couple dozen of them. The smell of the raw meat was probably what had made me dizzy.
There was virtually nothing else in the fridge. Was he planning a BBQ for the weekend?
He was certainly not an ordinary guy. I counted myself very lucky that he had been the one who had found me after the attack, after the creature had scared off my assailant.
The creature – I had suppressed the memory of it. I remembered very little of it. At first as it had pulled the man off me, I had gotten a glimpse of the claws. They had resembled those of a big cat, such as a mountain lion. I knew, because I had seen many big cats in my life. In fact I had worked at the zoo in Des Moines at the big cat enclosure.
However, the claws hadn’t looked entirely as being those of an animal. They had had some human qualities which was the reason I had been startled. I remembered how I had looked up and past my attacker’s head where two amber colored eyes had flickered at me.
I remembered it had felt like the eyes had locked with mine, as if the creature had held my gaze. There had been something human in those amber animal eyes. From my time in the zoo I had come to realize that certain animals seemed as if they looked at humans trying to talk to them.
It was ludicrous, of course. Animals didn’t talk, but I had the feeling they wanted to communicate. I had had the same feeling when I had stared into the creature’s eyes. It was as if it had wanted to tell me something. I hadn’t been afraid, I had been mesmerized.
I wondered whether I had imagined it all. If some wild creature was on the loose in San Francisco, surely the media would have reported something. But I couldn’t recall having seen anything on the news. Maybe my attacker had made a report, which certainly was very unlikely given he probably wasn’t the kind who went to the police. But it was worth a shot.
A large screen TV was positioned opposite the couch where I was still sitting, and several remote controls lay on the coffee table. How many remote controls did it take to switch on a TV? I reached for one and pressed the on button.
As soon as I heard the sound above me I realized I had picked the wrong one. I looked up and metal blinds started to pull across the skylight.
Oops! Wrong remote!
I quickly pressed the same button again and immediately the blinds started retracting until they were hidden and the skylight was unobstructed again.
I chose the next remote control and was lucky. The TV came on instantly. It was in black and white. What channel was it on?I wasn’t interested in some back-and-while classic movie. It looked creepy enough: the movie showed a room with a wall full of cages. I looked closer. The cages were filled with mice.
Frankenstein?
I looked at the remote trying to figure out how to change the channel. I found the familiar up and down arrows and pressed one of them. I looked at the picture again. It was still the same movie, only now the camera angle was different. Was the movie showing on two different channels?
I stared at the screen again. The door to the room opened and a man in a white lab coat came in. I pressed one of the arrows again to change to the next channel and stopped cold. Pressing the down arrow had changed the camera angle yet again, only this time it was pointed directly at the face of the man in the while lab coat: Vince.
I wasn’t watching a movie, I was watching Vince through his home security system. He was downstairs in his lab.
At first I wanted to switch off the screen, but my curiosity was stronger. Why did he have such an elaborate security system in his home? What was he hiding?
As I watched him take a mouse out of its cage and take it to the lab bench I wondered whether I had gotten in too deep. What if I was at the house of some mad psycho scientist? What if when he was done with the mice he needed some human to experiment on?
And then it struck me. What if he had already experimented on me? I had no idea what he
There was virtually nothing else in the fridge. Was he planning a BBQ for the weekend?
He was certainly not an ordinary guy. I counted myself very lucky that he had been the one who had found me after the attack, after the creature had scared off my assailant.
The creature – I had suppressed the memory of it. I remembered very little of it. At first as it had pulled the man off me, I had gotten a glimpse of the claws. They had resembled those of a big cat, such as a mountain lion. I knew, because I had seen many big cats in my life. In fact I had worked at the zoo in Des Moines at the big cat enclosure.
However, the claws hadn’t looked entirely as being those of an animal. They had had some human qualities which was the reason I had been startled. I remembered how I had looked up and past my attacker’s head where two amber colored eyes had flickered at me.
I remembered it had felt like the eyes had locked with mine, as if the creature had held my gaze. There had been something human in those amber animal eyes. From my time in the zoo I had come to realize that certain animals seemed as if they looked at humans trying to talk to them.
It was ludicrous, of course. Animals didn’t talk, but I had the feeling they wanted to communicate. I had had the same feeling when I had stared into the creature’s eyes. It was as if it had wanted to tell me something. I hadn’t been afraid, I had been mesmerized.
I wondered whether I had imagined it all. If some wild creature was on the loose in San Francisco, surely the media would have reported something. But I couldn’t recall having seen anything on the news. Maybe my attacker had made a report, which certainly was very unlikely given he probably wasn’t the kind who went to the police. But it was worth a shot.
A large screen TV was positioned opposite the couch where I was still sitting, and several remote controls lay on the coffee table. How many remote controls did it take to switch on a TV? I reached for one and pressed the on button.
As soon as I heard the sound above me I realized I had picked the wrong one. I looked up and metal blinds started to pull across the skylight.
Oops! Wrong remote!
I quickly pressed the same button again and immediately the blinds started retracting until they were hidden and the skylight was unobstructed again.
I chose the next remote control and was lucky. The TV came on instantly. It was in black and white. What channel was it on?I wasn’t interested in some back-and-while classic movie. It looked creepy enough: the movie showed a room with a wall full of cages. I looked closer. The cages were filled with mice.
Frankenstein?
I looked at the remote trying to figure out how to change the channel. I found the familiar up and down arrows and pressed one of them. I looked at the picture again. It was still the same movie, only now the camera angle was different. Was the movie showing on two different channels?
I stared at the screen again. The door to the room opened and a man in a white lab coat came in. I pressed one of the arrows again to change to the next channel and stopped cold. Pressing the down arrow had changed the camera angle yet again, only this time it was pointed directly at the face of the man in the while lab coat: Vince.
I wasn’t watching a movie, I was watching Vince through his home security system. He was downstairs in his lab.
At first I wanted to switch off the screen, but my curiosity was stronger. Why did he have such an elaborate security system in his home? What was he hiding?
As I watched him take a mouse out of its cage and take it to the lab bench I wondered whether I had gotten in too deep. What if I was at the house of some mad psycho scientist? What if when he was done with the mice he needed some human to experiment on?
And then it struck me. What if he had already experimented on me? I had no idea what he
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