by Bryan Smith
His mouth pressed against her ear. “Listen to me, girl,” he whispered. “I don’t want to hurt you. I know I probably look like a maniac, but that’s only because I’ve had a really bad day.” More like a really bad six months, but who was counting? “Help me hide and we won’t have any problems.”
She struggled in his grip, and he wound his hand tighter in her hair, eliciting a small cry of pain. He felt bad about it, but he didn’t really have a choice. “Christ, what’s wrong with you?” His voice was a more insistent whisper. “I’m the one with the knife, little missy, so knock it off.”
He felt something rubbing against his ankle and looked down to see the kitten staring up at them. “Piss off, furball.”
The girl went rigid in his grip and hissed at him again. Eddie’s gaze went back to the kitten, which was still watching him with those creepy yellow eyes. A plan began to formulate in his head. He saw instantly it was his only hope, albeit a thin one. He released the girl and picked up the kitten, placing the knife at its puny neck. The girl whirled around and gaped at him in horror.
Eddie tensed for a moment as he heard voices in the hallway, getting closer by the moment, and he briefly believed his desperate run to freedom had reached the endgame stage. The voices grew louder. They were right outside the door. Then they were moving away down the hallway, growing dimmer.
Eddie released the breath he’d been holding.
“Okay,” he said, still keeping his voice low. “Here’s the deal. I don’t mean you or the kitty harm. I only want out of here. Help me hide out awhile, maybe even find a way to get me out of this place, and you won’t have to call PETA on me.” But now a measure of menace entered his voice. “Then again, fuck me over and furball gets skewered.” He turned the kitten’s face toward her. “Got it?”
Her eyes narrowed, became thin slits of rage, but she nodded.
“Good.”
Eddie looked around the room. It was dominated by a large four-poster bed with a heavy canopy of lavender velvet. In a corner next to it was a full-length oval mirror on a swivel stand. There was a chest of drawers and a vanity. He supposed he could hide under the bed, but the thought made him feel claustrophobic. He peeked inside the bathroom. He saw a Jacuzzi, a shower stall, and a lot of ornate fixtures.
He stepped all the way into the bathroom, peeked around the door, and saw a closet large enough to house an immigrant family. Eddie returned to the bedroom, glanced around one more time, and this time glimpsed the coiled cat-o’-nine-tails on the bedspread. The girl followed his gaze, smiled when she saw what he was looking at, and raised a lascivious eyebrow at him.
Eddie shuddered. “Think again. I got drawn in that way last time, didn’t I? One minute you’re playing a kinky game, the next you’re trussed up on a rack with clamps on your privates.”
The girl shrugged.
“Look, I know you’re one of them, but my gut tells me there’s a tiny uncorrupted corner of your soul. I think maybe your heart’s not as black and twisted as the other sick fuckers here. You know why I think that?”
The girl shook her head, a hint of a smirk appearing at one corner of her mouth.
But Eddie was undaunted. “Because you care whether this thing lives or dies. Hey, I still only trust you about as far as I can bowl you, but I think there’s a chance I’ll be okay as long as I’ve got your little friend.” He sighed. “And, fuck it, I’m about out of other options. I’ll hide in your closet for a bit. I guess they’ll be looking for me soon, but I’m willing to bet you could convince them I’m not here. Am I right?”
The girl appeared to think about it a moment, then nodded.
“Great.” Eddie edged toward the bathroom. “Now you think about what I told you. Come up with a way to get me out of here. We can talk about it-” Eddie frowned. “Shit. Do you have paper and something to write with?”
She nodded again.
“Good.” He stepped into the bathroom. “Say good night to kitty? He gazed again into her cold, calculating eyes. “And keep thinking about what might happen if you double-cross me. Think about kitty guts spilling on the floor.”
The kitten meowed softly.
The girl stared a plea at him.
“Don’t worry,” Eddie said, strangely compelled to offer reassurance. “He’ll be fine. Good night, now.”
He walked into the closet and pulled the door shut. A row of long dresses hung from a rail. He slipped behind them, feeling their silky smoothness brush his bare torso. Then he arranged himself in a dark corner of the floor, held the kitten close, and cooed at it.
It watched him with its strangely luminescent eyes.
Shane Wallace liked to think of himself as a guy’s guy. The kind of hearty slab of macho attitude lesser men aspired to be like. An object of envy. A stud whose mere presence in a room got the ladies purring with desire. His days as a star running back at his high school were a decade in the past, but his body still looked cut from granite. Female heads turned wherever he went, a phenomenon that might have been an ego-booster had his ego ever been in need of boosting.
Such was not the case.
Shane Wallace wasn’t just about surface shit, though. Sure, he liked his chicks hot, but he wasn’t a shallow bastard. He was really a deep kind of guy. Sensitive but stoic, the way a real man should be-like Mel Gibson in the movies. A guy you could count on. He was a strong shoulder to cry on for the girls, a dependable drinking buddy to his male friends. He was the kind of guy you wanted on your side when life was fucking you in the ass. He often thought he would make a good movie hero. Hell, he had the looks, was quick with the one-liners, popular with the ladies, and he was-in his not even remotely humble opinion-definitely heroic.
So he was having a great deal of difficulty reconciling this deeply held self-image with his current predicament-hiding behind a tree and squatting bare-assed with his pants down around his ankles while people around him screamed and called out his name. Well, there was only one person calling his name, and he was pretty sure that voice belonged to Karen. It had that familiar grating quality about it.
That lying slut.
“Fuck,” he breathed.
Incredible.
A guy gets his guts ripped out by a girl he really does kinda care about, an experience without parallel in his past, and the bitch doesn’t even have the grace to allow him to do his business in peace. The indignity of it all made him fume.
Why would a foxy number like Karen bump uglies with a doof like Chad Robbins?
It offended his sense of order in the universe.
Basic rule of existence No. 1: Hot chicks don’t fuck nerds.
With the obvious exception of software billionaires.
Besides, girls didn’t cheat on Shane Wallace. Ever. Karen’s transgression was utterly without precedent in the long and varied history of his sexual conquests. Sure, he’d fooled around on every babe he’d ever boned, but that was different. Guys were allowed. They were slaves to what his old buddy Steve Wade, the captain of the SHS football team, used to call the “random jism-dispensation imperative.” Guys, in other words, were impelled by biology to spread their seed far and wide.
Girls had no such excuse.
Therefore, cheating was okay for guys but not for girls.
What could be more obvious?
A girl like Karen, well, you just couldn’t respect her, could you?
He glanced down at his still half-engorged member and experienced a rare flash of shame. Well, it just wouldn’t do to be caught flogging the dolphin by that pack of estrogen carriers. He got to his feet and pulled his pants up, pulling the zipper taut over his wilting erection. Resentment promptly displaced embarrassment.
It was their fault this was happening.
Karen’s friends were just too hot. He’d spent the bulk of the vacation and the long trip back thinking about what he would like to do to them. Oh, he thought they were ignorant, politically correct bitches, but he longed to bone one of them. Or both. That was the im
age that had pushed him over the edge, a vivid fantasy of being double-teamed by the blond bitch and her black friend. He’d spent the last hour of the ride staring at Dream’s bare shoulders and slender neck, exposed as they were in the orange tank top. Then Dream had her little meltdown and he’d unexpectedly been presented the opportunity to release some spare sperm.
Feigning more emotional trauma at Chad’s revelation than he really felt, he’d ventured into the woods, wandering a little farther out than necessary, just to ensure he wouldn’t be caught in the act. He figured he needed maybe five minutes, then the deed would be done. Things were going great for a couple of minutes. He was imagining the black bitch going down on him while Dream rubbed her sizable tits in his face. Then all hell broke loose.
Somebody-a woman, from the sound of it-was in a world of hurt somewhere deeper in the woods. There’d only been the one scream from that direction, and there was something ominous about that. There’d also been a flurry of movement in the vicinity, a wild rustling of leaves and branches-the sound of something enormous stomping about. Its location was hard to pinpoint-not that he felt particularly compelled to find it anyway, especially since whatever was making the goddamn racket had probably done something unspeakable to elicit the scream he’d heard.
Shane frowned, realizing this was the kind of sound a movie hero would investigate without hesitation-and without any apparent thought given to personal safety.
He thought about inbred backwoods psychos with hunting knives.
Okay, fuck the hero shit.
It was high time he was gone from this creepy-ass place. The decision made, he moved in the direction of the street, his mind already hard at work conjuring up a good story to cover up his cowardice.
From the sound of things, that wouldn’t be too hard. There was a lot of noise emanating from a place directly ahead of him. Karen screaming again. The shrill cunt. Christ, but breaking up with her was long overdue. She was a good-looking broad, but maybe he was done with his Asian phase.
Maybe he’d get himself a blond girlfriend next.
A flaky little bitch like Dream.
Or maybe even Dream herself.
Sure, why not-she was vulnerable enough now.
Shane was so lost in self-absorption and sexual obsession that he didn’t really hear the sound of snapping branches until the creature emerged from the shadows and stood before him. It was huge, maybe eight feet tall, and covered with matted, shaggy fur.
Dog, he thought, genetic mutant big-ass dog.
But, no, there was something decidedly lupine about this creature. …
“Holy crap.” The words popped out of him unbidden. “A fucking werewolf.”
The creature bared its fangs and snarled.
Shane staggered backward, stumbled over a rock, and collided with a tree. He leaned against the tree while the creature slowly approached. He knew he should run, but at the moment the whole of his mental and physical resources were occupied with the task of keeping him upright. But he was failing even at that-his legs shook beyond his ability to control, and he began to slide down the tree. As the creature got closer, he discerned a splash of fresh blood in its fur. Shane thought immediately of the mystery woman and figured her goose was cooked.
As was his own, he realized.
The creature loomed over Shane now, causing his nose to wrinkle at its horrid breath. The thing smelled as if it gargled with raw sewage. He stared up at its long snout, wincing as huge droplets of saliva splashed on his face. The teeth, of which there were so many, looked like rows of jagged knives. Its yellow eyes glowed faintly in the dark. Shane mumbled a genuinely contrite prayer as the beast slowly lowered its massive head toward his throat.
Then deliverance seemed to arrive in the form of Karen’s nearby voice. Funny, now it sounded like the voice of an angel. An angel of mercy. The creature’s head jerked around at the sound of approaching footsteps.
A voice whispered in Shane’s head: Run, dummy.
He had to do it. This moment of distraction might be the only chance he got to redeem himself. Suddenly full of religion, he swore to God he would be a better human being if only He got him out of this. Not only that, he would do his damnedest to make amends with Karen, who really wasn’t so bad a chick at all, and-
“SHANE!” Karen was closer than ever.
There were other voices, too.
Her friends, admonishing her to be careful and slow down.
Fuck that.
This was it, baby, movie hero time.
Shane felt the strength and power return to his athlete’s body, slamming back into him like a dose of lightning. He got to his feet and charged past the startled creature, running for daylight-figuratively, this being night-just like his glory days on the gridiron. He felt a moment of pure triumph and laughed, knowing he had won.
But then the beast was upon him.
Slashing and drawing blood. The ground rushed toward him. There was a thud. Everything went black.
Dream recoiled as Karen screamed and launched herself off the ground. She backed into Chad, who grunted and gripped her shoulder to stop her. Alicia swept past her and approached Karen, who was wild-eyed and on the verge of hyperventilating. Dream was shocked by the sight of her disheveled and obviously terrified friend.
Alicia laid a tentative hand on Karen’s shoulder. “Hey, girl, calm down. Take a deep breath and tell me what happened here. You see your man out here?”
“No.” Karen started backing away from them. “You heard the scream. Something happened to him.” A note of pleading entered her voice. “We’ve got to find him.” She sobbed. “You’ve got to help me.”
Alicia gripped her shoulder tighter. “Whoa, hold on. We heard the scream, sure, but I’ll tell you right now that wasn’t Shane Wallace.”
“It was obviously the sound of a female in distress,” Chad chimed in.
Alicia’s gaze never wavered from Karen. “Much as it pains me to agree with dickhead here, he’s right. The boy wouldn’t acknowledge pain that way. He’d be cursing up a storm.”
“The forest primeval would resound with ‘fuckers,’ ‘motherfuckers.’ and all the usual variations thereof,” Chad added.
This did little to calm Karen. “But you didn’t see that… that thing.”
Alicia frowned. “What are you talking about, sweetie?”
Agitation showed in Karen’s restless eyes. “I tripped over a rock.” She pointed to a spot near Dream and Chad. They were standing in a small circle of moonlight between the trees, a space just large enough to qualify as a clearing. “Knocked myself woozy. I wasn’t out, but everything went fuzzy for a minute. There was… something. Something big.” Terror edged back into her voice as she described what happened. “Something that wasn’t a man. Something that wasn’t even human. But it walked on two legs like a man. It was … it was …”
She started to sob again.
Chad quietly hummed the familiar notes of the X-Files theme.
Dream successfully resisted an impulse to ram an elbow into his stomach, but she wrenched her shoulder free of his grip and approached the other women. “Karen, what did this thing look like?”
Chad snorted. “You can’t be taking her seriously.”
Alicia said, “Ignore him.”
Frustration showed in Karen’s eyes. “I don’t know. I didn’t see it so much as sense it.” She sniffled. “Everything was shadows, shapes. But I could feel it standing over me. I could sense how big it was. And I could smell its breath. Oh, God …” She put a hand to her mouth. “I can’t tell you how awful that smell was.”
They all heard Chad’s exaggerated sigh. “Oh, Christ. So what we’re really talking about here is a tall hermit who hasn’t brushed his teeth in ten years. A deranged former Harlem Globetrotter, maybe. But we’re certainly not talking about, what, a monster?” He sneered at them. “Karen, do you realize how insane that sounds?”
Dream breathed a weary sigh. “You’re neither needed nor wante
d here, Chad. In fact, I’d appreciate it if you’d go back to the car and wait while we sort things out with Karen.” An alien flicker of cruelty stirred within her, causing her to speak before she could reconsider the harshness of her words. “You heartless piece of shit. Somehow you got to be as ugly inside as you are outside.”
Dream winced at the sharp intake of breath from Alicia. She was instantly horrified at the sound of her own voice. That wasn’t her speaking those hurtful, terrible words. It couldn’t be. And, oh, how the tables had suddenly turned. A tide of shame welled within her. “I’m sorry, Chad.”
But the damage had been done.
Chad looked away from her. His chin trembled. “See, girls. Maybe this is why I’ve spurned her all these years, the monster lurking beneath the pretty exterior. Maybe I knew it was there all along.” His voice broke. “Good-bye, Dream. I’m out of here.”
He spun around, stepped back through the line of trees, and disappeared from view.
Dream’s heart lurched. “Chad-“
“Let him go.” Alicia’s voice was stern. “The sheer quantity of dysfunction is making me dizzy. He’s been goading you all night. You snapped and said something out of character. Let it go at that. We’ve more important things to tend to.”
Dream met Alicia’s unwavering gaze, derived some strength from it, and nodded. “Okay, what now?”
“We find Shane.” Karen’s voice was insistent, rife with impatience. “He could be hurt. He could be dead.”
She made a move to plunge again into the gloom, but Alicia restrained her. “Hold on. Let’s do this right this time. There a flashlight in your car, Dream?”
Dream nodded. “In the glove compartment.”
“Go get it, girl.” Alicia held Karen’s gaze. “We’ll go find your man when she gets back, okay?”
Dream moved in the direction of the road.
