Sharp Teeth

1



Samantha rang the doorbell a second time and looked at her watch. It was 10:23 a.m. She was nearly an hour late. Perhaps the man had grown tired of waiting and had split. Then she heard footsteps on the other side of the door and heard a deadbolt being thrown back. A tall, stocky man opened the door wearing paint-spattered blue jeans and a dirty white tank top.

“Yeah?” he asked gruffly.

“Hi, I’m Samantha.”

There was no recognition of the name.

“From the Cedar Falls Review,” she added.

“Oh, yeah. You’re late.”

“I’m so sorry about that. I didn’t hear the alarm and I’ve been running late all morning. You’re… ah….,” she trailed off, trying to remember his name; she had it written in her appointment book, but she’d left that in the car.

“You can call me Ned.”

“Ned, right. Do you still want me to take the pictures?”

“Yeah, just go around back. I’ll meet you there.”

He shut the door then, right in her face.

“Rude,” she whispered.

Samantha walked around the side of the house, stepping over scattered auto parts that were strewn in the overgrown grass. When she got around to the back Ned was waiting there for her. He was standing next to a blue 1976 Chevy Nova. The car was in surprisingly good condition.

“Is this the car I’m supposed to get pictures of?” she asked.

“Yes. Why else would I bring you back here?”

She blushed slightly in embarrassment.

“Do you need me to give you all the details on it?” Ned asked.

“No, they already have all the info from when you called in. I just need to take a few pictures, and they’ll pick the best one and print your advertisement.”

“All right, then. Go ahead and do what you have to do while I step inside for a minute.”

He went back into the house, the screen door squealing on rusty hinges. Samantha unzipped the camera bag hanging from her shoulder by a strap and took out the Nikon. She was old school and still used film. Digital photography seemed somehow cold to her. She slipped the cap off, wound the camera and took the first shot. She wound it again, took a knee and snapped a second shot from a lower angle. She stood up, brushing some dirt from her knee. She moved three paces to the right. She held the camera up to her eye and adjusted the focus slightly as the screen door squealed again. She snapped a third shot and turned to tell Ned that he’d done a great job keeping the old car in such good condition, but she never got the chance to say anything. Something struck her in the back of the head and she went out like a light.



2



When she came to she was in a dark room. She was sitting on a concrete floor, and her hands were chained together above her head. There was a bit of faint light high up and far to the left of her. It looked to her like a window that had been boarded up, but haphazardly, so that some light still seeped in. Her jaw hurt; her mouth was gagged with a piece of cloth that was tied in a knot at the back of her head. Speaking of which, her head felt like it had been split open and put back together. The back of her head was still throbbing.

There was a sound in the darkness. Samantha held her breath and listened. It came again. It was the sound of someone whimpering. She squinted into the darkness, trying to see who else was there with her.

“Who’s there?” she asked; through the gag it came out “Oo ere?”

Now the person was sniffling. It sounded like a woman. Samantha pulled on the chains that bound her wrists together and they cut into her skin; she was secured tightly.

“Hello?” she said; this came out “Ello?”

There was no answer. Samantha heard the sound of a deadbolt being turned and then there was light high above her. She could see a staircase directly in front of her now. She squinted up into the light just as it was blocked out by the shape of a man. He came slowly down the stairs, his footsteps loud and somehow ominous. The silhouette got to the bottom of the staircase and reached up. A bright bulb came to life and Samantha had to squint against it for a moment until her eyes adjusted. She could see now that the silhouette was Ned.

“Ut are oo ohween to do to ee?”

“I can’t understand you,” he said.

She used her tongue to push the gag partially out of her mouth and tried again.

“What are you going to do to me?”

He stood there staring at her for a moment, his eyes dull and vacant.

“Whatever I want,” he said flatly.

Now he turned to the right and walked past her. When Samantha turned her head in that direction she saw the person who had been whimpering. It was a girl. She was young, maybe seventeen. She was also sitting with her hands chained above her, a gag in her mouth just like Samantha. When the girl saw Ned she started crying quietly. He stood over her, looking down at her as she shut her streaming eyes.

“It’s time,” he said.

Ned reached into a pocket and brought out a key. He used the key on the padlock that bound the chain around the girl’s wrists to a metal bar set into the wall. The girl started wailing incoherently, kicking out with her legs. He slapped her hard across the face, the sound of someone slapping a meat tenderizer into a hunk of meat.

“Be nice!” Ned said sharply, reaching down and squeezing her throat with one powerful hand.

The girl quieted down some. Ned unwrapped the chains from her wrists. He then grabbed her hair and used it to pull her along. She started screaming but he didn’t slow down or stop. He dragged her to the staircase.

“Eave er alone!” Samantha said; the gag had settled back into place.

Ned reached up and pulled on the chain. The light went out. Samantha saw his silhouette again, this time going up the stairs and dragging a writhing silhouette behind him. She pushed the gag partially out with her tongue again.

“Don’t hurt her, you bastard! I’ll kill you if you hurt her!”

The door at the top of the stairs slammed closed and the deadbolt was shot home. Samantha was alone in the darkness.



3



Eventually she lost track of time as it took on a strange quality. Had one week passed or two? Ned came down twice a day with a plate of food and some water. He would take her gag off and feed her himself, though it was never much; she was constantly hungry. A few times she thought about biting his hand, but she fought the urge. She knew she couldn’t break free of the chain; if she hurt him badly, if he bled out and died, what would happen to her then? She would die down in that basement, hungry and alone. She asked him several times about his intentions with her, and about what had happened to the girl. He never answered these questions and so she stopped asking them.

When she first inquired about using the bathroom Ned had pointed to a drain in the center of the basement. The floor seemed to slope slightly to the drain.

“What about…what won’t go down the drain?” she had asked.

He told her he would bring a bucket once a day and she would have to do the best she could while still chained up. He always turned his back when she did her business, but it was still degrading. Sometimes he would get angry at her for dropping food and he would slap her and call her a pig. She hated him with every fiber of her being, but until she was free of the chain she was at his mercy.

Every day she felt herself growing weaker. Even when he got more generous with the food portions, there was still another hunger that it could not fill. She just hoped that she would still be strong enough when her chance came.



4



She was shaken awake. Her eyes felt gummy and they opened slowly. At first she couldn’t see anything at all but the light. When her eyes adjusted she saw Ned standing over her, a dancing light in his eye

“It’s time,” he said.

She didn’t understand. Her mind was a bit fuzzy and she found it hard to think straight. Ned took a key out of his pocket and leaned over to unlock the padlock on the chain. Samantha’s mind started clearing then. This is what had happened with the girl, and she had never seen the girl again.

Her hands fell limply into her lap as the chain was removed. Ned put the key back in his pocket and took hold of her hair. The pain was intense as he dragged her along; she thought if he pulled much harder a chunk of her hair was going to come right out. He switched off the light when they got to the stairs. She had to crawl along as he pulled her up after him, scraping her knees as she went. At the top he let go of her momentarily as he shut the door and bolted it. She tried to stand but she couldn’t make it to her feet. She was weak and hungry. He grabbed her hair again and pulled her across the kitchen, her scraped kneed leaving a bloody trail on the old linoleum. He pulled her through a hallway and into a bedroom, then let go of her hair.

“Get on the bed,” he said brusquely.

She had to plant both of her hands on the bed to pull herself up. Each of the four steel bedposts had a chain attached to it. The chains were laid across the bed and the loose end of each one had a pair of handcuffs attached to it, one cuff closed over a chain link and the other cuff hanging open.

“Don’t move,” Ned said.

He went to the closet and started poking around in it, his back to Samantha. Her blood ran cold when she saw one particular item hanging from a hook in the closet. It was a big meat cleaver, and it had red stains on it.

The gag was still in her mouth; now she reached behind her head and untied it, throwing it on the bed. Ned was still searching for something in the closet. She stood up slowly, unsteadily. The bed creaked when she lifted her weight off of it and she froze. Ned didn’t seem to hear it, or if he heard it he didn’t care; either way he didn’t turn around. She took a step toward him, her balance a little off. She took another step, feeling better now. Adrenaline was pumping through her veins and she felt some of her strength returning. She took a third step; now she had no problems with her balance. She took a fourth step, and now she was right behind him.

Ned found what he was looking for. It was a short, black riding crop. He was going to have some fun with the whore before he snuffed her. He was going to take his time, more so than he’d done with the others. He kind of liked this one and he wanted it to last. He turned around and flinched when he saw her standing there.

“I told you not to move. Get back on the---”

His voice caught in his throat. She smiled and he could see her teeth. There was something strange about them but he couldn’t figure out what it was at first. Then he had it---two of her top teeth were long. Too long. As he looked at her they grew even longer. Her smile widened and there was a wicked light in her eyes. A low mewling sound escaped Ned’s throat. Those teeth looked so sharp.

“I’m sorry,” he said; it was almost a whisper.

“I know you are,” Samantha replied.

She darted forward and bit into the tender flesh of his neck, and she fed. She fed until she wasn’t hungry anymore.