Run, Mr. Bates

The collar of my shirt was drenched with sweat, and my heart was racing faster than a jackrabbit’s. Detective Thorne walked ahead of me and led me into the interrogation room. Her blonde hair was tied up in a bun and she wore a black skirt suit. 

“Right in here Mr. Bates. Have a seat,” she said.

This was a mistake. Why did I come here? Without a second beat, I reached back for the door. Thorne grabbed my shoulder firmly, but not so firm that I couldn’t push past her.

“I’m sorry, detective, I shouldn’t have come here,” I said.

“Mr. Bates, I insist that you stay. Your input could be vital to investigating Callie’s disappearance.”

“Didn’t you say I could leave if my nerves got to me? Well, my nerves are getting to me, and I would like to leave.”

“While that is true, you are considered a material witness in this case. You are a potential flight risk Mr. Bates, and we can have you detained for questioning if the need arises. Now I don’t know about you, but I’d much prefer to have this conversation without the handcuffs, wouldn’t you agree?”

I didn’t say anything, but my hand started to tremble as it held the door handle.

“It’s ok Mr. Bates. You’re safe here and you’re not in any trouble,” she said. 

I don’t know if it was her calm British accent or if she used some kind of psychological trick, but that almost made me feel better. Almost.

“Fine. I’ll stay.” I said. 

I took my seat at the table in the center of the room and she sat across from me. She pulled a large notepad toward her, clicked her pen, and crossed her legs.

“My partner seems to be running late, but I can manage without him. You can start whenever you’re ready Mr. Bates.”

***

It happened about three days ago. I got to the apartment at around 8 pm or so. Went straight to my room, kicked my shoes off, and jumped into bed just to rest my eyes for a bit. Callie was my neighbor, I talked to her every now and then. She was a good kid. She liked to blast this obnoxiously loud rock music at night though. I didn’t want to get her kicked out by complaining to the landlady. A couple of hard bangs on the wall is usually enough to get her to lower it, so I did that. The music cut off instantly, and I heard this thrashing noise from her room. Like multiple objects were getting thrown around. I was worried so I walked over to check on her. Her door was slightly ajar.

“Callie!” I yelled. “Are you ok?”

There wasn’t any response, but I heard the thrashing again. It was accompanied by this crunching noise and… gulping.

I walked inside and saw some shadows moving in one of the bedrooms. I continued through the doorway and saw that the place was a total mess. Books and clothes were all over the floor, and a small set of speakers were on the ground, broken. In the back of the room, there was a man facing away from me. Fairly tall, a little round, and in a well-tailored blue pinstripe suit. Seemed like an average guy. He was bending backward slightly in an awkward way though. 

“Hello? Who are you?” I asked.

I wish I hadn’t. As he turned to face me, I realized that he wasn’t bending backward. His lower abdomen was split open like a broken candy cane, and inside was not flesh and intestines like you would expect from a human, but a maw filled with rows of razor sharp, shark-like teeth. Dangling outside of the maw were two pale legs. With one lurch the legs disappeared behind the maw's teeth and it began to chew. I’ve tried everything detective, but I can’t get that horrible crunching out of my head.

It was hard to tell where the suit ended and the maw began, it was all part of this one entity. And his face, the man’s face—his actual face—looked lifeless. His eyes were rolled back, and his jaw was slack like a corpse. But then in a second they weren’t. His eyes looked into mine, he smiled at me, and said just one thing.

“Run.”

And so I did. I ran as fast as I could out of that room, slammed the door shut behind me in a foolish attempt to slow it down, and flew down two flights of stairs to the lobby. I nearly tackled the poor landlady.

“My god, Mr. Bates! What’s got into you?” she asked.

“I’m sorry Mrs. Park but I won’t be staying here any longer,” I said.

“Oh? Is something wrong?”

“There’s something—”

I heard rapid footsteps coming down the staircase. Before I could bolt, a strong arm wrapped around my shoulder and kept me in place. It was him. The maw in his abdomen was… closed? Hidden? I have no idea what this thing did but I couldn’t see it anymore. The man held me close to him with a wide smile on his face. His breath was hot and rancid.

“I’m sorry pal. My friend and I were just moving some furniture around. I hope we didn’t startle you too badly!” said the man.

“You didn’t. I’m fine,” I said. I tried to give a signal to Mrs. Park but she didn’t seem to notice.

“Good to hear!” 

He clapped me on the back and went back up the stairs. 

“Well Mr. Bates, if you must leave early I’ll still have to charge you for the rent this month. Other than that there won’t be much of a problem. You’re going to go back up and get the rest of your belongings though, aren’t you?”

Fuck the shoes, fuck the wallet, I thought. Just get the hell out of there! 

“I’m sorry I can’t. You have my card on file, right? Just charge whatever you need to and toss anything that’s left in the room.” 

And without another word, I left.

***

Detective Thorne just sat there for a few seconds. It had been a while since she wrote anything new down.

“So, you didn’t see Callie leave the apartment at all?” she asked.

“Obviously not,” I said. “Because she was eaten. By that thing in the apartment!”

“Right, of course. Mr. Bates, I must ask. Are you on any medication?”

“Oh don’t do that. I may have some years over you but I haven’t lost touch with reality. I know what I saw!”

“Ok then, can you give me a description of the man’s face?”

“He was middle-aged, and—”

The door of the interrogation room opened and a man walked in. No, not just any man. It was him.

Thorne turned back with a slight smile. “There you are. Of course you come in when I’m almost done.”

“Sorry about that, had some matters to attend to,” he said. You must be Mr. Bates. Detective Wilson, pleasure to meet you.” The monster held his hand out for a handshake and gave me a smile.

He gave me that same smile three days ago. He thinks he can get me, just like Callie. I won’t let that happen. Not as long as I have breath in this body. 

“Mr. Bates?” asked Thorne. “Are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

I sprinted out of the room and out of the police station. Thorne has my story, screw her if she doesn’t believe it. I’m getting as far away from this place as possible.