Slaughterhouse

In the summer of 1997, me, my friends, Mark and Veronica, decided to buy a large building up for sale. We made it into a motel, hoping people would soon rent a room. Nearly every single car that passed by never stopped, not even to say hello. We decided to put more and more decorations up.

Then things went sour. We lost track at the amount of money we spent on the place, and it still looked like a shit hole. We had to sell our houses, and move into the hotel itself. It was hard at first, but we eventually got used to it. Mark slept in the room behind the desk, I slept in the top floor, room 202. and Veronica slept directly under me, in room 102. Every day was long, boring, and dragged on. Except these past few days. The days were different... and despite all the shit that's happened before, I think I can finally say that I'm happy. It started on a Monday, we finally got a nice, quiet man who rented room 107. On Friday. He left on that day, giving a nice "thank you" while walking out the door. "There goes our only paycheck" said Mark. I sadly agreed, and sat back down. When the day was over, I found a red feather on my dresser. It was nice and pretty, so I decided to show Veronica it. I always did fancy her. She told me that she liked it, but wanted me to keep it. After that, we talked for a while, and at one point it sounded like she was gonna say something important, but decided to keep quiet. I probably should have asked what's up.

That night, just about when I was going to descend into dreamland, I hear footsteps. It was one AM, and Veronica and Mark are usually asleep by now. I open up my door, and look out into the hallways. It was dark, but not enough for me to be completely blind. There was nothing, so I shut my door, and went back to bed. I couldn't sleep that night, for whatever reason. The next morning, my dresser was moved in front of the bed, and I saw that there was a fedora sitting on top of it. After getting my glasses on and picking up the hat, I saw that the red feather was stuck in it. I was a bit unnerved, but I figured Mark did this. He was the prankster of our little trio. However, when I asked him he said he didn't do it, and that it was probably Veronica. So I walked over to her room, which took a whopping four steps, I tried opening the door, but something was very unusual. It was locked. The reason this was so odd is because Veronica, ever since getting locked in a dark basement at the age of 9, had a deep phobia of being in a locked room. I jiggled the handle, and nothing happened. I knocked on the door, and nothing happened. I even started banging and yelling (Quietly, of course), but nothing happened.

I was kinda scared at the time, but I passed it off as a bad prank. I went to bed, same as every night, and fell asleep slow and hard, just as usual. The kicker? When I woke up, this time it wasn't because of footsteps. No, I heard someone dragging something. A bat, maybe? Either way, I went out there, nothing but a trail. It looked like someone was cutting the floor. My guess would be an axe, but who knows? I followed the trail, but it anticlimactically ended at the staircase. I started to go to my door, but out of nowhere, I heard three bangs against a wall. From my room. I slowly walk to the door, only me and my footsteps are heard, and I hesitate at first, but quickly open my door, and Veronica's there, just having a blank look on her face. I ask her why she's there, and what's wrong with her. She just continues to stare. I kept wondering what's up, but she started to go back into the hallways and down the stairs. I kept asking her what's wrong, but nothing. At one point, though, she stopped in place, slowly turned around, and just... lunged at me. But before she could even touch me, I black out, and everything was dark. But then, I woke up, and Wednesday was upon us. I ran down the stairs, and violently tried opening Veronica's door, yelling at her to open up. Mark calms me down, and tells me that there's something I want to see. He brings me back to his office, and points to the ceiling, right above his bed. Something was carved in there.

"THREE LITTLE PIGGIES"

This is where things got real confusing... I assumed it was Veronica playing with us, and I tried to convince Mark, but for some reason, he just wouldn't listen. Later, at noon, Mark went out and got some groceries, while I stayed here... alone with Veronica. I waited by her door, waited for something to happen, someone to pop out... well, nobody popped out, but something did happen. About after an hour and a half, strange noises started coming from her room. It sounded like an animal crying or something. Needless to say, it was awful to sit through, but at least now I knew Veronica isn't being Veronica. After the noises are over, she unlocked the door, but didn't come out, she wanted me to come in. I debated for a few seconds, and decided to open the door. She can't hurt me, I'm her best friend. When I open the door, there's another trail, like the one from last night, leading to the blood stained bed. Then I caught a wiff of something foul, and knew that someone died here... and Veronica was nowhere to be found. I checked under the bed, the sheets, bathroom, and I headed for the dresser next, but as soon as I did, I heard bangs coming from said dresser. As I got closer, they started getting more and more aggressive, and when I opened the door, her corpse slipped out, with duck-tape over her bruised and bloody mouth. Her stomach was cut open, and her bowels were on the floor of the inner-dresser. I only notice this now, looking back, though. At the time, I just collapsed onto my knees, tears going down my cheeks, knowing that those screams belonged to Veronica, but time was just slowed down. I knew I wasn't alone. Someone else was here. When Mark came back, he called the police, and they investigated and asked us some questions. One of them said they might have to take me in for more questioning next week. It took them the rest of the day to clean up, so at night, I tried to go to bed, but all I heard was those screams, and all I saw when I closed my eyes was Veronica being tortured and killed by god knows what. In short, I couldn't sleep. I decided to walk around outside for a bit, trying to clear my head but... nobody can clear that stuff. While on the left side of the building, where all the plants and bushes are, I saw the bushes shake a bit. I just thought it was a rabbit, but after losing sight of the shaking bush, I noticed the sound of my footsteps were becoming more 'rapid.' When I stopped, the footsteps were still going, and so I turned around, only to find the already deceased Veronica, in her prom suit, but dirty. She slowly got close to me, wrapped her arms around me, and asked, "Isn't this nice?" I was in shock. This was... this was too much. I couldn't say a word. But it got weirder. After slow dancing a bit, she took off the bandage around her mouth, showing no lips, only large, grisly teeth, and started to literally bite my face off. But I woke up, only realizing that it was just another dream... but how did I manage to go to sleep? And out of all the places, next to Veronica's door? Maybe I was knocked up. Maybe not. I looked at her door, and another carving was put into her door;

"PIGS BELONG IN THE GRINDER"

I was horrified. This wasn't a hotel anymore, this was a mad-house. I had to get out. I ran to my room, going for all the stuff I can pack up for one trip, but something was there. Something that could easily be described as "the biggest piece to the puzzle". A blank white mask, with what looked to be like tears drawn going down it's eyes, and a crudely drawn "scar" going down the right eye. It was also wearing the feather-hat. I whipped out my phone and took a picture of it, so in case I get out of here, it can be used as a memento or something.

So I packed up some clothes, went down stairs to wake up Mark, telling him that we have to go now. He asks why, going on to say he thinks I'm just being paranoid. I insist that I'm not, but he denies it, as usual. Knowing that I can't convince him, I'll just have to leave without him. As soon as I get to my room, I notice something. Outside my window, someone put a mirror in front of the motel's sign. The sign read, "Slaughterhouse." Everything was starting to make sense. I just never knew it. So I turned around, and the mask was gone. I check under my bed, in the drawers, everywhere. I yelled out for Mark, and did so while running down the stairs as well, but as soon as I got to his room, a large man in a sweater and jeans was there, wearing the mask and hat. Mark lied down dead in front of him. He drops his weapon, of which I could not see, and slowly walks towards me. He starts talking in his calm, soothing, quiet voice, without his feet making a sound. He pulled out a picture of Veronica and said "This little piggy was... delicious," and put the picture back in his pocket, then pulled out a picture of Mark and said, "This little piggy... was fowl," and dropped the picture on the ground. When he got to me, he put his hands on my cheeks. I was too petrified to do anything. His hands were hard, dirty, and rough, and he kept rubbing his hands around my face. It kinda hurt. He went on to say, "And this little piggy..." He puts his thumbs on my eyes, "Never saw the light of day again." And that was it, I saw nothing. Felt nothing. Did nothing.

Maybe Veronica faked her death and went insane... maybe it was that polite man in the suit behind the mask. Maybe it was just another psychopath... or maybe psychopathy itself. Yeah... that last one seems about right. Evil, unforgiving, emotionless, madness... all behind one mask.