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And now our Horror Con Scotland Short Story Contest Winner
Child, Interrupted – Jez Conolly
You climb the step ladder up to the attic, because you’ve seen the clues. The strewn toys and bed clothes and the trail of crumbs that lead you up to the bottom of the steps. And you blame yourself, because he mustn’t go up into the attic, because he’s only four years old and he might fall down the steps and hurt himself. Although that’s not what you told him. You told him that the attic is where the monster lives, and the monster eats little children like him. Your own fears about him hurting himself are real though, and they play on your mind, because these steps are steep for a four-year-old, and he barely has the strength to lift up the hatch, and yet it appears that is what he has done.
But there are other things up there that could hurt him, and the catch on the window is loose, so now it’s you who’s scared, because you let your mind jump to conclusions, which you’re apt to do, but as it is you don’t like the attic anyway, because it’s cold and dark and probably full of spiders, which are kind of monsters and horrible enough to stop you going up there very often. But you steal yourself and ascend, because your little boy is up there and you want to make sure he’s safe, and you won’t be cross with him, but once you make sure he’s okay you’ll try to say the right thing that will stop him going up there on his own again. You lift the hatch and you can’t see very much, but you know that there’s a pull string of a light bulb just above you.
So you reach your hand up above your head and search for the dangle of the string, and while you do, and fail several times, you hear a sound in the dark, and you wonder what it is, because you used to have mice, but you sorted that out, and anyway this sound, the sound of something eating, is far too loud to be mice. And then eventually your hand finds the pull string, so you give it a tug, and the bulb comes on, and there he is. And he is eating, but it is more than that, because he is eating the body of a monster. You can see where he has ripped pieces of flesh from the body, and you know he did, because you recognise the bite marks.
You freeze, and so does he, because he wasn’t expecting to be found, although he’s not completely frozen, because you can see his jaws still working at the business of chewing a piece of this creature’s flesh, and the blood and saliva dripping from his chin suggests that he is enjoying this feast. And much to your surprise your fear is replaced by something else. It is replaced by pride.
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