Ruby 3

Brenda Jones watched from the grimy, fingerprint-covered door of her trailer as the little Ford Focus drove out of sight. The nerve of some people! She smirked as she finished shutting the door and returned to her first love…the rest of the Variety Pizza that she had been shoveling into her face before that woman had stopped outside. She flopped down, almost sitting on the pizza. Little balls of dust flew up in the air. She waved them away lazily with one large grease-stained hand. She really needed to hire someone to clean this place up.

She had told that woman off though. At first, Brenda had been afraid…that it was Social Services again. She didn’t need that trouble anymore. Lord knew that she was just barely making it right now with her welfare and food stamps. She didn’t need that taken away. Her no-good-for-nothing husband had run off with some blonde three years ago, and she hadn’t seen him since. Not that she missed him much, but it was still nice to have a man around the house. Especially when she had to deal with the little brat. She could hear him sniveling in the back bedroom. God…she hated kids. Especially her own.

“Shut up back there!” she bawled out, spewing chunks of sausage and cheese on her purple muumuu. She brushed them into the floor. Maybe she could get a dog or something…it could at least eat some of the crumbs. She looked down at her People magazine. Angelina Jolie was on the cover. That woman had adopted like 3 kids….and then had one naturally. She didn’t know what was wrong with some people. But that hunk of a man of hers probably made it all worth it. Brenda thought that she could possibly put up with 4 screaming brats if she had something like Brad Pitt to look at all the time. He would be much better than that lazy do-nothing husband that she had married right out of high school. Of course, they had had to get married…thanks to the brat.

She could still hear him crying in the back. It was really starting to get on her nerves. She was trying to focus on The Best of Jerry Springer that she had rented at Movie Gallery. She just loved that show. She half expected to see her husband on it one day. Lord knows that that little blonde that he had run off with was just trash. Not a good God-fearing Christian woman like herself.

“I said to shut up back there,” she screeched, “If I have to come back there….I’m bringing the flyflap. And then I’ll give you something to cry about.”

For a second, she thought she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. It looked like something walked by the window. She half expected it to be that woman…coming back to start trouble. But nobody came knocking on the door. Plus, it was dark outside now, and she didn’t think that little Miss Priss would want to be tramping about in the dark. She might trip on one of her high-heels and break her neck. Brenda chuckled at the thought and turned her eyes back to the television. Two women in wedding dresses were fighting it out over some little midget that was dressed in women’s underwear. God…she loved the Jerry Springer show. And at least the brat had stopped crying.

***

In the back, seven year old Andrew Jones had stopped his crying. He couldn’t remember too much about what had happened outside. He had been playing in the yard…staying out of Mommy’s way. She was always telling him to get out of her hair…to go outside…to get out of the way. So…he had been digging little holes in the dirt outside when he had heard….a whisper….a voice…calling to him.

At first, it had sounded like Mommy’s voice….but much sweeter. Then it sounded like his teacher’s voice. But there had been another sound underneath that…a grating sound….like dirt underneath your shoe. It had hurt his ears a little. But the voice had kept calling him….to come…to….he couldn’t remember. Had he wanted to go to the old barn that was in the field across the road? He just couldn’t remember.

But none of that mattered right now. Right now…all that he could focus on was the television. He had been crying…trying to be quiet so that he didn’t disturb Mommy. He didn’t want her coming back with the flyflap again…or worse…the belt. His favorite cartoon, Spiderman, had been on…and he had been watching it. He just wanted to forget that….voice….that grating sound. He couldn’t hear it anymore…but he still felt like he wanted to go to the barn….to run to the barn. There was something good in that barn…he just knew it. Maybe Daddy! But right now….he just wanted to watch Spiderman.

Only…it wasn’t Spiderman on the tv. It was a commercial for cinnamon buns….and the Pillsbury Dough Boy was on the screen. But it wasn’t just a commercial anymore. The Pillsbury Dough Boy was looking at….at him! He was talking to him. Andrew sat..amazed.

“Andrew,” the Pillsbury Dough Boy was pointing at him now, “Listen to me. I need you listen to me and do exactly what I’m telling you. You’ve got to hurry though!”

Andrew sat…and listened…as the Pillsbury Dough Boy gave him some quick instructions.

***

Up front, Brenda threw the empty Variety Pizza box in the floor. She would pick it up later. Right now, she wanted to catch the end of the Jerry Springer special that she was loving so much. The two women had stopped fighting and had decided that they would both live with the midget. Some people were really messed up.

She saw something moving out of the corner of her eye again. She glanced over to the window. There in the dark glass she could see the face of her husband. He was just standing there…staring at her. She was shocked at first because she hadn’t seen him in three years. Slowly though, she felt herself beginning to get mad.

Did that low-life think that he could just waltz back into her life after being gone with that blonde for the last three years? And what kind of man just stands around outside and peers into people’s windows? She looked again just to make sure that it was him. She saw his face…looking white and haggard. Why was he just standing there?

“Oh no you don’t,” she growled, jumping up off the couch. She was going to love this! She had been waiting three long years to give that man a piece of her mind.

“I don’t know what you think…” she started to say as she threw open the door of the trailer. But she never got to finish. For a second, she saw her husband standing there….still staring at her. And then he started to melt…to change….into something so hideous that she couldn’t find the breath to scream. It was the last thing that she saw before the creature burrowed its chomping jaws into her massive guts.

Brenda let out a scream that sounded more like a gurgle. Blood erupted from her mouth and coursed down her muumuu…turning it from a purple to a dark black. Her eyes rolled back in her head as the pain washed over her like a curtain of fire. She staggered back into the wall of the trailer, dragging the creature with her. It still had its head buried in her stomach…as it continued to feed. Brenda let out a little moan….blood pouring from her mouth and nose. She slowly sank to the floor….her fat jiggling. She was dead by the time she hit the floor. The only sounds were the sounds of chewing, slurping, and the breaking of bones.

The creature stopped to lift its head from the massive hole it had made in the woman’s guts. It sniffed the air…searching for the boy. With a roar it sprang up and ran to the back of the trailer. It pushed down the door to the back bedroom…looking for the prey that had evaded it earlier. But it knew before it got there that the boy was gone. The bedroom window was open. There was a faint smell of cinnamon in the air. With a scream of fury, the creature leapt through the window. It would not let the boy escape!