Monster

by Barbara Steiner

  “You sure?”

  “Of course I’m sure. Do you see me going out every night with someone else? I’m either working or studying or — well, now, we have this to worry about.”

  “We don’t have to worry about Jerry’s monster.”

  For a minute it wasn’t Jerry’s monster she was worried about. She was seeing a bit of a monster in the guy she’d been going with for four years.

  “Yes, we do, David. Jerry’s our friend.” Abby pulled away and went to where they’d planned to meet.

  Jerry had taken charge. “Okay guys, now we’ll walk over to Vinnie’s but we’ll go by the woods where I was attacked last night. I don’t think this thing will come out with all of us there, so let’s stay together.”

  “Did anyone find anything?” Abby asked.

  Sissy giggled. “We didn’t, did we, Martin?”

  In the reflected glow from their flashlights, Martin’s face appeared flushed. “No monsters,” he said.

  “Well, I did.” Abby retrieved her prize.

  “Oh, disgusting,” Gina said. Everyone tried to see the bunch of coarse fur at the same time.

  “I’ll pass it around. But be careful with it. Keep it on the tissue instead of handling it a lot.” Abby sniffed the hair before she let Jerry take it. “It does smell musty, like a damp basement.”

  “I pass,” Lenny said, when the tissue got to him. “I don’t have to see or smell that again.” He had been quiet the whole evening, surely reliving the horrifying night when he was the first victim.

  “Let me have it.” David stretched out his hand. “I’ll take it into the lab tomorrow and see if I can identify it.”

  “Can you do that?” Sissy asked.

  “Of course. Every animal’s hair is different. This may belong to a bunny rabbit.” David grinned at Sissy.

  “Pretty tall rabbit, David,” Abby said. “Remember I pulled it off of the top limb of that bush.” She hated to trust anyone with what she’d found, but if she couldn’t trust David, who could she trust?

  They enjoyed the walk across campus. Then they entered the woods behind Nightmare Hall. The woods where Jerry said he was dragged and clawed.

  “I think we should split into pairs and search,” Sissy suggested. “We can cover a lot more ground.”

  Abby didn’t like the idea. She suspected that Sissy wanted more time alone with Martin. But everyone agreed with Sissy.

  “You come with us, Lenny,” Jerry invited. “You and I know what to look for.”

  The woods seemed bigger, darker, denser at night. Jerry must have been really tired to take this shortcut by himself. Most of the trees had leafed out, but a few still stretched bare, skeleton fingers toward the sky.

  Abby entered the woods to circle counterclockwise, thinking David was behind her. She heard footsteps for a short time. Then she realized she no longer heard anything. Swinging around, she found she was alone.

  “David?” She listened. “David, where are you?” Why was she whispering? “David!” she called louder.

  No one. No sound except the echo of her own voice.

  There. To the left. She strained her ears. It seemed as if she heard voices. Without looking down, she set off in that direction.

  Wet moss covered the makeshift path she followed. Before she could put her left foot down, her right skidded. She fell, hard. Sharp pain pierced her ankle as she landed on it.

  “Oh, no.” She tried to get up but her hands landed on the same wet, spongy ground, and slipped away from her.

  For a couple of seconds she sat there, angry and feeling sorry for herself. Where was David? Why had he left her alone? If she couldn’t hear anyone, then no one could hear her.

  “David!” She yelled as loud as she could. “Jerry! Gina? Someone. Anyone?”

  Trying not to cry, she pulled herself to her feet, actually onto her right foot, gingerly trying the left. Maybe it wasn’t hurt badly. She could hobble until she found someone. She had to run into someone sooner or later … didn’t she?

  But what if she ran into …

  No. She couldn’t think about that.

  Abby limped, cried out, limped again. Her second attempt wasn’t quite so painful. Her ankle was sprained, but not badly. She might walk it off.

  Hobbling as best she could, holding on to trees and the tips of bushes, she got back to drier ground. But still she saw no lights, heard no voices.

  Where was her flashlight? Suddenly she realized she didn’t have it. Thinking only of being able to stand up, she’d limped away, leaving it where it had landed when she fell. She couldn’t go back down there and look for it. Her only thought now was to get out of these dark, creepy woods.

  Abby bit her lip and tried to think, but her heart was pounding and her breathing was ragged. She had to calm down.

  David was probably looking for her. It wouldn’t be long before he realized they’d been separated. He should already have realized it.

  Unless … Unless.…

  Maybe he’d gone back to the group to see if Abby was with them. But what if he thought she could take care of herself? That she wanted to be on her own?

  “David?” She tried again, but she had trouble forcing her voice out around the lump swelling in her throat.

  Then she heard the soft rustle of someone — or something — on the path behind her.

  “David?” She swallowed — hard. “David, is that you?”

  No one answered. David would call back as soon as he heard her. Wouldn’t he?

  What if it wasn’t David …

  Chapter 9

  Just then someone stepped out of the darkness.

  “Oh, Martin!” Abby said with relief. “I was so scared.” She threw herself into Martin’s arms and started crying hysterically. “I thought — I thought —”

  “It’s okay.” He patted her back. “You’re okay. We were worried. No one knew where you’d gone. Where’s David? I thought you went off with David.”

  “I don’t know. He was behind me and then he wasn’t.” Abby hiccuped, sniffed a few times, started to gain control. Taking a tissue from her pocket, she blew her nose. “Isn’t David with all of you?” Worry crept into the corners of her mind, taking the place of anger. Maybe David hadn’t left her on purpose.

  “No, we came back together and decided we’d better look for both of you.” Martin continued to hold her close. She liked the warmth, the strength of his arms.

  “Abby, what are you doing?” David’s flashlight beam caught the two of them. Martin released Abby and stepped back.

  “David, I didn’t know where you were. And then I fell and lost my flashlight and … I sprained my ankle. I don’t know if I can walk. What happened to you?”

  “I was right behind you.”

  “You weren’t.” Anger replaced Abby’s fear. And the anger kept her from feeling guilty about David finding her in Martin’s arms. Martin had come for her. David hadn’t.

  “Maybe we’d better get back to the others,” Martin said quietly. “Can you walk, Abby, or do you want us to carry you?”

  “I can walk. But I may need some help.”

  David stepped forward and took Abby’s arm. But his touch wasn’t gentle like Martin’s had been. He was obviously still angry.

  Abby limped along, David supporting some of her weight. By the time they found their way into the clearing and beside the path where Jerry, Gina, Sissy, and Lenny waited, her ankle felt better. Not great, but better.

  She shrugged off David’s hand. “I’m okay now. I don’t need help.”

  “Abby,” Gina said. “Where were you? We thought the monster had dragged you off to his den.”

  “Yeah,” Sissy agreed. “You scared us.”

  “I scared myself,” Abby admitted. “I fell and lost my flashlight.” She didn’t say anything about David leaving her. Whether he did or not, on purpose, it felt that way.

  “I think we all need something to eat,” Martin suggested.

  “Yeah, nothing wrong
with us that a pizza won’t cure.” Jerry seconded the motion. “But we found some more monster hair, Abby. It proves I wasn’t lying like you all thought I was.”

  “Jerry, we —” Abby started.

  “Yes, you did. You thought I made up what happened last night. I swear I didn’t. And neither did Lenny. Whatever it was, it was the same beast.”

  It wasn’t that far to Vinnie’s. Abby was determined to walk there on her own. And she did. Her ankle throbbed, but her stubborn refusal of help felt good.

  She slid into a booth gratefully. David slid in beside her. Martin sat directly across, but she didn’t dare look at him. She wasn’t sure what she’d see registered on his face, but she didn’t want to know what he was thinking.

  Vinnie himself took their order. “Well, you all look like a barrel of fun. What’s going on?”

  “Have you heard about the monster on campus, Vinnie?” Lenny asked. “We’ve been looking for it.”

  “Sure. Didn’t you see the sign?” Vinnie pointed to a big homemade tagboard poster over the counter, putrid green with red lettering.

  MONSTER PIZZA. EVERYTHING ON IT. SLICED GUTS, SCRAMBLED BRAINS, EYEBALLS. THICKENED BLOOD.

  “Oh, Vinnie, that’s sick.” Gina groaned and covered her face.

  “Yep. But it’s been my most popular item all week. Want one? Or two? Transfusions of Pepsi on the house tonight.”

  “Monster Pizza? Why not?” Jerry agreed. “I’m game. We’ll start with two. And soon. We’ve been working hard.”

  “Un-huh.” Vinnie scribbled on his order pad. “And I’m going to win the fifty-yard dash next weekend in the meet.”

  They laughed, but just for Vinnie. Abby suspected no one was in the mood for humor.

  After they’d ordered, Jerry took charge of the conversation. “Okay, let’s look at what we’ve got. Two eyewitness stories of this thing. Two tufts of hair.”

  “And a partridge in a pear tree.” Sissy giggled, making Abby realize she had squeezed in on the other side of David. Why wasn’t she sitting by Martin? Gina was sitting between Martin and Jerry. Lenny had pulled a chair to the end of the table.

  Abby’s eyes met Gina’s expressive green ones. Gina raised her eyebrows but said nothing.

  “Sorry,” Sissy giggled again. “I couldn’t resist that.”

  “Try to stay in control, Sissy.” Jerry pretended to be stern. Anything but a grin on his face seemed false. “We don’t have a very accurate picture of what this thing looks like, but —”

  “Five fingers. It had five fingers,” Lenny said. “Hey, The Beast With Five Fingers. Anyone seen that movie?”

  “Peter Lorre.” Jerry lit up. “He worked for a pianist.”

  “Yeah, after the pianist died, his disembodied hand came after everyone.” Lenny leaned forward, setting his elbow down and wiggling his fingers. “Like in the Addams Family.”

  “The hand kept haunting them.” Jerry and Lenny were off. Abby looked at Gina again. She shrugged as if to say, there’s no stopping them now.

  “If nothing else comes of this night,” Abby said quietly, “Jerry and Lenny have found each other.”

  “Kindred spirits.” Martin smiled at Abby.

  “Do I have to sit by them?” Sissy asked. “I changed my mind. Maybe the rest of us could even move to a different booth.”

  The two horror movie nuts ignored the remarks and took turns shouting out movie titles. “The Beast Within.” “Curse of the Living Dead.” “Doctor Gore.” “The Vampire Lovers.” “I Was a Teenage Zombie.”

  “You were?” Gina put a stop to it. “I’m not going out with you anymore, Jerry Todd.”

  “Jerry. Lenny. Will you two guys make a date for tomorrow night?” Abby suggested. “Let’s get back to the subject at hand.”

  “And the food.” Gina elbowed Jerry to remind him that the pizzas had been delivered to their table.

  Abby felt better chewing on the crisp crust, juicy tomato sauce, and stringy cheese. She wrapped a long yellow thread of cheese over the end of her slice. “Here’s something we need to think about. Let’s say this beast is a real person by day, like the werebeasts in Lenny’s book. What would cause a person to change to a monster?”

  “A magic potion,” Sissy said.

  “Anger,” David spoke for the first time since they’d sat in the booth. Abby wondered if she should think about the subtext of his statement. Not now.

  “The person is disturbed,” Martin added.

  “Yeah, weird,” Gina put in. “Like Stan Hurley.”

  “He’s mixing some kind of magic potion in chemistry class,” Jerry said. “Have you smelled it?”

  “Several times.” Abby pretended to choke.

  “I gag every time I see him, without smelling any potion.” Sissy held her nose. “He’s really gross.”

  Abby thought of dropping a bombshell on the group by saying that Stan had sort of asked her out. But she decided that, under the circumstances, with David already out of sorts, she’d better keep that secret. Anyway, they would tease her unmercifully.

  “According to my book,” Lenny said, sipping his drink, “a person can just be unlucky enough to be born under a full moon. Kinda like on the wrong side of the tracks. There’s a story in here about a woman who marries a werebeast. She locks him out of the house on every full moon night. He goes out and sucks all the blood he needs for the month, and the next morning knocks and she lets him back in.”

  “You mean like: ‘Hi, honey, satisfied now?’ ” Gina asked.

  “Oh, that story really sucks, Lenny.” Everyone groaned. Jerry grabbed the book that Lenny had taken from a backpack at his feet. “Let me see the picture.”

  “There are some really awesome pictures in here.” Lenny opened the volume for Jerry. “Let me show you my favorite.”

  “There they go again.” Gina sighed. “We’ve lost them.”

  “What can we do?” Abby joked, feeling somewhat better in the normal setting of Vinnie’s. “They’re perfect for each other. I’m so glad I could bring them together.”

  “ ‘Matchmaker, matchmaker,’ ” Gina sang.

  While they laughed, Abby looked at Martin again. His eyes smiled at her. Did she dare think about it? Maybe he was pretending to like Sissy. Or maybe Sissy assumed he did — all the guys did, didn’t they? — and she’d been the one holding his hand, making the advances Abby had observed.

  Abby sensed an atomic explosion building in David, pressed against her because of the crowded booth. They were going to have to have a serious talk soon.

  Jealousy turned people into beasts easily. She didn’t really think her boyfriend of four years was shape shifting into a beast that attacked unsuspecting college students, but jealousy was as strong an emotion as anger, maybe stronger.

  Suddenly the pizza looked like the description on Vinnie’s sign, and she felt sick to her stomach. The blood seemed to drain from her whole body as if she’d been a vampire’s victim. The restaurant grew hot and stuffy. She had trouble taking in enough air to fill her lungs.

  “Would — would you let me out, David?” She half stood. “I — I think I’m going to be sick.”

  Once out, half standing, half leaning on the table, red-hot needles shot through her ankle, but she hobbled to the bathroom despite her pain.

  Chapter 10

  Everyone was willing to call it a night by the time Abby got back to their table. Maybe they were worried about her. Maybe the evening had been tougher on all of them than they’d realized. But everyone admitted to being tired.

  “Should we take the shuttle?” Martin asked Abby. “Or can you walk back?”

  “I’ll walk. I may be slow, but we’ll talk. And no shortcuts through the woods. Promise?”

  No one wanted to cut through the woods, so they took the long way back to the dorms. About a block from the Quad, Abby rummaged through her pockets.

  “I’ve lost my key, Gina. Do you have yours?”

  Gina started to dig in the pouch buckled around
her waist. “I may not. I never worry about it if I’m with you. You’re so reliable.” She pulled out billfold, sunglasses, tissues, comb, lipstick. “I’ve got everything except dorm keys.” Gina laughed.

  “Never mind, Abby, Gina,” Sissy said. “I have a great idea. Both of my roommates went home for the weekend. Come stay in Devereaux. We’ll have a slumber party.”

  Abby hesitated. A slumber party with Sissy was pretty far down on her list of fun things to do. And she was exhausted. Walking home had finished her off.

  Gina was more enthusiastic. “Great idea, Sissy. That’ll be fun.”

  Sissy expanded her invitation. “Everyone come in for a while. It’s not that late. I have two new CDs, plenty of drinks, and a popcorn popper. We’ll party.”

  “No party, Sissy, please,” Abby begged. “I really am beat.”

  “I have to study tomorrow,” Martin said. “I hate falling asleep in the library.”

  “No studying for me.” Jerry punched Lenny. “Lenny and I have a monster movie marathon planned. We’re going to start about three o’clock and you’re all invited. We’ll order in.”

  Abby looked at David. They had a tentative date planned. He didn’t seem to remember. “I have to study tomorrow, too,” she said. “I’ll see what time I get finished, Jerry. But I don’t know how you can take this so casually. Something really strange is going on and someone could get hurt — badly.”

  “Hey, we’re serious. We’re doing research. As soon as we review the categories for monsters, we’ll know which category our monster belongs in. That should help us catch him.”

  “Yeah,” Lenny added. “There are rules for monsters, just like there are for vampires.”

  “What if our monster doesn’t know that?” Sissy said. “Is there a union for monsters? He’ll be ostracized if he doesn’t follow regulation monster behavior?”

  The more they thought about a monster union, the funnier the idea got. At least it put them in a better mood.

  “Monster rules. I’m so sure,” Gina said as the girls reached Sissy’s suite. “You have something we can sleep in, Sissy?”