Gluttony

by Lana Pecherczyk

  Tony stopped at the aisle and waited for Bailey to go in first. Each seat had a swag package resting on top. Bailey picked up her stuffed gorilla and laughed. It was the same shirt Tony had worn on her first day as his bodyguard. She grinned and waggled it at him. “I always knew you were an ape.”

  “Har. Har,” he joked and sat down next to her, moving his gorilla to his lap along with her hand.

  They settled in and waited until a few minutes later, the cast were invited up to the front to introduce the film. Tony beamed from ear to ear. This was his last film for a long time. Maybe ever. He may not even survive the Syndicate.

  The scary thought popped into Bailey’s mind with the force of a freight train. As Tony got up, she tugged his hand and brought him back to her.

  “Break a leg,” she said, nerves skating up her arms.

  “Always.” His eyes crinkled at the edges, but when he disengaged, he frowned. His hand went to his belly.

  “Are you okay?” She asked quietly.

  He nodded and murmured, “Just first hit of the G-word since arriving. Wasn’t prepared.”

  Gluttony. Of course. It would always be rife at a gathering. A deep breath later and he recovered, plastering a mask of entertainment on his face. He bounded over to the stage, taking every eye in the place with him. He made a show of catching up with his peers as though long-lost friends. When it was time for him to speak, there wasn’t a peep in the place. Not even the monkeys whooped. It seemed as if the entire zoo had gone still. And by the time the cast returned to their seats, and the lights dimmed, anticipation infused the air. She could feel it on her skin, lifting the hairs on her arms.

  Tony settled back next to her, stiff as a board.

  “Tony?” she asked, but someone shushed behind her, causing her to frown and face the front.

  The title credits played, reflecting eerie flickering glows across the faces of the front row viewers, and a slow violin score filtered through the speakers. Bailey tried to get comfortable, but she couldn’t shake a feeling. She reached out for Tony, but he shifted his hand away.

  Something was definitely wrong. Risking a glance, she found him not looking at the screen like the rest of the crowd, but inspecting the trees surrounding them. His fists clenched on his knees, and a muscle ticked in his jaw. He noticed her watching and dropped his frown.

  “Don’t worry,” he said. “Just nervous.”

  Exhaling, she brought her attention back to the screen and immersed herself in the very surreal experience of watching her boyfriend—fiancé—on screen pretending to be someone else. And he was so good at it.

  He played a bounty hunter down on his luck who’d recently been dumped by his cheating wife and was about to be evicted. No one wanted to work with him because of his grumpy attitude. And then the job of a lifetime came in—help a pretty zoologist track down a wayward gorilla in the city and earn some cash while he was at it. They were just about to learn about the zoologist’s morally ambiguous psychic gorilla project... but something was off with her animals. It might have something to do with the nasty assistant with a Mohawk who lurked around.

  Tony nudges her with a smirk. “This bit might be scary.”

  She snorted. Right. After she’d almost been drowned by a living plant, it took a lot to scare her. She returned her attention to the screen just in time to catch a close up of Tony leaning toward an empty cage. High pitched suspense music pierced the air and made the audience hold their breath. Then everything was silent. The suspense was suddenly ruined by a burst of noise from the real zoo animals. Screeches, roars, squawks burst out all around them in the night air.

  At the sideline, Bailey could see the publicist’s mouth press into a hard line. She probably didn’t think the animals would get so loud as to cover the sound of the film.

  Next to her, Tony grunted and doubled over.

  “Are you okay?” she whispered.

  The audience screamed. Bailey jolted and looked up at the screen, narrowly missing the CGI gorilla snapping its jaws from the darkness of the cage. She pressed her hand to her heart in an attempt to stop it rabbiting. It was just the movie. Just the—

  But the screen warped and bubbled, as though wind rippled through it. The zoo animals kept screeching, bleeding into the film’s audio track. The picture distorted, making the snarling gorilla’s face alien-like. Shadows rippled behind the screen. People started murmuring, the publicist and event’s people began scurrying. What was happening?

  A man with a headset went to the screen to inspect it. Bailey squinted, trying to pull the pattern of shadows into focus, trying to understand what imprint was showing behind the gorilla’s face when she put it all together.

  Her hand covered her mouth. She looked at Tony. Sweat beaded across his lip when he met her eyes. “I think it’s here,” he said, casually depressing the panic button on his watch.

  The world suddenly became smaller. Sounds muffled while she struggled to process his words. Her heartbeat and intake of breath drowned out all sound—snapshots of the sewer filled her mind, of water invading her lungs—and then life came crashing back in full surround sound.

  Tony stood up and shouted at the technician. “Get away from the screen!”

  Something burst through the gorilla’s mouth on screen, tearing it apart. Tentacles came first, wrapping around the technician’s body, lifting him up and sucking him back into the dark abyss.

  He was gone.

  A shocked hush startled the crowd. Had they all really seen what they’d thought they’d seen?

  Jolting, Bailey gasped as long ropes lashed the screen and the creature pulled its monstrous humanoid body through. Screams rent the air, penetrating Bailey to the core. With the film still flickering over it, the creature stopped and scanned the swarming crowd. Bailey’s heart leaped into her throat. It somehow appeared more human than before, yet more alien. Its face had expressions constructed from masses of roots twisted into the shape of a human’s muscular formation. It searched while its writhing muscled chest puffed out in fury. Tony put himself before Bailey and held her back with a hand.

  “We need to get you out of here.”

  Two dark slashes of eyes roamed the crowd until they settled on Tony—no, not Tony—her. Bailey. It hissed through striated teeth. “Gabrielle...”

  Tony cursed.

  “What?” Why did she have the feeling there was more to this?

  “It thinks you’re Bosch’s wife.”

  When Bailey gasped, Tony mumbled, “You kinda look like her.”

  And then it came right at them.

  Thirty-Four

  It all seemed to happen in slow motion.

  Tony watched the creature flash forward on twisted and tumbling feet and knew he was vastly out gunned. Not a single weapon on his body, except the blue fire coursing through his veins, now pushing against his skin, dying to get out. Tentacles grew out of the creature’s back and thrashed about like a wild octopus—knocking into chairs, kicking up dirt and grass, bashing into the spotlights. The only light left was from the projector, still showing the movie.

  There were too many vines... arms... whatever you wanted to call it.

  If he ordered Bailey to run, she wouldn’t. He had to give her a job. He pushed Bailey back. “Get that projector turned off. I need darkness.” And then he launched at one of the thick vines whipping toward them. He latched on with two hands. It lifted him clear off the ground.

  Holy shit.

  He hovered momentarily in the air, and then he let his power release. A bolt of blue light flashed, arcing into the limb he held, casting light up to the being’s agonized face. It screeched and threw its head back. Its arm split into two between Tony’s grip.

  He fell and landed on his feet.

  That’s when the projector died and the lights went out. Tony smiled. Bailey had done what he’d asked, and now she should be heading out of there toward safety like the rest of them. He picked up the dead tentacle and used it like a club.
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  “Come and get some, Plantie.”

  Everything was pandemonium the moment Bailey tipped over the projector, casting the outdoor cinema into complete darkness. The city’s elite morphed from cultured and sophisticated to selfish assholes. Screams and shouts became the soundtrack. A woman grabbed Bailey’s hair and yanked her out of the way. Bailey fell onto a row of chairs, their high backs cutting into her ribs. A man pushed her, shouting for her to get out of his way. She tumbled over more chairs, her body sliding into the gap in front. Landing on her shoulder, she cried out in pain. She might have jarred something. It was all too much. Her overloaded senses couldn’t focus on one avenue of escape. Get up through the pew filled with trampling feet, or—

  Something hit her on the head and she dove face first into the lawn, taking a mouthful of grass in. Goddamn... Water filled her eyes. She rolled to her side, catching her breath, and ended up look into the sky bursting with blue patterns of light. At least she thought it was the sky. Stars and blue fireworks danced and swirled until darkness edged in completely. Just before she blacked out, she heard hissing. “Gabrielle.”

  Tony smashed the creature’s face with his club but caught a vine to his midsection at the same time. He went flying backward into a fallen spotlight. The metal pole hit him across the spine. White hot needles of agony burst at the site and he cursed loudly.

  And then Liza was there, dragging him up, her face fierce under the starlight, her body hard and ready. She’d ripped the bottom of her dress and had used the straps to wrap around her fists.

  “Where is everyone?” he grunted and yanked his jacket off.

  “They’re getting the ladies to safety,” she stated, and then softer, “And the suits are in the car.”

  Meaning, they’d be back in minutes disguised as the Deadly Seven and able to use the full force of their supernatural abilities. They just had to keep the creature occupied until then.

  “It’s too dark. I can’t see jack!” Liza snapped and then her feet fell from under her. She landed on her back with a thud. The tendril wrapped around her ankle pulled, dragging her away with her fingers clawing at the dirt.

  Tony roared and gave chase, using his power to light his path. Leaping at the tentacle that had Liza, he took the cord between his hands and pulled, straining his muscles, releasing his fire at the same time. But while his head was down, focused on freeing her, another of the creature’s appendages knocked him on the side of the head, bowling him into his sister. They went down together in a tangle of limbs. Groaning, they twisted and pulled themselves to their feet.

  But the creature was gone.

  Panting, Liza said, “You’re going to have to get to its head.”

  “How?” he gasped. “Every time I get near, one of its spindly fucking arms comes at me. Cut one off and another grows back. It’s like Medusa’s head.”

  “Then you need to go nuclear again. Just explode in its face.”

  “I can only do that if no one is around.” And he wasn’t sure he could repeat the experience.

  “Gabrielle...”

  The hiss came from the dark. Tony went stone cold. His heart pounded in his ears and with painstaking slowness, he craned his head and whispered to his sister, “Bailey was with the ladies, right?”

  No answer.

  “Liza?” He let a sliver of blue light release, just enough that he could see the fear in her eyes.

  “I didn’t see her.”

  FUCK.

  He shot up and charged toward the sense of gluttony, pushing anything in his way aside. Chairs went flying, stuffed gorillas got kicked. It was after her. His angel. Except... the gluttony faded. It wasn’t feeding. Where was it?

  He spun in the dark. Where was she? There. She’d been near the fallen projector.

  “I’m coming, baby,” he murmured. He ran toward the end of the grassy cinema and stopped. Most civilians were gone, so when he made it to where the projector had been, he freely used his power through his hands like torches. He scanned the area wildly, and then he saw it.

  A single turquoise flower lying on the ground, half hidden beneath a fallen chair.

  A roar of pain shot out of him. “Bailey!” he roared.

  Panicked, he turned in circles, trying to get a lock on the sense of gluttony, but there was nothing. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t focus.

  “Bailey!”

  Nothing.

  Animal screeches. Monkey’s whooped. The breeze rustled in the trees.

  Someone shoved something at his chest. His hands latched onto the package.

  “Find somewhere to put that on,” a deep computer-modified voice said. “Just in case someone is watching, or there are cameras about.”

  Tony looked down. It was a backpack. He looked up. Parker in his Deadly Seven uniform. Pride. Behind him stood Envy, Greed and Wrath. Sloth stood to the side looking at the flexible computer screen pulled out of her sleeve. Liza, still in her civilian clothes, limped to a chair. The creature had gotten her ankles and the poison must be trying to get a hold of her.

  “I don’t have time,” Tony barked. “It’s got Bailey. I have to find her.”

  Parker replied, “Sloth is tracing her as we speak.”

  “How?”

  “Her ring,” Sloan replied. “Put a microdot tracker under the diamond.”

  Relief washed through Tony. He’d never been so happy for his family’s invasion of privacy, but... what if the creature was already feeding?

  “I can’t wait.” Tony moved, but Parker yanked him back with a growl.

  “Think, man. Can you sense it feeding?”

  Tony forced his pulse to calm. Parker was right. No gluttony meant no feeding. Not yet, anyway. He shook his head.

  “Then suit up. You will level up your power. We need you.” Parker shoved the backpack into him again. “There. Head into the bush.”

  Moments later, Tony jogged through the zoo with his family. Sloan gave them directions, and Tony used his light to help them see the path. They skirted though the labyrinth landscape of man made enclosures and exhibits until finally rounding a corner and coming to a sign. It was almost hidden by palm fronds. Tony shone his light to read.

  They were at the orangutan exhibit.

  “This it?” he asked Sloan.

  She slid the flexible computer screen on her sleeve away and then nodded toward the tall structure. “It’s in there.”

  “Go for the head,” Parker said.

  “But get Bailey to safety first,” Tony reminded them.

  Then they moved, combing through the exhibit as one cohesive unit, splitting when they hit the wall separating the enclosure from the public. It went around the exhibit like a castle mote. Just over the wall, the enclosure dipped to a low pit filled with grass and climbing structures, but it was the enormous structure in the middle that held their attention. Climbing at least thirty feet into the sky, it towered above the rest. Made from a mixture of steel and wood, the exotic looking hut came complete with a crows nest and balcony. Ropes attached from the tower to other rocky parts of the enclosure like a web, and ropes dangled down to the ground. The full moon hung low in the sky behind the structure. The last vestiges of the creature’s vines caught Tony’s attention as they slid into the main hut. It was definitely in there.

  Still no gluttony. He hoped that was a good sign.

  “The animals are hiding,” Sloan murmured, coming up to him. “I sense their fear.”

  “Get them out,” Parker ordered quietly, and then pointed at the rest of his family with military signals. Evan and Griffin to go one way, Wyatt to go with him.

  Sloan moved, but Tony stopped her. “Can you sense Bailey?” Was she alive?

  She nodded, pointed to the hut, and then became a ghost. When he turned, he saw four shadows drop over the wall and land in the enclosure. He was next, vaulting the wall in a smooth movement. When he hit the ground, he tucked and rolled, coming back to his feet fluidly and breaking into a jog.

  This tim
e, the creature wouldn’t get away.

  One way or another, this would end.

  Coming to the foot of the structure, Tony climbed up a rope, satisfied to see four other shadows rising at different points around the base. He was the last one up, and almost to the top when a body flew out of the hut and crash onto one of the spiderweb ropes before falling. He only spared a glance to make sure whoever it was recovered, then kept climbing, trying not to worry when another body went flying out of the hut.

  Cresting the top, he eased himself onto the wooden platform. What he saw took his breath away. The creature stood tall and deformed in the corner, and it used Bailey as a shield. Wyatt and Griffin were the only two soldiers left, and vines were wrapping around their bodies like a snake. Indestructible Wyatt tried in vain to rip the vines from his body, while at the same time protecting Griffin who was fast being overcome. Bailey pleaded with her eyes. Help me, please.

  Rooted to the spot, Tony froze as images flashed before his eyes. He felt like he’d been here before. Inconvenient memories bombarded him. His movie. The hostage situation. The final scene. Except, where his gun shot had gone through the hostage to kill the psycho, that would never work here. This was real, unscripted messy life. She could die if he made the wrong choice.

  He looked at Bailey again, and the message in her eyes changed. Or he perceived it wrong in the first place. She wasn’t saying help me. She was looking at him with confidence. With relief. Him. Not the others.

  A vine whipped up from the floor and came at him.

  He swatted it away with a burning hot hand, then reaching over his shoulder, he released his katana and slashed, cutting more vines in two. More plant-tentacles came, and he kept slashing, never taking his eyes from Bailey. She was unaffected by the poison. The creature must be holding it at bay now that it thought she was his wife.

  His wife.

  The shocking thought hit him, and then everything spiraled together in his mind. The thing didn’t want to hurt Bailey. It thought she was Gabrielle. That meant it had feelings. Daisy had said she’d felt its sorrow.