Cement Fleas - Art by Pedro Lara
I never could have guessed…
In the early days of my investigation I used to say that a lot; then I learned from the people I was interviewing that perhaps it was better if I keep that thought to myself.
After the incident with “Little Nails”, I decided to send a message to my friends and relatives, asking them to contact me if they had any knowledge about those types of “estrange tales”. They all thought I was crazy already; so there was not much to loose anyway, I simply had to wait for them to “hook me up”. It may be hard for you to believe this; but back then there was no Face Book or even decent internet services for regular people; so I had to rely on two ways of communication, first off-course was my phone, and secondly I had to actually go there and interact with my family and friends.
2 weeks went by and just went I started to think that there was nothing much to learn from the people I knew, one of my cousins suggested me to go and talk to the street people, for he thought there was quite a big chance that they had either heard or seen something unusual.
It was a good idea, so I went for my backpack and filled it up with several cookies, orange juice bottles, and some old clothes. Once everything was ready, I went out to look for some hobos.
I don’t know were you’re from, but regardless of that, you have to admit that there are always certain parts of the city, (Or even certain parts of the neighborhood.) that have been claimed by the street people, this spots can go from an abandoned house, to a dry place under a bridge. Luckily for me, there was a group of beggars that came together at the entrance of an old house near the Church, in my home town… Moravia.
If there is something street people would like to do is sleep, so I make sure to be at their meeting place around 9:30 AM. At first I introduced my self and explain to them I was gathering information on urban legends with the purpose of making a book about it; suddenly the small group I had grew in size to become one of 6 members.
They talked to me about a lot of interesting stuff, ghosts that chase people across certain streets, little devils that ate misery like candy, and even of people than could summon spirits to do their binding and followed them all around; cool stuff, but when I asked them for any proof that may back their words up, they all look down and remained quiet. All except but one, he was probably the eldest of the group, and while the rest of them remained quiet, he raised his hand and with a big smile he looked at me and said he knew a story that I may like... and he had evidence to prove it.
His name was Gregory; a small white bearded fellow with uncanny big bones, and a booming voice that was suited for singing opera...
-”It happened 3 years ago, when we moved to the old house on the hill”(Gregory said, looking directly at my eyes.)-”We heard that it was a haunted place... but we needed a place to shelter our bodies from the icy winds of December...”
-”Dude you are not going to tell him about that are you?”(Interrupted one of the youngster in the group, with a little surprise in his voice)-”They told us to remain quiet...”
-”Well somebody has to know about it!”(Exclaimed Gregory, and standing up he face the young one and with a warning finger, he added.)-”I will not forget what they did to poor Mario, and I am not afraid of them! Besides they are all gone from the hood!”
Even though Gregory aimed his warning to the youngster, his powerful voice make the entire group turn to stone, and as silence was restored, Gregory return to his place and continued.
-”Only 3 of us dared to go to the house... good old Mario, young “Spider” over there, and off course myself”(Gregory, pointed a dirty finger in the house direction) -” We entered that place not knowing what we were going to face...”(He paused for a quick second, then look at my once more and continued.)-”We gather as much food as we could, and we moved in through a broken window... the house was very clean and we thought somebody else could already be living there, but we were unable to find anybody.”
-”But then Mario found the cats!”(Interrupted Spider once again)-”There were 4 dead cats in the basement!”
Gregory nodded, and casting a vicious warning glance at his friend, he continued.
-”It is true, as we manage to open the basement door, Mario saw the cats, they were hanging from improvised meat hooks made of twisted clips; there were skinned completely, and there were no organs left on them either.”(Gregory licked his lips and looked at my back pack.)-”You have anything to drink in there my friend?”
-”Have some juice guys!”(I said, passing them a couple of bottles)-”So let me see if I got the picture here, nobody was living there when you guys arrived at the place; so this dead cats belonged to the previous inhabitants of the house,... maybe?”
-”We thought that in the beginning”(Said Gregory, and drinking slowly on his bottle he continued) - “But then Mario founded out an old rusty bucket with the cat's remains... they were fresh,... 1 day tops.”
Gregory nodded a couple of times, and Spider started to laugh; if what they were saying was true, there was something weird.
-”But you guys told me that the door to the basement was closed and locked until you open it, so who did this and how did they manage to enter the basement?”
-”But we also find something else near the rusty bucket”(Said Gregory, smiling to himself as everybody's eyes were on him.)-”We also discover hundreds of small footprints around the damn bucket... and several drops of what seemed a small trail of dried blood”
Now that captured my attention...
-”Mario followed the blood trail and it took him to a hole at one of the corner s of the room”(Gregory put his hands together and separated them creating a gap of 4 inches between them.)-”The whole was about this size.... more or less; there was also dried blood all over it. Mario tried to look into the hole, and he saw that it went deep into the ground; it smelled like fresh vomit”
-”But what about the footprints you mentioned?”(I asked, it was impossible, even for a kid to fit into a whole so small!) -”What happened with those?.”
-”The foot prints were leading to the hole, mixed with the dirty blood trail” (Said Gregory, and made a gesture to Spider to get closer to me)-”Tell him about the size of the footprints Spider! Tell him!”
Spider came closer, and opening his fingers about an inch, he smiled nervously and looked at me
-”They were quite small, about an inch or less; and even tough they looked human, there were 4 fingers instead of 5” (Said Spider, extending four of his fingers.)-”I wanted to leave then, but Mario told us that we were about to get rich!”
-”All of us were scared, however Mario have heard some story's about small creatures such as this ones”(Interrupted Gregory)-” And they were supposed to have some treasure”
I smiled, for I was never head of such creatures could live in the city, and if they really had proof of it...
-”We prepared a trap for them”(Said Spider, holding his hands together)-”Mario was sure it will work”
-”That same night we waited, hiding in the room”(Continued Gregory, moving his fingers he described the tactical plan.)-”I stood close to the door, while Mario get behind a small bookcase near the dead cats; and Spider prepared himself to block the whole with a heavy wooden board.”
-”And we did capture 2 of them!”(Interrupted Spider, smiling broadly)-”Except that one of the others got away...”
-” And it was all thanks to you stupid!”(Roared Gregory, turning his hands into fists.)-”It was foolish to hold him with your hands!”
-”Yes, yes, I know”(Agreed Spider looking down and caressing and old scar on his left hand.)
-You mind if I see that?(I asked, while holding his hand to look at the old wound; it was a bite, but I could not see anything unusual about it.)-”I thought those things were small; however this bite looks almost like a normal bite!”
-”That's because of their heads!”(Said Gregory, and looking at me, he added)-”Their bodies look like ours, however they have 4 fingers on their feet, 3 on their hands, and their mouth is huge!”
-”That is true!”(Agreed Spider)-”They got no hair on their heads, their ears are like those of an attack dog, and the head is almost “full mouth”, no nose, very small evil looking eyes; and it was them the one that smell like fresh vomit!”
It was a weird nasty image the one that came to my mind, this creatures were nowhere near anything described on the traditional legends of Costa Rica.
-” They tried to fight”(Continued Gregory)-”They had spear like sticks with them, and we had to kill the one that bit Spider's hand; for it started to jump and stab at our legs and arms wildly” (Gregory cast a sad glance and looked away for a second)-”Mario was the one that did it; he kicked him against the wall and stomped him until it was dead... and that was the greatest mistake he could have done.”
-”Mario and Gregory tried to interrogate the other one”(Said Spider)-”But none of us could have imagine that the creatures could not talk!”
-”It could actually”(Interrupted Gregory, pushing Spider aside)-”The problem was that we did not understand his speech, for it grunted and clicked his tongue to create words... but none of us could figure out a single thing that escaped through his monstrous mouth.”
It was in that moment that I start believing in their story; for if they were making things up, they could have simply said that the creatures spoke a different language; but the way they described the creature way of communication... it got me thinking.
-”We tied the thing to an old pipe on the wall!”(Said Spider)-”While we tried to came up with a plan”
-”Things got worse as we started to decide what we were going to do”(Said Gregory, moving his hands from left to right)-”I wanted to sell the creature, Mario wanted to use it to get the treasure; and Spider just wanted to leave the place.”(Gregory slapped his hands hard) -”We came to blows; and just when things were turning really bad, Spider separate us and pointed to the creature tied to the wall... it was trying to smile, and a small laughter like sound started to came through his mouth; the smell of fresh vomit got stronger all of a sudden, and we knew we were in trouble”
-”As we looked at the walls … the creatures were everywhere!”(Said Spider, with eyes wide open.)-”We did close the hole on the wall; but we never shut the door!”
-”We stared at them in silence while their small evil eyes looked at us with pure hatred”(Continued Gregory)-”They untied their companion using small knives, and collected the remains of the one killed by Mario... it was then that I realized something, this time there were bigger creatures, physically they looked stronger, and they were 2 inches taller, their teeth were more like fangs, and they had scary red skin.”
-”Then they tied us!”(Said Spider, remembering the horror he felt)-”Lots of tiny hands, and hard rope made of what looked like hair, we could not move at all... then their leader showed up”
-”It was even taller than the regular red ones, and he had an armor like costume made of tin cans, he also wore a cat tail around him; but what really scared us was the bloody hatchet he carried”
Suddenly Spider and Gregory faced each other in silence, I already knew what happened but I fell I had to say it out loud
-”They killed Mario; right?”
-”Yes”(Said Gregory)-”First they cut his feet, and while Mario was screaming, the leader of the creatures let out a growl and several of the red ones started to eat his legs...”
-”When they cut his head off we were actually happy!”(Said Spider)-”They took his body and drag it into the hole... then the leader did something we did not expect, he started to write a message on the wall using Mario's blood.”
-”And what did he wrote?”(I asked, I really wanted to go to that place and verify the message)
-”The message went like this”(Said Gregory)-”We are the fleas, the cement fleas, go now and talk never or all will die!”
-”Is this still on the wall?”(I asked, for if it was I needed to take a picture)
-”Yes it is!”(Interrupted Spider)-”We can take you to the house; but I'm not going in!”
I went to the nearest public phone and I called my brother, for I was not going to an abandoned house just to get mugged by some hobos; and as soon as he arrived, we followed Gregory and Spider to the house. Once we get to the place, I followed Gregory, who actually came with me and show me how to get inside, while my brother waited for me outside next to a terrified Spider. Even though the house was really old the construction was very solid; and we moved with ease through the corridors until we finally reach the stairs to the basement. I looked at Gregory, for he was clearly upset, his hands were shaking and he started to move nervously, looking all around him. I put a hand on his shoulder and told him that I was going to the basement by myself, he smiled at me and opened the door for me.
It wasn't dark at all as a lot of light enter through a row of small window on the back of the room; I did find some weird stuff,... there were the made up “meat hooks” that Gregory said the creatures used for the cats. Actually there were lots of small bones, and some old remains from dead pigeons and cats. And as I looked at the walls, I did found the message written on the wall,... my blood froze as I took the pictures, and when I was through I get closer to look at the wall, and when I saw a small hand print among the old blood, I was ready to get the hell out of there; but I didn't, I actually get closer to the hole and took a couple of shots and I was able t find one of the famous spears... which was a really primitive nasty looking thing .
"Message" by Pedro Lara
As I was leaving the place I handed over a couple of bills to Gregory, he nodded, smiled and ask me to dedicate this on behalf of his dead friend, to honor Mario's memory.
"Red Cement Flea" Art By Pedro Lara
Dedicated to the memory of Mario Chinchilla (Aka Zopilote) Enemy to some, friend to others; he was always looking for hidden treasures... may he find plenty in the afterlife.
