The Hungry Kitty of Westmarch, Ohio

The Hungry Kitty of Westmarch, Ohio
By
Bud H.


Darnell Ledbetter felt that the price was too steep. He leaned over the counter and pointed at the used Game Boy Color, which was marked at $18.50. "That thing's only worth 18 bucks! How the hell do you expect me to pay a hundred bucks for that Game Boy over there?!" He swiveled his extended index finger in the direction of the Game Boy Advance, which sat directly beside the cheaper model.

The clerk, whose name was Lyle Puttz, shrugged and said in a flat, uninterested voice, "I don’t make up the prices, that’s corporate’s job. If that’s too much for your blood, do you wanna pre-order something instead?”

Darnell breathed out a semi-silent curse. He didn’t know anything about what a ‘Gameboy’ was, but only that his son’s birthday was coming up next week, and that’s what he had asked for. His eyes darted back and forth from the cheaper model to the more expensive one and all he saw were price tags. In the back of his mind, he already knew which one to get. He figured that he could simply call up his son and ask him which one he wanted, but that would only ruin the surprise.

With a sigh, Darnell said, “I’ll take that . . . “his words were interrupted by a pathetic, warbling ‘meow’. Both men glanced back toward the front of the store, and saw a shaggy little kitten. Its fur was puffed out to the point that it resembled the world's biggest ball of naval lint ever collected. The kitten stared up at the two men with pleading eyes and then proceeded to let out another pathetic 'meow'.

"Dude, you’re not allowed to bring pets into the store," Lyle said.

"That ain't my cat," Darnell replied. "I’m allergic to those things."

It was then that both men realized that the door that led into the game shop was standing wide open. At seeing this, Lyle strode around the cash wrap and toward the entrance. "My boss is gonna kill me if he finds out I left the door open. I got wrote up twice this week already; once more and I’m fired," he muttered under his breath.

Darnell turned away to look at the Game Boys again when there came from behind him a blood curdling cry. He whirled around in time to see blood shoot from Lyle's midsection in a great crimson fan. Across his now exposed belly were four horizontal slits from which his innards were now oozing out.

The store clerk looked at Darnell with eyes wide with both pain and shock. His mouth hung open and guttural grunts and groans sounded from it. He brought the hand that wasn't trying to hold in his writhing guts up toward the heavens and then fell face first to the floor. There was a wet sounding 'glorp!' as he landed in his own offal.

Darnell's jaw hung open and his eyes bugged from their sockets. His mind had gone completely blank and he stood stock still as he watched the clerk convulse reflexively on the ground.

Then, it happened.

The kitten padded up to Lyle Puttz, opened and expanded its mouth to ten times the size of its entire body, and in one breath, inhaled the now dead clerk into it.

Had Darnell still been alive, he would have heard a horrifying cacophony of crunching, smacking, and slurping, but after having seen the disemboweled clerk inhaled whole into the gaping maw of the kitten, he turned and collapsed over the counter as his heart gave one last, massive ‘thud’ in his chest before quitting for good. That's where he remained until the kitten, whose hunger had yet to be satisfied, came up from behind him. Again, it opened its mouth and inhaled Darnell, chewed a few times, and then swallowed.

In the end, the little kitty had its fill and left the store as quietly as it had come in.

The End.