you in there right?” he
asked, concern creeping in to his psyche.

“
Come on old man, don’t be
rude, answer me already!”

Tony
started to knock on the door. His
first thump pushed it open a third of the way, bringing a part of
Earl into view.

“
What the fuck?”

Tony
thought out loud and pushed the door
open fully.

The old man sat naked from the waist down.
Blood leaking from a ripped out throat had colored his once white
shirt into a dark maroon.

“
Jesus Christ!”

Tony
held his breath. Moving backwards
quickly he slammed into the sink. Staring in disbelief at the man
in front of him his eyes scanned the situation. The cubicle walls
were covered in blood but the floor was-on the whole-clean, largely
thanks to Earl’s gut preventing the arterial spray from reaching
anywhere except the walls and the back of the door. A soft whimper
broke the terse silence in the room. Turning his head, Tony saw a
small dog beside the urinals looking up at him with a sad, longing
look on its face. If it wasn’t for the patches of blood on it Tony
might say the little thing was quite cute. He could not say that
however. The little thing before him did not even look real. Its
eye’s looked plastic, its fur looked artificial, it simply looked
to him like a fluffy toy. The dog took baby steps towards the
paralyzed Tony, gradually gaining ground. The dog, now standing
just below his knees, whimpered at him with blood dripping from
around its mouth. In an effort to appear confident Tony forced a
smile.

“
Hey pup
,” he said nervously and the little
dog looked away sheepishly.

Tony
tried to make a subtle retreat while
the creature’s eyes were off of him. One step at a time he moved
towards the door. As he got a stepped closer the dog’s head
twitched a little, then a little more. Terrified his movements were
causing a reaction in the creature’s behavior Tony stopped and with
one large twitch the ungodly thing before him jolted its face
completely out of Tony’s vision. Just as quick as it turned away it
turned back, eyes locking hard on Tony’s. Its face demented, its
body shaking. White foam oozed from its mouth, turning the blood
around it a light pink. Deep snarling came from within the creature
as it snapped wildly at the air, transforming itself into a demonic
doppelganger of its former self. Tony, unable to control himself,
pissed in his pants, a large dark spotted signifying the last of
what his bladder could not release voluntarily. The dog burst open
its mouth revealing two razor sharp rows of gnashing teeth. As its
eyes bulged, Tony could swear to himself the creature was grinning
at him. The creature lunged straight for Tony’s throat with
incredible speed. Reactions which stemmed from his footballing days
suddenly kicked in allowing Tony to fall backwards, grabbing the
beast as he did so. He was using all the strength he could muster
just to keep the demon pooch from clamping down on his throat. He
could feel its warm breath just inches from his Adam’s apple as it
snapped profusely. Holding the dog firm took all of his power as it
thrashed in his hands, whipping its head wildly like a shark does
when ripping flesh from an animal. In order to get the dog off of
him Tony was forced to make the most dangerous decision of his
life. He needed to throw the creature far enough away so that he
could make his exit. But, in order to do that he needed to bend his
arms which meant bringing the creature closer to his throat. As Dog
snapped and snarled furiously, Tony tried his best to be careful as
he gradually bent his arms, each degree of bend sacrificing some of
his strength. It was only when Tony felt the fluff from the
snarling mouth tickle his throat did he push off with every scrap
of strength he had left. Firing the beast across the room it
slammed hard into the banana colored tiles. After falling flat on
the ground Dog’s expression changed. It slowly rose to its feet
looking sad; its face having quickly switched back to its passive
alter ego. Whimpering gently as if hurt; Dog aimed for sympathy.
Tony decided not to wait around long enough to be fooled; He
scrambled to his feet and headed to the door, leaving the
whimpering pooch in the room behind him. Dim light stung his eyes
immediately. The bright lights bouncing off the bright yellow tiles
had spoiled his vision and now he was back in the smoky, wooden
bar. Pool balls clicked and pop music bellowed as he hurtled across
the room to the table he recently left. The group was in a lighter
mood, chatting amongst themselves as Tony bombed across, screeching
to a halt beside the table.

“
Guys, we need to get the fuck
out of here!”

He said hushed at the table trying to
avoid a panic. His emotional state in stark contrast to the group
who were much more passive.

“
Why?” asked
Brian “Is it your
round?”

He and Matthew
share
d a
chuckle.

“
No
. Really guys, I was just in the
washroom...and a creature...it attacked me!”

“
Yeah yeah I saw it too” said
Matthew.

“
You did?” Tony
ask
ed, relief
shining in his voice.

“
Yeah, I went for a piss and
th
ere was a
snake between my legs, scared the hell out of me!”

This time, everyone except Tony cracked
up. Tony snapped. He dove across the table yelling and grabbing
Matthew with both hands.

“
Listen to me you fucker!
Earl
is dead,
something killed him!”

Despite the music
play
ing, most
of the bar heard this. About eight other people turned around.
Billy, the other bartender ran across to find out what’s going on.
Matt was embarrassed with himself as Tony just stared into him,
fuming, still grasping his shirt.

“
Hey Tony?” Brian
asked, cutting the
tension. “Did you piss yourself?”

“
What did you
say?”

Billy
asked as he stopped at the table.
Billy never really liked anyone in this group so he wasted no time
with small talk.

“
Did you say Earl was
dead?”

Tony slid
off the table closed to tears.
He sniffled as he spoke.

“
Uh-huh a dog or something
attacked him in the stall; it’s in there with him now, only it’s
not real. It’s like a toy or something. But the teeth on it…and
that look on its face…”

Billy
wasted no time. He ran behind the bar
and grabbed his trusty bat, emblazoned with a “Louisville Slugger”
logo. The music switched to the ambient bar music as no-one had put
any more money in the jukebox.

“
Don’t go
in there!” screamed Tony “It’ll get
you just like it got Earl!”

Billy
looked back but decided to pay no
heed, the brave young bartender moved closer and with a steely
looked in his eye he kicked open the bathroom door. He stepped
inside quickly and the door swung shut behind him. Billy never
quite realized how quiet the washroom was compared to the bar up
until now.

“
I’ll
need to put speakers in here later
on.”

H
is brain tried to keep as calm as possible
by focusing on other, more trivial matters. He peered round the
corner; there was no sign of the beast Tony was talking about, only
a strange sound coming from one of the stalls. Sharply he glanced
up to the ceiling, up at the high windows and then he dropped down
and scanned underneath the cubicles, spotting Earl’s feet. Slowly
the young bartender eased towards it, his bat, cocked over his
shoulder confidently. His mind took him back to a lifetime ago when
he tried out for the Major leagues only to be foiled at the last
minute by failing the medical because of a recurring knee injury.
Edging towards the cubicle door, the noise got gradually louder but
he was still unable to figure out what it was. Absolutely convinced
whatever he was looking for was behind the closed cubicle door, he
placed his feet in a strong stable position just outside, giving
himself enough room so that if something tried to get at him from
underneath he could swing down and swat it. Placing the bat softly
against the upper part of the door he gently shoved at it, avoiding
pushing too hard so it didn’t bounce back and block his
view.

“
What
was that?”

H
e thought to himself, unable to see Earl’s
face clearly as something was blocking it. Whatever it was kind of
looked like a dog from behind, only it didn’t looked real… For a
moment he watched it gnaw at the torn throat before he decided he
couldn’t wait any longer.

“
Hey!”

He yelled to grab the creature’s
attention. Partially regretting that action, he was absolutely
stunned at the sight before him. The creature turned around,
roaring violently, its teeth were bared and dripping blood. Instead
of being afraid Billy got one looked at Earl’s mutilated body and
lost himself.

“
Earl?” he uttered
as anger boiled
volcanically within him.

S
creaming, he charged the creature swinging
the bat down hard at it. At the last second Dog jumped to the
floor, causing the bat to smash hard on Earl’s partially chewed
skull. A little blood sprayed from the decimated skull but only
very little. Most of the blood in his head had already been used to
paint the walls. With no time to be remorseful for the mishit,
Billy pulled the bat from Earl’s head and looked for the creature.
His breath was heavy as anger ran his lungs like a steam engine.
Little eyes observed Billy’s from the temporary cover of another
cubicle. Preparing for an attack designed to immobilize the
bat-wielding bartender, Dog waited for the opportune moment. Dog
watched as the built bartender’s feet turned away from it, it was
then the when the creature decided to attack. Planning a quick
“bite and run” Dog moved quickly towards his target. Billy didn’t
hear the soft feet on the tile floor but he did hear the breathing
and at the last minute, turned away offering Dog only a taste of
flesh as he grazed Billy’s leg. Ignoring the pain Billy stepped out
of the cubicle and ran awkwardly towards Dog who was turning around
for another pass, using the bat like a golf club Billy swung so
hard he actually lifted himself off the ground, catapulting the
small beast up against the wall to the ceiling and back to the
floor. Landing hard, Billy fell after he put weight on the wounded
leg. Dog lay shaking his head, angrier than ever. As Billy shakily
used the bat to stand up, he was careful, much urine had been
sprayed this floor making its surface as stable as an ice rink.
Billy’s determination to beat the creature was not lost on Dog who
tried his deception tactics. Face turning sad and forlorn, Dog
whimpered at him. Slowly, Billy lowered his bat as Dog lowered his
head, matching Billy’s movements. When Dog’s head was all the way
down Billy quickly raised the bat, yelled maniacally and charged,
limping towards it. With a quick face change Dog roared and ran at
Billy, dodging his swing and scuttling up the drain pipe behind
him, leaping onto the high window. Billy looked up at the
retreating creature and the two share a looked. They both knew this
wasn’t over. Dog growled violently while Billy, unafraid yelled
back at it. With a contemptuous grunt Dog dove through the back
window, shattering glass and disappearing into the
night.

Billy
limped out into the murky bar and
went straight for the phone behind the wood. Everyone in the bar
was standing up watching him, all desperate to knew what was going
on.

“
What happened
Billy?”

Billy didn’t respond, instead he was
dialing the Sheriff’s station.

“
Is Earl dead?” asked
Sandy.

“
Yeah, he’s dead, I’m calling the
Sheriff, though I don’t
know if it will do any good”

“
Why?”
asked Matthew.

Tony cut in, answering for
Billy.

“
Because that wasn’t a man
in there, it was a creature, it wasn’t real.”

“
Billy come on now” started Brian
“You’re talking crazy, it must have been real, maybe it was an
animal or somethin’”

“
No!”
Stated Billy “It’s not crazy, it’s
true, I saw it. Damn thing bit my leg. And it wasn’t an
animal!”

The phone at the Sheriff
rung for a little
while. Eventually, a cop picked up. The cop told Billy that Oates
was busy so the young bartender bit his lip. As casually as he
could he told of a murder in the bar, and that they should send
officers straight away. He did not want to sound like a complete
lunatic to some regular cop; he would save his story for
Oates.

Back at the table Tony and his cronies
stood awkwardly.

“
The thing you saw? The thing
that killed Earl. You think it got Jimmy too?”

Matthew’s
question was directed at Tony
but they all thought about it.

“
I don’t
know.” Tony eventually replied. “But
that thing…I’ve never seen anything like it before, it just, it
wasn’t real.”