“MY FIRST PET” by Fionna Cosgrove #MicroTerrors

When a lonely kid finds a strange creature in a graveyard, bringing it home seems like a dream come true, until...

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Welcome to micro Terrors, scary stories for kids where it's
always the spooky season, full of chills, thrills, and spine
tingling spooks. Micro Terrors are family friendly frights for those

(00:37):
ages eight and up, and while our stories are for
younger years, we are still talking about things that go
bump in the night, and some children may not be
able to handle what others can. Parental consent is recommended
now for tonights micro Terror.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
My First Pet by Fiona Cosgrove narrated by Daryn Marler. Now,
when I tell you this story, you're going to think
I'm a terrible person, but I want you to keep
an open mind. Imagine you've wanted a pet your whole life.
Imagine you borrowed every book on dogs from the library

(01:26):
twenty times over, and visited your local pet store so
often they greet you by name. Now, imagine a pet
drops into your lap, or more specifically, leaps into your lap.
You wouldn't be able to say no, right, not even
if fat pet had a forked tongue, bat ears and
eyelids like a crocodile. But I'm jumping ahead. Let's take

(01:50):
it back to the beginning. It was my big sister
Georgina's fourteenth birthday and the first thing you need to
know about Georgie. She mean, I'd better not see your
face tonight. Georgie stood in the doorway of my bedroom.
I stared blankly back at her from my bed, where
I was innocently scrolling through lists of surrendered kittens at

(02:12):
our local animal shelter. I'm serious, simon, if you even
think about showing your face when my friends are over.
She spotted the adorable roll of kitten pictures on my screen,
and with a sinister sperk, said, I'll make sure you
never get a pet. How would she do that, you ask,
It wouldn't be hard. Our mom wasn't exactly a pet person.

(02:37):
In fact, she hated anything furry, feathery, or scaly. She said,
two little heartbeats was enough to take care of, and
considering the state of my room, she doubted I could
take care of another living thing. I never understood what
a few stinky clothes on the ground and a few
months old peeb and Jay sandwiches had to do with

(02:59):
being a good pet owner. I knew how to take
care of an animal, water, shelter, love, and food. The
four key components to keeping any living thing well living.
But Mom didn't think so. All it would take for
Georgie is one well placed, rotting lunch box or a

(03:19):
handful of stinky underwear, and Mom would happily ban animals
from the house forever. So when Georgie's friends started arriving
for the infamous pizza party movie night extravaganza, I bailed.
I rode my bike past the school, then all the
way down Main Street towards the old Graveyard. The sun

(03:41):
was setting when things started getting weird. Everything went real still,
not a lick of wind, not one chirp from a cicada.
I couldn't even hear a car in the distance. It
was like I stumbled into some alternate dimension. And maybe
that's exactly what happened. I mean, it's not like I

(04:03):
know how, I just think it would explain a lot.
I slowed down when I got to the yard. The
whole place was filled with overgrown weeds and vines that
curled themselves around the rusted iron gates. So when I
heard the little muse, I couldn't see exactly what it was.
Not at first, I hopped off my bike and bent

(04:23):
down to where I thought the noise was coming from soft,
little whimpers, like a kitten or something. And that's when
I saw a ball of black bluff hiding beneath the bush.
I held out my palm like all the books tell
you to real non threatening, like super chill, and it worked.

(04:44):
The ball of fluff unfurled and stood up on four
stumpy legs. A long black tail wriggled into the air.
The tail looked a little, uh, pre chewed, kind of
like a pipe cleaner that had been through the wash.
But then the whole land looked a little pre chewed.
Clumps of black fur were falling out, and long scratches

(05:05):
were dug into the patches of bare skin. At first
I thought it was a cat on account of the
mewing and the long tail, but then it looked up
at me with its long snout and whiskers, so I
figured maybe dog. And then it shook its head. Great
big ears like bat wings flopped out, all black and veiny,

(05:28):
and they kind of just hung there. WHOA is all
I could say. The thing shrunk back, its giant ears
folding into its fur. I had offended the little thing,
and it was little My best friend Dev's Scottish terrier
just had a litter of pupps and this thing wasn't
much bigger than one of them. Sorry, little dude, I

(05:51):
said softly. The little guy looked up at me, cocked
its head, then blinked. The sort of two slits of
translucent skin slid across its eyeballs like elevator doors closing.
I zipped my mouth shut before the squeak rising from
my insides made its way out. I didn't want to

(06:11):
offend it again. I didn't really need to worry about that, though,
because it was having a moment. What do I mean?
Have you ever seen a cat cough up a hairball?
It was doing that. Its wiry hair prickled along its spine.
Then it arched its back and with one almighty hack
of its throat, spewed up a mash of fur and bone.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
A smell.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Ugh. The smell was worse than anything that came out
of my boy's locker room after gym class. It was
decay and bile, with a side serving of mucus. It
looked at me, and not wanting to offend him again,
I said, I bet that feels better. It made a
noise of approval. A little bit her, a little bit squeak,

(07:02):
and a whole lot cute, so cute. I didn't hear
the growl rolling through the yard until the little guy
started shivering. The noise set the hairs on my neck,
rippling to attention. It felt like a dark syrup rolling
over my body. The guttural growl rove its way through
the brush, twisting through the gates. The little dude jumped

(07:23):
into my lap and I could feel it shaking, its bones,
fizzing like lemonade? Is that I looked into the yard?
Oh what hurt you? The little beasteam nuzzled tighter into
my chest. Now, honestly, what would you do? Would you
throw your new best friend straight into the jaws of

(07:44):
some unknown graveyard monster? Or would you hop on your bike,
tuck your new bestie into your jacket and bring him
home with you. I hope you said option too, because
that's what I did. My feet fumbled against the petals
as the growl grew louder, and for a minute, I
honestly thought whatever it was was going to catch us.
I could feel it on the back of my neck,

(08:05):
like wisps of fingernails dragging across my skin. But when
I skid it on to Maine, it was like a
switch flicked. The growling stopped, the air warmed up, and
the mundane sound of traffic settled over me. By the
time I got home, I decided Kronos, that's what I
named him, was a a he and b mine. Mom disagreed,

(08:30):
mostly with the second part. What is that, Mom gasped,
taking such a massive step backwards she almost toppled into
the sink. It's a cat, I assured her. See, I
half showed Mom Kronos, keeping the ball of black fur
and moving so she couldn't focus on any specifics like

(08:51):
the ears. We've talked about you getting a pet, said Mom.
It's a lot of work. You have to put their
needs above your own all the time. Are you going
to feed it and take care of it? Make sure
it has water? And I don't know it doesn't need walks.
What is it again, mom, Georgie yelled from the living room.

(09:13):
It's a cat, I said again, more convincingly this time,
and yes, I can do all of that. It's really
beyond a nine year old simon. Mom Georgie bellowed. Pizza
one second Mom yelled back, her face flushing. The kitchen
was a disaster zone, a pizza dough and grated cheese

(09:34):
with a smattering of pepperoni. Cronos's nose was furiously twitching,
and after some squirming, he slipped out of my hands
and darted for the Smorgus board on the kitchen counter.
I went to grab for him, but Georgie's next bellow
had me clamping my hands over my ears. Mom, we're hungry.
Mom pressed her eyes shut and took it a deep breath.

(09:55):
At the same time, the oven timer went off and
the pot of pizza sauce on the stove star bubbling over.
If Mom was a cartoon character right about van, steam
would have started blowing from her ears. Mom, I'm coming,
Mom yelled back as she lunged for the stove of
bubbling pizza lava. Then, in a moment of weakness, she said, simon,

(10:18):
just keep it away from me. She rushed to the
oven and pulled out a pizza that was turning a
nice shade of black around the edges. And that's all
the permission I needed. I ducked down to the bench
and looked for Kronos, just spying a flicker of his
chewed up tail as he scampered up the counter. He
was quick, surprisingly quick for an animal with that much ear.

(10:41):
He darted behind Mom's back as she slid the pizza
onto the counter, then went back to spooning pizza sauce
onto another circle of dough. Oh no, I spotted the
telltale signs a second too late. Cronos hovered over the
fresh pizza, arched his back, then threw up another concoction
of partially digested in sides. Mom Georgie yelled as she

(11:02):
headed towards the kitchen. I yanked Kronos from the pizza, and,
trying not to vomit, grabbed the handful of stomach contents
and threw it into the garbage disposal. Georgie appeared in
the kitchen a second later. You her eyes narrowed, and
what is that? I tucked Kronos under my jacket. On
second thoughts, she said, I don't care. Then she grabbed

(11:26):
the pizza, vomit remnants and all, and took it back
to her friends. Should I have said something, maybe, but
also she's horrible. It wasn't until the skin on my
hand started to burn that I thought maybe eating a
pizza with potential demon spawned Vomit could be bad for
my sister's health. I was halfway up the stairs to

(11:48):
my bedroom when I heard the first of her friend's scream.
I legged it up the stairs and put Cronos on
my bed. Don't come out, whatever you do, okay. Cronos
rolled onto his back and score around on my dona
like a pig who just discovered mud. By then all
the girls were screaming and running. There was lots of running.

(12:09):
I peered downstairs and saw Georgia bolting to the toilet,
one hand wrapped around her mouth and the other clutching
her stomach. Then another friend ran to the kitchen, another
outside door, and a fourth straight for the pod plant.
Suddenly all the girls were violently emptying the contents of
their pizza filled stomachs. Mom was beside herself, pizza sauce

(12:29):
smeared across her face and flower dusting her brow. She
was so deep in the land of confusion she didn't
hear the doorbell. It was just pizza, I heard Mom
say as I headed for the front door. She was
facing back and forth in the kitchen when I opened
the door to missus Pye, our next door neighbor. Hello, Simon,
said missus Tye. I was just wondering if you've seen

(12:51):
Smoky tonight. She's usually waiting right out the back for dinner,
but tonight I heard a weird noise in when I
opened the back door, I couldn't see her. One of
the girls threw up nearby. Oh my, said Missus Tye,
rubbing her collarbone. Is everyone all right? Sorry, bad timing.
I haven't seen Smoky, but if I do, I'll bring

(13:13):
her straight over. Missus Tye covered her mouth as another
gut turning spew echoed through the house. Sure, she said,
giving me a week nod, take care. I sidestepped the
girl at the pot plant and headed up to my room.
I opened the door and stepped inside. At the same
time Cronos was crawling back through my open window. Kronos,

(13:35):
I said, rushing over to the window. I hadn't even
realized it was open. What were you doing out there?
It's not safe. You need to be more careful. My
voice trailed off as I spotted the giant bulge in
Cronos's stomach. He crawled onto the bed, a little less
agile than before his pause, scrambling to get him and

(13:56):
the contents of his belly safely back on to the
douna event. He got up there and then collapsed on
his side. He raised a paw and licked flecks of
red from his dark fur. I sat next to him
on the bed, giving his neck scratch, and that's when
he opened his jaw and with a satisfied burp, ejected

(14:17):
a little silver disc from his mouth. The disc landed
upright on my duna. The letters lit up the light
of my bedroom lamp, smoky eight Bellridge Avenue. A sinking
feeling slid into my gut. But what was I supposed
to do? You put your pets needs before your own, right?

(14:38):
And what do pets need? Water, jelter, love and food?
Apparently lots of food. As Cronos closed his eyes and
fell into a deep contented slumber, the girls screaming, just
a dull roar below us. I grabbed my phone, Hey deaf,

(15:00):
how many of those puppies you've got left?

Speaker 1 (15:09):
Thank you for listening to micro Terrors. Join us each
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Speaker 2 (15:27):
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Speaker 1 (15:33):
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(15:57):
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