Scary Story Time
Welcome to Scary Story Time where scary stories and horror stories written by Spooky Boo Rhodes will keep you up at night. Today’s story is a creepy little tale from Sandcastle, California. A young woman is down partying at the beach with her high school friends and she takes off with a very cute guy. Soon, she realizes that she’s in a lot of trouble and runs as fast as she can to be saved only to get stuck in a creepy cabin in the woods.
First, I’d like to invite you to chat with my friends and I tonight while watching Creature Features on YouTube. It starts at 10 PM, Pacific and we’ll all be there watching the old B horror movies while enjoying the fun guests and the horror host with the adorable hair, Vincent Van Dahl, and his very astute valet Livingston and devious ward Tangella. Join us in the chat room to say hi and have some fun.
Now let’s begin.
Metamorphosis
Darkness. Darkness was all Desi could see around her. She felt around the cold, hard ground of the street for anything she could grasp, but only wet gravel and dirt settled between her fingers. With her eyes as wide open as she could muster between the sharp, exploding pains on her shoulder, she followed the only light she could see with her tired eyes.
On her hands and knees, she crawled toward the soft light in the distance. She didn’t know exactly where she was, but she knew she had to be somewhere in the forest east of Sandcastle. There weren’t too many roads in the woods, but this one was leading her down a graveled path to whatever was holding the dim light on the horizon.
Her hands shook as the sharp stones and sticks dug into her palms and knees but she knew if she stopped at any time her body would collapse and she would die from the elements–or possibly from whatever was chasing her. The dress she wore to the party was wet and her shoes were long gone during the chase through the sandy beach. She thought maybe she could lose the monster behind her by going around the sleeping town and hiding in the woods, but she was wrong. The beast taunted her, growled at her from behind and from all sides. It was relentless, never giving up.
With tears now streaming down her cheeks as she neared the stairs to the building in front of her, she carefully stood on two very blistered and bleeding feet. The cold from the wet ground stabbed into her soles through the cuts and bruises formed by fallen branches of the redwood trees. With her fingers possibly broken from the rocks that were dropped on her hands by this thing chasing her, she grasped the splintered wooden staircase, screaming as she pulled herself up the broken stairs to the door.
“Help me,” she whispered at first then, as she stared out into the depths of darkness behind her, she screamed the words and pounded on the door. She knew it was out there, hunting her. Taunting her. “Let me in, please!”
The door creaked as it opened and two strong arms pulled her inside and shut it behind her. The man dropped her to the floor and disappeared into another room. Desi crawled to the fireplace and huddled against the warm bricks searching for any heat that could warm her skin. She pulled her knees in close to her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs and sobbed.
She watched the feet of the man who pulled her to safety. His shoes didn’t belong in that old musty place. There was dust everywhere but the fine alligator leather of his boots seemed untouched. He stopped right before her and draped a warm blanket around her shoulders. She sighed in the slight comfort he offered then, exhausted, she rolled into a ball and fell asleep.
Upon awaking, Desi found herself stretched out on the couch with blankets wrapped around her. Startled that someone had changed her clothes for her and tended to her cuts and bruises, she covered herself even more. She felt vulnerable and weak. She was also very hungry which became even more apparent when she realized the smell of fresh bread and beef stew were cooking somewhere in the small house. She sat up and, through a wave of dizziness and pain, Desi placed her legs in front of her. Her feet hurt so bad that she wasn’t even sure that she would be able to stand, but she tried anyway.
Toppling forward, she screamed as her face hit the table in front of her. A new, searing pain shot through her ankle to her brain. Panting and feeling for her foot with her fingers, she realized it wasn’t the pain that knocked her down. Her foot? Where in the hell was her foot? She fumbled around her other ankle realizing that both of her feet were gone.
“Who the hell are you? What did you do to me?” She cried into the darkness.
A man appeared in the doorway carrying a kerosene lamp. After placing the lamp on the table, he pulled her back up to a sitting position on the couch and checked the bandages on the stubs that used to be her feet. Tears poured down her cheeks as he stared at her. Maybe it was drugs, but she couldn’t quite make out his face. Where his eye sockets should have been there was nothing but black orbs with a small glint of light. It was then she realized that his skin wasn’t like normal skin. It was a deep shade of obsidian and shiny. No, not shiny, scales. Irridescent, black scales.
“What are you?” she cried, looking down at his feet. It was then she understood the smooth leather she thought were alligator shoes were his feet.
She recoiled as he put his hand out and touched her cheek. His fingers were cold. His skin was icy. His eyes glowed amber for a moment and then settled back into the deep pools of black.
“Where my feet?” she cried out again.
The creature shook his head and opened his mouth as if to speak. Nothing came out as his long tongue slithered from his mouth and wiped his browbone. He shrugged and pulled one of her ankle stubs up on his lap. He carefully unwrapped the bandage and with a handful of salve from the bowl, he caressed it into the stub of where her foot used to be.
With one big sigh, Desi relaxed into the caresses of his dark fingers. The salve, or whatever it was, had a soothing effect. It was warm to the touch and intoxicating. He continued with her other stub as she watched somewhat confused but still relieved. Almost ready to fall asleep, the pain in her bones started. Her ankles screamed in pain as they burned.
“What did you do to me?” Desi screeched in pain.
The creature shook his head and pointed down at her legs. She watched as a shiny black foot, similar to his scaly hands, began protruding through the wound where her foot was once attached. The other ankle began burning and as she screamed through the pain, a black foot appeared on the other leg. The man-like lizard creature rubbed more salve over her new feet, almost smiling in the process. As he did, he worked up her ankles and calves then her knees and thighs. The minty lotion burned her skin, but the smell soothed her soul. She accepted his hands upon her body as he worked in this cream on her torso, neck, and arms. Desi fully relaxed.
Feeling like she just came back from a drunken stupor, Desi forced her eyelids to open and watched as the lizard-like man raised an ax above her right hand. She tried to move, but the state of her mind could barely even will her limb to budge. Screaming as the ax severed through her wrist, she tried to move away, but he held her down and wrapped her wrist in the salve and bandages. When the ax raised again, she only sobbed, knowing the outcome of her other hand was inevitable.
This time it didn’t go all the way through. He looked down upon her and she noticed a bit of sorrow in his glowing amber eyes. Could he be sorry for what this creature was doing to her? The ax raised again and her hand toppled to the floor yet she didn’t scream anymore. The shock masked the pain and she just stared at the bloodied edge of the ax.
His tongue dabbed at the tears now falling down his cheek and she watched with morbid curiosity. He looked very familiar. As he bandaged up the second wrist, she wondered where she had seen that look in his eyes before. He seemed to smile when he gently placed her arm on her chest and tied the two stumps together above her heart then taped them there. He then grabbed a bowl of the stew and offered to feed her.
Desi shook her head no as her stomach recoiled. Although it smelled delicious, the thought of food sent a piercing pain through her gut. All she wanted right now was to sleep and wake up from this nightmare but she was afraid to sleep. What would disappear next and why in the hell were her feet dark green? She looked down at her feet that were propped up on the coffee table. She wiggled her new toes with their long, sharp nails.
“I’m dreaming. I’m having a nightmare. That’s all.” she laughed, staring at the lizard creature before her.
“Shhh…” he hissed and held his crooked, green index finger up to his lips.
“That is the first thing you’ve said to me all night. What are you?”
It shook its head and then looked down in what seemed to be despair. Desi looked at the door and wondered if she could crawl out of it and get back to town. To the police station. Anywhere that could help get the drugs out of her system that were causing this illusion.
The creature pointed to her feet then hands and the word “no” hissed through the slanted mouth. She followed the direction of its eyes then looked up her legs realizing they were now turning the same dark obsidian color as his feet.
“What did you do to me?” she cried out. The pain in the stubs in her wrists started to work their way into her arms and elbows. Horrified, she watched a stub of a hand pop through the bandage wrap. Just like his hands, it was green, grey and black. Next came the fingers with the sharp, lizard-like nails tearing through the flesh of the new hand. One by one they popped out until there were five, long crooked fingers with nails sharp enough to shred through his skin and run. Before she could even act upon her thoughts, he handcuffed her by one arm to the iron bar between the couch and fireplace.
“Nooo,” the creature shook its head and hissed. It almost sounded human.
Desi swiped at him with her new claw, managing to slice into his arm and hand. One of his fingers dropped to the floor as he wailed in pain. Thick red blood dripped from the empty finger socket. He looked at her, but not with anger in his eyes. It was more of sadness and pain. He licked his tears away with his forked tongue and bandaged his own wound with the salve and threads just like he did to her. She watched him, recognizing his face and his eyes. She hadn’t seen that look in 10 years, but it couldn’t be. He was gone and this creature was not him. It couldn’t be him.
She looked at the similarities in her new feet and hands with his. Somehow they suddenly felt right. They seemed normal to her, but that didn’t take away the horror of what was happening. He butchered her limbs to create these new appendages. It had to be drugs. Someone probably slipped something into her drink at the party was the only explanation, but there was that guy with the glowing eyes. What was his name? Marcus? Now she remembered. It was Marcus who was chasing her, but it wasn’t him. They hooked up at the party and took off under the cliff by the shoreline. They were kissing and his eyes turned amber then he growled like a beast and bit into her neck. With the wound deep, she took off running, stumbling in the sand and losing her shoes along the way in the tide. The bonfire had already been put out and the people went home. They were only two left and no one even knew she was in trouble.
Marcus chased after her, but she was faster than him even while she crawled on all fours and scurried to the woods trying to hide from him. How did she know to come to this cabin? She had never seen it before but knew where to go. With his eyes still glowing, she could see him but he was no longer human. The guy she hooked up with at the beach party stalked her from the trees, growling and coming closer. That is when she saw the old cabin in the woods and knew there would be someone to help her. Deep inside she knew she would be safe here.
Desi could see from the glow of the fire that the rest her body began to turn green and black. Scales formed on her skin everywhere. She touched her face with her new fingers and knew her face hadn’t changed yet. “What did you do to me? Am I dreaming? Drugged?”
The creature shook its head no and pulled forth the ax again, this time with hesitation. Desi studied its eyes and understood the pure sorrow it was feeling. “No, don’t. Please don’t,” she pleaded, knowing what was coming next.
He pushed her head down on the stone table in front of her and held her there with one scaled foot. As he raised the ax over her neck, he wailed. For a moment, she heard the pain in his scream and knew it was something he didn’t want to do. She watched the blood pouring from her neck as her head toppled to the floor. With the lights fading around her, she saw him bandaging up her neck with salve and cotton.
~~~
Stretching in the warm sunlight coming from the window, Desi sighed in relief. It was all a horrible dream. Just an awful nightmare! She slipped out of bed, realizing that her feet felt different. Her toenails were longer, touching the ground as she walked. They clicked with every step. Desi looked down at her feet and tried to scream when she realized her feet were still green, but nothing came out of her mouth. She looked at her hands, and they too were green and black. Shredding her nightgown off, she looked at her whole body that was suddenly full of lizard scales. She felt cold and wrapped her blankets around her before stepping into the bathroom of the old cabin. Her mind raced and she wanted to scream help me as she looked in the mirror, but should couldn’t let out the words. Licking the tears from her eyes with her long, forked tongue, she realized who the man was that saved life–it was her father.”
“No one will ever hurt you again, Desi.” she heard her father speak from the other side of the bathroom door. “I’m sorry I had to do what I did, but you were going to die or become one of them. I had to save your life.”
All she heard were hisses and clicks of his throat, but she understood what he was saying. Deep inside she knew all along what he was–what they were–and now she knew she could never go back to her old life again.
Thank you for listening to this story on my horror podcast. If you enjoyed it, be sure to let everyone know about the fun stories you hear on Spooky Boo’s Scary Story Time and make a comment on the website at www.scarystorytime.com.
That’s all for tonight. I’ll see you in your nightmares.
