The Crack User That Never Returned
by Matthew Magee

It was late and raining.

Mr. Barnes was driving down Vermont. It was 1:30 a.m. and he had been shooting up in his car.

As usual, he was heading to a crack house. The streets were wet and slippery. That day he had pissed off one of his students, the new kid. This kid was strange. He would just sit there and stare. No matter what Mr. Barnes or the other teachers did, he just sat there looking around strangely.

Last night Mr. Barnes had found a dead rat in his refrigerator. It had been chewed with retarded looking teethmarks.

Mr. Barnes was thinking about the strange rat in the refrigerator. The rain continued. Suddenly, in front of him, he saw the strange new kid!

There he was. He had that funny-looking head shaped like a egg. His nose was like a hook. His teeth looked slanted like the front end of a diesel train. There were white splotches on his face. Blood was oozing from the splotches. He was stumbling like a bum on the street. He didn't say anything. He never says anything.

He just appeared, then vanished! But before he disappeared, Mr. Barnes saw the same dead rat in his mouth.

There was a sound behind Mr. Barnes, in the back seat. Mr. Barnes turned around to look.

There was the strange kid. The kid threw the bloody rat on Mr. Barnes' face. The rat crapped in his eyes and ate them out, then just looked at him and smiled. He vanished and was never ever seen again.

PS. Mr. Barnes never made it to the crack house.