The Lost CreepyGrams - BUCK TOOTH JIM

 

Here is another unpublished CreepyGram (a short horror story of 365 words, a two minute read). This is another escapee from The CreepyGram Chronicles, not appearing anywhere else before this. 

BUCK TOOTH JIM

Alistair Kincaid killed himself after the stock market crash of 1929. His widow had never worked an honest day in her life. After Alistair’s death, Mrs. Kincaid had to plan again.

Alistair had borrowed against everything to trade stock. He used the margin leveraging the mansion and furnishings in it as collateral.

Overnight, the Kincaids had nothing left.

Even Mrs. Kincaid’s wardrobe was seized. She had nothing but the clothing she wore. She wore a mink stole and coat, white beaded gloves, and boots that were very ostentatious. If anyone had tried to take them, she would have thrown a fit. Luckily, nobody did.

Selling off the coat and stole afforded her a week at a shoddy pesthole of a motel. It was there that she began to reassess her future. It was there that she heard about Buck Tooth Jim.

Another guest had told her about the ability to borrow money from a strange pawn shop owner. He still put the normal type of valuables on hold as collateral against a high interest loan, but he did something else, as well. He loaned money against other “assets” that he didn’t collect up front. Though Mrs. Kincaid pressed for more detail, she didn’t receive any further information.

Mrs. Kincaid had no choice.

Jim ran a small shop close by. He had two asymmetrical eyes, one very large and one quite small. His nose was off center, almost directly beneath the larger eye. He had small, cruel lips which were parted by enormous buck teeth.

“Mrs. Kincaid, I can make you a deal today. I can loan you fifty dollars for a month. At the end of the month, you just need to double it. You won’t find a better deal.”

“And what do I promise in return?” She asked.

“Your ears. I like your ears,” Buck Tooth Jim said.

She could see he wasn’t joking. Yet, to prove himself, he pulled back a black velvet cloth covering a shelf in a glass case. There were noses, fingers, toes, a tongue, and even an eyeball lying there. Mrs. Kincaid closed her eyes in revulsion.

“Do we have a deal?” he asked.

Mrs. Kincaid signed the paperwork.