MR. STROMOTO

I strongly hope

that you listen to your mother's teachings.

Don’t follow strangers.

Don’t enter white vans.

Don’t take sweets from strangers

especially on halloween.

Little kids don’t always listen to their mothers

and that is the last mistake they will make.

~ The old man under the bridge

“What is that?” I heard my little brother asking. He turned around and stared at me. Well the bloody hockey mask on his head covered his head completely but still I felt his stare.

“Do you think that I have X-Ray vision?” I asked back, somewhat upset. “Little kids with their weirdness,” I thought and said, “Just give me that piece of paper- alright?”

My brother still stared at me and then gave me an old piece of paper. A tiny spider tried to crawl my arm up but I just flattened it. Little white eggs and green blood remained on the paper.

“Is that a poem? If yes, that is the worst writing I’ve ever seen…” I said with a grin.

“Turn it around, brother, there …” he said and tapped on the back.

“Well, well…I see it,” I answered and turned it around.

This is the property of Mr. Stromoto

“See, Mr. Stromoto? Isn't’ he the weird old man in the house there at the end of the street?” my brother said and pointed towards an old, abandoned looking house.

In all honestly, it was halloween and his decoration was on point. Spiderwebs, some ancient candlesticks and even some skulls. The probably old, weird and strange man clearly had invested quite a bit into today.

“So, should we bring it to him? I mean we could get more sweets....” my brother then said and stared at me with, probably, wide puppy eyes.

“Alright, we bring it to him, but you give it to him since it was your idea,” I replied with a smile.

“Are you still a little coward?”

“That is something when it comes from you, you scary dwarf hockey player.”

“Yes, yes. Mr. Crazy Prof….okey okey, no reason to look at me with your scary eyes.”

“So, if we have solved that, let us go to that house.”

In all honesty, I just wanted to go home. We lived in some crazy city and the mental alyssum did not help that much. Almost every single street had potholes or was already mud.

Our steps sounded like some old man drinking a cup of tea while losing all of his teeth. It was unpleasant....

My brother just stared at me with an evil smile. He clearly had something planned.

We finally arrived in front of the house, a black, cracked door greeted me and I swear it looked like a smiling witch, The doorknob was the nose while the cat door was the mouth...the eyes one may ask….well the door had some big holes.

“Do you really think that someone lives here?”

“Yes, yes. One of my classmates knows that guy here from last year. He is a little bit weird but only a little bit,” he said while his eyes darted from left to right.

I looked at him with suspicion and then rang the doorbell. Nothing happened and I then knocked at the door.

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“It is open,” I heard a voice, marred by smoking and alcohol, “The sweets are on the commode.”

“While we are here for the sweets, we also found a poem with your name on it. Should we put it on the commode?”

I heard no answer and just decided to leave...we had enough sweets and entering this crazy house was not really my wish. My brother poked into my back and urged me to enter.

“Are you a coooooward?” I heard him whispering into my ears.

“I am not a coward...okay you found the poem...you give it to the old man and I take the sweets. Aright?”

“Mhmmm...let me think...if you give me more than half of the sweets?”

“Okay….I will do that.”

And so we opened the door. It was even darker in the house than it had been outside. Our eyes slowly accustomed to the darkness and I was finally able to see something.

There were strains of a red liquid on the ground, probably tomato ketchup. A skeleton just randomly laird there in the floor and some shoes with teeth, human teeth, randomly laid in the entrance.

Well, clearly a bit overkill but, still, it is halloween. And so I ignored that. I saw the commode at the end of the floor and walked towards it. The wood creaked under my shoes but luckily nothing happened.

“Mr. Stramato. Where are you?” I heard my brother asking.

“I am in the living room, can you bring me the poem?” the old man finally replied.

“Yes, I am on my way,” I heard my brother saying and suddenly a weird screeching resounded through the house.

I turned around and my brother was gone...he probably had found some weird way to walk through walls...or he had been swallowed up by the earth.

…

“He probably ran out of the door when I was not looking,” I thought and began to grab the sweets. One after another entered my plastic bag and it got heavier and heavier.

“Wait what?,” I thought and heard the ground dangerously creaking.

I looked down and was a giant crack running through the wooden floorboards...and then I feel.

I hit a concrete ground and the air got pressed out of my lungs. I felt terrible and tried to get up but something was grabbing my left foot. I kicked it with my right food and heard something screeching. The grip around my foot loosened and I was able to see the thing that was holding my foot.

It was a root...probably from some old tree or something like that. My gaze wandered left and right and I saw a torch on the wall...who would use a torch in a wooden house?

Thus I searched for me smartphone in my pocket but I noticed that it was gone…

“So I guess I will use the torch…,” I thought and walked towards the wall.

I then saw it, somehow my smartphone was on the ground and running away. I bend forward and grabbed it only to see small human like creatures clinging to the phone.

They looked at me and screamed...I screamed back…

...

I finally had calmed down and just stared at the little humans.

“So what are you guys?” I asked and got no answer, “Answer me or I will flatten you….”

“We are the tooth fairies and help Mr. Stromoto to fulfill his duty.”

“What...alright...so you are the tooth fairies. Do you happen to know the way out?”

“No, but we can bring you to Mr. Stromoto.”

“Alright, so...how do we get there?”

“With magic,” the replied proudly.

“What?” I wanted to ask and my view darkened.

“Little midgets, what have you done?” I cursed but no sound left my mouth. I opened my eyes and noticed that I was sitting in a chair. A handful of belts pressed me against the chair and I saw a shadow in the corner.

“So little child. I heard that you have caries?”

“No, no! Everything is alright. So can you leave me out?” I replied and saw the shadow approaching.

An old man finally appeared in sight and I just stared at him with disbelief...this man there was one of the lost patients. A former dentist that had gone insane and was on a killing spree. At least if I could trust my mother…

“So, little kid. We can do that the hard way or the harder way. What is your choice?” he said and his eyes darted in random patterns.

“Preferably the easy way,” I replied with a cheesy grin. If my brother had left the house the police would arrive here sooner or later.

“There is no such thing...you have chosen the hardest way. Suffering...torment...pain...darkness....” I heard him mumbling and a jackhammer appeared in his hands.

“It will only hurt for a bit,” he then said and the jackhammer started, “Now open your mouth...or I will hurt you.”

I closed my mouth…

“What a naughty child. My little friends can you help me?” Mr. Stromoto said and the little humans appeared again.

They slowly walked towards me and flew towards my head. A few them landed near my mouth and tiny hands grabbed my lips. The began to tear and tear but I fought against it. However, it was in vain, I felt blood running down my lips and opened my mouth. At least I would still have my mouth…

“Ah, you are so cooperative...so where was I? Ah, yes the hard wa….” he said and stopped.

One of the tiny humans had whispered something into his ear and he just looked at me with confusion…

“So, this is awkward...I am going to use the easy way,” he said and tapped on my head. I began to feel a terrible headache and looked at him with tears.

“What have you done?” I asked but nothing left my mouth.

“You will see,” he replied, he somehow knew what I had asked, “You will see.”

A misty fog obscured my view and Mr. Stromoto vanished.

I was alone in the darkness.

…

Minutes later I heard someone running the stairs down and saw my brother staring at me and then the chair.

“So what happened?”

“This Mr. Stromoto just strapped me on this chair and wanted to use a jackhammer to fix my caries.”

“As if…”

“Don’t you see the jackhammer there on the ground?” I said and looked at the ground. There I could still see the jackhammer.

“No…”

“And the belts that are chaining me?”

“No…”

“And the little fairies….”

“No…” he said and then pulled something out of his jacket. A black box with a red button.

Wait my brother did not own a smartphone or whatever that thing was.

“Who are you?” I asked, suspicion in my voice.

“Mr. Stromoto...you are in a mental asylum and I am your guardian. In all honesty, it was a pain in the ass to get you back here…”

“But...I am not Mr. Stromoto.”

“Again? Take this,” my brother said and showed me a mirror.

I stared into it and saw my face...no it was the face of Mr. Stromoto. I looked up and saw a bald man in a white coat looking at me.

“Another one bites the dust,” he said and laughed.

“Wait, but,” I said and he did not answer.

He just left the room and I stared at the white walls while wearing a white straightjacket.

Only confusion remained.