Puppet On A String

The Thing moved.

I felt the pounding of my heart, like the booms of drums coming from inside the earth. I dared not open my eyes. I was stiff. My muscles were numbed, cried out for comfort. The bleakness of the night swirled around me.

It was dark, however, I saw its face clearly. It was grinning from ear to ear. Its ears were missing, though. All that was left were tiny slits that emitted with tingling sounds that gnarled and growled. Its large, blackened teeth shone, blinded me with sharp laser lights. It had no body, only a shadowy shape of a humanoid. Its eyes were deep reddish that flashed at shadowy intervals. Its nose was missing as well. What remained in the center of its face were two deep holes that bubbled with swirling, burning water. Its moonface was blotched and swollen as if it had a furious fight with a giant whose hands battered its face continuously.

I screamed, shattered the silence of the night with a thunderous noise that lingered within me like bombs. I felt the hoarseness of my voice. I thought I heard claps of eerie movements in the room, and my body wilted into frozen, hard, stony bones. I shook as my body rolled from side to side.

The sounds of applause echoed and reechoed throughout the auditorium. The lights came on...