The Cannibal of Mentone Alabama

THE CANNIBAL OF MENTONE ALABAMA

Callie Marie Eichelberger

(Short story)

(words: 1621)

-The Cannibal of Mentone, Alabama-

It was dark, cold, daunting. Everywhere she looked she couldn’t see. Drip. Drip. Drip. She tried to pull away from the cold wall, only to find that her wrists were shackled to the wall. Stomp. Stomp. Stomp. She could hear the cold, hard footsteps of someone outside of the room she was in. Where was she? Who was she? Annie? Was that her name? She closed her eyes, trying to focus on something, anything, that would jog her memory.

The clattering of keys could be heard outside the door along with the sliding of a bolt in its lock. A tall, broad shouldered figure steps into her room..or was it a cell? The stench of something rotten follows suit of the figure. She gags. What was that smell? And just where was she? There was a low, deep, long breath exhaled in the room. The figure bends down and unlocks her shackles. “Thank you, I-I was beginning to wonder-” SLAP. She was cut off by a harsh slap to her face. Hot tears prick her eyes and she trembles. She looks up with a frightened look, her heart pitter pattering in her chest. The dark figure grabs onto her hair and yanks her up and he picks her up in a fireman’s hold, with her slung over his shoulder. Her feet kicked trying to get him to let go. He did not. “Help! Someone!” She begs to no one. What was the person going to do to her? She was taken to a dimly lighted room. She was sat down on a couch. ‘The leather is nice quality.’ She thinks to herself. The lights flicker on.

In that moment, she had the sick realization that the couch was not leather. It was made out of human skin. She tries to stand, but the man pushes her down and tied her down. She got a good look at this man. He had burns on his arm, nasty looking gashes that were poorly stitched together, she almost felt bad for the man. “Dinner.” The man spoke for the first time. “D-Dinner?” She squeaks. The man nods with a grunt. He takes out dusty plates and sets the table in front of her. She wonders what the man had in mind for the nights meal, but she soon finds out as the man grabs a pan full of meat. He sits next to her and force feeds her the smoked meat. “What...What is it?” She asks, afraid to know the answer. “Chicken, beef, pork, or lamb?” She sounds hopeful, too hopeful, “Human.” The man says finally, after shoving the last bite into her mouth and then beginning to eat for himself. She suddenly felt sick.

It was a nice, spring day in the small town of Mentone, Alabama. Two young girls were running through a field behind their small home. Squeals of laughter from a baby could be heard from their house. “Girls! It’s suppertime!” Their father called out to them. “Yes daddy!” the younger called back and turned to her older sister. “Betcha I can beat you back to the house, Annie!” The younger girl said, “Not on my watch Finn!” ‘Annie’ said and started running, her tanned legs carrying her across the field. Birds chirped outside, cars drove passed the small house in the quaint little neighborhood.

Annie gasps as she wakes from her stupor, the short memory of her and her little sister Finn...Finley! It was of her and her sister Finnley when they were thirteen and twelve years old. That was eight years ago. She whimpers as she hears laughing. Just how long was she out for? The sun was shining brightly through the cracks from the door. She shook her head. She stands and throws her body against the door. She does this repeatedly until she falls to the floor, sobbing. The man comes in. “Wake?” He asks, kicking her. She yelps. He drags her to a room.

“Mommy, we wanna see Zan!” Her little sister Finnley, age seven, said whilst tugging on her mothers sweater. Annie nodded her agreement, she was eight. Their kind mother led them to a baby’s crib where they stared in awe of this baby. The baby opened his green eyes and squealed in delight at the two girls who grinned happily.

The two girls happily ran along to play. There was a storm rolling in soon. Thunder and lightning soon crashed around their home. The girls huddled in Annie's room watching old cartoons, when they heard the baby crying loudly from fear. They ran to the baby’s room. “Zan Zan its okay!” Finley said, “Your big sisters are here! You’re safe!” Finnley assured the baby who calmed at her voice.

Sobs wrack through Annie’s body at this new memory. She had a baby brother, Zan….Zander! God, she misses her family. The man comes in and shows her a calendar. He points to Thursday, August 8, that must have been when she was taken because he shows her a date, August 18. Has she been there for that long? She had been there for that long because this man then pointed to August 17 and says “wake finally.” Slow bits of memory comes back to her, the hot car ride, the gas station. She remembers two other passengers and watching them die. She remembers waking up, being force fed human flesh. She looks at the man, ‘who hurt you to make you hurt others?’ She thinks to herself. “Food,” the man says with a grunt and drags her down the dark hallway.

She doesn’t put up a fight knowing it’s inevitable. As she’s being dragged she could hear distinct crying. “Let me go!” A male voice cries out. She recognizes it. Zander? It couldn’t be. She shrugs it off and she sits as told. The man grabs her wrist and cuts into it causing her to scream. Her blood drains into a glass. She struggles. The man cuts into her more. He then drags her down to the basement where he places her on a meat hook. Her screams echo through the house.

The man leaves and goes to the males room and drags him into the dining room where Annie’s glass of blood sits and a plate of fresh flesh sits waiting for him. “No! Leave me alone!” The male screams, “I’m not supposed to be here! I need to find my sister!” He yelled as the man cut into him. The man grabbed the flesh and forced him to eat it.

Zander chokes the flesh down with a whimper. The man goes to force him to drink the blood and he kicks out at the man. He goes and grabs a hammer and slams it on Zander’s knee, shattering it. The man forces the blood into his victim’s mouth.

A knife is impaled into the killers shoulder. He turns a cold gaze to Annie. “My name is Logan Jacobson. That is my brother you are harming. I will not allow you to harm him. Your cannibalistic ways of killing are over.” Logan charges into the man and slits his jugular vein and kicked him away from her baby brother.

“Annie!” Zander cries and Logan turns and cuts his ropes off. The male collapses into her. “Don’t worry, Zan, i gotcha.” She says and helps him out if the house. She gets him to a small store and uses the phone to call home and call for an ambulance. She and Zander ride together in the ambulance. Zander tells Logan how he got to the house.

Zander was the first to actually do something about his older sister’s disappearance, Finley had been sick at home and couldnt do anything so he took off in the family truck to look for Logan. His truck went into a ditch somewhere along the road so he took to walking. He comes across a small house in the middle of nowhere. “Maybe they will help me.” He thinks to himself. He goes into the house. A grunt can be heard. “E-Excuse me, I hate to intrude but my car went into the ditch about a half mile away and i was wondering if you could help?” He called out and a man, with horrible burns and gashes appears from behind a door. The man smiles darkly and drags zander into a room and knocks him into a daze. He shackles Zander to the wall and leaves.

Zander wakes up to a loud scream. The man returns and unlocks his shackles and drags him into a dinning room with a glass of...blood?! As well as a plate of what must have been human flesh. The psycho man forces the flesh down.

“I’m just glad i found you, Annie.” Zander muses, “God, I wish i would have gotten to you sooner.” Zander looks over to his sister. “Zan, it’s okay, we got out and that monster is dead, thats all that matters.” She said. “You should be resting, baby brother, You drank blood and the doctor said you could become seriously sick.” Logan says. Zander doesnt put up a fight, knowing full well what risks he had.

Finley and Mrs. Jacobson show up at the hospital the next day helping as Logan and Zander fill out reports for the police.

Logan looks to her baby brother and smiles, they were finally safe. He was safe. She was safe. They were with their family once again. Nothing could be more relieving than escaping your tormentor’s home with his body laying inside and being safe.

The man gasps as his eyes shoot open. He swears as his victims had escaped him.

THE END.