The Perplexing Case Regarding Fred Meadows

In the police report on the Fred Meadows case it will state that he is dead and the means of which and the corporate are both unknown. I’m am frankly pleased by this either to think he is dead or that the horror of the culprit would be forever unknown for the better of the people and their quietness of their minds.

I was in the pud on a arid Tuesday night near the end of June having three drinks already and starting to feel a bit tipsy. I happened to glance at the T.V. that is always in the corner of a store but are always too quiet to hear a thing, I looked at the screen for a couple more minutes because of the little I had to do at the time. As a tried to lip read the newscaster on the screen Breaking News flashed before my eyes. I motioned to the bartender who I told to turn up the T.V.’s volume.

“The Body of Fred Meadows, who had been missing for the past 4 days. The police have not disclosed the cause or the extent of his injures. His corpse was found on 5941 Verry Lane. We don’t know where the body was found or how it was found. We will continue to provide updates as we get them from the police office.”

The silence that fell upon the bar after the news broadcast was slowly broken by the murmurs of the people about Fred Meadows.

Fred Meadows was a tall, slim, and pale man in his mid twenties and always seemed to smell vaguely of animals or the zoo. He had been a “friend” of mine for many years though I think friend is the right word. Acquaintance seems more accurate than friend. We meet in college, we were roommates, but we talked little for a semester and a half till I tried to communicate with him more thought I can’t pinpoint a reason for me doing so. In short we came to become closer than silent roommates thought that wasn’t that big of a challenge. He would have snakes and hamsters in his room thought he explained this because he took a biology major and used them in his personal experiments. He would also tend to take a snake with him every now and then but you wouldn't noticed till it started hissing. One of the big steps toward our, “friendship” was on his birthday in the second semester of the school year when I gave him a peculiar stopwatch that I found in an antiquate store in my hometown of Northwick. It was blue with a golden snake on it with furry hind legs. Cause of his efinity with genetics and that sort I thought he would like and he very much did. Before I came to know him better I avoided him do to his peculiar nature.  He liked genetics thought you probably knew that since he had a biology major. He would often talk about genetics or surgery to put animals together like having a dog with two heads as the Russians did during the Soviet Union. He also seemed interested in making creatures from only D.N.A. like a clone. Thought this clones where not always intended to be human from what he said. In his later years about three years after college we had little communication. It may have been me not longing to speak with him entirely, but of the few times during the year when I could find comfort in an old friend it was hard to find him. There was falling out between us during those years.

“Breaking News, we bring you an update on the Fred Meadows case. His body was found in the chimney of a house on 5941 Verry Lane. The corpse was mutilated thought the police still have not released the extent of these injuries. His body was found when the family living in the house started a fire and when the smoke started to flow back into the house the father, whose name will still do not know, tried to clear the body and called the police after his horrifying discovery. As the story progresses we will update you on the case.”

As before the room’s silence was slowly broken by the murmurs of the people. I motioned to the bartender to get another drink while the silence was still fresh.

Fred had always been conferrable and talked more openly to people he knew but to get to this status often took months or years to do. During the three years with limited contact after college he seemed, tense. Of the four times that I did speak with him he seemed on edge, intermittently looking behind him and speaking quickly to try, in my mind at least, to escape this conversation. When I drought up the genetic experiments that he so loved he seemed to be started and quickly changed the subject.

As I finished my drink I rested my head apon the wooden counter. Out of the corner of my eye I spoted a peculiar blue stopwatch and after getting a better lock it was shown to have a golden snake with furry hind legs on the cover. I manage to stand on my feet thought the beer didn’t make it easy. I stumbled toward the figure sitting at the table with the stopwatch on it. It was a thing with a moldy black cloak with mismatch patches and rips and tear all across it. I was now ten feet away from the cloaked figure. I was starting to get wimps of the zoo and maybe a slight hissing thought I was thoroughly drunk. I was now only five feet away and the smell was like a zoo and the hissing was undefinable. I was now one foot away from the figure and the stench was pungent and the hissing was defining in its intensity.

I walked back to the bar counter to get a drink for I am not ready to see what horrors Fred had made, or the, friend, that had committed an atrocity on nature.

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[Reonicles]

This is a question that is proposed in the story if you think that Fred is the cloaked figure or a horrible abomination is it. This is up to you to decide.