THE (S)ilence (O)f (F)allen (A)ngels

Darkness was falling outside the windows as the wide-screen television chimed with a breaking news announcement. A woman with firm lips and a purple business suit began speaking with great urgency. “Another child has gone missing tonight and authorities are fearing the worst. Ten year old Gene Wolske was last seen playing…” The television crackled as the tall man entered the living room and switched the power off with his remote control in hand. He turned around to face another ten year old boy, Jason Casteel.
Jason had more boyish charm than most boys his age and he was able to bring laughter to those who needed it the most. He had the ability to walk into a room and use his charisma to woe everyone around him. The nurses at St Jude’s Children’s Hospital nicknamed him “Angel” for his ability to lift spirits. A muscular disease had left him bound to a wheelchair but his strong arms made up for his weakened legs. Jason had a determination to do everything that other boys lacking a handicap could do. His eyes told the story of his ability to strive while his smile penetrated the souls of even the coldest of hearts.
Jason’s blue eyes looked up towards the tall man who now stood in front of the aging television set. The tall man returned Jason’s stare by approaching him and lifting the fragile looking boy out of his wheelchair and placing him on a small leather and swayed sofa that was covered with brown checkered pillows. Jason was uncomfortable and immediately spoke out. “I want to go back to the playground, please take me back! I want to be with my friends!” Jason’s voice echoed with the longing of being back at the school playground. “I promise, I’ll do anything you want if you let me go back!”
The tall man face frowned with sternness as he replied, “Little boy, you will not see the playground tonight. We have other plans.” He left young Jason alone in the darkening room. Jason could hear items being moved around from the area of the house that the tall man had entered. His mind began to create images of flesh being ripped from muscle as what sounded like a blade sliced through the skin of what could have been another victim in this ever darkening house.
Jason tried to scoot himself out of the sofa. He reached out to his wheelchair but he could hear the tall man’s footsteps growing ever closer to him. He quickly was able to grab an item that was tucked underneath his cushioned seat and just has he laid back into the sofa the tall man reentered with a plate in his hands. “I want you to eat this and I want you to eat every bite.” The tall man placed the plate upon the boy’s lap and Jason saw what looked to be chunks of brainy meat piled on his plate.
“I don’t want any of this. I don’t want it!” Jason cried out as his heart began to race in his small chest. “I want to go back to the playground! I want my mommy!”
“Well, your mommy isn’t here and your going to eat every bite or the sofa that you set on will eat you.” The tall man had a hint of glimmer in his eye and a wicked smile.
“What?” Jason looked up in astonishment! “How could this sofa eat me? Sofas don’t eat people! That’s impossible!”
A satisfying grin appeared on the tall man’s face as he sat himself down in front of Jason and he started tot tell the young boy a story of another ten year old boy just like him. “Once there was a boy who refused to eat the food on his plate. He was being a bad little boy and he refused to do anything his parents wanted him to do so he pouted his way out of the kitchen and onto the very sofa that you set upon right now. You see… this little boy was a good kid but he had his days that he threw his tantrums. I guess the sofa was tired of hearing it. For the moment that little boy sat down on that sofa the cushions came to life and began to gobble up the boy. His parents could hear his screams from the other room but by the time they came into the room there was no trace of him. The sofa had eaten him completely and left not one drop. It just so happens that after the boy disappeared; the family moved away and I ended up buying that sofa… which is the sofa that you are now sitting on.”
For a few moments there was silence and then the tall man began a loud laugh that stirred Jason to grab the object he had taken from his wheelchair; and just like he had done to Gene Wolske earlier in the day for not picking him to be on his baseball team, Jason ripped the knife across the tall man’s throat as he watched blood spill over his clothes.
The tall man jerked backwards and fell flat on the floor grasping for a voice that he no longer had. His voice box had been ripped open and nothing, not even his screams could be heard. The look of shock appeared on the tall man’s face as the sound of blood gurgling in his mouth began to drown him. His body went into convulsions as Jason sat on the sofa with the single blade in his hands looking down at the tall man with no ending patience. A smile appeared on his face as the room went completely silent.
Jason pushed himself back into his wheelchair and carefully placed the blade back into his cushioned seat and quietly rolled himself away from the pool of blood that surrounded the tall man’s dead body. He looked back toward the body and smirked, “You should have let me stay at the playground.” He thought of the lame story the tall man told him as he reviewed the bloody mess that engulfed the room. “I wish I had a sofa like the one in your story, but I don’t believe in fairy tales, Daddy.”

Chad's Note: I was in a writing group and we had one hour to write a story about a killer sofa... so this is what I came up with... I twinked it a bit since then but it's something that I thought you would enjoy reading.