by Hunter Shea
Once she had settled down, wondering how she’d gotten inside, her husband lay next to her, pulling her close. He smelled terrible – a mix of body odor and rust. It reminded her partly of her grandfather’s cramped workspace in the basement: old tools, open tubes of grease and oil, paint cans, and bits of projects to be done filling every corner.
Inching away, she saw all the blood. His clothes were covered in it.
“Is it…?”
He cupped her face in his hand. “No.”
“Then whose blood is it?”
“Let’s focus on you first. How are you feeling? You’re way overdue for your medication. I’ll get it for you.”
She snagged his shirt, preventing him from getting off the mattress. Her body might crave her medication (He didn’t know just how overdue she was. Years of being on opioids had made her an addict by the dictionary definition. She was feeling strange and jittery, a desperate clawing need tearing her guts to ribbons), but she wouldn’t take a thing until she got some answers.
Looking around the empty room, she said, “What happened to my shoulder? Where are Ryker and Nikki?”
Andrew paled, his mouth opening but no words coming out. His eyes glimmered with tears.
Impossibly, the pain in Kate’s chest got worse. “No. They’re both…gone?”
Before he could answer, she heard footsteps, then Nikki’s voice. “Only your brother.”
“Nikki!”
Kate felt the room spin out of control. Not Ryker. Not her dear, good-hearted brother.
Her sister-in-law was a walking nightmare. The only things not red with dried blood were the whites of her eyes. Her hair had clumped together like dreadlocks.
When she saw Kate’s eyes roving over her body, she said, “This is all I have left of him. Well, in here at least. His body is on the steps out back. At least I think it is. Not sure where his head went. I was too busy getting showered in his blood as it cascaded from where his head had been. Funny thing, that. When it happens, you tend not to notice the big things…or the little things. Did you know blood burns when you get it in your eyes? Maybe not a drop or two, but when you take a liter to the face, it fucking burns. It burns like hell, Katy.”
“Nikki,” Andrew said.
“She wanted to know, Andy. Didn’t you, Katy? I may have lost a lot today, but not my hearing.”
Andrew flashed a warning look Nikki’s way. Something had been going on between them while Kate was out, and it obviously wasn’t pleasant. Why was Nikki being like this? With Ryker dead, Nikki should have been leaning on Andrew, not being angry and aggressive.
“Not now, Nikki. Let me get her what she needs.”
Nikki’s arm had been behind her back the entire time. She swung it forward so they could see Kate’s mason jar of pills in her palm. “Are you looking for this?”
Buttons gave a low warning growl. Even he could sense the change in Nikki.
“Yes,” Andrew said, his tone level, empty. “Can I please have it?”
Kate was afraid to speak.
“Anything to help our dear Katy,” Nikki said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
As Andrew got up to take the jar from her, she cocked her arm back and threw it against the wall. It shattered into hundreds of pieces, pills flying everywhere.
Buttons skittered away from the rain of glass and pills, yapping.
“Come here, Buttons,” Kate said, hooking her fingers under his collar. The act of moving sent waves of fire rippling from her damaged shoulder down her left arm. Kate bit her lip until it bled, fighting through the agony. She didn’t want Buttons walking around and getting glass stuck in his paws. She’d lost her brother (and all the good parts of her sister-in-law…the poor woman had lost it). She wasn’t going to see her beloved dog hurt if she could help it.
“Why the hell did you do that?” Andrew screamed, running up to Nikki and stopping just short of bumping chests.
Nikki snarled. “Because she killed him! She killed Ryker and she won’t stop there!”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, I think I do. That thing is a part of her. You’re the one who showed us that. She didn’t even try to stop it. She just did her fainting act and let it tear Ryker’s fucking head off!”
It was like a punch to her already roiling stomach. Kate wrapped her arms around a squirming Buttons. What was Nikki talking about?
“How could she have done anything if she wasn’t even conscious? Tell me that?” Andrew was shouting now, his shoulders heaving.
“I don’t fucking know! But I do know that whatever they have between them must work both ways.” Nikki wasn’t backing down. In fact, she inched even closer. They were practically nose to nose.
“What is everyone talking about?” Kate said. “What’s a part of me? How…how could I possibly have killed Ryker? Or stopped it? Please, somebody tell me.”
If she had been on the edge of madness before, she felt she was dangerously close to stepping right into the maelstrom and never coming back. How could Nikki blame her for Ryker’s death? It was insane. Impossible! No one loved him more than Kate. Not even Nikki.
“Tell her,” Nikki said, her voice eerily calm. “Go on, Andy.”
He turned to her, looking more worried and exhausted than any human being had ever been. It was a wonder he even had the strength to argue with her.
“Please,” Kate said, unsuccessfully trying to hold back her tears.
Andrew sank to his knees beside the mattress, reaching out for her good hand.
“Your shoulder,” he said in a rasp.
She glanced at the white sling and the odd angle of her shoulder.
“Did I break it when I fell?”
“No.” He looked to be on the verge of tears. “It happened when your brother attacked the monster. He…he hit it in the shoulder with the ax handle. You and it screamed at the same time, and then your shoulder was…was caved in.”
Kate’s skin started to crawl. “But…how?”
“We don’t know. Before that happened, you grabbed your chest. That’s when the creature stopped as well and doubled over. It’s what allowed Ryker the chance to hit it and for me to get away. He was going to smash it in the head when I stopped him. The handle only grazed it. And…and at that moment, a wound opened up on your head.”
Nikki grabbed a dining room chair and sat. “Ryker could have killed it then. He could be with us right now.”
Andrew didn’t take his eyes off Kate. “Ryker was sick. When that thing tore him up, it infected him. There was nothing we could have done to save him. Ryker knew it too. But if I’d allowed him to finish what he started, you’d both be gone now.” He held up his hand, shushing her. “I know how inconceivable it sounds, but in my heart, I know it’s true.”
Kate didn’t know how to process this. It was hard enough thinking straight through the thickening fog of pain. This…this was just too much.
“Have you noticed how Buttons doesn’t give a fig about your monster?” Nikki said. She crossed her right leg over her left, the caked-on blood crackling. “It’s because he’s known all along that beast is you.”
“I can’t believe that,” Kate said.
Had Andrew and Nikki utterly lost their minds? It was very plausible, considering what they’d been through.
“It’s not up for debate,” Nikki said. “I bet your friend is still out there. I’m sure it would be happy to see you.” She got up from the chair, knocking it backward.
“Nikki, don’t!” Andrew said.
She ran to the back door and ripped the blanket down.
Kate shrieked, backpedaling in the bed to get as far away as possible.
The creature’s sick eyes grew wide when it saw her.
“Get the gun, Andrew!” she shouted.
Instead of
scrambling for the rifle, Andrew laid his arm over her chest. Her destroyed shoulder brushed against his arm and she saw stars.
“Kate, it’s not going to come in,” he said, his tone not quite matching the words. It was plain to her that he was nervous he could be wrong. Oh, how she wanted him to be wrong.
“Then kill it!”
“I can’t, Kate. I can’t.”
Nikki stepped away from the door. “Take a look at its shoulder, Katy.”
She had turned away, unable to face the grisly vision in the doorway. It was beyond horrible in the light of day. Monsters were only for the night. They were never supposed to walk during the daytime.
Monsters aren’t supposed to be real no matter what time of day, she reminded herself.
“Katy, I said look!”
She did.
The creature’s left shoulder was in the shape of a U, the impression of the axe handle impossible to miss. She looked at her own matching indentation on her left shoulder. The pain suddenly seemed worse than ever.
Why wasn’t it breaking through the glass? Why was it staring at them like that?
“You see?” Nikki said. “Twinsies.” A cruel smile curled her lips.
The gore-covered woman had endured what no person should ever suffer, and there was no coming back.
“What the hell is the matter with you?” Andrew said, getting up and retrieving the blanket. He tried to put it back over the door, but Nikki just wrenched it back down.
“I want her to see.”
“Why? Aren’t things bad enough?”
She slowly shook her head. “I don’t think Katy’s fully convinced.”
Kate barely had time to scream when Nikki lunged onto the mattress. Her sister-in-law grabbed the middle finger of Kate’s hand that was in the sling and bent it back until it made the sound of a walnut cracking.
Kate wailed in pain, her body gone painfully stiff, as if she’d just grabbed a live wire. Andrew grabbed Nikki and flung her across the room.
“Why did you do that?” he shouted.
Kate’s cries devolved into a silent, racking sob.
Nikki lay on the floor, staring at the door, laughing. Andrew hurled every curse he could at her, but the smile grew wider and wider.
Kate stared in horror at her finger. It was bent all the way back, lying flat against the back of her hand.
When her eyes rose to meet those of the creature outside, she understood.
She saw pain in those eyes.
And the middle finger on its left hand was snapped back.
* * *
As Andrew yelled at Nikki, Buttons stood beside him, barking at her continuously, thick ropes of spittle splashing on the floor. The beagle’s lips curled back, teeth clacking.
Andrew had never been so mad at another human being before. Even though she was obviously out of her head, he still wanted to choke her to stop her laughter. Or at the very least, slap the lopsided grin off her face.
“It’s true,” Kate said.
He spun around and saw her gaping at the diseased abomination. Its finger was also broken. He’d hoped he had misinterpreted the situation all along (because to fully accept it would pull the rug out from under all of his beliefs), but there was no second-guessing now.
Perhaps Nikki had done exactly what needed to be done so there were no more doubts for any of them.
No! She hurt Kate and thinks it’s a fucking joke!
“Welcome to the real world, Katy,” Nikki said between her sputtering laughter. “Now, why don’t you tell it to take a nice little swim so we can get the hell out of here?”
Kate cowered on the bed. “I…I…I…”
She shivered uncontrollably. Andrew covered her with his body. Her fever was back. Sweat leaked from every pore.
“How?” she muttered over and over. He wished he had an answer. Maybe if he knew, he could figure out how to disentangle them.
He looked over to see Buttons standing guard over Nikki, still barking, still mad as hell at her for attacking Kate.
“I don’t know what that is. You have to believe me. I didn’t make it come here,” she said, blubbering.
“I know you didn’t, honey. There’s no way you could have.”
“I would never do anything to hurt my brother.”
Andrew recalled Ryker saying the same thing about his sister outside, when he had a chance to take the creature down.
When Kate attempted to shift her body, she leaned against her ruined shoulder. She howled, Buttons matching her cry. Andrew was so close to helpless panic, he feared he’d be just as lost as Nikki soon.
“Let me at least get you something for the pain,” he said, slipping into caregiver mode. It had oddly become his comfort zone over the years. Caring for Kate’s needs gave him purpose. Being able to provide the small things – feeding her in bed, making sure she took her medication on time, helping her shower, changing her sheets and propping her pillows – they were the only things he could control, making him feel less impotent when he thought of the larger issues that were well out of his hands.
She couldn’t answer him through her tears and pain.
He searched the floor for the right pills. He palmed three and wobbled to the kitchen on anesthetized legs.
“I’ll get you a soda. You want a soda?”
The unreality of their reality was overwhelming.
Just keep your shit together and focus on Kate.
How many times had he said that when things got bad at work or when he looked at their medical bills and wondered how in the name of God they were ever going to pay them. It was always focus on Kate. The rest was never as important as it seemed. Bills were not life or death. What Kate faced on a daily basis was. There were less shitty ways of gaining perspective, but it was the only way he knew.
The horror outside their door followed him with its impenetrable yellow eyes.
It was coupled with Kate, and even though he knew she loved him, this monstrosity did not. It would tear him in two the second he stepped outside. Of that he was sure. It glared at him, daring him to slide that door open.
When he tried to give Kate her pills, she knocked them out of his hand, as well as the can of soda. It spilled all over the mattress.
“Kate, it’s going to help you,” he said, sopping up the mess with a throw pillow.
“Nothing’s going to help me,” she said, her eyes closed tight, her face a rictus of agony.
“She’s right about that,” Nikki murmured.
“Shut your fucking mouth,” Andrew snapped. “Or I’ll throw you outside with that thing!”
She arched an eyebrow, the wicked smile returning. “Oh, finish what the wife started, eh? Brilliant.”
When he jumped to his feet, Kate said, “Stop. Leave her be. She’s…she’s not right.”
Andrew was seething, but he had to fight his impulses.
“I’m not right, she’s not right, you’re not right,” Nikki said. She looked fixedly at the beast. “Ryker sure as hell isn’t right. I think the only one that has any sense left is the dog. And he’s not about to tell us what to do, are you, you little mongrel?”
“Shut your mouth.”
She glanced at him defiantly. “Or you’ll throw me to the big bad wolf? Stop being such a sodding wanker and lie down with your wife, Andy. Feed her her pills and pretend that you’ll make it all go away. That’s what you want to do, isn’t it? Well, you could never save her, and you sure as shite can’t save her now.”
Andrew saw red.
Kate attempted to grab his pants leg but he pulled away.
“Face it. We’re never getting out of here. That’s what it wants us to know. That’s why it’s standing there like some kind of fucking gargoyle. We…can never…leave. Not me, not you, and especially not Katy.”
“I need you to cut it out now,” he said.
“Or what? Are you going to hit a grieving widow?”
“Andrew, just leave her be,” Kate said. She sounded so lost and afraid, it only fueled his anger at his sister-in-law.
Nikki looked at them with disgust and turned away from the doors and the abomination that had killed her husband. She walked to the kitchen, where he hoped she would at least attempt to wash the blood from her face.
Instead, she pulled the cork from a bottle of wine and drank it straight from the bottle.
Adding drunkenness to madness would not be an ideal combination, but her momentary silence was more than golden to Andrew – it was platinum. If she had kept going on, he wasn’t sure how much longer he would have been able to control himself. Widow or not, family or not, he’d had enough.
Focus on Kate.
Her face was buried in Buttons’ side.
“Can you please cover it?” she asked.
When he turned to hook the blanket over the doors, the monster was gone.
Where the hell is it now?
She hadn’t seen that it had left, so he quickly reaffixed the blanket, blotting out the yard and lake that looked so normal, so pristine, if only he didn’t look down and see the bloodstains on the porch. He wondered if the old couple’s bodies were still floating on the lake or if someone had found them by now.
If they had been discovered, he would hear sirens.
It was as if everyone around the lake had left them to the wild demon, only returning once it finished them off.
“Is it covered?” Kate said.
Her voice pulled him back.
“Yes. You can’t see it now.”
He threw a quick look at Nikki, who was too busy drinking to say something cruel or upsetting.
“Can you please hold me? I’m so scared.”
Andrew had to nudge Buttons aside so he could enfold his wife in his arms. She felt as fragile as a newly hatched egg and as hot as an omelet.
