by Casey Ford
Loosening their grip in surprise, the beast takes advantage of the two friends and wrenches its arm free before smashing its elbow into the closest one’s face. It manages to break free of the other guy and punches him as well. The creature stalks over to the drunk as he starts to get up.
“You sonuvabitch!” The drunk growls noticeably more sober than before. The beast doesn’t respond, it simply swings its arm like a hammer and smashes the man to the ground again. Quickly turning him over, the demon sits on his chest and starts punching him in the head repeatedly. A snarl escapes its throat as it continues its onslaught.
Ethan jumps over the hood of the car next to the beast and pulls him off the ground. A car skids to a stop and Quentin jumps from the passenger seat to help Ethan. Arianna sprints to help Katelyn off the ground. The demon growls and roars as it fights against the new set of restraints. Swinging it around, the two friends try to talk to it.
“Calm down, Alan,” Ethan yells into the beast’s ear, “calm down.” The creature continues to growl loudly. Katelyn walks up to it and softly places her hand on its cheek. It starts to calm down as the touch slowly drains its anger away. Katelyn smiles weakly under her black eye and the creature’s anger dissipates even more, though it fights to remain unchained. It stops struggling and starts panting from exertion.
“It’s okay, Alan, I’m okay.” Her voice is soothing and gentle. The beast slowly slinks back into its cage and stops it grumbling. Her touch makes me start to feel better.
None of us hear the man behind us get up until he shouts.
“Take this asshole!” Consciousness floods my psyche as I feel his fist ram into my back. It feels weird to be in control again. It takes only a few seconds for me to realize that his fist is oddly shaped for a punch and there is this weird sensation of being penetrated. The pain shoots through my body as the man drags his knife out of my back.
Then I feel nothing.
“Oh my god!” Arianna screams when she sees the knife and blood. Ethan jumps quickly to stop the bleeding and catch me as my legs collapse. Quentin instantly disarms the half-drunk man and knocks him out with a quick shot to the face. Arianna whips out her phone and says something into it that I can’t make out. I’m focusing on the fact that I can’t feel my legs. Though they move when I tell them to, I still can’t feel them properly. Kate is by my side instantly and I find myself leaning on her for support. The look of fear and concern on her face makes me feel bad and I try to ease the look a little.
“I’m fine,” I say weakly. “Seriously, I’m fine.”
Ethan and Katelyn share a brief look and I had to fight the jealousy that flares up inside me. Katelyn pulls a cloth from her purse and starts wiping sweat from my brow.
“You’re going into shock, Al,” she tells me continuing to wipe my sweat. I start giggling at her statement and she looks confused. I can feel a slight pulling in back; it’s uncomfortable, but not painful so I wince when I try to change my position. I giggle through the slight pinching feeling. The tingling sensation from moving feels like a tickle more than pain.
“Shock? Yeah, I’ve definitely been in shock.” I look Katelyn in the eyes and my mind starts wondering back to a past that it has no business being in.
“I’ve been in shock ever since I turned around and saw you standing there in all your glory.” I close my eyes as I adjust again.
Why can’t I find a comfortable position?
Katelyn smiles sadly and tries to help me move. I catch a glimpse of her face again and I actually feel sad for her. She seems so scared and I hate that I put that look on her face. I try to lift my hand to soothe her by touching her face, but my body isn’t listening to me. Looking down at my insubordinate appendage, I notice that it’s sitting in a puddle of crimson liquid.
In fact, I’m sitting in the puddle and it’s growing larger as I watch.
“Oh God, Ethan,” Kate shrieks as she finally notices the pond of blood, “he’s losing a lot of blood.”
Ethan leaps into action, rips his shirt off his body and into shreds. I chuckle as he places the shards on my back.
“You coming on to me Ethan Crowe? Because I’m fairly certain I’m not your type.” I try to joke, but it comes out as a hoarse cough instead of the laugh-worthy comment it was supposed to be. The crew tries to smile, but it just looks sad to see. Ethan places his hand on my shoulder without removing his other hand from my back.
“Definitely not my type,” he jokes, “too skinny.”
I laugh and it immediately turns into a cough. It’s a wet, slimy cough. I can tell it doesn’t look pretty from the looks on everyone’s face.
Pain starts to creep into my system and I still can’t get comfortable — hard to do with a hand up my back like I’m a human marionette. I winch at the pain as it starts to intensify. I can’t stop shaking. I didn’t even know I was shaking until this moment. Pain overwhelms me every time I take a breath, but I find shallow and quick breathes ease it enough to be bearable.
“That’s smarts.”
“Are you starting to feel the pain?” I try to nod, but I’m too dizzy to pull it off well.
I lift my eyes with great effort to look at Katelyn again. Her face is a little older than I remember, but she’s still the same from high school. She’s still my Kate. My head starts playing games with me and I start reliving things from my past. What was I thinking letting her go? I feel tears start to sting my eyes, but the pain didn’t call them. My heart breaks at the thought of how we ended. I then think of Sam and immediately know the answer to all my recent questions.
I give her a fragile smile.
“What happened to us Kate?” I ask her, knowing damn well what happened to us. I even remember the exact moment things changed between us. I remember it all so clearly now. I was such an idiot back then, but not enough to regret our split.
Just the way it happened and the aftermath.
Katelyn copies my fragile smile.
“We were in high school, Alan.” As if that explains everything.
Oddly, it does.
“We were young and immature,” she continues, “despite our claims to the difference.”
I shut my eyes as I think about it, grimace in pain, and try to adjust for the hundredth time. Ethan removes his hand from my back and I open my eyes to try to see what he’s doing. He’s changing the shirt for a clean one and I can see that the shirt is dyed bright red. Realization starts to sink that this could be it for me.
Strangely, I’m not as scared as I thought I would be.
“This is the worst week of my life,” I half joke with a chuckle. Closing my eyes earlier made it more difficult to keep my eyes open now. My eyelids feel like one-ton weights.
“I think I’m going to take a nap now,” I tell them weakly, barely a whisper.
“Wake me when the ambulance gets here,” I finish.
I have my eyes closed so I can’t see their faces, but I can hear the dread and fear in their voices as they shout back and forth.
“Where the hell is the fucking ambulance?!” Katelyn screams and I can almost hear the tears in her voice. She sounds really far away.
Everything fades away.
Worst week of my life.
Understatement of the decade.
Chapter Twenty-Three
4 Years Ago (Age 16): August
“That’s so bad it’s hilarious!” James, my brother, is laughing at me after I told him what happened during my first time — and every time since. He only has a few days left before he ships out again. Despite his teasing, I enjoy having him home. He tells the best stories of being deployed and just having him back for a little while is awesome.
I’ve always been able to talk to my brother much easier than I have anyone else — except Sam, until recently. He’s a little over five-years-older than me, so he likes to tell me that he has a lot more life experience than I do. He says it makes him a great advice giver.
I’m still trying to disprove that one.
“Come on, bro, I need your help,” I plead. I hate begging from him, but I really need his advice on this. I’m miserable about everything and need to know how to fix it. He takes a swig of his beer before answering me.
“Sorry little bro, there are no easy fixes.” No help at all. Ugh, he’s in one of his Dalai Lama moods. Every piece of advice will be a conceited run around and will eventually lead me nowhere — or exactly where I need to be as he would put it.
It’s the worst.
“I’m not looking for an easy fix, just a nudge in the right direction,” I tell through a wary smile. I know, from years of experience, that I can easily defeat the Dali Lama mood by throwing it back at him.
James looks at me surprised for a brief moment then smiles really big and harshly rubs his hand on my head. Laughing loudly as he does.
“That’s my little brother for you right there,” he shouts still messing up my hair in the most painful way possible.
“I’m not a little kid anymore, James,” I tell him as I try to get his hand off my head. His smile disappears replaced with a frown.
“I know that,” he softly informs me, “neither of us are.” His voice scares me and I look at him. His eyes are withdrawn, haunted, and his face wears the look of someone who has lived through more than he thinks he should have. His change of mood throws me.
After a moment or two, he shakes his head and returns to the fun-loving brother I remember.
“So what does Sam say about this situation?” He asks with the most innocent smile that he could muster as he throws salt on my open wounds. I groan loudly and he chuckles at my discomfort.
“I haven’t talked to her in weeks, but you know that all ready.”
“I know. I’m just giving you a hard time,” he apologizes.
“There are no easy answers here, Al. You’ll have to try and figure it out yourself.” Still no help.
“But,” he starts and my ears perk up, “I can give you a little advice in the matter.”
“Please,” I beg and he laughs at me.
“Okay, okay, put those puppy blues away. They’re dangerous.” I smile playfully and James follows suit.
“You need to follow yourself,” he says.
James looks at me and then breaks out into a riot of laughter. Apparently, my confused face is hilarious. I have no idea what he talking about.
Follow myself? Whatever that means.
“You have to follow this,” he tells me as he pokes me in the chest. Understanding hits me immediately and my confused face changes to my comprehension face. He laughs at that one too.
It appears I’m hilarious when I’m not trying.
“This,” I point at my heart, “is the most confused part of me,” I inform him. He nods his head as if he understands.
“It will be until you figure out what it is you want.”
He pauses.
“You’ll figure it out, I know you will. You’re a smart boy.” He takes another swig of his beer.
“I bet you even know what you want already.” Truth be told, I’ve known what I want for years, but that doesn’t make it any easier. The one thing I want doesn’t want me.
Sam.
I just nod my head. James pulls me into a tight hug and gently pats my back. I return the hug.
“You won’t catch anything you don’t chase,” he says to me from our hug. I casually pull away and nod my acknowledgement.
“I bet you Sam is waiting for you. Call it brother intuition or something.”
I chuckle at that and then get up to leave. Turning to James, I dust myself off.
“Thanks for the advice, not sure how much help it’ll be, but thanks.”
“Anytime, little bro, anytime.” I smile at him and he smiles back. James leaps to his feet and pulls me into another hug.
“I love you, little bro,” he softly speaks over my head.
“I love you too, big bro,” I tell him back.
James ships back to Afghanistan the following day. They really need his help he says with a small amount of humor.
Chapter Twenty-Four
4 Years Ago (Age 16): October
I’m miserable, but put on a brave face so I don’t alert Kate to it. We’ve had sex a few times since that first time, but they haven’t really gotten better. In fact, every time we meet now has turned into a sexual experience.
I’ve turned this girl into a nympho.
But it’s just sex, nothing more; it’s something physical with nothing emotional.
Sex definitely changes things for a couple. Where Kate seems to be more in love and clingy, I can’t seem to muster the same emotion in myself. I don’t feel the closeness between us anymore, not like I used to.
The heat is gone.
Not that I can tell Kate this. She’s beyond the moon about everything. I’m almost positive I saw a wedding magazine in her room the other day. Yeah, still not sure how I feel about that little development. I’m only a junior in high school. I’m more worried about passing chemistry, there’s no way I’m thinking about marriage. I’m sure it’s just a playful fantasy.
I hope it’s a playful fantasy.
I can’t talk to Sam about anything anymore. In fact, I haven’t even said one word to her since my birthday in July. I miss her a lot, but she’s obviously made her decision.
At least soccer season starts soon. I’ll finally have something to distract me from all the crap that’s happening in my life. I love soccer; all I have to think about is the game and practice. Plus, they run you so hard you don’t really have time to think about anything else beyond trying to breath.
That is why I’m in the locker room at this very moment getting changed for soccer conditioning. Basically, it’s two straight hours of the coach trying to kill us with running drills. I love it for the shear fact that I’m so tired afterward that I can’t even concentrate on moving, let alone anything else.
Perfect.
Of course, it doesn’t help that Caleb “Cable” McKenzie is also on the team. It’s not a good thing to have a reminder when you’re trying to forget things. Good thing he mostly ignores me the entire time and stays with his friends on the other side of the field. I manage to pick up bits and pieces of their conversation whenever I run by them, but it’s never anything I care to overhear.
This time is different.
They’re talking about Sam.
Though I only catch a few choice words from the conversation, what I do manage to glean is anything but good. Actually, it’s all stuff I really don’t want to hear. I now know more about Sam’s sex life than I have ever wanted to know — unless I was involved in it of course. My traitorous brain starts piecing together full video porno movies starring Sam.
I hate it, but the damage is done and now I’m trying very hard not to cry.
I stop the waterworks by sweating the tears out instead.
It doesn’t take long before the two hours are up and I’m dragging my gelatinous body back to the locker room. Caleb and his friends are already there, having skipped the optional extra laps I always take — I have to keep my girlish figure. I’m getting an earful from these guys and it’s making me sick to my stomach to hear it.
They make it sound like they pass Sam around like the town bicycle – everybody gets a ride.
“She’s definitely amazing,” I hear Caleb say to his friends, “she’s limber as fuck.”
“Hell yeah!” someone responds. I try to change faster. It’s none of my business what Sam does with her boyfriend. Though, this pathetic two-timing heart of mine is incredibly jealous.
I need to get out of here before it gets worse for me.
“So when do you let us have a shot at her?” another person asks and I recognize him as Darryl Gentry, Caleb’s best friend. Caleb huffs. I start to fume. If Caleb answers wrong on this, I might actually have to kick his ass.
“When I’m down fucking the shit out of her,” Caleb challenges. The others laugh. I cringe because of the mental
image.
“You mean you ain’t hit that ass yet?” Darryl asks. Caleb laughs in his face. I didn’t think it was possible, but he sounds nervous. He’s not a lot, but enough.
“Of course I’ve hit that ass,” Caleb answers, “best piece I’ve had. Well worth the effort let me tell you.”
My blood starts to boil and I’m trying to keep from going over there and pummeling his face into the back of his skull. Effort? He makes it sound like he’s building a damn building, not loving my best friend. This isn’t the best impression to make; though, now that I think about it, he never really gave off the “I care for her” vibe.
“Yeah,” another person I don’t recognize speaks up, “everybody heard them in the bathroom at Alan’s birthday.” Like I really needed that little reminder.
“You were really going at it!” the kid practically shouts out. Great, now I’m thinking about that awful day in my head again. I do this to myself at least once a day, so I don’t need a perfect stranger helping me out.
“I hope so,” Caleb shouts, “I’ve been working on her for nine months.”
I’m close to going over there and introducing them all to my fists when the locker room door flies open and smashes the wall behind it. Everyone in the room, including me, jumps half out of their skin. Sam is standing there in the doorway, pissed. No, scratch that, furious. Arianna is trailing behind her and the look on her face says it all, this is new for her.
Guess my day of kicking Caleb’s ass is going to coming after Sam’s.
Sam walks through the doors of the male locker room like she belongs there and walks right up to Caleb. Half the guys cover up, but she barely even glances in their direction.
She’s a girl on a mission.
Caleb looks nervous when he looks at her face. He should be; that look is something that Freddy and Jason would be proud to have. I fall into a group of about five guys and push to get closer to the spectacle playing out in the locker room.
