by Rob Bliss
Skood held Venus. Pinning her arms back, fighting against her writhing, watching Gitch attempt to wield the knife. Venus’ new tail had lengthened more to lash against Gitch’s hands, then tucked deep between her buttocks and lay flat against her abdomen. Gitch’s hands shook and he didn’t seem able to manipulate his fingers very well, thumbs frozen into a hooks, making his hands look like a monkey’s paws. He tried to pull the tail out enough to slip the blade under, but it was impossible in the struggle.
Gorman stepped toward his daughter as he yelled at Gitch, “Just cut it at the goddamn root!”
Father then pressed a hand against his daughter’s cleavage, pushing her breasts aside, using all of his weight to press his hand through her chest, trying to crack her ribs by sheer force, her heart as his goal.
Venus kicked out and landed a foot into her father’s stomach, dropping him to the stage. Skood had pulled Venus back too late, trying to make room for Gitch to get a solid grip on the base of her tail. She kicked backwards, punching her heel into Gitch’s face, sending a muted scream up his throat as he stumbled back, copper wire tearing his lips and cheeks.
Venus’ tail snapped back to rise off her tailbone and shook like the tail of a rattlesnake. Her arms and legs lengthened, claws growing from her fingernails, face contorting into a bear’s snout and jaws as thick hair grew rapidly across her bare skin.
Easily, she broke Skood’s grip on her, spun on her heel and swiped a paw through the air. Skood’s face flew across the room. A second swipe of a paw gouged a hollow out of his skull, taking with it three-quarters of his brain. The remaining piece of brain in the bowl of his skull sluiced down the length of his body and slapped wetly on the floor. Then his body crumpled after it.
Gord, Elizabeth and I started backing away from the stage. Gord headed back toward the truck, I headed toward the hole in the wall where we had come in, and Elizabeth was just backing away, pulling her cloak tighter around her body.
It didn’t take long before we came to our senses, the other two following me out of the room, but we saw something happen on stage before we got the hell out of there.
After swatting off Skood’s face like a piece of tissue paper, Venus cured the pain in Gitch’s jaw by severing his head with a left hook. And she hadn’t stopped growing. Paws the size of hubcaps, head ballooning to match the one that had hung from the ceiling in the House of the Dead, that Poppy straddled, standing on her hind legs until she reached halfway to the ceiling of the room.
Gorman backed away, tripped on the legs of his other bridesmaid daughters, sat down hard beside them. Saw the remaining pieces of their hearts on the floor where we had stood. He leapt off the stage and drove the heart chunks into his mouth like apples from Eden, taking huge bites, chewing and swallowing as fast as he could, feeling the small of his back as he kept an eye on Venus.
Consuming his third and final ingredient. But for what?
His spinal column grew…one inch, two inches, four, ten, fifteen inches—he crammed the last pieces of the two hearts into his mouth, cheeks bulging, molars grinding down muscle, swallowing as quickly as he could without choking, having to hold heart chunks into his mouth while he chewed, pieces pushed out but then shoved back in…twenty inches, twenty-five, thirty…
He swallowed the last bite, mouth smeared in blood, chest heaving as he pulled in air through his nostrils, eyes on his daughter as he backed away. He bumped into Kevin, who had followed his master off the stage, waiting to be commanded.
“Get out of my way, you fool!” Gorman growled at Kevin, pushing passed him.
Elizabeth yelled “Kevin!” and he looked at her, the spell momentarily broken, but to no use.
Venus fell back to all fours, shaking the room, her paws punching holes through the stage floor. Kevin turned his eyes to her. She growled a storm of noise into his face before crushing his head and half his torso between her jaws, swallowing his screams. Spat out his severed head and torn body with a twist of her neck, throwing it high and far to slap down at Elizabeth’s feet.
I grabbed her and the three of us ran toward the crashed-through doorway in the wall, jumping over bodies sprawled across the floor, righting ourselves when we slipped in swathes of blood.
I glanced back before we raced through the doorway to see Gorman’s body and face distorting, growing, his fur cloak expanding to cover his entire body, but the red and black of the priest cloak bleaching to white. Was it the color of royalty? The hollow of his eye socket remained black.
He moved out of the way of his daughter’s swinging claws, staying far back from her until he too grew into an immense beast towering on his hind legs.
They were exactly alike in size and dimension and the color of the fur. Twins. Father and daughter taking on their true forms, fighting for supremacy in front of the stage.
We didn’t stay to see which one emerged the victor.
— | — | —
Chapter 30
The sun had risen higher in the clear sky as we raced to Poppy’s truck, then sped down the highway back to town. A ghost town. Of all the inhabitants at the wedding, many dead, who knew what their true numbers were and when they would re-group to hunt us down? We didn’t feel safe in town or outside it and didn’t know how far we would have to go until we ever felt safe again.
I drove. Gord told me to head back to his apartment.
“What if someone’s there?” I asked.
“Don’t worry, they’re all at the party. Besides, I wouldn’t mind seeing more of them die, would you?”
“We gotta get out of here—who knows if they’ll head after us,” Elizabeth said, glancing back down the road.
“We are getting out of here,” Gord responded, glancing in his passenger side mirror. “We’ll go to the airport, take our chances there.” He smiled and wrinkled his scarred forehead. “But we might need different clothes—and maybe some passports—before they let us on a plane.”
I slowed the truck as we entered the town proper, every door locked, store signs flipped to Closed, no vehicles parked at meters along Main Street or down any side streets, not even a single dog barking. The sun was shining, and it was a beautiful day.
The town was dead, and we had, happily, killed it.
We hoped, anyway.
I pulled into the small parking spot behind Gord’s building and left the keys in the ignition. Climbed the stairs to his apartment. He looked at his hands, then at us.
We all started laughing.
“Fuck me,” he said.
“Lost your keys?” I asked.
“Lost my fucking hands!” He sighed and shook his head at the locked apartment door. “Stand back,” he warned us.
Elizabeth and I stepped down a few steps as Gord swung a metal glove above the lock of his door. The vest still worked. The door crashed inward; the lock punched into the room.
“Who needs keys when you have claws?” he joked, and we followed him inside.
The sandbag of cocaine was still split open and spilled on the coffee table. I glanced around the room, felt like I hadn’t been inside the apartment in years. A miracle that any of us had made it back.
“All my clothes are in the mansion,” Elizabeth said, then stopped and stared at her brother, sighing disappointed. “Gordy, really? You still doing that shit after all we’ve been through?”
Gord pulled his face out of spilled coke, powder puffed in and around his nose. “I’ve had a bad night, sis, cut me some slack. I think I’m building a tolerance—not good. If you’re not too picky, I’ve got some sweatpants—I think they belong to Venus—and tons of t-shirts. I’d rather not make too many stops before we hit the airport.”
“My passport,” Elizabeth said.
“Shit.”
There was no way in hell we were going back to the mansion to grab Elizabeth’s passport. There were two giant bears having a fight there, to put it mildly.
I asked, “Do you have your driver’s license?”
She raised her
arms and gave me a look that reflected my idiocy. “Where would I keep it?”
“Shit.” I looked at Gord. “Got any ideas?”
He shrugged. “Fuck the airport—we drive. Keep driving until we get Elizabeth home, or we get somewhere safe. We’ll deal with paperwork once we can breathe again.”
Elizabeth used a pillow to wipe powder off Gord’s nose. “You’re not going to keep us safe if you keep your nose white.”
Sorrow fell across Gord’s face as he looked into his sister’s eyes. He touched his gloves lightly to her arms, swallowed a few times as he mustered the strength to speak. “Look, Elizabeth…I’m sorry. Everything you said about Venus brainwashing me was true. But that’s no excuse. I can’t excuse what I did to you. You don’t have to forgive me…but I couldn’t forgive myself if I never said I was sorry.”
Tears rose to her eyes as she nodded, then cleared her throat. “It’ll take a while. Might need a therapist or two. But eventually, one day, I’ll be able to put the past in the past and not let it haunt my present and future. I survived this night…I’m one tough cookie.”
“You are,” Gord whispered back.
They hugged and held onto one another for a while. I let them have their moment by searching Gord’s room for clothing we could all wear. Throwing shirts and pants out of drawers and closets—no need to keep the place clean since we were never coming back. Pair of jeans and a t-shirt, socks, and a pair of dress shoes I found in Gord’s closet, which he had probably only worn once, hated, thrown into the back of his closet. If they fit me, they were probably too small for him. If I knew him, he rarely kept receipts, and never returned anything.
I dug my passport and wallet out of my luggage but didn’t want anything else. Travelling light in these circumstances was the right idea. No baggage check, get on the plane, get in the air as soon as possible. Within the country, we shouldn’t need passports. But if an airport guard insisted, then maybe we could all take a train back East.
We all dressed as quickly as possible, Elizabeth having to help her brother on with everything due to his hands. Gord said he wanted to keep the jacket and vest on, for protection. We didn’t argue with him, but Elizabeth and I didn’t want any reminders of the family. We dressed like normal people, and it made us feel much better, cleaner, lighter. The bear fur cloak was left in front of Gord’s bookshelf.
We still didn’t know what we were going to tell any guard at the airport about Gord’s hands. Disability. The gloves were a form of treatment. His scorched face should confirm the extent of his injuries. If the guards x-rayed the gloves, they’d only see Gord’s hands beneath, no drugs or weapons. They might buy it.
Back in the truck, I pulled out onto Main Street, about to speed out of town forever. Thinking silently: so this is how a town becomes a ghost town? Will this place ever be populated again? Hopefully not.
I looked into the rearview mirror.
In the distance, where the town began, something lumbered on all fours down the middle of the street.
“Oh shit,” I said in a hushed voice.
Elizabeth and Gord turned back to look at the town speeding away in my mirror.
“Get the fuck out of here, Chris,” Elizabeth muttered, fear lacing her words. “Get the fuck away from here as fast as you can.”
“No, turn around,” Gord said, glancing from his sideview mirror to the road ahead, gloves tapping the door frame.
“Gordy!” Elizabeth snapped in panic. “She’ll kill us.”
He looked into his sister’s frightened eyes without blinking. I saw sadness in his gaze. “Not if we kill her first. She’ll never stop hunting us, especially if the family really is around the world.” His eyes shot to me. “Chris, turn around. I’m serious.”
I had a terrible feeling that I knew what he was thinking of doing. We had been friends for a long time—like a married couple, we could almost read each other’s thoughts. I swallowed a lump in my throat and cranked the wheel, slowly headed back into town.
The bear wasn’t running, possibly injured, its slow heavy steps pounding the road. Still a giant not to be trifled with. But a slow bear was still a hell of a threat.
We came to the main intersection of town, gas stations on either side of the road. “Stop here,” Gord said.
“Gordy—what are you—” Elizabeth began, but her brother was already out of the truck, jogging towards the bear.
Elizabeth and I watched him, hearts pounding in our chests, skin cold. The bear wasn’t moving any faster now that Gord was out of the truck. His jog veered off the center of the street to one of the gas stations. We watched him go up to the locked door of the store, smash a glove through the glass, batter the door, and let himself in.
We couldn’t see what he was doing, but he was behind the counter. I wondered if he had ever worked in a gas station, knew his way around one. Possible, since we had lost track of each other for five years. Was that really what he was doing when he met Venus, instead of working in an auto shop? I reflected how he had never mentioned his job since I’d arrived, not in any email either. No wonder he got suckered in easily by the bride’s charms and money.
A few seconds passed then he was outside, headed to the nearest pump, smashed both gloves down hard onto the hose where it connected to the pumps. Broke it off in one shot. Maybe that was why he kept the jacket and vest on, for strength as well as protection. Gas poured out. He did the same to the three other pumps, gasoline flooding the gas bay.
The bear neared. Blood stained its white fur. Gord jogged across the road to the other station, smashed four pumps, spilled gasoline. But this time when he broke his way into the store, he came out with a fat cigar in his mouth, thankfully unlit. Gord’s melted metal boots splashed through liquid rainbows.
He headed back to the truck.
Stood at the driver’s side open window and looked with sad eyes at Elizabeth and me. One thumb curled around the cigar to take it out of his mouth as he said, “Sis, I’m sorry. I’ve been a selfish shit my whole life. I want to be a good person for once, but I’m not sure I even know how. I don’t know if this is the right thing to do, but I feel it’s a good thing to do. I think this will help your wounds to heal. I got you and Chris, mom and dad and Kev, into this shit. I can at least get the two of you out of it. I love you, Liz.”
Elizabeth wept, her whole body trembling.
Gord looked over at me and smiled. “I’ve never been good with women. Understatement of the century, I know. Sorry I got you into this shit, Chris. Take care of my baby sister.”
I nodded, my eyes burning, throat filled with sand. “I will. I love you, Gordy.”
“Love you too, buddy.”
We hugged through the window as Elizabeth got out of the truck and ran around the hood to embrace her brother. Looked up at him with tear-stained eyes.
“We can all escape. Your wounds will heal. You don’t have to do this.”
He wedged the cigar into the corner of his mouth. “Yeah I do. You’re the last of our family. You need to be free. This is freedom…for all of us.”
He flipped a glove, palm up, and showed me the Zippo he had stolen from one of the gas station stores, clasped between his thumb and the rest of the glove. Winked at me.
“Light me up, would ya, buddy?”
I took the lighter and flicked up a flame. He puffed the stogie to life.
“Time to go bear hunting,” he said between puffs.
He strolled away with a beaming smile. Elizabeth hung onto my door, so I got out to wrap my arm around her, held her close as we watched Gord walk down the middle of the street.
Two pools of gasoline had grown from either gas station bay to meet in the main intersection of town. Gord stopped his shoes in the pool.
Yelled at the bear, “Come on, bitch! Your old hubby needs some good lovin’!”
The bear sniffed the air, surrounded by the sweet stench of gasoline, distinguishing the smell of a human being—prey—within the fumes. Gord waited patien
tly.
Venus roared and reared up onto her hind legs, towering over Gord. We could see puffs of smoke rise off the crown of his head and sail away. The pool swelled to slip under the bear’s paws. Gord took a few more puffs, then let the cigar drop off his lips.
Fire climbed the bear, swallowed her, plumes of flame bursting off both upraised arms. Her head burned blue and white, black smoke billowing from her mouth as she howled out the last of her rage.
Blue fire shot out like tracer bullets to either side of where Gord stood. Rushed into either gas station, erupted forests of flame framing the road.
Explosions from either side of the intersection burst across the street and wiped away two lives. Thick smoke rose from towering flames, fuel pouring and pouring from activated pumps which wouldn’t be turned off until all of the gas was gone.
We drove away, Elizabeth shuddering as she wept, me with a blank stare seeing nothing but the unending road, a problem tickled at the back of my brain. But I was in too much shock and sorrow to contemplate it fully.
The bear had only one eye.
— | — | —
Epilogue
We broke into the houses of the town and stole money. No one was home, of course. Stole credit cards and found the driver’s license of a woman who looked close enough to Elizabeth. We headed East by train and weren’t followed.
Elizabeth and I did what we could to repair the damage done, helping each other over months and years. We tried to forget, though that was impossible. The nightmares came, and we held onto each other until they faded. A ringing phone would make us jump. We couldn’t watch television—all the sound and fury from the idiot box, the death and destruction that occurred around the world every day reminded us of how mad the whole world was. Not a corner of it was sane; there was madness everywhere. It would always exist, so we needed to escape from it for a long time.
