Jack and Ian were best friends, and Jack always went over to Ian’s house to paly. Ian had a big house, a Play Station and a Nintendo Switch for when it was rainy, and a big yard with a basketball hoop and trampoline for when it was good. They could have gone to Jack’s place if they wanted, but Jack lived in an apartment with no PS, so they didn’t.

And when Jack saw a big hairy ear in the huge chest freezer in the basement at Ian’s place, he didn’t say anything to anybody.

It was a hot day so they had been playing in the yard. Ian’s mom had put popsicles out but they vanished quickly. Jack asked Ian if he could get another popsicle.

“Sure- they’re in the freezer down there- grab one for me too,” Ian had pointed him to the basement.

Jack had never been in the basement before but the sun was shining and it was very hot and there was no reason not to. He saw the huge chest freezer, and opened its very heavy lid with difficulty. He barely managed- if Ian hadn’t wanted a popsicle he would have given up and gone back up. But he didn’t want to go back without popsicles.

He looked in and saw the box of popsicles lying on its side, and a whole bunch of bright popsicles scattered around it. And a big human ear with dry crusty blood around its edges and straggly grey hair sprouting out.

He grabbed two popsicles, let the lid slam shut and dashed back up.

He didn’t say anything to anybody, because he still wanted to go to Ian’s house and play Mortal Kombat on his PS when his mom wasn’t there.

The next hot day at Ian’s place was glorious- his mom was out till late and his dad was still away on his business trip, so they just played Mortal Kombat despite the sunshine. They fought joyfully, ripping each other apart and Jack kept seeing the human ear flying around with the bright animated game limbs, blood splattering and bones shattering to the sound of screams and grunts and moans, and eventually he felt he had to go and check on the ear. Ian performed another flawless victory on him, and Jack felt slightly sick.

“Can I go grab a popsicle?”

“Sure- bring me one too” said Ian.

He went down the stairs carefully. There was the chest freezer.

The light shone from the stairs, right on its white lid. Jack pushed up the lid, stood on his tiptoes to look in.

The ear was still there. He thought about reaching out and picking it up- when he heard the steps behind him.

Too late –something smashed against the back his head, his legs were lifted from the ground, he caught a glint of Mom-eyes and the brush of Mom-hair against his neck, and his last sensation was of the freezing cold welcoming him in.