I Sobbed, He was Panting
Growing up I lived with my parents in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere Kansas on a farm. I kept to myself as a young child with my only real friend being my German Sheppard named Kibby. I loved Kibby with all my heart. I got him when he was just a pup and I was merely an innocent five-year-old. At the age of 13 I noticed Kippy was getting old but my love for him had never diminished. He ate from the same bowl, played fetch with the same red rubber ball, and frolicked in the corn field when spotting birds or mice. My favorite habit of Kibby’s was that every night before I went to bed he stood in my doorway until I fell asleep. I've gotten used to this habit due to Kibby scratching at my door when it was closed. Words could not express the love I had for Kibby. One day I was petting Kibby on his side when I noticed something alarming. Under his dense fur was a large lump. I notified my parents and they checked out the lump near his hind leg. Seeing my fathers face I knew there was no positive alternative to what I already believed. It was cancer. Kibby was brought to a vet for further diagnosis as my parents and I prayed for a different outcome. A young veterinarian stepped out of the room where Kibby was being observed and never made eye contact with us. Based purely off her expression and body language I knew what was true. To save myself from tears I stepped out of the building leaving my parents within. I observed their reactions. My mother, devastated by the confirmation, collapsed onto my fathers shoulder. My father remained relatively stoic but his quivering lip told me otherwise. That car ride was deadly silent. In the rear view mirror I observed my mother with bloodshot eyes and my father laser focused on the road attempting to distract himself from the pain. I sat in the middle seat in the back of the car slowly grazing Kibby’s back with tears streaming down my face onto my shirt. The tears caused my vision to be blurry which made me accidentally graze the lump leading Kibby to yelp in pain. We got home around 6pm but I had no energy to even stand. My father, with a quiver in his voice, asked if I could help him clean the gutters before it got too late. He was greeted with my silence. He closed the door but left it open enough for Kibby to limp towards my room and pry the door open once again. That night I fell asleep to the sight of Kibby in my doorway much like every other night. This time I truly absorbed the moment knowing it would be one of the last times. When I awoke the next morning I cleared my throat and peered at the door. It was left open like every morning. Rising from my bed I heard Kibby eating from his food bowl. However, it sounded a lot quieter than usual. I chalked it up to him eating with a weakened will power and continued to get dressed. When I walked into the kitchen expecting to see my beloved german sheppard I was instantly paralyzed and my heart began exploding out of my chest. There, at the base of the fridge where Kibby’s dog bowl resigned was a naked, hairless man squatting over it. He loudly shoved the pink, wet dog food into his mouth in fist fulls. He was extremely thin and had no hint of color to his skin. Hearing a creak in the floorboards he quickly shot a glance in my direction. There was no mistaking it, it was a man, however the only thing that made me doubt his humanity was his deep dark brown eyes. They were the same eyes as Kibby. I let out a blood curdling scream, to which the man covered his ears and laid on his bare stomach on the kitchen tiles. My mother ran swiftly into the kitchen followed by my father, who still had his toothbrush in his mouth and a towel around his waist.
“Jesus Christ what's the matter honey” yelled my mom
“Mom! Mom! Th-Theres a man eating Kibby’s food”
Both of my parents shot a sharp glance at the man then shot an equally sharp glance back towards me.
“What? A man? Who are you talking about?”
My eyes were now so wide there was no trace that my eyelids even existed.
“Right there! The man! He’s naked eating the food!”
My father put his hand back on the toothbrush and walked back into the bathroom.
“Is this some kind of joke? Quit yelling you’re scaring Kibby” Yelled my mother.
My eyes darted towards the naked man on the ground then back at my mother
“Mom, what are you talking about there is a man right there! He’s covering his ears as we speak!”
The nude man’s eyes were glancing everywhere, never picking a specific destination to focus on out of pure terror.
My mother walked up to me and kneeled. She then lifted one hand and placed it on my forehead.
“You’re burning up sweetie. Go back to bed I don't think you’re feeling w-” POW!
“Mom!” I interrupted by slapping her, “Look behind you there is a naked man in the kitchen right there!”
My mother answered me with another slap then grabbed my arm pulling me back to my bedroom. She threw me onto my bed and yelled
“I don't know what you're on about, but I will not be treated like that! You are going to lay here and rest or else I'll have to slap some more sense into you!”
She left my room but left the door open. Not long after I heard flesh slapping the cold tile floor as it got closer to my bed. I hid under my covers, only keeping my eyes above the sheets. The naked man’s head slowly peered into my room as the rest of his body followed. We stared at each other until his mouth opened revealing a small thin pink tongue hanging out of his mouth.
“Get OUT!” I yelled. Instantly the man scurred off with inhuman speed on two feet into the living room. I got up as fast as I could to close my door. I stayed in my room the rest of the day not interacting with anyone. That night I attempted to fall asleep until a sound woke me from my slumber. It was the sound of soft skin rubbing against my door in short intervals. It was mimicking Kippy. Kippy used to claw my door every night if I didn't leave it open and now this thing is attempting to do that same thing. I let out a primal scream at the thing until it stopped. For some reason however, later in the night I opened up my door slightly to observe the man. There it was, laying on the couch across from my room. My father left the television on which illuminated the man. That's when I saw the large red tumor near its hip.
The next morning, I was awoken by more soft brushing on my door. As I slightly opened my door the man pushed on the door with his entire body weight causing me to fall on my back. The man excitedly pounced on my chest with his upper half in excitement while a drool avalanched on my face. I screamed for my parents once again to which they quickly pulled off the man.
“Hey! Looks like Kippy has got some energy left in him after all” my father said happily.
My mother looked at me with her eyebrows scrunched as I laid there in the fetal position scared for my life. My mother whispered to my father to put the thing on a leash and keep him outside. She then got back down to my level once again.
“Honey, you’re scaring us what's happening”
“Mom please we need to get rid of him, he's not Kibby!”
My mother with a stern face looked at me and spoke
“Baby, I know it's been hard with Kibby’s cancer, but you need to take time with him. Soon you’ll wake up and he won’t be there anymore.”
“Mom, please listen to me! That is a man! A full-grown man! We need to get rid of him!”
In frustration my mother pulled me up and walked me outside where my father and the man reside. My father gave me Kippy’s favorite red ball and ordered me to throw it. I took the ball reluctantly and threw it as hard as I could then darted towards the house. My father quickly grabbed me with all of his strength and forced me to watch as the man, on two feet, ran full sprint towards me. The man stopped mere inches from my face with his dark brown eyes staring directly through me before dropping the red ball from his mouth onto my feet. I began to sob and fit until my father let me go allowing me to run straight back into my room.
I remained in my room all through the evening. I then heard the TV begin to play one of my dad’s favorite shows. I opened my door to view the living room as well as my dad. He was laying on the couch shitless and with a bowl of vanilla ice cream. He began slapping his bare thighs directing the naked man toward him. The man climbed up onto my father limb by limb then laid his pale bald stomach along my father's overweight hairy chest. The man stared at my father then at me. He began to lick my father's face as my father began to laugh. His thin pink tongue coated my father's face in saliva, even soaking into his prominent sideburns. My father grabbed the man by the head and kissed him repeatedly on the forehead while the man desperately attempted to slip his tongue into my father's mouth much like how Kibby used to treat others. I closed my door in disgust and attempted to sleep. Before I knew it the sun began to rise. I walked out of my room and saw both my parents and the man in the kitchen. My parents were cooking breakfast as I watched my father secretly give the naked man small strips of greasy chunks of bacon fat behind my mothers back. My mother hated it when we gave Kibby human food. I had enough. I grabbed the first thing I could find that could be used as a weapon. That happened to be one of my fathers screwdrivers he left out in the living room after installing a new coffee table. I walked up to the man with the tool behind my back. He looked at me, tongue out, eyes watery, belly pulsating from his constant breaths. I was too scared to kill him right then and there. It was at that moment the man's line of sight focused on something outside. The man darted through the open sliding glass door chasing a bird into the cornfield. My parents asked how I was feeling but I was too focused on the man to answer. I ran straight for the man into the corn field. My parents didn't follow, believing I snapped out of my previous behavior and went off to play with the dog. The man ran on two legs into the field as I followed.
I quickly got lost within the corn field and focused purely on the sounds around me. The man's steps were heavy, and he left a trail of corn smushed onto the soil in his attempt to catch whatever he was chasing. I stopped to view my surroundings. That's when I saw a bird fly into the air while a full-grown man jumped impossibly high to snag it by its talon. I ran towards that direction only to find that man squatting down moving very rigidly. As the man turned towards me I saw he had a bird in his mouth. The man's teeth gripped the bird until blood pooled out of his mouth. It was then where I saw the man smile directly at me. With no more hesitation I darted towards the man stabbing him anywhere I could land. I can’t recall how many times I stabbed him before I felt both my parents rip me off the man and pull me out of the field. While being dragged away I saw the man limp away further into the field until I could no longer see him. My parents threw me into the car and began to drive. I cried hysterically as my parents argued about taking me somewhere in specific. I was too much in disarray to understand exactly what they were talking about but I soon learned once we pulled up to a large gothic style building.
I was only sentenced 4 months into the asylum, anytime my parents visited they brought the man with them on a leash. Each time I panicked and had to be sedated by staff. By year two I finally had to come to terms with what my reality truly had become. On my parents' last visit, I saw the man. He had a bandage covering what used to be the tumor. My mother, with watery eyes, stated how the cancer went into remission and how much of a miracle it is to have their dog healthy again. There I stood, looking over the man. I kneeled down and embraced him.
I sobbed, he was panting.