"The Things That They Left Behind"

When Sheriff Hodges and Deputy Jones pay a visit to local residents on a well fair check, what they discover is both chilling and disgusting.

“The Things That They Left Behind”

By Cody Williams

 

            “Open up!” A man shouted from the front porch of the Lopez family as he knocked on their front door. The man was sheriff Hodges and he was standing with his deputy, Andy Blair. Sheriff Hodges had short silver hair that was covered with a black cowboy hat with a star on the front of it. His body was average and he was five feet and nine inches tall. Sheriff Hodges sighed and knocked on the door again.

            “Mr. and Mrs. Lopez! Open up! It’s Sheriff Hodges! You’re not in trouble, I’m just here for a well fair check!” He assured them. There was still no answer.

            “Can I bust the door down now?” Deputy Reid Jones asked as he pulled the black nightstick from his black leather gun belt.

            “Yeah, go ahead!” Sheriff Hodges said as stepped aside. Deputy Jones lifted his right foot and kicked the door breaking the dead bolt out of the door. The door swung open and hit the wall beside of it. Sheriff Hodges walked inside and looked around. The lights were off and there was musky feeling in the air as if nobody had been there in quite some time. Sheriff Hodges reached into his gun belt and pulled out a large red metal flashlight. He pushed the black power button at the base and turned it on.

            “Mr. and Mrs. Lopez? Are you guys here?” He shouted out into the darkness. He shined the light on the wall beside the door finding a light switch. He flipped it up, but nothing happened. They remained in darkness. “I guess they didn’t make the payments on their light bill.” He added.

            Sheriff Hodges walked over the RCA television box that the two Lay-Z Boy recliners were pointed at and ran his index finger along the top of it. He looked at his finger as he noticed the dust was caked up against it.

            “They haven’t been here for quite some time!” Sheriff Hodges said as he looked over to notice that his deputy was gone. “Jones? Where the hell did you go?” He shouted out.

            “Sheriff, I think you might want to see this!” He heard Jones voice shout from the kitchen. Hodges whipped the dust off of his finger and walked across the living room to the kitchen. “Good God!” Sheriff Hodges said with disgust as his covered his nose and mouth with the hankie from his back pocket.

            At the center of the kitchen table was a turkey that had once been cooked but was now growing green mold all around it. Jones walked over to it but leaped back against the wall when he saw a rat peak it’s head out of the cavity. Also on table was a bowl with a yellow and green liquid stewing in it that had once probably been butter. The toast that was stacked into a pyramid in a plate to the left of the turkey was also sporting a green and orange like fungus growing on it.

            “Jesus Crist! Whatever did happen to them must have happened a very long time ago!” Jones said as he held his stomach with disgust.

“Yes. But what the hell did happen to them?” Sheriff Hodges replied. The two of them stood in silence the a few moments. Until they heard a loud thumping sound come from down the hall. The two men reached for the magnums in their gun belts and pulled them out.

“Shh!” Sheriff Hodges said as he held his index finger up to his lips and motioned for Jones to follow him. Jones nodded and the two proceeded down the hallway. The thumping continued irregularly coming and going every few seconds. The thumping grew louder as they walked down the hallway began to fell as if it was getting longer and longer. They finally reached the end of the hallway where there was a white wooden door.

“They must be behind here! C**k your gun and follow me!” Hodges said. Jones did what he was told and the two men barged into the room pointing their magnums. It was the Lopez’s bedroom, but there nobody in there. But the thumping still continued. Jones pointed to another door that was directly across from them.

“The sound must be coming from in there!” Jones whispered. Hodges nodded in agreement and the two men walked around the queen size bed that was at the center of the room and walked over to the door. The two men leaned up against the wall and quietly counted “one, two, three!” and the men busted through the door.

They were in the bathroom. The toilet was corroded and stained with light brown colored s**t stains and floor tiles began to crack and fade away. Hodges looked up into the mirror and screamed. The two men turned around to face what was once probably Mr. Lopez daggling from a rope. His skin was almost completely decade. There was a fat rat sitting around his shoulder and eating the rotting flesh from his bones. Jones leaped back with sheer terror and fell into the bathtub pulling the curtain down on top of him. Jones threw the curtain off of him and looked up at Hodges.

“Umm, Jones…” Hodges started. Jones looked down to notice that sitting in a bathtub filled with rat poop and the dead corpses of Mrs. Lopez and their son. Jones screamed and leaped back up and ran over cowering behind Hodges. There was note left by Mr. Lopez written in likely the blood of his wife and son that read: I JUST CAN’T LIVE LIKE THIS ANYMORE! Jones and Hodges let out loud cries of terror and disgust.

Copyright 2014 by Cody Williams

Courtesy of TRUE TERROR PUBLIACTIONS

A division of TTP Entertainment

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Author's Note

Whenever somebody ask me where I get my ideas, i have a hard time answering. Most of the time I don't really know or I don't really remember. That's not the case at all with this tale.

It came to me about a year ago when I was driving back home from college campus. I was listening to the radio as I usually do when the six o'clock news came on the air. The big headline was a story about a latino family in Texas that missing and left everything, even their dinner, well preserved. It is believed that they fled across the border to Mexico because they were debt up to their eyeballs. I knew right then that I wanted to write about that.

I've had the idea for nearly a year now and I knew that it would get put in a story eventually. I hope you guys like it! Enjoy! Reviews and comments are welcome as always!

-CW

Reviews

[Shannon April Alice]

this is truly entertaining... it's a 'yarn'. lovely cody.

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for reading Shannon!

-CW