Pizza Delivery

A year ago, I decided I wanted to try working at this pizza place.

I was a young fox at the time, young and foolish and untalented. I think I was in my senior year of high school, or maybe in college. Who knows. So I worked at the place for a while, several months, and I had gotten quite comfortable there. Come there daily at 6:00 am, work until about 12:00 pm, then get a bite to eat and work again until 4:00.

But one day, my boss asked me to do a favor for him.

He said that the guy who was supposed to work during the nighttime to deliver late-night pizza was home with a really bad fever, and that I would have to take over. He said it was just for a day, because the fever was slightly starting to clear up. I accepted. It wouldn't do much, I'd just have to stay up a bit later doing some extra work. Not a big deal.

My first delivery job that night was taking a pizza to an address pretty far away from both my house and anywhere I'd ever been before. I didn't think much of it. I got in my bright red car and drove to the address. I left the highway and was immediately plunged into a very dark, remote area, with a gravel road and trees surrounding me. I didn't mind. Being a fox, I enjoyed forests. No big deal.

Then I got to the house.

The house looked like something out of a horror movie. It looked old, there were no lights on, and I couldn't see a car anywhere. There was nowhere to park, and no one was anywhere near this place except the people living in the house, so I decided to just park my car in the middle of the road. I opened the door and got out with the pizza. It felt heavier than before, almost as if the weight was slowing me down.

As I got near the house, I smelt something that made my nose wrinkle. I looked on the ground and saw a huge dead rat lying there, with flies and other things wriggling on it. It was half eaten, and you could see it's insides. I felt sick, but I had to do my job. I went up on the porch, holding my stomach, and I pressed the doorbell. An extremely loud ringing sound pierced my ears, and I almost dropped the pizza box. The noise echoed through the woods. I waited about 30 seconds, and no one came to the door. "Hello?" I asked. I knocked on the door. There were two wide windows next to the door, one on either side. Curtains draped over one, but the other one wasn't covered. I couldn't see anything because none of the lights were on inside, and it was pitch black in there. I walked up to the window and tied to look inside. "Excuse me," I said to nobody. "I have your pizza."

The lights came on.

I was startled for the second time that night, jumping a little as leaves crunched under my feet. I saw someone standing in the doorway. They were a fox, like me, except... off.

The normally bright colors of their fur seemed to have been graying over time, and their eyes were unnaturally wide. They looked a little tired. A stream of drool came from their mouth. At this point, I was a little scared. This place was creepy, and I was regretting this job already. "Hey," I said, shaking. "I-I have your pizza."

I considered dropping the stupid pizza and running for my life.

The fox, who seemed to be female, looked into my eyes, but she didn't respond. "Hello," I said. I decided to repeat myself. "I have y-your pizza." The fox's eyes widened, and you could see veins at the edges of them.

A wide, toothy smile spread across her face.

The fox rushed forward and slammed her paws against the window, staring at me. Her eyes were like lasers. I screamed in terror and dropping the pizza. I turned around and sprinted towards my car, away from the creepy house and the creepy smiling fox. When I got to my car, I stopped for air, and I noticed something that made my heart nearly stop.

My tires had been ripped to shreds, torn by some terrible force as if it knew I would be here. It would be impossible to move the car by trying to drive, and I clearly wouldn't be getting anywhere by running.

I jumped into my car and slammed the door, locking at as fast as I could with my hands trembling. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. I looked in all directions, then bent down and grabbed my phone. I quickly dialed 911. "911, what is your emergency?"

I told them everything.

"Alright honey, it's going to be okay. Just stay in the car and keep the doors locked." "Should I stay here, or try to run?" "Stay there, they can't get you if your doors are locked." "But what if they break the gla-"

The phone went silent.

I was panting, my eyes wild as I looked through all my windows frantically, making sure that fox wasn't coming after me.

I froze as I looked at the rear view window.

She was standing there, very calmly. She wasn't moving. I think she knew that I could see her. She stared at me with her wide eyes as her pupils vibrated in her skull. She was still grinning madly. To my horror, the grin spread and spread until it reached the sides of her face. She waved once, then put her paw down.

And then she opened her mouth.

Her face seemed to turn inside out, revealing a black hole that seemed to swallow everything. My ears were filled with a terrible sound that seemed to drown out all my other senses, even sight. But I did see a little, and what I saw terrified me. She had rows and rows of pointy teeth, reaching all the way down to her throat. Her tongue was long and black and shriveled up. Her pointed nose was barely visible.

I tried to scream, but no words came out.

I opened my car door, and I ran.

I ran as fast as I could into the deepest depths of the forest, where not even a demon like that fox could find me. I found a hole in a tree, most likely made by a woodpecker. I climbing inside and hid under the leaves. I cried that night. I cried for a long, long time. I cried until I saw flashing lights and I heard sirens. I cried until I got out of the tree and I ran again. I cried while the police looked inside the house. I cried when they took me into their car so I could go home. And when I got home, I cried until I got to sleep.

The next morning, a ringing sound woke me up. It was the police.

They had replaced my tires on the car, but they said that they never found that fox that I told them about. That unsettled me, but I doubted the fox would find me. I went to my mother's house and told her what happened. She told me that it wouldn't happen again, it was just some sort of terrible spirit that just chose me as it's victim, and that it would move on. I drank some hot chocolate and played some monopoly with my little sister, then went to bed.

I never ate pizza again, because it always made me think of the dead rat and the demon fox.

And the fact that they never caught her.