Meet Howard version 2
Meet Howard
By Savage Shark
Cast
· Annabel (Annie) Cotton - Polar Bear
· Howard - Hill House Monster
· Omni - unknown
· Stephanie - Giraffe and childhood friend to Annie
Though she enjoyed the luxury provided by her new home, Annabel Cotton can't shake the haunting sense that lurked.
She first felt the shrill on the fourth day of living in the house. During lunch she found utensils and drinks materialize beside her plate, as she turned her back for a moment. In the mornings after her shower, she found fresh cloths waiting on the bed. They were displayed according to her routine, after a week of living in the home.
Annie began checking all the locks of her doors before bed, pulling the drapes on windows and scanning the basement for passageways previously thought missed. For two weeks she found nothing to suggest intrusion.
Though the attic was the most probable place to hide, but the door had been locked from the inside. This room has been inaccessible since purchasing the house atop the hill.
Crash.
The noise awoke Annabel from her sleep, throwing away the sheets as she carefully went for the bedroom door.
Finally, this was her chance to find out what has been haunting her. The crash was not the only thing she heard. Thecacophony of wood and scurrying echoed from outside her bedroom.
From the darkness of the living room, Annabel found the faintest motion around the kitchen. Satisfied and frightened with the realization she was not alone. She ran for the bedroom closet, grasped the bat from behind her cloths and went to confront her tormentor.
From the balls of her feet, she approached the kitchen. Turning around the corner of the archway she entered. Her green eyes scanning the dark for signs of motion, entering the kitchen she looked around and found where the crash originated. The antique sugar jar had shattered across the tile floor, leaving a splatter trail of clay shards and a mound of fresh sugar around the floor. But pieces of the pot had gathered towards an area on the ground, as though they were placed there. The sugar had trails throughout the surface, as though a snake had been coiling over the mess.
_ "The noise defiantly came from here"_, she thought. But it was not the sound that proved her suspicions it was the position of the jar. The jar had been placed up high on a shelf, a shelf opposite from where the jar had crashed. Someone had moved it and was trying to clean up the mess after it fell.
She flicked on the lights and went for the center of the room.
"I know you're here!" Doing little to hide the anger in her tone Annie tightened her grip around the bat. "Come out here, damn it! I'm sick of this bull shit." She slammed the bat into the marble counter; the bat rang out against the hard surface.
Nothing, not a shuffle, not a word.
The bat struck the marble again, breaking a splinter along its head.
Her lips curled in a growl, showing her white canines. "If I have to take this house apart to find your ass, I'll fucking do it!" She scanned the room in a furious twirl.
She forced open the food cupboard, a mad attempt too prove her point. She left the doors hanging open as she went to the bottom cupboards. Only unused pots and pans filled the space. She searched the oven, then the high cupboards over the stove, the fridge, the freezer, the coat closet and finally the cabinet under the sink.
Nothing and silence.
The bat reeled in her hand as she slammed into the marble top once more, and again and again. Fill with rage she swung the bat into the open doors, breaking them off their hinges or left them hanging by just the one. Her breathing was labored from the excitement. Her fire was starting to die down and Annabel felt ready to drop to her knees and curl inside herself...
Knock. Knock.
It was a subtle sound, from behind. It was on the wood cupboards above the marble counter. Annabel felt a cold shrill crawl up her spine. Whoever was behind her had been quiet. There steps were deathly silent. Nothing made the noise over the tile like her bare feet, or her running shoes or her work heels.
"He lured me here." She thought, "A trap!" Her voice became a lump in her throat, unable to shriek or cry out. Annabel carefully pulled the bat off the marble counter and pressed it close too her. They knew she had a weapon. She would use it.
She clasped both hands around the straps, holding the bat as though it were a sword. She closed her eyes, took in a deep breath. She turned away from the sink and into the free space of the room. She shut her eyes as she brought the bat around through the air, roaring in a bestial rage.
She felt the bat connect. But it did not follow through. It stopped half swing. She opened her eyes, confused she looked where the bat hit. Now she wished she kept her eyes closed.
A large arm pressed against the bat. It was big and it held the bat against itself with ease. It was like a sickly green snake that came from outside the kitchen, curving around the archway. It was mind boggling how big this thing was. The head of the arm wrapped around the bat as Annabel released it, her arms recoiling to her side. Sickened by the site of this thing she could only step back slowly only to bump into the sink.
Her eyes went to sound of another knock on the cupboard and there hanging in the air was another sickly green tendril which seemed to look right at her. They lacked any sort of eyes, yet their tips tracked her every motion. Along the head and halfway down their shaft was an array of finger sized blisters. These seemed to glisten in the light, making the arms appear disgustingly slimy. Pulses of blood vessels and arteries stretched across their form, the muscles were clearly able to hold for long in the air.
Annie stepped around the sink, moving towards the dinning table outside the kitchen. She felt the hard metal chair of the table behind her. She heard the slimy slither of another tendril appear to her right. She faced it and screamed, nearly falling to the ground. She searched to find how this third creature surprised her. There...the air vent just above the high cupboard.
She made her way to the living room and found another tendril, smaller than its kin, peep out from the coat closet and knocking at the door. More arms started too appear, all of various sizes and shades of green, each one looking at her with blank faces. Annie looked around. Fear grasping her mind as she found more and more of the creatures coming out of the walls, the floor, even areas she had never known existed. She turned and quickly ran for the back door. Frantically, she turned the lock on the handle and threw the door open running for dear life, unaware that she was still in her jersey and panties in the cold night air. She tried to scream, but her energy was spent. She stopped at the old Oak tree in the garden and collapsed. She turned to the house expecting the creatures, the things, to chase after her. She placed her hands at her chest, checking to see if her heart had left her chest. She nearly broke into tears as she tried to regain her sanity.
"What...the fuck!" was all she could spare between breaths. Annie's breathing was labored after the creature revealed itself. She stood up, leaning against the tree. She felt something push against her lower back. Like the head of some small animal. She turned around and found a smaller tendril was poking out from the squirrel hole of the tree.
She yelped and leapt back at the creature. The leaves rustled over head and she could see more of the tendrils were growing out of the trees. The thing had burrowed underground through the tree and extending outside the house. Annie ran from the garden to the front of the house. Pushing back the gate she ran towards her car, but the keys were inside and she would not risk going back in. She ran for the lower homes.
Her energy was spent on running, gaining as much distance from the house as she could. Annie stopped at the end of the Hill House road and leaned against the stop sign, catching her breath. She turned around, no pursuit and no surprise tendrils coming out of the sign.
The sun was rising to a new day. Omni had arrived at the model home and went for his office, sitting behind his desk. Prompting his feet atop the oak desk he turned his attention to the leather bound tome he left there the day before.
The door chime went off.
Heavy footsteps approached his office and stopped at the foot of his desk. He lowered the book and met the baggy green eyes of Annabel. Her long blue hair and cotton white fur was a mess. She smelt of freshly mowed grass and body sweat. But Omni was careful not to show his disgust, not that he could past the white bandages enwrapping his body. He was a miniature version of the Invisible man, with only a pair of red lens glasses to mark his eyes.
Through the tangled nest of her hair, Omni could see Annabel's eyes locked onto him with a slight snarl holding back on her lips_. _ The gaze was like a wild animal on the hunt. She cleared her throat, straightened her stance, fixed her hair as best she could and straightened her jersey. Omni closed his book and carefully looked into her eyes. "Ms. Cotton, you look exhausted. Is everything alright?"
"Ask me about the house." She replied, a monotone to her speech.
He tilted his head in surprise, "I beg your pardon?"
"Ask me about the house." She echoed the tone.
Baffled he complied, "Er, Very well? How is the house?"
Before he was aware of it, Annabel's large bear hands wrapped around the collar of his shirt as she pulled him out of his chair. Holding Omni like a rag doll in her grip she glared with feral eyes.
"Oh it's wonderful." She replied harmoniously, her eyes bursting with life and energy as she expressed every word with a shake of her head and a twist of her arms. "It has everything I need, a view of down town, a garden, ample living space and a great big open lot all to myself." The way she described the home was a mocking echo of how Omni first presented Hill House for Annabel.
She placed him in her forearm, locking him in a choke hold close to her bosoms as she danced two of her coal black claws across the brim of his hat. "But there's just one teensy weensy wittle pwob-wum."
She paused as she locked her emerald eyes onto his red lenses. He swallowed the lump in his throat unable to curl up into a ball while in her hold.
Her hands went around his throat, claws erect. Her gaze was murderous as she snarled her canines into his red goggles and violently rocked his neck.
"There's a family of snake the size of a big rig living there!. What kind of hell hole did you sell on me ya impy bastard!"
Through the madness and dizzying effect of Ms. Cotton's grasp, Omni was able to reply through short rasps. "Mizz...Coattan...Aye azzzzure yeuuu...Howard izzz harmlezzzz."
Annie stopped shaking the imp, his head swiveled in her grip as she glanced at him. "Who?"
Omni escorted a cautious Annie back to Hill House.
Entering the front door, Omni escorted Annie by the hand into her home. The house was devoid of the large creatures, which Omni had labeled as 'Howard'. Annie ran throughout the house searching for signs of the tendrils from the other night. Opening closets, cabinets and banging on air vents.
"I'm telling you they were here! There must have been eighteen of them. In the closet, the vents, and the floor and...and I don't even know. Oh God I'm losing my mind."
Omni raised a hand up, silencing Annabel. He approached a wall and knocked against the surface. A single tendril slithered out from an air vent behind Ms. Cotton. Startled she ran behind Omni and raised him up as a body shield. The arm approached Omni and looked at the cowering form of Annie from behind Omni.
"Annie Cotton, Howard. Howard, Annie Cotton."
Annie looked past Omni's hat and met the blank look of the tendril, as a second one appeared beside it and motioned in a friendly wave.
"What's it doing?" Annie whispered.
"He's waving. Don't be shy, wave back."
Reluctantly, Annie slowly raised a hand and waved back to the tendril floating before her.
The night had grown cold since Annie left for her date. Howard tended to the house, occasionally snaring a rouge spider or fly that intruded. From the window he could see the headlights of Ms. Cotton's automobile come up the hill and pull into the driveway. Though the timing seemed off, he expected she would return on the morn. Howard heard the clip clop of her high heels against the walkway and she was in a hurry, for a moment he could hear what might have been sobbing.
Annie Cotton ran into the house and pressed against the frame of the door. Her eyes were smeared in tears as she fell to the floor. Through the babbling ball of her condition he could make out slurs of curses and insults. She had arrived at the restaurant only to find that her date had been with another woman.
While at work, Annie received an email from her boyfriend. He wanted to take her out on a romantic dinner for two within a few days. He promised her a time to remember. However, she was not aware of the fact that he had carelessly sent the message to the wrong address.
The man had been dating three women and had carefully planned out a way dating each one individually. But this time he was careless. After mailing the dinner plan to which he thought was the jogger outside his apartment instead sent it to Annie's work email. During that time, Annie prepared and planned for her big outing, unaware that her soon to be Ex had someone else in mind.
He had contacted the jogger by phone and ensured she knew of the time and place, never considering too ask if she received his message.
When Annie arrived at the restaurant she was surprised to find her boyfriend locked in with his actual date, an athletic cheetah woman.
The rest of the events are left to the imagination as Annie curled up on the floor. Howard, sympathetic to his owner, curled his arms around her.
Omni arrived to check on Annie and Howard's living conditions. He found her outside wearing her sports jersey and shorts. But oddly she was holding her bat and taking swings at various objects. Omni flinched at the sound of shatter glass exploded from the bats form.
Omni crossed his hands together into a 'T' as he shouted, "Time out!"
Annie turned and met the approaching figure of Omni, standing behind her as she nodded to her pitcher, Howard. The arms extended from the lower supports under the house as they reached into a box of various objects. Omni couldn't help but let out a chuckle as he noticed the ball cap turned backwards on Howard's tentacle, a parody of an actual pitcher. Of the three tendrils one was sorting through the next object and passed it on to the other arm, which then tossed the 'ball' into Annie's baseball bat. Earlier she hit one of the picture frames given by her ex-boyfriend, this time it was the Chinese figure he bought her. He said it was an expensive antique, but it was a $15 trinket from a garage sale. It shattered as it connected with the bat.
"Well its good too see you taking the break up very well."
Annie shattered another of her ex's gifts. "Who told you?"
"No one, I just know these things."