I keep in mind the day that I met Mortimer the Maus fairly properly; though I couldn’t have been greater than 5 or 6 on the time. Regardless that the occasions of that day could also be tough so that you can imagine, they’re endlessly etched into my reminiscence.
My father had taken me to the amusement park that day, throughout the weekend after I visited him. He and my mom had been separated now for a number of months, and by then, the novelty of spending my weekends with him was quickly dropping its luster. In these days, I keep in mind my father being distant and indignant. “Distracted” you would possibly say, skirting the frayed edges of neglect. Previous to the separation, my mom’s favourite chorus was: “He’s simply grow to be so distant.”
I suppose the divorce was nearly as good a motive as any as to why my disappearance had gone unnoticed that day. Nicely, for that motive and the truth that my father’s new “girlfriend,” Coraline, had accompanied us to the park. For him, she was distraction personified. As she sunk her hooks deeper and deeper into the person, I turned extra of a hindrance — a reminder of his former marriage… his former life. I used to be, in spite of everything, very very like my mom and I’m sure that she acknowledged that. The one factor that I keep in mind about her now, all these a long time later, was that she was a mean-spirited and spiteful girl. She by no means missed a possibility to berate me about my habits, pinching and flicking my ears every time my father wasn’t trying.
However I wasn’t a nasty child, I used to be only a child; susceptible, as any child to doing infantile issues. Issues like wandering off, I suppose. Through the years, I got here to comprehend that it wasn’t me that she was punishing — it was herself she hated. Reminiscence is legacy, or so they are saying, and such are the unhappy legacies of the evil folks we’re uncovered to in our lives.
The amusement park we visited that summer time wasn’t the world-famous one — no — however it did characteristic a weird array of low cost knock-off costumed animals and animatronics. The latter would swivel and pivot on squeaky joints, rattling to an abrupt cease every time their routine dictated that they recite some canned catch phrase. All the youngsters would cease and stare because the phrases buzzed erratic and out-of-sync from their chipped mandibles. Even to my younger and harmless eyes, their sun-bleached plastic faces appeared tatty and vapid.
Whether or not it was to flee Coraline’s fixed abuse, or whether or not I had merely wandered off — regardless of the motive I had grow to be separated from the 2 of them that day — I discovered myself fairly immediately adrift in a sea of floral-print clothes and plaid shorts, misplaced within the shuffle of the distracted lots that appeared to fill each inch of the park. I felt a rising dismay, staring on the crowds as they trudged previous, scorching and weary, their eyes ever trying to find the nice time that they’d been promised; their youngsters bawling, scorching and overwhelmed; the vaguely indignant look of the lads as they plodded by, their nagging wives in tow.
Some very primitive and instinctual a part of me acknowledged that right here, on my own, I used to be weak — uncovered — which solely served to deepen my misery. I sought the quilt of some scant shade, there beside the walkway. I watched the throngs go, an organism onto itself, hoping in useless that my father would seem from the group — indignant, however relieved. Maybe he would even castigate Coraline for her lapse of consideration.
Hope springs everlasting, I suppose.
There, eclipsed by the shade, I watched a performer on stilts stride down the slim walkway, throngs of my friends at his heels. As he made his manner towards me, I questioned if he ever misstepped, tripping over one among his ardent admirers, toppling onto the recent pavement right into a pile of damaged stilts and crying youngsters. It occurred to me that the 2 clowns at his facet have been bulwarks towards that unlucky eventuality. They gently moved the youngsters apart because the performer plowed awkwardly by means of their wake.
Regardless of the clown’s weary smile, I may see the sweat bead on his brow, melting his gaudy face paint. It gave me the impression that his pores and skin was melting, sloughing off in multicolored rivulets… splattering onto the youngsters who surrounded him. What occurs after all the face paint melts, some morbid a part of me questioned. For a second, I envisioned the flesh beneath all that make-up likewise melting away within the blazing solar — drizzling down off his cranium like a lot rendered fats. A slight shudder handed by means of me on the psychological picture I’d conjured.
My mom would most likely be aghast if she knew in regards to the issues that generally drifted by means of my thoughts. She usually admonished me about my ugly creativeness (which, fairly actually, solely inspired me all of the extra). Then, as now, I ponder the place such aberrant and unwholesome fascinations spring.
However I digress…
It didn’t appear in any respect that unusual that afternoon to see the costumed mouse, the Mortimer Maus, strolling a long way behind this costumed trio. Even at a distance, it was evident to me that this was a person wearing a fancy dress. An individual pretending to be a mouse, pretending to be an individual. Regardless of my pleasure, for the briefest of moments, it occurred to me that such epiphany, such an apparent lapse within the suspension of disbelief, would have by no means been permitted on the premier amusement park. In any case, within the magical kingdom, perception was every thing!
Nicely, possibly not every thing.
My father believed that the rides right here have been simply nearly as good right here as they have been on the premier amusement park, albeit, anybody may inform that they weren’t. Many of the rides on the Chippewa Lake Amusement Park would rattle to a begin and shudder to a halt, all of the whereas groaning deep of their rusted joints. The stench of the carnies manning the rides was solely equaled by the odor of grease coating the recent overworked gears. In every single place you seemed, the paint on the rides was oxidizing and pale, that’s, the place it hadn’t been tagged by some lesser number of vandal.
No… this was not a magical place. No quantity of perception or wishful considering would ever make it so.
And so, regardless that I acknowledged this as a fancy dress — or as a person in a fancy dress — I nonetheless discovered it unusual the way in which that the determine moved. It strode alongside the walkway as if its joints have been on backwards. It had an odd shuffling gait, incongruous to the patrons who jostled and jockeyed round it. For his half, the large rat/man shambled down the road, oblivious to the crowds, seemingly intent on its vacation spot. Kids froze within the character’s path, struck with awe at seeing the famed Mortimer Maus in particular person. Nevertheless, Mortimer didn’t possess the retinue of clowns that the person on stilts did; and so, the star-struck youngsters needed to be rapidly pulled apart, lest they be trampled by the cartoon caricature. Mother and father and youngsters alike stared on the determine because it staggered by means of the group, appalled by its heedless disregard.
I suppose then that it ought to have struck me as odd that I by some means drew its consideration. I used to be a slightly bizarre boy; albeit, I used to be far much less excited than my friends to be on the park at that second, immersed and alone as I used to be within the crowd that day. However my dismay at being misplaced was rapidly overshadowed. Like the youngsters round me, I used to be mesmerized because the determine approached — totally star-struck by it. For so long as I may keep in mind, I had watched Mortimer’s antics on T.V. Like most youngsters my age, I may recite his tacky catch-phrases and mimic his odd tittering chortle. I even had a Mortimer-the-Maus themed lunch field at house.
Inexplicably, its large rat’s head pivoted towards me. It was as if I had immediately materialized within the factor’s path, startling the go well with’s occupant.
The factor’s comically outsized rubber sneakers slowed, scuffing over the asphalt, till the creature got here to an abrupt halt lower than an arm’s size earlier than me. The late afternoon solar dazzled me as I gazed up into the dense mesh that shaped the factor’s eyes. Past that skinny layer of mesh, I may hear labored respiratory, a type of dry rattle wheeze that whispered of a sophisticated case of emphysema or possibly the onset of warmth stroke (though, admittedly, I knew little or no about such issues on the time). The determine awkwardly raised its arm and waved a thickly gloved hand at me. I returned the creature’s clumsy greeting cautiously, surprised and not sure what to make of the undue consideration it was giving me.
After all, I, like each different baby within the park, had seen the commercials and animated specials that includes Mortimer the Brief-tailed Maus and his retinue of curious buddies: Oswald the Hare, Horace the Donkey, and so forth. The opposite costumed characters that I had seen on the park have been surprisingly reticent to talk, even supposing their T.V. personas by no means appeared to close up. And so, I discovered it fairly odd that this specific Mortimer groaned as he bent ahead, as if to look at me extra intently. Even by means of the thick rubberized costume, I may odor the performer’s sweat beneath. Nicely…sweat and one thing else. One thing disagreeable. One thing in contrast to physique odor in any respect.
No… this smelled totally different.
There was a sickly sweetness to it. It was the sharp scent of corruption simply earlier than it ripened into reeking and rampant decay. The stench appeared to ooze by means of layers of froth, seeping by means of the heavy felt costuming. The creature prolonged its hand out to me, a thickly-padded, three-fingered glove certain on the wrist by a large elastic strap. The glove, usually a blinding white, was stained and mottled, as if one thing had leached by means of all the froth stuffing, and had seeped to the floor.
I hesitated, and the factor tilted its head — an unmistakable gesture of curiosity and bewilderment. A number of the different amusement park clients cajoled me to shake his hand, their telephones on the able to seize what promised to be an “adorbs second.” I gazed into the factor’s mesh-filled eyes for some clue of its intent, however with the solar behind it, its eyes seemed to be darkish empty pits, bored into the factor’s ridiculously bulbous cranium. The darkness there was deep and impenetrable.
Once more, I heard that dreadful wheezing emanating from inside its masks. Up shut, the factor’s mesh eyelets gave vent to an terrible miasma because the damp fetor contained in the go well with bellowed out. Earlier than I totally realized what was occurring, the factor reached down and forcibly took my hand, shaking it vigorously. These patrons who had gathered round us chuckled on the gesture. Totally surprised, I discovered Mortimer’s handshake jarring and none too light, however I used to be decided to not broadcast my unease. In any case, what number of youngsters may say that they met Mortimer the Maus — a lot much less shook his hand?
Nonetheless holding my hand, the caricature straightened, swaying barely as if the person inside was drunk. Its tender padded glove appeared to squish underneath my grip and I tentatively tried to tug away. Once more, the determine glanced down at me, tilting its head comically in bewilderment — however, I think that I used to be the one one who heard its exasperated huff. A brand new extra pressing sort of alarm pricked at my consciousness, displacing my pleasure. Regardless of weeks of anticipation of visiting the park, I immediately needed to be house, far-off from the noise and the rides and the folks… and particularly far-off from Mortimer the Maus. Involuntarily, I pulled away, however the factor’s grip held me quick. Beneath the thick padded gloves, I felt one thing that couldn’t probably be fingers writhe and squirm.
And tighten.
Panicked, I wrenched my hand freed from the factor’s grasp. So forceful was my effort, that I fell backward into the throng of people that had gathered across the two of us. A number of of the patrons tittered nervously, and I discovered myself being picked up and dismissed by a stranger standing behind me. “There, there…” the person behind me mentioned. “There’s nothing to be afraid of, son.” He chuckled. “Morty simply desires to be buddies — proper, Morty?” The factor within the large rat costume nodded vigorously. Sensing my hesitation, it crouched stiffly onto one knee, its arms open large. As one, the group round us “awwwed.” The stranger pushed me gently into the factor’s ready arms. I keep in mind him vaguely saying: “There now! That isn’t so dangerous, is it?” A number of the crowd applauded then, their cameras clicking and flashing round me.
Contained in the go well with, one thing dreadful gurgled.
Misplaced, overcome by pleasure and by unease, confused by the stranger’s reassurances, I took the creature’s hand as soon as once more. You would possibly say that I used to be naive, however I used to be a toddler! On reflection, I imagine that I used to be in a state of shock at that second. There, alone on the sidewalk, it immediately occurred to me that Mortimer — this specific Mortimer — had been despatched out into the park to search out me — to search out me and return me to my father. Sure, that needed to be the reason! In any case, there was each indication that Mortimer, this Mortimer was no skilled performer — no! Judging by what I had seen, it appeared extra seemingly that this was merely a low-level park worker, a rent-a-cop rapidly disguised because the well-known cartoon mouse. The park administration would understand that sending a uniformed escort out to get me would solely serve to frighten me, and they also had despatched somebody (one thing?) extra acquainted: a poor scorching man wearing a third-rate rat go well with.
Sure… all of it made excellent sense, as most issues in youngsters’s minds do.
And so, hand-in-hand, the 2 of us ambled down the walkway, by means of the sweaty throngs, and towards a cluster of carnival video games and busker stalls. There, the multitudes gathered en masse, their voices struggling to compete with the barkers and bells; the whistling chimes and buzzers; the screams of the patrons as they competed in video games they might by no means win. Mortimer pushed his manner by means of the crowds, with me stumbling in his wake. So intent have been the carnival goers that nobody appeared to note the large costumed rat plowing by means of their midst’s, a lot much less one with a small baby in tow.
Individually, I used to be oblivious to the hazard that I used to be in. My earlier unease had been practically forgotten within the deluge of the group — misplaced amidst the press of our bodies, the gaudy video games and the flashing lights. Nonetheless, I discovered it unsettling when Mortimer pulled me out of the group, lurching between the stalls and into an deserted alleyway. Once more, I felt the creature’s clench tighten, one thing sinewy and moist shifting beneath the glove. On the time, it struck me odd that he would try this. I wasn’t going to attempt to run away anymore… didn’t Mortimer understand that? I imply, what kind of fool runs away from their rescuer?
Faraway from the crowds, it turned more and more tough to maintain tempo with the creature. Each loping stride that Mortimer made, required 4 from me. My gasps for breath and weary entreaties for Mortimer to decelerate have been ignored as we navigated the seemingly countless back-alley mazes of deserted carnival kiosks and shuttered stalls. The din of the group grew ever extra distant, a susurrus of carnival noise, vague, punctuated solely the occasional distant bell. I rapidly misplaced monitor of our route by means of twisting alleyways and cluttered backlots, solely vaguely conscious of the components of damaged rides which lay scattered about, choking the narrowing path as we ventured deeper into the park’s scrap yards. Some weary and breathless a part of me concluded that this was seemingly some type of brief reduce — one thing that the person pretending to be Mortimer utilized to keep away from the dense and apathetic crowds.
Rounding a nook, the creature staggered to a halt exterior a weathered plywood construction, its floor cracked and peeling. Mortimer the Maus swayed for a second, and from contained in the go well with, I may hear tendons shifting over bone because it rolled its shoulders. Did I hear the creature sigh or gasp because it did so — it’s laborious to say. All I keep in mind now’s the stench that appeared to percolate from it, stronger and extra pungent right here amidst the forgotten byways of the park. What I initially mistook for a wall was actually, merely a big plywood sheet. This the creature hefted apart, revealing a darkish and ragged cavity within the facade behind it.
It seemed as if one thing had clawed or chewed its manner by means of the heavy chipboard. The tooth-marked edges have been stained a boring and muddy crimson.
Earlier than I may draw back, Mortimer huffed and shoved me inside. I stumbled over the jagged particles falling face first onto the sticky floor. One thing jagged and sharp jutted out from the murky darkness, mere inches from my face. By means of my sudden tears, I acknowledged it as a bone. A leg bone, judging by the gore-stained sandal connected to the opposite finish.
I struggled to rise up, however Mortimer’s heavy rubber sole discovered the again of my neck. With my face pressed onto the asphalt, I listened as he lifted the plywood sheet again into place. Right here, on the bottom, the stench was a lot worse. The crumbling asphalt was stained with sticky swimming pools of vomit or excrement, I couldn’t instantly distinguish which. Flies and maggots swarmed over moldy piles of ragged clothes. The empty socket of a kid’s cranium stared crookedly out of the dank and writhing darkish. I believe I screamed then, however my cries have been reduce off by Mortimer’s thickly padded glove.
The creature hoisted me up by the top, lifting me bodily off the bottom, its filthy glove pressed over my mouth. The latex tasted foul and artificial. Dangling there, I struggled to free myself, kicking and squirming, however Mortimer the Maus held me quick. The factor appeared to be inspecting me, tilting its bulbous head to-and-fro as I struggled. Certainly one of my kicks related with its ribs, leading to a dreadful moist crunch. The creature bellowed in alarm and threw me throughout the small room. The impression with the rear wall knocked the breath from my lungs, and I landed laborious on my fingers and knees, dealing with the creature.
The factor within the rat go well with gurgled menacingly.
Black sparks danced across the periphery of my imaginative and prescient and the room appeared to pitch and swivel. As I struggled to catch my breath, I gazed in horror on the spectacle round me. Suspended from the partitions and hanging from the rafters dangled the corpses of a least a half-dozen youngsters, every tightly wrapped — cocooned it appeared — in an internet of thick sinuous bands. Decaying limbs jutted lifeless from some, dripping corruption onto the fetid floor. A number of the bundles had sprouted lengthy spindly stalks of blue grey fungus, which culminated in black bulbous sporangia. These swayed ever so barely within the nonetheless and humid air.
To my mounting horror, I noticed one swathed bundle twitch. Once more, I needed to scream, however my lungs wouldn’t fill with air.
As soon as extra, Mortimer appeared to roll his shoulders. The sickening crack of bones shifting and snapping into place crammed the tiny room. The factor lifted its gloved hand once more, and shook its finger at me in an oddly inhuman manner. Then, it tilted its head ahead, its comically gloved mitts lifting the masks away.
It’s tough to explain the face beneath. It had as soon as been human, in fact… however trying into its eyes, I may see that its humanity was gone. It had been totally subsumed — reworked into one thing else. The creature’s head had cut up open, from crown to nostril, roughly down the middle. Erupting from its gaping cranium bulged a tangle of bluish-black roots, every culminating in the identical satiny black bulbs that fruited from the our bodies suspended round me. The creature’s clouded eyes regarded me, crimson rimmed and the colour of pus. Its mouth hung open, slack jawed and gaping, its mottled grey lips stretched and ragged. A blackened tongue slid slowly over its brown and rotting tooth. A horrifying chuckle emanated from it — a deep wretched gurgle. I gaped in dread because it reached as much as finger one of many ripened sporangia on its head. It burst open on the creature’s prodding, disgorging a viscous torrent of blackened pus and grayish spores. The fetid discharge sloughed down the creature’s face and over its gloved hand.
It took a step towards me then, however my physique was already in movement. A terror in contrast to something I had ever recognized propelled me squarely into the factor’s legs. I hit the creature laborious and low, proper under its knees. It staggered backward, tripping over its outsized rubber sneakers. I rebounded from the impression, and located myself on my again, the identical jagged leg bone I had seen earlier now jutting beside my shoulder. I yanked the bone free from the pile of maggoty stays. A swarm of flies burst from the pile, clouding the small shack. I rolled over and slammed the bone into the factor’s ankle with all of the energy my tiny physique may muster. My makeshift spear encountered little resistance previous the felt padding and sunk deep into the factor’s foot.
The creature fell backward, howling in ache. I crawled previous it because it writhed, tangled now within the thickly-padded rat go well with. As I fumbled on the board that hid the doorway, I may hear it pull the bone free from its wound and its infuriated wails because it struggled to face. Determined, I squeezed by means of the hole within the particle board wall, my shirt shredding on the ragged edges. I may nonetheless hear its gnashing tooth because it pawed alongside the crumbling wall behind me.
And, I can nonetheless really feel its dreadful contact simply as I broke free. Its sticky and filthy hand brushing the again of my neck.
I don’t understand how lengthy I ran, however I fled till my coronary heart felt as if it will burst from my tiny chest. Ultimately, my terror may carry me no additional and my spent legs collapsed. I vaguely recall an alarmed cry and a crowd that gathered over me like a pall. Then a hazy darkness the place not even desires of an enormous rat may intrude.
I awoke within the park’s infirmary, inconsolable and insensate, shuddering and wrapped in one of many park’s gaily-patterned blankets: Mortimer the Maus, emblazoned throughout the tangled, sweat-soaked sheets.
This story was beforehand revealed within the writer’s anthology Corpse Honey: A Banquet of Ugly Tales 2020.
Edited by Marie Ginga
Michael Picco has acquired quite a few accolades for his model of “literary” horror. Michael’s work has been described as “eloquently-written terror” and explores “the darkish and disturbing recesses of what’s attainable.”
Michael acquired his B.A. in English from Western State Faculty in Colorado. He’s a member of the Denver Horror Collective, and the Colorado Impartial Publishers Affiliation. His most up-to-date publishing credit score, “The Horse Leech Has Two Maws” seems in The Jewish Ebook of Horror. He’s presently engaged on “These Wretched Bones” — a revision and enlargement of a few of his hottest revealed work. You’ll find out extra about him by visiting Michael Picco.
