Animal Fright

CW: Violence, Blood, Gore, Animal Cruelty, Animal Death, Suicide. (Music & Sound Effects May Change Volume/Tone Quickly)

Research assistants try to find an explanation as to why every animal on the planet is suddenly afraid of humans...or are they really afraid of something far worse?

Written & Narrated By: Adriana Oister (She/They)

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Music & Sound Effects: Epidemic Sounds

DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, business, events and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination. Certain long-standing institutions, agencies, and public offices are mentioned, but any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

©️ 2024 Copyright Adriana Oister and Queer Ghoul

Transcript

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CW: The following story contains instances of Violence, Blood, Gore, Animal Cruelty and Animal Death and Suicide which may be too much for some beings to endure. Listener discretion is advised.

{Intro Music}

This is Queer Ghoul. An anthology of short queer horror stories written and produced by me, Adriana Oister, pronouns she/her and they/them. 

With various tales of horror, suspense, mystery, and science fiction, I in the role of “The Narrator”, will introduce you to a diverse set of characters each of whom trapped in their own hellish landscapes, and teeth-clenching nightmares.

{Intro Music slows down…then picks back up}

Monologue: This episode’s story is going to be a little different than the rest. For it’s a first-hand account of horrid events that have taken place in another dimension. The journal entry which I’ll be reading from, seems to have been written by an enby of science named Percy Keeper, pronouns they and them. Not to reveal any spoilers, but it seems Mx. Keeper had a ...fascination of sorts with animal experimentation. Something personally, I’m quite against, please let the record show. In the world that Percy knew, it seems that animals were not acting the way they do in ours. In fact, practically overnight they began showing fear. Every creature from the tiniest of insect to the largest of beast cowered before mankind. We’ve given them reason too of course. But was it the humans that they were really afraid of? Or perhaps something the workings of Mother Nature had plotted for their planet? You’ll have to listen to find out. But one more thing I want you to be aware of before we start, I know you can’t see, but as I’m reading through the journal entry and holding Mx. Keeper’s leather-bound book in my hand, I’m also trying to avoid touching any of the dried red blood stains which are smearing the inked wording on the pages. I’m not sure what became of Mx. Keeper and their world, but at least we all have a glimpse at what really transpired. I now present to you…ANIMAL FRIGHT.


Animal Fright

I first noticed what was going on when I watched my goldfish commit suicide.

I walked out from my bedroom to my small living space. The fish, whom I had placed with the generic name of Goldie while I was debating what to do with it, retreated to the back of its bowl which sat on my end table next to the leather armchair and in front of a rectangular window. It cowered behind its cave figurine, its gills flapping in a rapid flutter. Its mouth swung open and closed with each gulp. I took another step forward, and that’s when Goldie decided to smack its head hard against its glass sphere. It swam its body back around, regarded me with its orbital black eyes, and banged its head again. It echoed this action, its head ramming into the bowl until the water clouded with a deep red. Its shimmering orange body floating to the top, a large gouge on its head gushed out its blood. I opened the window, and threw the contents of the bowl and Goldie’s remains out of it, and really didn’t think anything of the fish’s actions at the time.

It was a similar death compared to the ones at aquatic shows and aquariums across the world, from what I’ve seen from social media videos. Those incidents involved larger creatures who cracked their glass containers, and broke the tanks. The several pounds of water from within pouring out in powerful waves. Most of these cases resulted in the death of the animal or animals involved, and severely injuring or even killing the humans which were in the water’s path. I imagine it’s not an entertaining death to be rammed by the weight of an orca.

I later observed more of it myself when called out to the local zoo, the chaos I had studied involved the lion pride. The male lion, Zeus, sat frozen in the corner of its exhibit while the female ones grouped together and buried into one another. Zeus’s eyes stayed wide, the whites vanished. Its tail flicked. The lion’s fangs bared out as one long, continuous, growl rolled out from its throat. I didn’t bother checking the exhibits of the others, I knew they all were in the same state. Every animal was one way or another. The coyotes and the wolves were howling so loud from across the zoo that I could feel a headache coming on from behind my eyes. What I really wanted to do was have at least one creature, any creature at that point, sedated enough that I could perform a series of experiments to find out for myself what was causing them to go mad, but I couldn’t receive the clearance to do so. No matter how desperate the situation got.

Goldie’s suicide was only just two weeks ago.

“Stop staring at it. You’ll scare it away.” I heard my colleague and old university classmate, Leah Normandy, state. She stood behind me, while I knelt to watch a fat, fuzzy, honeybee drift from dying flower to dying flower in the shade near the side entrance of the professor’s laboratory. “Who knows at this point how long this is going to go on for. Our ecosystem is being damaged.” At the time, I remember thinking, that was Leah for you, ever the overreactor. 

I stood up, the bee flying away in haste. I wondered for a moment what it would be like, pun not intended, to dissect its miniature brain and its complex circuit of nerves. We walked back towards the building.  “That was the first animal I’ve seen out in the wild in days. There are no birds in the sky, squirrels or chipmunks traveling through trees. I used to have to kill a spider in my room every other day, now there’s nothing but abandoned cobwebs.”

Leah’s mouth stretched into a sneer for only a second. “Seems like you should have appreciated those spiders, instead of killing them.”

I held the door open for her. “They came and invaded my personal space; they deserved what they got.”

“Who’s to say whose space was whose?” She stepped through the doorway. Both of our footsteps echoing in the corridors. 

“Well, I do figure that it was my house, my room.”

She wouldn’t look at me when we entered the staff room, both of us putting on our white lab coats. Her dark-skinned fingers pulled her long, black hair into a ponytail. “Your room, your house, which was built on land on a planet that’s been here for billions of years far before humans evolved and decided they were the superior beings, slaving one another and other creatures; causing extinction, endangerment, and environmental devastation.”

I picked up my clipboard which was hanging from the wall and glanced down at my list of tasks. “True, that there has been, all of that. But it solely can’t be blamed on human nature. You just said yourself, humans evolved. The world and all living beings within evolve and change over the course of time. Some make it through, and others don’t. The results of which affect the Earth and its environment.”

Leah clicked open her pen, scribbling on her paper, and walking away from me and back down towards the corridors. I caught up with her. Although I didn’t wish to indulge her anymore in her own theories. “Why don’t we talk about something else? Here’s another mystery for you to ponder. Every morning my next-door neighbor comes out in his robe and checks his mailbox while the smell of bacon wafts out his kitchen windows. This morning, none of that happened. Coincidence?”

She tapped the side of the pen against her clipboard, her lips pursed. I knew that was when she was thinking heavily, but most likely she wasn’t thinking about my question. “Maybe he ran out of bacon. It is sixty dollars a pound now on average. You know, because of everything.”

During the start of every shift, we greeted the Professor in the lab. Today the door was kept closed, and I signaled our arrival with a firm knock on the doorframe.

            Professor Hanover opened the door cautiously, before seeing the two of us and allowing us through. He closed it immediately afterwards. He faced his back towards us while he hunched over his notes on the table. “Good morning Leah.” He said to her, before glancing over at me and nodding. “Percy.”

“Morning, Professor.” Leah and I said in unison, approaching the man whom we held in the highest esteem.

“I heard you two from the hallway discussing the outrageous price of bacon. The highest I’ve ever had to pay per pound was six, that was some time ago due to inflation. I’m assuming you two were really talking about this situation of ours?”

My eyes locked onto the medium sized cage which was sat in the middle of the black lab table, a colorful patched blanket draped over it.  “I’m assuming that this has something to do with our situation?”

The Professor smiled, pulling the blanket away. On the side of the cage, rested a feline deep in slumber. It looked to be around a year old, its orange and white body curled in on itself. Its whiskers twitched periodically. 

I gestured towards the animal in amazement. “Is it drugged?”

“No, he’s not. Incredible, isn’t it?”

Leah poked her finger through the slits of the cage, dragging it along the animal’s fur. It didn’t wake and if anything, it only let out a small purr. “He’s so adorable!” She said. I tried to keep myself from rolling my eyes.

“Yes, he’s even sweeter when he’s awake.” The Professor poked his own finger into the cage. This time the cat rose up and stretched its body, its green eyes studying us. It sat down at its food bowl and began crunching on the hard bits of reddish kibble. “His name is Montero. He was donated to us late last night from the local animal shelter. They’re rather desperate to find a solution as to why the animals are cowering from mankind. People are such at their wit’s end that they’re either killing or surrendering their pets, if they haven’t killed themselves already. Shelters everywhere are reporting that they’re overcrowded and it's harder for them to take care of the animals.  They’re not eating, drinking, sleeping, they won’t even stay still long enough to take any required medication. All of them except this one.”

I stared at the cat, racking my brain for some simple explanation on how it was so calm around us. “How is it possible? Every animal on this planet is cowering from us, wanting to kill themselves over us, all except one ball of fuzz from a shelter.”

In the usual spirit, Leah ignored what I had to say. “Professor, Percy seems to be of the mind that humans have absolutely nothing to do with what’s going on with the animals. Maybe you could talk some sense into them.”

“That’s not quite true, I didn’t say that we didn’t have anything to do with what’s going on. But I did say that the blame doesn’t solely rest on our shoulders. Evolution is what’s in effect, which wraps around every living thing on this planet. It just happens to be that all the animals on the planet have simultaneously developed a trait which makes them fearful of human beings. This cat is just a fluke.”   

Professor Hanover hummed. “As much as you most likely will hate it Leah, I must agree with Percy. To a certain degree that is.” He studied the cat. “Us humans, of course we are responsible for the numerous deaths of animal species on this planet. We destroy, there is no doubt about that. But out of destruction, can come creation.”

“What are you saying Professor?” Leah said.

“I’m saying, and it’s only a theory, that we’re not what the animals are afraid of.”

Leah and I exchanged a look. “What do you mean that they’re not afraid of us? What else is there for them to be afraid of? We’re the most dominant species on the planet.”

He turned away from us and went over to where the one window in the room was covered in a black fabric. He ripped it down. Montero lifted his head away from his food dish and spun around. His eyes were dilated as he stared out the window. His tail grew bushy, his body scrunched up, and when his mouth opened, a warning rumble projected out. 

The Professor crossed his arms, his eyes still drilled into the cat. “As I just stated. Humans destroy. Unfortunately, it’s part of our nature. Out of destruction comes creation. What falls to extinction, gives rise to evolution. The vast majority of animal species on Earth have far superior senses compared to Homo sapiens, especially Montero here for example. They are able to notice things that we cannot.” He nodded towards the animal. “I don’t know why Montero is acting differently than the rest. But still look into his eyes. The creature is clearly frightened, but if he was frightened of us, if he decided that we were his biggest enemy, wouldn’t he have his eyes focused on us?”

Leah and I gazed at Montero’s eyes and followed his stare towards the window and the outside. 

“There’s no birds out there. No small creatures scampering about. No bugs or anything else. That we know of. And he has had plenty of opportunities to be upset with humans.” He rose the fabric over the window again. 

Montero stopped. He sat down, his eyes squeezed almost shut as if staring in either contemplation or judgment and mockery. Leah rubbed his fur again.

“Professor Hanover.” I said. “How would that even be possible? Such an assumption? What you’re theorizing would have to take decades! Centuries even!”

Leah scowled at me. “Not when it takes even less time to cause mass extinction and endangerment of countless species! And think of what other scientists are experimenting with, creating in their labs in secret. I wouldn’t be surprised if something escaped.”

I brushed her off. “In all due respect, I find it hard to believe that there is some bigger species than humans suddenly taking over dominance, all the animals on the planet are terrified of it to the point of wanting to harm themselves, and humans are just, completely unaware.” I shrugged my shoulders, folding my arms across my chest. 

The Professor rubbed his chin. “Possibly that was by design. Most things don’t happen suddenly. There’s usually a buildup that we don’t see. Perhaps with this, that buildup is starting to show.”

I stared at the feline, my fists tightening. I searched for the answers in my own mind. If only I could just crack one animal open to find out what was going on in their mind, and I knew that if I played my cards right, that one animal could be one feline. “What if?” I uncrossed my arms, thinking about my wording. “What if after my shift today, I were to take the cat home with me? For research purposes?”

The Professor tilted his head in intrigue. “Go on.”

“Obviously, if we want to entertain the notion of a new, more dominant, species, we must back it up with some more research. And we’re not going to get it by leaving our one animal isolated in a lab. If I were to take the cat home with me, I’d be able to observe it, let it roam around the house. It’ll just be me and him since my goldfish is dead. Maybe with his feline senses, I’ll be able to find any indication of, unidentified specimen. Or at least, a more probable cause.”

He hummed.

            “That doesn’t sound like a good idea.” Leah said.

            “Why doesn’t it? I’m only going to essentially house sit a cat for a night. See if he can clue me in on what’s going on.”

            “I’ll allow it.” The Professor said.

            Leah snapped her head towards him. “Professor, you can’t be serious! Percy can’t be trusted with any animal.”

            “I trust Percy with this. I know how dedicated they are in their pursuit of answers. I only ask that you make sure that you don’t lose him or let him hurt himself.”

            “Of course, Professor. Thank you, Sir.” I said. I couldn’t help but smile at Leah’s reaction.

            “Now, if you two would excuse me, I have a conference call I have to be on in a few minutes. We’ll regroup later.” 

            We said our goodbyes to him, watching him disappear out of the room.

            Leah faced me, her eyes lit with fury. “I don’t know what you’re planning. But I’m warning you. I know about your past experiments with animals for your so-called research purposes. I know all about what happened in school.  I know what you did to the rats, the cats, the dogs, the frogs, the fish, the monkey.”

            “Leah, we’ve all changed since our school years. If I remember correctly, you even went by a different name, and a different gender.”

            “You’re selfish and disgusting. You’ll take any life that you find less than yours.”

            “It’s called Natural Selection, and we’re on the top. At least, I am. I’m not so sure about you.”

            She stepped closer. “I know about that lab of yours. It’s more like a torture room. I’m telling you; don’t you dare do the same to Montero.” Her jaw unclenched, and she stormed out of the room.

            The smile on my face never faded, especially when I watched the cat strolling around its cage for a few more moments. Its eyes met mine. 

I was already planning the night’s events.

What I found out later after work, was that I couldn’t figure out how to easily transport the feline from its cat carrier to my home. My fingers clenched around the handle as the cat rushed around inside, back and forth, and crying as if it were being murdered. I didn’t even do anything to it yet. I could barely contain the carrier in my grasp as I walked down the pathway to my front door. “We’re almost at the door, Kitty. Calm down.” I said to it, but to no avail. The handle slipped out of my hand and the carrier crashed to the pavement.

The cat started to growl.

“Bad Cat!” I said, leaning down to pick up the carrier. “You’re nothing but a nightmare!”

However, I stopped. The fall nip in the air snapped into a warmer heat which clung to my skin. It was like something was breathing down my neck.

Something did touch me, seemingly coming from the air. It grazed my back and fell down to the ground with a dull thud. I twisted around to it, the hair on my neck standing straight up as the breathing sensation lingered. I cupped my mouth, staring at the bloody, human leg on my front lawn. The hairy skin was bare, the foot was still covered with a ripped apart brown slipper, and the bone popped out at the top through the gooey flesh.

I gagged, although in reality I’ve seen far worse. It was a human impulse I suppose. I picked up the carrier and continued towards the front door, opening it, and sitting the carrier inside the doorway. “Be a good cat.” I said, leaving the door ajar while I walked back towards the appendage. I looked around at the scenery, where I was only met with the gentle rustle of the remaining leaves on the trees from the wind. There were no humans taking a stroll, all of them locked inside their homes during a Tuesday which was soon coming to an end. It reminded me of my neighbor, who I hadn’t seen that morning. I peered into his black windows, but I failed to see any movement. 

I focused instead on my black leather shoes, muttering an apology to myself as I kicked the repulsive thing underneath my greenery. Taking a few more hard breaths, I went back inside my house, shutting the door behind me. I was met with a deep warning which came in a spat and hissing from across the room.

 I lifted up the carrier. Finding that the door and lock were ripped off its hinges.

I tried to meet the feline in eye contact, as it backed itself into a far corner in my living room. The fur on its tail puffed out in fear.

Swearing to myself, I rubbed my shaking hand against my neck, hoping that the warm air would pass. However, it stayed, and if anything, I would say that it only intensified as each second went by. My legs were wobbling while I inched closer to the cat. “Here Kitty! Kitty! Kitty! Here Kitty! It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you.” I reached my hand forward.

And that’s when my other arm was pulled backwards.

It was yanked back with such a force that it pulled me with it, sending me flying down onto the couch and overturning it. I tried to stand up, but something heavy pressed down on my back.  Hot breath slithered down my body. All the while the cat was making the most horrendous of noises, but I couldn’t lift my head to even look at it. 

My foot was lifted into the air and my body dangled. The unknown entity dragged me while I cried out in pain, digging my fingers into the carpeting. The side of my face burned against its fabric.

After what felt like hours, I was able to kick my other leg upwards where it impacted something hard and invisible, and the force dropped me.

I heard my side window glass doors slide open, and I stumbled up to my feet, in just enough time to see the cat rush out and climb up the large tree in my backyard.

“Montero! You Son of a Bitch!” I leaned against the wall; the left side of my face hot. My heart pounded in my chest. I cradled my arm, which singed from the force’s touch, as did my ankle. When I stared attentively at it, I saw blood rolling off of my skin from piercing red puncture wounds looking and feeling to be bite marks. I studied them, I knew the bites had to belong to something with jaws that were large, and teeth that were sharp. I bent over and looked at my ankle as well. It was the same mark.

For a false sense of security, I ran into the storage closet that was next to me and shut myself inside. I pulled out my phone from my pants pocket, nearly dropping it a few times while I opened up my text messages and tapped on Leah’s contact. She was the last person I wanted to be involved with, but I knew I needed help. I typed out a quick plea and hit send.

She replied back. “I knew you’d mess this up.”

“I knew it! I knew it!” She said, slamming her car door shut.  I stopped my limped pacing in front of my driveway and jogged up to her. I winced at the pain that shot through my ankle.

“Please Leah, you can have all the praise you want. I just… something is going on here…and I needed some back up.”

“Of course, I know what’s going on! You tried to perform some inhumane experiment and now Montero is suffering!”

“The cat is not suffering any more than when he left the lab!” I said. “Just please listen.”

Leah’s expression changed to one of questioning. “I haven’t seen you like this since, ever. You look like you’ve been in an accident, your face is burned, and you’re bleeding.”

I took a deep breath. “I need to show you something. Right now, other than my toppled furniture and my wounds, this is the only physical proof I have that could possibly prove that you and the Professor were right. Just-“The words caught in my throat; I turned my head away. “Look under those bushes.” 

I closed my eyes as I heard the gravel underneath Leah’s footsteps. “I know we’ve seen some ghastly things in the past, but it doesn’t make it any less frightening.”

There was a pause. “What the hell are you trying to do?”

My eyes snapped open; I turned my head to her.

She stared back at me with a scowl. “Are you trying to make a fool out of me? There’s nothing under these bushes. Is this a sick game of yours?”

I pushed past her and got down on my knees, gliding my hand over the brown mulch. “I don’t understand, it was right here. I put it here myself after it fell down on me.”

“Will you please explain what you’re talking about?”

“A detached human leg came out of thin air, something ripped the door off of the cat carrier, and it tried to kill me in the living room, and it opened the back door and let the devil cat out!”

Leah opened her mouth.

“I know it sounds ridiculous! I’m not trying to feed you a story! It’s the truth!” I marched to the front door and motioned her forward. “Look at the cat carrier, look at my furniture! Do you think I would destroy all of this just for a laugh! Oh, the air! The air!” I took a second, feeling the autumn chill. “It’s not doing anything right now, but while all of this was happening, the cold air cut into a moist warmth against my skin!”

She looked around at the mess, her hands covering her mouth. “Can we please just find Montero, and then talk about this later?”

I bit my chapped lip. “Be careful.” I said, although it only came out barely above a whisper. “It went up the tree outside.”

We walked out into the backyard, Leah with much more of a braver, or in this case naïve stance, while I fell a few steps behind. Our footsteps crunched over the dead leaves. When we approached the large tree, the cat wailed. I glanced up to get a good look at its eyes, clearly, they were not trained on us. 

“I’m going to climb up it and try to coax Montero down. Stay vigilant down here and try to grab him if he jumps.” Leah said, hugging the base of the trunk.

“You can’t be serious? That cat will rip me to shreds if I touch it bare handed. This is too dangerous, just leave the cat be.”

            “You just told me of body parts falling out of the sky, don’t talk to me about being serious.”

            I watched her climb up the wooden base, clinging herself to each branch as she got closer to the top. She kept calling for the cat, the feline hissing in return. Not even noticing her.

The warm air returned, sending a hot breath down my neck.

I realized what was happening. “Leah! Get down! It’s not safe!”

She peered down at me. “What? I can’t hear you! It’s also really hot up here.”

“It’s hot down here too, you need to get down. We need to leave!”

            The cat spat. 

            “What?”

            “I said, get down! We need to leave!”

            “I can’t hear you!”

            I looked around the tree, and gasped when I saw large, monster-sized footprints with sharp claws imprinted deep down into the dirt and grass. Each of them would take form, closer to where we were, and disappear within seconds.

            The cat screamed at the top of its lungs.

            “We need to leave! Now! Get down!”

            “Get down? Why? I’m so close!”

            “Because it’s not safe!”

            A wet droplet tapped the tip of my nose. Soon after I was pelted across my face and body with fat globs which came from somewhere above me. I touched my face and ended up smearing it all together. I studied my bright red hand and could smell the cooper stinging the air.

          I snapped my head up and screamed. “Leah!”

          But she was already coated in blood.

          “Leah don’t think about it! Just come down slowly and we’ll leave.”

            “I have to get Montero.” She said while her body shivered.

            The red clotted into the cat’s white and orange fur. Its eyes frantically moved around as if it were watching a toy strung to a stick. 

The unknown force pulled on the back of Leah's shirt, and I watched as she lost her balance among the branches and fell backwards.

“Leah!” I was positioned under her, and I failed to react. She fell right on top of me. My right arm snapped on impact. I clenched my teeth, keeping myself from screaming from the searing pain. 

Leah jumped off of me. “Are you okay?”

“You just were thrown off a tree!”

She grimaced when her eyes fell onto my twisted arm. “Well, your arm is not supposed to point in that direction.”

“Help me up! We need to get out of here!”

She pulled me up off the ground using my good arm.

An object fell between the both of us, it rolled and rested itself against her shoes.

It was a human skull, soaked in blood. Half of it was bone, the other half still tattered with skin. Enough that I knew who it used to belong to. His right and now only eye gleamed at us.

 “That’s my neighbor.” I said. “I think I know now what happened to him.”

We ended up leaving Montero and bolted to the car.

I’m writing my account of events now while I rest in my hospital room. Good thing I’m left-handed. Leah left me here and escaped back to the Professor’s laboratory. I guess I’ll end first with saying, for all those with tender hearts, Montero popped up a few hours later, somehow making his way back inside the locked lab. That sneaky little creature. Professor Hanover and Leah cleaned his fur of blood and now he resides inside a room with no windows, quite content as I was told.

 I wish we were content. I wish I was content. I can’t go back to that house of mine, but yet I realize that I can’t escape what’s happening regardless. None of us can. The Professor has been quiet, but really, he doesn’t need to utter a word. I warn now to my fellow human beings that you must stay vigilant. You must care about the world around you. About the other lives that reside on this planet with us. You must not deny. Because humankind cannot escape the formidable forces of both karma and nature.



{OUTRO MUSIC}

Outro: For the written version of the story you just heard and other Queer Ghoul originals, visit QueerGhoulPodcast.com.

The Queer Ghoul podcast anthology is an independent endeavor. If you enjoyed what you’ve heard, please consider leaving a review or rating and telling a fellow creature of the night about the show.

 Follow Queer Ghoul and me Adriana Oister (O-I-S-T-E-R) on social media to stay up to date about the podcast and future projects. All links are in the show notes below as well as other ways to support the show.

Until next time, thank you for listening. Oh, and by the way, next time you hear or see your beloved pet reacting to something that’s seemingly nothing, do try not to think about it too much.