The Furnace Monster (First Draft)

I don’t really think of my Pop as having been a bad man I just remember that he used to tease my sister and I an awful lot when we were little. Grandpa called him an incessant teaser and said it was his own fault for having teased my Dad so much when he was my age. No, I never thought of him as bad but he could get mean with his teasing cause I was never sure if he was telling the truth or making up another story of his to make me worry over, too make me afraid.

One of Pops favorite teases to tell little kids was about their belly buttons. I remember him asking me when I was 3 or 4 if I knew what my belly button was for and me shaking my head no. “Well,” he said, “that’s where the doctor sews all your skin together after you’re born. You have to be very careful that the knot doesn’t come undone or all your skin will fall off.” I remember looking at him wondering if this was one of his fibs and then trying to look at my belly button.

“Oh you don’t believe me?, he asked. “Hang on a minute and let me get my belly button screw driver and I’ll show you.” With that he turned around and started heading for his shop that was just off the kitchen in the garage. I remember grabbing at his pants leg, crying out to him not to and I remember the smile on his face that greeted me when he turned back around picking me up in the air and then laughing with that booming voice of his.

When I was 5 years old Mom and Pop separated. Mom kept the little house we lived in and Pop moved in with a guy who lived around the corner and down the block from us. Mom and Pop would trade my sister and I back and forth every Sunday evening. One week we’d live with Mom and the next we’d be with Pops. When we would go to Pops it was more like a sleep over because he rented the basement from Ted so it never really felt like home.

Ted’s house was the same age as ours but it felt a lot older inside. Everything inside was worn out and faded. From the carpeting that had bare patches in it to the faded, dingy drapes. And the house had a musty old odor that permeated everything in it, especially Ted. Being in the basement exacerbated the smell by adding a certain amount of damp moldiness to it. Whether it was the premature age of the house, the odor or the combination of both I never really liked being there.

At the time Pop drove tractor trailers, pulling what he called over dimensional freight for a local rental company. My memories of him and the few pictures Mom still has are of a big tattooed guy with a fu manchu mustache and short pony tail. I remember a lot of times when we were with him that he worked really late. Grandma and Grandpa would watch us at their house until he got off work. A lot of times he’d come straight over from his last haul pulling into their driveway with the cab of his tractor trailer like it was some big ol’SUV. My sister and I were still small enough that he’d seat belt us both in on the passenger seat of the truck for the ride back to Ted’s house.

Ted’s basement contained 3 rooms: the one my sister and I shared, Pops which had a small bathroom attached to it and the laundry room where the hot water heater and furnace were. I was used to having a nitelite at Moms, and since the only bathroom was in Pops room I remember asking him if he would get a nitelite but he said there was plenty of light coming in to the basement from the street lamps outside. No there isn’t, I thought to myself but didn’t say anything more.

I remember that first winter at Ted's like it was yesterday. The old furnace across the hall would make a horrible racket every time it started and would wake me up at night. Then the whole house would start groaning and I’d hear metal banging and popping for the next half hour. I remember when I asked Pops why the house made so much noise when the furnace came on, and him looking at me for a moment before mumbling that I was too young to understand.

“What, won’t I understand?” I pleaded.

Looking at me again like he was weighing his answer he simply responded, “a furnace monster.”

I’m sure a look of bewilderment and no small amount of fear crossed my face as I asked, “What’s a furnace monster?”

“Oh, that’s what you’re hearing at night when the furnace starts up.”

“Nuh uh,” I replied, “you’re funning me.”

With all the seriousness of a funeral director Pops shook his head and with a sorrowful woe in his deep voice he started telling me about the monster that lived in the duct work.

“No one’s really sure how they come about. Some say they start out as nothing more than dust bunnies blowing around in the duct work. Over the decades,” he paused and as an aside said, “they only exist in really old houses like this one,” then picking up where he’d left off, “they continue to get bigger until they are so big they settle into one spot. The guess is that at some point their size and the heat coming from the furnace and an exact type of mold spore make them come alive. Of course no one’s ever seen that happen so it’s all just a bunch of hypotheticals.”

Pops was talking to me like he was telling me one of those as yet unheard of facts that all adults know but just don’t tell us little kids because they think we are too young to understand. I know my lower jaw must have been hanging to the floor as I took in every word he said.

“What you’re hearing at night is the furnace monster walking around in the duct work. You do know what duct work is right?” he asked cocking his head to one side.

“Uhm, no.”

Pops lead me into the laundry room and pointed out the galvanized steel “boxes” leading off from the top of the furnace.

“See the furnace makes fire, and there is a fan inside that blows the heated air through those ducts…,” leading me by the hand he took me back into my room, “and then the hot air comes out of that. That’s called a register, “ he said while pointing at a small metal grill on the wall near the floor of my room.

Sitting me on my bed he continued his story, “The furnace monster sleeps during the day but at night when the furnace starts up it wakes up and roams around in the duct work going all over the house. That’s the noise you’re hearing.”

Almost in a whisper I asked, “but why do you call it a monster?”

“Hmm, that’s a good question. Well every things got to eat to stay right?” I’m sure I nodded my head in agreement. “Right. Well here’s the thing. The furnace monster eats”, and Pops paused again as if considering whether he was going to share this next tid bit of information with me or not.

“What Pops? What does the furnace monster eat?” I remember a part of me thinking, maybe I don’t want to to know what Pops is going to tell me next, but I just had to know.

“People,” he said and then quickly added, “well not people really but people parts. You know, fingers and toes and what not. Really anything that’s hanging out from under someones covers at night. You see, the only light in the ducts come from the registers in the house. The monster goes from register to register peeking out to see if there is anything to eat and if it’s hungry and see’s a hand hanging out from under the blankets well…”

I’m sure my eyes couldn’t have gotten any bigger if I tried.

“But you don’t need to worry yourself none. I’ve gone all over the house and made sure the registers are screwed on tight. He can’t get out”, and with that Pops got up and left me sitting in my room stunned by this horrible revelation. I still had a million questions. How could he be so calm about us having a monster in the house? Why didn’t Ted get one of those exterminator guys to get rid of it? If Pops thought I was ever going to get out of bed at night to use the bathroom after tell me this he was nuts.

That evening when I went to bed I made sure my blanket was tucked under every part of me. Pops assurances that the register grills were on tight were doing nothing to calm my pounding heart. It took me forever to fall asleep and it seemed that I no sooner had than the furnace started up with it’s god awful cacophony of rumblings. It wasn’t long before the banging and popping started but this time I knew what it was making all those noises. I quieted myself, trying to will my heart beat to stop so I could listen to the monster as it roamed the house. At one point the noise did stop and I steeled a look from under my Power Rangers comforter. I could barely discern the register on the wall from the dim light that came in through the little basement window. Then the headlights from a car passing outside brightened the room for a brief second and I recoiled as the light glinted off a golden eye peering at me from behind the register. Quickly pulling the cover down tightly over my head I whimpered, silently begging it to go away. The pinging and popping started up again and I sighed relief thinking the monster had left.

The next morning was a Saturday which meant Pops would be sleeping in. My sister and I usually went up stairs on Saturday mornings and watched cartoons with Ted. This morning he even shared his Lucky Charms with us as we watch the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. During a commercial break I went back downstairs to use the toilet in Pops room. I could hear him still snoring from upstairs in the kitchen. When I went into his room he was sprawled on his stomach with his right leg and arm hanging out from under the covers. Wow he’s lucky the sun is already up, I thought to myself.

Later that morning I told Pops what I’d seen the night before.
“Golden eye huh? Well that certainly does sound like the descriptions I’ve heard of before. Good thing you stayed under the covers.”
“You need to be careful too Pops”, I chirped. “You weren’t under your covers when I came in to your room this morning.”

“Oh you don’t need to worry about me, my snoring’ll keep it away. Why I snore so loud the trees outside quake in fear thinking a chain saw is coming for them”, he laughed while tousling my hair. I wasn’t so sure Pops was right, especially given what I’d seen last night but he didn’t seem worried about it so maybe I was making more of it than I should.

When I tried to tell my sister about it she just told me Pop was teasing me and to stop listening to him.
Over the next few nights, even though I peeked out from under the covers, I didn’t see that eye again. Maybe my sister was right, Pops was just funning me again and I’d imagined everything.
After a couple more weeks went by with nothing else happening I was sure this had all been nothing but another one of Pops teases.

I remember it was some time after Christmas we were back staying with Pops. I’d almost forgotten all about the furnace monster. It was an exceptionally cold night and the furnace had turned off for a moment. The pops and pings of the duct work had quieted back down and in the ensuing silence, just as I was about to drop back off to sleep, I heard a squeak, followed by another and then another squeak. Metal against metal as if something were being turned and it sounded like it was in my room.

Lifting my comforter just enough to see the register I tried to make out what I was hearing. When I first looked the sound had stopped but now it started again. My eyes finally focused on something that was coming out between the metal slats of the register. I could hardly hold back the bile working it’s way out of my stomach when I realized what I was seeing. A single, hooked talon perfectly shaped to fit through the narrow slits of the register was working at one of the screws that held the register in place. With stunned horror I watched the talon slowly work at the screw until it fell to the floor. Then with slow methodic patience the claw started working on the one remaining screw.

I was completely paralyzed with fear. I didn’t make a sound and I’m not sure to this day if I could have. It seemingly took forever but I’m sure it wasn’t even half a minute before the other screw fell to the floor. Four talons now appeared through the registers slits. Holding it firmly they pushed the cover away from the wall and quietly set it on the floor. The grey arm and paw those claws belonged to retracted inside the now open duct. Seconds later replaced with not one but two golden eyes peering directly at me. In slow motion the eyes disappeared as lids slowly raised up to close them and then lowered again. They eyes started to move forward and for the first time I saw the monsters head push it’s way out of the duct.

If the devil had created a cat for his own pleasures the thing I saw would have been it. Dark grey and disheveled like the dust bunnies it had been created from the thing slinked out of the duct with feline fluidity. As if by some evil magic the thing grew in size as it exited the duct, expanding in all directions until it stood in the room slightly larger than a big dog. Four muscular legs flexed and then is silently shook itself. The squat face turned towards the bed and the eyes, glowing in the dim light seemingly searched for mine, hidden beneath the comforter. I lowered the small opening I’d made in the comforter fearful it would appear as an invite to the creature.

With a breathy snort like a bull I heard it turn into the hallway and then enter Pops room. I needed to scream and warn Pops, I needed to scream because the nightmare I was witnessing was going to make my heart explode if I didn’t. Instead, unable to move, almost unable to breathe, what I did do was wet my bed. Seconds later I heard Pop stop snoring, but now I heard him trying to scream but it was all muffled like a hand was over his mouth. The sound of something soft falling off the bed and onto the floor was followed by the sound of it being dragged across the carpet towards my room. As numb as I felt I had to know what was going on. Peering out from under the covers I could make out the furnace monster backing into my room dragging Pops body along which was stiff as a board. Moving over to the duct it began to cram his body inside and then it backed itself in after him. Disappearing inside the duct for but a a second the head popped back out. The furnace monster, it’s eyes burning with looked right at me. I thought for sure I was going to be it’s next victim. Then one of those clawed fingers came up over the monsters mouth as it whispered to me, “Shhhhh”. A golden eye winked and then the clawed paw grabbed at the register grill where it lay on the floor and pulled it back into place.