A New Tailypo - A Retelling of a Folktale with a Twist

A New Tailypo

Lori flung off the blanket and left the bedroom to peer out the parlor's locked windowpanes. The porch lantern was on. However, she still couldn't see any critters. Not even a moth trying in vain to flutter through the lantern's glass.

Reluctantly, the woman started heading for her bed. However, the scratching had resumed. And the sounds were becoming more dragging and more... persistent.

"Who's out there?!" Lori shouted, thinking it was some dang campers loitering and playing pranks. "This isn't funny! Stop it now, or I'll call the cops-!"

This was when Lori's eyes went wide with realization. She couldn't use her phone because she had left it at work and was going to retrieve it later on! She was so upset over the car incident with the strange animal that she was only remembering this again just now. Never had Lori regretted so much about not getting a landline installed in her house!

The scratching continued. Longer and louder.

I'm calling the cops right now!" lied the woman. "So, you better leave-!"

"Tailypo... Tailypo... All I want is my tailypo..."

Lori stood frozen as if her body had become a vast sheet of ice. The voice didn't sound like any teenager she'd ever encountered. It was echoic, like multiple voices that were not from any man nor woman. Much less from any human.

That odd chill recommenced from Lori's fluttering heart, down to her sock-covered curled toes.

"Tailypo... tailypo..," it repeated. "I want my tailypo..."

Lori swallowed and finally regained her voice.

"I don't have or know of any 'tailypo'! So, whoever you are, you better go-!"

Long, piercing claws emerged from beneath the door, scraping it. Again. And again. And again...

"Tailypo..! Tailypo..! I want my tailypo!"

The dark demand dripped with ire.

Confused and frightened to the core, the woman clutched one of her collector's hound plates off a wall shelf and with a yelp, threw the porcelain at the bottom of the door. After the shatter, she waited with bated breath.

The deep scratching and bizarre voice fell silent.

Too scared to sleep, Lori got the idea of driving into town. Not bothering to put on shoes, she lurched in the parlor, swiped the keys off a coffee table, and darted around the broken bits of plate and for her car. However, when she prepared to get in, the automobile interior lights had shown her that there was a problem...

One of the back wheels was gone. The rubber had been slashed down to nothing but gnawed metal. And with the sight of glinting bits of glass shards on the driver's seat, it appeared that the side window had the same fate, as well.

Swallowing, the agitated woman veered her head to and fro. For she detected a raspy rumble within the evening wind...

With a sweaty brow and swelling lungs, Lori closed the car door. She didn't want to sit in an immobile vehicle like a fish in a barrel nor run in the woods in the pitch of night where the dark thing was in its elements. And with no other options, she shut off her car and retreated into the small house to hold up until morning.  

Plopping the keys to the floor, Lori slowly sat on a loveseat in the parlor. Eyes barely blinking, she kept them glued to the clawed-up front door while second thoughts of living closer to civilization bemoaned her hindsight.

Two hours went by and when the adrenaline began to ebb away, eventually, so did the tired woman's consciousness.

"Tailypo... Tailypo... give me back my tailypo..."