Joey was walking home, late at night. The darkness of the sleeping city that he was passing through enveloped him as he stared at the fluorescent, blinking traffic lights up ahead. He was hungry, really hungry. Joey was on his way home from a friend’s apartment on the other side of town and had no food to eat there.
After a good couple of swigs of beer with his friend, he wanted to even it out with some hearty food. Bread and rice would have probably done the trick. After a glance in his friend’s fridge and a search in his pantry, all Joey found were two measly yoplaits and some K-bars. He hated that dieting crap. With all the sweetness that it shoves down your throat upon a mere bite, it doesn’t fill you one bit. Joey wanted genuine food but decided it wouldn’t hurt to scarf a couple of the K-bars down with his buddy before heading home. He pondered asking him to let him crash at his place due to how late it was, but decided against it. He wanted real food, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to get any over there. Once he was home, Joey would order in some pizza, lounge around, and fall asleep on his couch while watching the big bang theory.
He ran through the details of what he was going to do at home repeatedly in order to get his mind off of a sudden sense of dread that he couldn’t shake off. Unsuccessful, he eventually gave up. Whatever, he thought to himself. It wasn’t unusual, after all. He was walking through a pitch black city with only streetlights as company. Of course it was scary. He felt so isolated, despite being out on the city streets. There was no-one else walking around, no late bus to pick him up. He hated that feeling of utter loneliness, and it felt amplified at that point. He could say with all honesty that he’d wished he’d been mugged just to be in the company of another human being. Joey heard the clacking of his footsteps on the sidewalk. The howls of the wind fluttered into his eardrums while clumps of darkness crept into his peripheral vision.
When he’d turn to look at them, he’d find something that would perfectly explain it, like the entrance to an alleyway, or some graffiti smeared onto the walls on the other side of the street. Joey laughed at himself for a second while thinking of his shitty situation. He was too stupid to flag a taxi while they were still around, he was too lazy to steal a loose bike leaning on the walls of his friend’s apartment building, and this is where it got him. He started hearing another set of feet on the sidewalk behind him. He told himself it was just the echoes of his own footsteps. He refused to turn around and explained to himself that it was stupid to do so, and that no one was there. He got increasingly nervous the longer he kept hearing them. They were faint enough to be considered imagination, yet he swore to himself that these sounds were really hitting his eardrums.
Click , clack.
Click, clack.
Joey started to panic, and felt his heartbeat quicken. He found that the sounds of the footsteps were coming from a long way away. If he were to see something coming at him, he would simply sprint around the adjacent corner. It would be so far away that if he ran, he would be scott – free. He counted to three in a wavering whisper and turned around, preparing for the worst monstrosity he could think of. What he saw was nothing. His eyes rolled as a wave of embarrassment passed through. It must be the echoes of his own footsteps. His shoulders lowered and he walked with less vigor while making his way back to his apartment. He groaned in frustration at the emptiness of his stomach.
A few minutes passed as Joey shuffled along the sidewalk, completely unafraid. He looked forward to the back to back episodes of big bang theory promised by CITYTV as he gazed into the few windows with the lights still on. He then stopped and cocked his head to the side, as if a song he knew started playing at a grocery store. He heard a dull buzz coming from the alleyway next to him. Joey gazed into the dark mouth of the alley to see what it was. He saw the dim glow of a vending machine. He was overjoyed. This is exactly what he needed to tide him over. He had his heart set on a big bag of beef jerky while walking over to the vending machine.
After looking into the machine, he realized how strange it was. All the bags of snacks were exactly the same. There was no brand recognition or logos that gave you a clue about where the food came from. Every option was just another plain white packet with words printed on to describe what was inside. The words were printed in the same font that you would expect from a typewriter. Joey’s eyes sifted through most of the these packets, coming across names such as ‘Extra Crunchy Chips’, and ‘butterfingers’ until he found a packet with the words ‘beef jerky’ printed onto it. He examined the price below the packet. Joey was surprised at what he found. This beef jerky was nearly ten dollars. Joey, indifferent to the strangeness and expense of the machine, had slipped in a ten dollar bill while muttering that it better be worth every cent. He saw the little beef jerky packet slowly slide towards the glass of the vending machine and then plummet to the receiving slot. Joey anxiously slid his hand into the slot and snatched the food from the machine.
He walked out of the alley and onto the streets again. When he turned his head to take a look at the vending machine, it was nowhere in sight. It’s dull buzz could not be heard. He found it strange, but decided to rationalize it rather than think any more about the vending machine. Instead, Joey told himself that he was probably just imagining things due to how tired he was. After all, it was 1:30 AM at this point. He could have simply walked past the vending machine and looked through the wrong alleyway for it. Yeah, that’s probably what happened.
Joey opened the packet of beef jerky and a strong smell of bacon emanated from it. Joey closed his eyes while taking in the aroma that wafted from the packet. His mouth watered as he stuck his hand inside the little bag and grabbed a piece of jerky.
He found it odd that it smelled of bacon, but he certainly didn’t mind whether it was one or the other. He popped the dry meat into his mouth and found that this was the most delicious dried strip of beef he ever had. A spicy flavor of sorts danced on his tongue as he chewed on the piece of meat. It grew softer and more flavorful the more he chewed on it, and he soon stuffed another piece into his mouth while walking down the dimly lit road home. He devoured the packet. By the time he was finished, Joey was in the parking lot of his residential building. He got into his fifth – floor apartment and climbed into bed immediately. He didn’t need to order pizza or watch the big bang theory in anymore. He was already full.
Joey woke up content and well rested. After taking a shower and getting some clothes on, he went onto the balcony with a cigarette in hand. He always took a couple drags at a cig before going to work. He watched as the smoke he blew swirled and drifted away. After about 30 minutes of smoking, Joey whipped out his phone and examined the time. He then sighed, stubbed his cigarette out, and headed to his car downstairs. He was going to be late for work. He took the stairs down to the parking lot, walked to his car, and started it up. The traffic wasn’t dense, although the drive was lengthy. He arrived at the grocery store and braced himself for the scolding he would receive from his boss. His boss, Marty, looked furious. His face was red, round and tight mouthed. His eyes grew wider with every step Joey took.
‘Damnit, Joe! Late again! I’ll fire you the next time this happens!’
Joey grew irritated.
‘Marty, it was only by 15 minutes.’
His boss lashed out in anger.
‘Only by 15 minutes? That’s fifteen minutes of disservice to my customers! Get to work, you’ve wasted enough time. Not a word, or you’re fired!’
After another seven hours, he went home. It was about 9:30, and Joey was already heading to bed. He drove while listening to some wishy – washy pop song on the radio. The traffic was much more dense, and the headlights of cars went as far as he could see. The song got on his nerves, but he didn’t turn it down. Once he was finally parked in front of his apartment building, he briskly walked across the parking lot and then into his lobby. He then called an elevator. After a few minutes, Joey pondered taking the stairs.
However, it was then that the doors to the elevator opened. Joey thought he saw a pair of bare, dirty feet as the elevator slowly slid open for him. They had brown dirt coming up to the edges of their toes and deep into the quick of each nail. They appeared grotesque, and Joey had smelled something awful as the elevator door opened. He got one last look at those frail, bony feet before the elevator dinged. They disappeared, although the smell of dead tissue still lingered in his nostrils.
Upon entering, he heard the elevator dinging as it journeyed to his floor. He was glad that he had his sweater on. Waves of coolness came in from all sides. Joey felt like he needed a full-on coat. Even though it was spring, this elevator felt like a little remaining pocket of winter. He started to feel increasingly uncomfortable, and listened to the floors passing by as the elevator took him to his hallway. To his horror, Joey heard the distant sound of a little girl laughing for a split second as the elevator zipped past one of the floors. The cool temperature was seeping under his skin by now, and nausea stemmed from the pit of his stomach. He thought about the food he had taken from the vending machine the other night. He examined the meat in retrospect and found it revolting. The nausea took over. He hunched over and threw up as the acid in the vomit seared his throat. He gasped, and another stream of it seeped out his mouth. Joey was dry heaving when he was finally finished. He felt better that it was out of his system. Cleansed, even. The elevator doors opened, and he sprinted out without another second to spare. What was a minute and a half long ride felt like a year long trip.
Joey felt true terror now, and sprinted to his apartment door. He fumbled for his keys and quickly opened it. Once he was inside, he immediately slammed the door shut and locked it. He attempted to rationalize what just happened. He convinced himself that he probably just came into contact with rotten goods at the grocery store. He wanted to keep his mind off of what happened, despite the rationalization. He would never admit that he was terrified, although he certainly was. He locked his bedroom door as well, which was unusual for him. He quickly shut the lights off and stuffed his head under the covers of his bed. Joey felt safe, secure.
This only lasted for about an hour. The quiet, muffled sobbing of a little girl broke the comfortable silence of his room. Fear took hold of him once again. Listening to her sobs filled him with sadness and pity, but fear remained. He was tempted to ask her if she was ok, but something sinister lurked behind these sobs, and no matter how sweet and innocent it sounded, there was no hiding it. The sounds of crying slowly got louder as it crept closer. He pondered staying under the sheets of his bed until morning, but he knew that he was getting out of those blankets somehow. The question was whether he was going to come out of the covers himself, or if something or someone else will do it for him.
He decided to take action. In a sudden burst of courage and anger, Joey ripped the sheets off his head and shot up. The sobbing stopped, and Joey yelled, ‘’GET OUT, GET OUT OF MY HOME!’’. The sinister monstrosity that he had been expecting turned out to be exactly what it sounded like: A harmless, frightened little girl. She could see her thin frame and dirty, rough skin due to the pale moonlight shining through his window. His eyes darted to her tear stained face. The girl had no skin on the left side of her jaw, and the blood dripping out of her wound glistened in the white light. Her torn, plain white gown hung off her gracefully.
‘I’m sorry sir, I was just messin with you ‘cause I was angry. It’s not your fault.’,
She said in between sobs. Joey could hear the tendons in her jaw ripping with every word. He felt waves of guilt. Before he could apologize, she uttered another sentence.
‘I just don’t understand. Why me?’
She then turned her back on him and started to fade into darkness. Before she did, Joey managed to read two words printed onto her pale neck :
Beef Jerky
******* News Report********
A man named Joey Baskerville, aged 27, has jumped off of his fifth floor balcony in the very early hours of the morning. Many of the people that took residence in the building were shocked at the tragedy, as this was very unlike the cheerful man that that they once knew. However, a mrs. Samantha Gunther says that ‘ This is a very tightly wound community, and he was always on the outside, which is strange.’ A young man by the name of Jeff Schoerg came across the appalling site while out for a walk.
Meanwhile, the search for 13 year old girl Diana Folksworth continues without any further clues.
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Credits to: Shadowstories
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