Bad Monkey

Alan was in a bad mood. Then again that was nothing new. It was standard for him to wake up each morning with a scowl for the world and all that was in it. He cared little if the world scowled back. One of the few pleasures he counted on was his morning coffee from Frank's. Frank made it strong and made it the same way every time. After a brief argument with a mom in a pram who was in his way he was ready to take a seat outside with his paper and enjoy his coffee.

'Hey watch it kid!' He yelled at the small figure that had barged past and was now obliviously skipping away. Mumbling 'Red headed prick,' under his breath he noticed the kid had dropped something.

It was a little toy monkey with... whats that, an octopus for a head? Just sitting there on the sidewalk. Fucker must have dropped it, he thought. He picked it up and it shifted in his grasp. Urgh. he dropped it quick, shaking his hand. For that moment when he had held it it didn't feel like a small furry toy. No, like something else, scaled, cold and reptilian.

It sat there where it had fallen. Harmless enough. He gave himself a shake. It's only a stupid toy you idiot.

Put me in your bag

The voice reverberated powerfully in Alan's head, an old voice. Cold as iron. He fought back a burp of bile as his stomach rolled. The toy monkey's eyes glared. Baleful and full of an encompassing dark. He couldn't question it. The voice had come from that monkey thing. Trembling he reached out and gently picked it up, fighting a gag reflex as once more the reptilian feel of it flexed against his hand.

Take me home

Again like giant nails on a chalkboard. His body shook and obeyed of its own volition.

For days he was yanked to and fro like a puppet to the backdrop of an ever increasing screaming echoing within his skull. Possessed by the thing inhabiting the monkey toy. A passenger in his own body. The thing used him to start building a giger-esque shrine against the front wall of his lounge. Then it demanded...

Bone

He lost it then, only flashes of what followed available to his memory. Knocking on the neighbour Alison's door... Fake smiling, batted away a comment on how ill he looked... Dragging her back to the apartment... The wet smack of the hammer.. At some point he realised the screaming in his head was his.

The inside of the apartment stank now. A charnel smell. He whimpered as he ran his sticky hand through his hair. Once more he tried yelling for help but all that he could force was a croak.

Looking down at the butchered carcass of Alison stuffed in a corner he wanted to cry. But it wouldn't let him. Hands that didn't belong to him anymore daubed her clotting blood on the walls, arranging the poorly scraped bones in an intricate spiral on the wall.

Finally it was done. He knelt before the grisly altar, mouth contorting into strange shapes, guttural bass notes vomited forth. The walls melted away. He was on a grey plain shrouded in darkness. Something was answering the call. Something vast, blotting out the fierce glare of alien stars.

Then he was at the window with the monkey held between two hastily cleaned fingers. It felt wrong that it was sunny outside. On the street below the kid with the red hair and freckles smiled up and waved. He jerkily waved back and dropped the toy monkey with the octopus head toward him. The kid scampered over, smile full of genuine pleasure 'Thanks Mister!' and skipped off giggling. He moved away from the window and toward the phone in the hall. Tears brimming as he dialed 911 and waited.

'The monkey made me do it.' Was the first thing he blurted out to the cop who looked to be on the verge of shooting him. The cop's gun hand shook as he looked at the stripped bone arrangement on the wall in disgust and rage. His partner was shouting into his radio. Alan felt serenely calm as the first cop cuffed him, snarling about prison and never seeing outside again. He didn't care. He was free. Free!

The woman was shouting at the cashier. A combination of abuse and threats sparked by an item mistakely charged to her card. Finally she strode from the store leaving the cashier teary and humiliated. A red haired boy charged past bumping her as he ran. 'Excuuuse me,' She yelled at his retreating back before noticing the odd monkey toy at her feet. She bent down to pick it up.