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Steve Kemp kept driving down the highway after spending the night at a hotel with some nameless whore. Unsatisfied and wanting more than just revenge or good sex. A wave of irritation and fury filled him to the brim as he thought about how hot it was going to get today. A record level high. So when his van started to act up and smoke started to fume out the front, he wasn’t too happy about it. It was only a matter of time before Donna Trenton would come home and report the mess to the police. Kemp’s style was messy, and he didn’t want to wait to see the end of it. He pulled over to the side of the road to let the van cool down for a bit. He’s been meaning to get some new parts for the van for a while, but he never came around to it. He left the air on and started rummaging through his glove box, looking around for something in particular. After a moment of rummaging, he pulled up a notecard with a scribbled address on it. It wasn’t just any address; it was Joe Chamber’s address. A friend of his recommended the guy after a blowout he had a year ago now. Steve has heard some things about him, but nothing that seems out of the ordinary. It wouldn’t hurt to check it out, right? Joe’s place wasn’t far, and no one would expect him to be there, of all places. It would only be a little while anyway, so there was no harm in having someone check on it. The hound would be seen lying out there waiting to greet him with an ugly goodbye.
In the back seat of the roasting pinto lay Tad and Donna Trenton. After the first convulsion, Tad seemed to sleep soundly on his mother’s lap. Donna sat there, cradling her son in her arms as he slept. She could feel the unpleasant tremors that ran through his body. Donna rocked the boy gently, wishing she could hum to him without her throat getting drier than it was already. The heat just seemed to keep coming all around without stopping. With the threat of Cujo coming back to finish them off, there seemed to be no way out of this. Whatever that beast was, it was not the loveable Saint Bernard Tad knew before. It was an unexplainable beast who’d come to tear them both to shreds. The surrounding air was hot and sticky, like hell on earth. All they could do was rest uneasily and pray that today wouldn’t be her son’s last. Just as the woman was about to attempt to sleep again, she heard something. She strained her ear to listen, and she heard a car rolling down the dead-end street. A sparkle of home came. It had to be the mailman. Then again, it could have been anyone, but her excitement came in waves. Help! Someone was coming to help! To help her son, to help her, and especially to help eradicate the dog who kept them trapped in there.
After a while of driving, Steve Kemp’s van pulled into the street and found the Chamber’s house in no time. Steve ends up pulling his car off to the side to park, shutting it off to hear a slight hiss escape the radiator. It was going to be a bitch for Joe to fix, but surely it would be worth it. After the man stuffed his keys in the pocket of his jeans, he got out of his van and headed to the Chamber’s house. He stopped in his tracks when he saw a familiar-looking pinto out there. Just sitting there in the blazing hot sun. Seeing the poor thing made the man’s lip curl up into a smirk. So she was here, after all. If she was dumb enough to cheat on handsome hubby with him, then surely she would do it again if her car was still out there. Kemp couldn’t help but laugh at the thought of it and sauntered back over to his van for a moment. “Some repairman, huh?” he thought to himself. After rummaging through the mess and trash that littered the backseat, he pulled out a screwdriver that he failed to return to Florence a while back. Not like that mattered now. If that pinto was there, so was she. If she was there it could give him the chance to make things worse for her. The sudden urge to give those tires of hers a nice pop would be the thing to satisfy them if not the woman herself. Then again, he also had the urge to take her out of the pinto and finish what they started. There were so many things he wanted to do before he could leave Castle Rock for good. Surely she wouldn’t mind him staying there to taunt her.
Cujo, however, had other plans. When the beast heard the slam of Kemp’s car door, his ears perked up. Slowly creeping out of the barn to see if it was that foolish woman ready to dance with him once more. His lungs heaved for hair as he tried to look and sniff around for the source of the disturbance. A part of the disheveled hound hoped it would be his woman, and his boy coming back for him. Wondering how they would taste or how tearable the skin would feel beneath his teeth. He didn’t want to hurt them, but at the same time, he did. Alas, it wasn’t any of those people, but rather another individual that he’d never seen before. Cujo crept closer, stumbling over just behind the mess of the pinto that Kemp didn’t quite notice yet. To be fair, he was parked a fair distance away from the pinto. Cujo ducked down and watched Kemp come over to him. The whole time, the dog watched him like a predator to unsuspecting prey. The hound couldn’t help but feel curious at first. Who was this man? What’s he doing here, with a strange device he’s seen Joe use many times before? Then that curiosity dwindled and replaced itself with unspoken rage. It was this man. THIS MAN was the one who caused all of his suffering. He needed to be dealt with as soon as possible.
Just as Kemp makes it over to the pinto, he can’t help but notice how beat up it is. The glass was cracked left and right, with dents all over, not to mention the blood. Oh god, all the blood was a sickening sight to see. He’d hate to see the sorry sap it belonged to. Kemp then looked at the pinto again and saw that it looked like it was hit by a deer or a large animal of sorts repeatedly. Surely it wasn’t like that before, right? There was no way she’d be able to drive it like that otherwise. His thoughts of getting more revenge came to a pause as he stopped for a moment. He stopped by the left front tire with the screwdriver in his hand, ready to commit more vandalism. Steve Kemp grew more curious as he decided to look inside through one of the windows. To his surprise, the woman wasn’t whoring around with whoever this Joe Chamber guy was. Rather, she was in the vehicle burning up in there with- wait was that her son in there?
“What the hell…” Kemp muttered to himself.
Without thinking, he gently knocked upon the window with his free hand. The metal was scorching, so he did it quickly to get burnt. Something in his gut told him that something wasn’t right there. Why were they out here and not inside the house or something? How long have they been out here for? What the hell happened to the car and what was keeping them inside with the car shut off? So many questions ran through his mind and so many conflicting thoughts came through as well. Donna looked miserable there, and so did the kid. Maybe, just maybe, he could take advantage of this. A part of him just wanted to stop what he was doing and walk away before things got messy. On the other hand, he could “save” the two and take Donna as soon as the boy was out of the question. To Kemp, the woman was just a mere object to play with to his heart’s content. All those days where she gladly took him and now she didn’t even want to see him like that. Not anymore. With a failing marriage now, he could take her for himself without a second thought.
Donna barely heard the knock from inside in her daze and was confused for a moment. Her vision was hazy as the last bits of moisture poked through like a needle. Donna felt as dry as a desert and as sore as a pedestrian. She could barely open her eyes at the moment, even during her hope for help. She continued to cradle Tad in her arms terrified to let him go into the abyss of death. She wouldn’t allow her boy to die. Not like this. When she managed to open her eyes, she turned her head to look around for a moment. Surely it was the mailman offering them a lift. It could have been anybody out there and yet her eyes landed upon none other than Steve Kemp. That spiked her nerves enough to stay more alert than she already was.
“Hey, Donna!” He called out to her, “Girl! You alright in there?”
The sound of the bastard’s voice rang through Donna’s ears. A part of her wished she were hallucinating or seeing ducks swimming around a pond like her son was. The things she would do to get her son the help he needed. The house was right there, and all she needed to do was wait for the right moment. All she’s been doing for the past few days was waiting in there and looking at where they are now. The two were nothing but sitting ducks in a boiling pond and if they couldn’t get out of there soon, they might as well die there. Then Kemp knocked on the side of the door again, this time louder in case Donna couldn’t hear him. He was starting to get worried that she’d already had a heatstroke, but by some miracle; she hadn’t. The sound of the knocking however stirred Tad a bit, making him open his weary eyes and start to rub them like it was all just a bad dream. He was back in his room where no monsters would get him. Hell, if only that were true.
“Ma…Mommy?” Tad grumbled hoarsely.
Donna didn’t answer her son as he spoke, only shushing and rocking him gently in an attempt to settle him down. She was a bit relieved that he could still speak after the first convulsion. Tad tried to look around for the source of the sound, but she held his head against her chest to keep him from doing so. The fact that the boy was still holding on after all this time made her feel worse about the outcome of this. Someone was out there and it just had to be Kemp. She held back the thought of complaining, but at least somebody came. Somebody was better than nobody. The mother’s hopes to be saved disappeared in an instant when Cujo started growling again. It was a deep, horrendous, nasally growl. Whatever Cujo was, he couldn’t be a dog or any creature on god’s semi-green earth. Cujo was a monster, Tad’s monster. As his mother, Donna needed to protect him from it. She knew what she had to do, and Steven Kemp just so happened to be the perfect sacrifice.
Donna then looked down at her son and whispered to him wearily, “Shut your eyes, baby. Keep them closed for mommy.”
“Why?”
"We're getting out of there, Tadder. Just close your eyes for me and hold onto me. Whatever you do for the love of god. Do not open your eyes until I say so. Do you understand me?"
Tad stared up at his mother with wide eyes as she spoke. He was scared as to what she was going to do, but he had to trust her. It was now or never and surely if he were to survive this, it would be a tale for the ages. With this Tad closed his eyes and held onto his mother as tightly as he could. Kemp was left confused as Donna proceeded to climb into the backseat of the car.
“Donna? What the hell is going on?!”
Kemp’s ears strained as he heard that growling sound again. The sound was ugly, heinous even. He looked around for a moment, gripping the tool in his hand with a death grip. Cujo crept toward the man with a ravenous grin that he had yet to see for himself. The mix of growling and snarling combined kept increasing in volume and became more trained on the strange man. Kemp didn’t concern himself with it yet as he looked at Donna through the window that separated him from getting his hands on her. He knew by now that she would never kill herself or her son just for the sake of doing it. Donna was many things, but destructive was surely not one of them. The way her eyes trained on him and how tightly she held her son reminded him of a mother bear ready to pounce on him for going near her or her kin. Donna wasn’t a monster, merely a person having a hard time figuring out what she wanted out of life. Instead of looking around to see who the growling sound belonged to, he had his attention fixated on Donna. She still ignored him while she did her own thing in the car and left him in the dark. Cujo didn’t stop growling at him, and Kemp started to get more nervous by the second. In an attempt to get her attention, he banged his hand on the side of the car much rougher than the first two times.
“Answer me dammit!”
Anger came amidst the man’s confusion. She had no right to ignore him. He wanted to know what was going on. The idea to open the door came to him, and in an instant, he started to tug on it with all his might. Stubborn as a bull, yet foolish enough to not realize that the door could’ve been jammed or locked. Just like that, he fell for the trap, allowing Cujo to pounce at him. The beast taking the sorry excuse of a man down in a rabid frenzy. Steven Kemp hollered as he felt the large rabid dog on top of him and tried to chomp at him. He tried with all his might to push the Saint Bernard off of him, still holding onto the screwdriver he was going to stab the tires with. Instead, he got the bright idea of trying and going for the hound’s neck. Cujo was faster, unhinging his jaw and hitting down on Kemp’s arm. Forcing Kemp to drop the only saving grace he had to get out of this alive. The man kept thrashing, screaming, and cursing at the rabid animal as Cujo continued to shred every piece of flesh his claws could latch onto. The large hound didn’t let up on his grip, and with a quick erratic movement, he went for Kemp’s leg and tried to drag him away like a parent dragging their misbehaving child out of a grocery store. The rabid dog shook his head rapidly with the flailing limb, his mouth with a bloody snarl as he started dragging him off with him.
“FUCKING HELL!- STOP IT! LET GO- LET GO OF ME YOU PAUNCHY MUTT!”
Cujo ignored the man’s cries and dragged him back to the shed to finish him off. Leaving a trail of crimson in his wake. Donna took the opportunity to force the door open and ran out of the car with Tad in her arms. The boy started to cry again, but he had no tears to shed at the moment. Deep down, Mrs. Trenton knew that using Kemp as a sacrifice was wrong in more ways than one, but she felt a sick sense of satisfaction at the sight of it. She could leave the past behind her now, permanently. Donna ran to the door with all her might. Feeling the wound on her leg reopening as she did so. Thankfully, Cujo was too distracted to notice her running to his man’s house. The scent of metal and gore hit the woman’s nostrils, and all she wanted to do was throw up whatever she had left in her system. But now wasn’t the time to worry about herself. Tad’s life was on the line from this damn heat. No monsters can get her boy inside Joe Chamber’s forgotten home. To Donna’s luck, the front door was unlocked when she burst the door open, so she slammed the door shut and locked herself inside. The house was just as hot, with the heated air conditioner barely holding on. She started to look around the house for anything to cool Tad down. Surely the Chambers wouldn’t mind the intrusion. She found the bathroom and placed Tad down next to it. She found a clean washrag and turned on the cold water to soak it in. Once it was soaked, Donna padded the washrag gently across Tad’s forehead, neck, and cheeks. It took Tad a few dabs of the cold rag for him to come to. The moisture from the rag seemed to surprise him a bit. He didn’t remember returning home. The ducks, Cujo, the pinto…
Tad sat up quickly in an instant and leaned over the tub, almost falling into it as he soaked his face in through the running water. Gulping every morsel that his dry throat could take until it ran up his nose, nearly choking him again. Donna attended to steady him, but he pushed her back weakly. Nothing else mattered now. The rabid dog, the lunchbox, the decaying illusion of ducks. Not even Steve Kemp’s gargled cries and curses mattered. All that mattered was his thirst for water and how good the moisture felt on his skin. He ignored everything else with the thought of water in his mind. Something that he would cherish for the rest of his life.
“Slow down, Tad! Take it easy!” Donna says, pulling him back slightly, “You need to breathe too, baby.”
The boy protested against her and whined, not wanting to be separated from his source of life. Donna knew that her son needed to go to the hospital, and fast. As much as she wanted to relish their victory, they weren’t done yet. By then, Kemp’s screams were met with the song of silence. There wasn’t much time left, and it was only a matter of time before Cujo could realize that the two were no longer in their searing prison. So, with this in mind, Donna let her son go after rubbing his back and stood up.
“Stay here, Tad. I’ll be right back.”
Tad looked back over at his mother and latched onto her arm with his wet hands. Despite being in the comfort of the indoors, the boy was still scared. What if he did return? What if he was just waiting outside of that door for his mom to come out? The monster could be anywhere. Watching, waiting, something other than crunching Kemp’s bones between his teeth? He knew that the monster wouldn’t stop until he had what he wanted. He didn’t want his mother to be a victim of whatever Cujo had planned for her.
“But! But the monster!”
Donna snapped at him, growling unexpectedly, “Enough about the monster he can’t get us in here, now can he? I’m going to call for help, stay here where it’s safe. I love you, very much.”
With a light tug, she pulled herself away from Tad and kissed him on the forehead with her dry lips. It didn’t bring much comfort to him, but at least he didn’t move to follow her. Donna stumbled out of the Chamber’s bathroom and pressed the washrag against the bite wound she obtained. Limping around the place for a few minutes before finding where their phone was. She took a glance out of the window and saw no signs of Cujo anywhere. Allowing herself to lean on herself against the wall so she could call the authorities. The phone rang and rang before someone finally answered. With matted breath, Donna desperately explained what kind of situation they were in and to send help over. Her voice was broken and wavered as if trying to choke back evaporated tears. Regretting everything she’s done up until this point. For not being a faithful wife, a better mother, confessing everything to the operator on the other line like she would at church. Then she started to feel more breathless as the weight of the heat lay over her. She was tired, very tired. Then Donna’s line cut off unexpectedly, leaving the operator with more questions than answers.
“Mrs. Trenton…? Mrs. Trenton? Hello?”
The song of silence rang again and when the silence came, the woman was found deader than a dried fish dead from heatstroke. While Tad was found unconscious soaking himself fully clothed in the bathtub. However, Cujo was found and put down on sight. When Vic and Tad were able to see each other again, they mourned the life of Donna Trenton and stayed in Castle Rock for another month or so before moving back to New York to avoid the tragedies that overcame the place. There the monster in the closet remains in their old home, waiting for the next little boy or girl to come by to feed on their fear and many more.
CasketsNearU Fri 18 Oct 2024 03:05AM UTC
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