The Night Has Teeth

A horror/thriller flash fiction.

The Night Has Teeth

Written by Kenny Porter | www.portercomics.com | 11/25/2024

I watched my next-door neighbors die two days ago. After watching them get torn from their second-floor window and ripped apart by teeth like shards of glass, I couldn’t take it anymore.

I packed what I could carry, and I started walking.

I hadn’t stopped moving through the city since that morning. I couldn’t feel my feet anymore. I’d walked so long that I was sure the sweat in my shoes had turned to blood. But I couldn’t check. The night had swallowed the city again. I couldn’t see anything even if I wanted to. 

The street lights in the neighborhood I walked through had all been smashed. I welcomed the dark. For once, it meant I didn’t have to see what the former humans in my city had done to our pristine little lakeside getaway. The longer the sun was down, the more time I had to move silently among the things that had torn the flesh from my neighbors, friends… and family.

I hadn’t bothered to give them a name. There hadn’t been time. Once they had taken the city, there wasn’t anyone left for me to debate with. It happened slowly, and then, all at once, it was over. The news had said it was all under control. People just had to lock their doors and wait for it to end.

After all, the government would protect them, wouldn’t they?

But then the airports closed. The roads were blocked. And the information just went from a drip to a trickle to a complete stop. There were no meetings about what would be done, just orders. And those orders benefited only the few who could afford to get to safety.

That’s why I watched my neighbors get dragged from their second-story windows. The creatures were only driven by an angry hunger. Pale white terrors with no ears, brains, or eyes—just a mouth of jutting teeth to pull and rend flesh. They were human once. I only knew they were human because I’d seen the change happen.

I saw people I knew for decades get filled with hate for their neighbors. First, the ears go. They can’t hear anything anymore. It doesn't get through no matter how you try to reason with them. Then, the eyes get covered in flesh that grows from their tear ducts—taking away the ability to cry and removing their sight. Finally, the mouth grows. The hunger expands beyond all human knowledge. Soon, the only thing these snarling beasts have left is the need to feed.

I could hear them skittering between the cars. Their overgrown finger and toenails scraped against the pavement. Their bodies rocked the vehicles to see if anyone was inside for them to devour.

Dawn was coming. I would have to keep walking. And while they couldn’t see me, I was sure they still had nostrils somewhere above those rows and rows of teeth. Tiny reptilian slits to sniff out the prey that could still use its eyes, ears, and minds without hunger.

They could smell me. I was sure of it. But even as I slipped between the houses and the yards that used to belong to my neighbors, I knew that they couldn’t see or hear me anymore. Part of me wished I could try to appeal to them, to remind them that they were human once.

But it wouldn’t work. Without ears, eyes, or minds, they could only smell fresh flesh they would consume until their bellies were stuffed and they couldn’t scream any longer.

So I walked…and prayed that there was still someone out there who could hear me.