Monster

by Barbara Steiner

  “In the hospital.” Gina took the wheel, started the car, backed and swung onto the street. “Sissy called Jerry from there. She needed someone with her.”

  Jerry leaned over the backseat, put his hand on Abby’s shoulder, and squeezed it. “You know Sissy, Abby. She probably got hysterical and called an ambulance. They took David to the hospital as a precaution.”

  Abby’s mind turned to stone, stone as hard as the rock David was going to crash into in her dream. By the time they reached the hospital and Jerry helped her from the car, she felt numb all over. They steered her into the emergency entrance and up to the desk.

  The smell of antiseptic and fear surrounded her. A cart with a sheet-draped figure rattled past her, stern-faced nurses on either side, pushing. She grasped the cold counter as Jerry asked about David.

  “We’ve come to see about David Waters,” Jerry told the nurse at Admitting. “He was brought in tonight with — with — He came from the campus. I don’t know what kind of wounds he had.”

  The nurse looked at her book. “He’s in surgery. You can’t see him. But you can wait if you like.”

  Did she think they were going to turn around and go home? Abby thought. Of course, they’d wait. But Jerry and Gina had to pry her hands off the counter and push her towards an orange plastic chair.

  “I wonder where Sissy is?” Gina wondered, looking around.

  As reality hit her, Abby wished she could have stayed frozen. Her hands started to shake and she felt as if she were going to throw up.

  “I’ll get us some Cokes, Abby.” Jerry stood up, leaving Abby with Gina. “That’ll settle your stomach.”

  “Abby, get hold of yourself,” Gina ordered. “We don’t know that David’s hurt bad.”

  “He’s in surgery.”

  “If that thing scratched him, he may have had to have stitches.”

  “They don’t take you to surgery for stitches.” Abby had gotten plenty of stitches in her life. She had been clumsy even as a child.

  Two police officers followed Jerry back into the reception room.

  “What did you do, Jerry?” Gina whispered. “Steal the Cokes?” She took the red can Jerry handed her.

  Jerry looked around and grinned. “Hey, I paid for them,” he told the officers. “You’re following the wrong guy.”

  Leave it to Jerry to keep his sense of humor no matter what was happening, Abby thought.

  The dark-skinned police officer smiled and took off his hat. “I’m ready to ask you to go steal me one, too, son. This has been a busy night. Two car wrecks — now this.” He sat beside them, motioning his partner to pull up a chair. “I understand David Waters is your friend.”

  “Yes.” Abby nodded. “Do you know anything about David? Is he all right? Will he be all right?”

  “I can’t answer that right now, but I’ll try to find out for you,” said Officer Mooney, who introduced himself and Officer Rodgers, his partner.

  “What do you know about this — this — beast that Sissy King said attacked her tonight, and David later?”

  Officer Rodgers filled in as much as he knew. “We think some crazed animal jumped David. He was all scratched up. His arm is broken, but he could have fallen on it when this thing jumped him.”

  “But Miss King called it a monster and said this wasn’t the first time it had attacked someone.” Mooney took out a notebook.

  Abby looked at Jerry. “No one has been hurt badly before,” she said. “We’ve thought it was a joke, a fraternity prank, or someone trying to scare us.”

  What did she mean, trying?

  “Why hasn’t anyone called us before?” Rodgers wanted to know.

  “Officer,” Jerry said, his face serious for a change. “What would you have done if someone had called and said there was a monster attacking people at Salem University? That a pledge for Sigma Chi was attacked while spending the night at the Peabody ruins for his hazing? That I was jumped while I was cutting through the woods at about four A.M. one night?”

  Rodgers looked at Mooney, who grinned. “Well —” Mooney started to say.

  “Exactly.” Jerry stopped him. “You would never have believed us. This is the first time someone has really been hurt.”

  “And now you think it’s an animal?” Abby reminded them.

  Rodgers studied Gina, Jerry, and Abby. “You three look to be eighteen or nineteen. Do you still believe in monsters under the bed?”

  “The monster was in the woods,” Gina said with a straight face. “Not under our beds or in our closets, Officer. We’ve told you all we know. Call it whatever you like, but it would seem like you should investigate it before it kills someone.”

  Mooney looked at Rodgers and the two of them stood up.

  “I’ll report to you as soon as we know your friend’s condition,” Mooney said.

  “Thank you,” Abby said. “That’s kind of you. And can we see him?”

  “That’s not up to us.” Officer Rodgers took off for the reception desk. Mooney touched his hat with the tips of his fingers, smiled at Abby, and followed his partner.

  “The secret is out.” Jerry leaned back and sipped his Coke.

  Gina picked up an old copy of People magazine. A smiling Willard Scott stared at Abby from the TV screen in the corner. Gina flipped the pages without looking at them. “Surely they’ll believe David’s story.”

  No one said, if David can tell them. Abby wadded a tissue up in one fist and gripped the cold Coke can with the other.

  About an hour passed with no news and no sign of Sissy. If she had called Jerry wanting company, where was she now?

  Gina curled up on an empty couch and dozed off. Jerry flipped through magazine after magazine. Abby couldn’t seem to focus on anything. She watched the busy emergency room crew come and go and wondered about all the other lives unfolding around them. Anything to keep from focusing on her own. Or David’s.

  Her heart leaped though, when she spotted Officer Mooney, face grim, walking towards her.

  Chapter 14

  “I never heard a stranger story except in a grade B movie.” Officer Mooney scratched his chin. “But the nurse says you can go in to see David, Abby, since all he’s done is call your name. He’s awake, but covered with about a million stitches. They don’t want him to have any other visitors until he’s feeling stronger.”

  “I guess we’ll wait for you here, Abby,” said Gina. “Wish we could go in with you.” Gina gave Abby a sympathetic look. “Hug him for us.”

  “I will.” Abby hurried off in the direction that the nurse pointed.

  She reached the surgery waiting room just as she saw Sissy hurrying towards her. “Abby, have you heard anything? Can we go in to see David?” Sissy grabbed her arm.

  How could she tell Sissy this? In plain language. “I can, Sissy. No one else yet. But I’ll come right back and tell you what he says.”

  Sissy collapsed on a couch. “I’d appreciate that.”

  Abby stopped and took a deep breath when she first saw David. He looked like a mummy. His face was covered with bandages and his plaster-covered arm was bent in an L and hung in a sling. His eyes were closed.

  Abby cautiously sat on the side of the bed and gently touched his good arm. “David? Are you awake?”

  “Um-hum. Abby, is that you?” His brown eyes flashed open, and David struggled to sit up. “Oh, Abby, I’m so sorry. I thought I was going to die before I could say that. I know I’ve hurt you, and I didn’t mean to. It just happened.”

  “It’s all right, David. I know I haven’t been much fun since we came to college. I’m just so uptight about making good grades and keeping my scholarship.”

  “Hush.” He tried to smile, then grimaced. “I must look awful.”

  “Are you in pain?” Abby asked, changing the subject. She had a feeling David would no longer be beautiful. She felt sick when she thought about his beautiful skin, never a blemish, always so healthy looking.

  “No, I had a shot. I thought that th
ing was going to kill me, Abby. And I — I was so scared.”

  “Anyone would be. You’re going to be famous when you get out of here, though. Prepare for that. Sissy may have to fight off the sympathetic women.”

  “You talked to her?”

  “Not about — about you two. She’s outside. They won’t let her in to see you. She said hi.”

  “You’re a good sport, Abby.” David’s voice trailed off and his eyes closed. Abby could see that he was gone for the moment.

  She stood, took a deep breath, and left him. Did she want that chiseled on her grave? Here lies a good sport. She guessed it was better than some other epitaphs.

  But what was she doing thinking about dying?

  By the time she talked to Sissy and got back to the waiting area, she felt totally exhausted. Her legs wobbled. Her whole body felt like a puppet’s wooden frame when the puppeteer loosens the strings.

  “I’ve got to go get some sleep, Gina. I don’t even know if I can make it back to the Quad.”

  Gina supported Abby on one side, Jerry the other. “We’re all tired, Abby. We can’t do any more for David tonight. Let’s go home and crash.” They helped Abby into the car and drove back to campus.

  Abby meant to go straight to sleep, but it was getting light when she opened the door to her room and headed for the inviting single bed.

  Maybe it was the musty, rotten odor that stopped her.

  It couldn’t be in here, could it?

  A whorl of fear ran up and down her spine. She glanced at the closed closet door. Leaning over, biting her lip, she looked under the bed.

  Mother, there’s a monster under my bed. Come quick.

  Monsters in the closet, monsters under the bed, the boogie man will get you if you don’t watch out.

  Watch out. Watch out.

  The words echoed through her aching head.

  She swung around. And a strange sight caught her eye.

  On Carrie’s pillow, on her perfectly made bed, were tufts of hair. It looked as if there’d been a cat fight. She had a vision of yowling, shrieking, clawing sounds. A whirling, twisting ball of two cats spitting, spinning, both frantically out of control. She had watched her own tomcat, Dirty Harry, too often to keep the picture at bay.

  But this was not cat hair. Cats were not gray-green and brown. Cats didn’t smell like rotten eggs. They weren’t allowed in the dorm. Freshmen couldn’t have pets on campus.

  No pet had left this fur behind.

  Reaching out, Abby collected the evidence. The hair had the same coarseness as the tufts she’d found before — out by the pond.

  Carrie, oh, Carrie. I didn’t really suspect you before. Why would you do this?

  And where are you now?

  Chapter 15

  As tired as she was, she knew she couldn’t sleep now. She collapsed on her bed and slowly dialed the number on the card Officer Mooney had given her. The dispatcher transferred her quickly to Mooney’s car. He promised to come right to the Quad.

  She hurried to Gina’s room. She didn’t want to talk to the police alone. Pounding on Gina’s door as softly as possible so she wouldn’t wake the whole wing, she whispered loudly.

  “Gina, are you asleep yet? I need your help.”

  Gina, in a robe, rubbing her eyes, clicked the lock, pulled her door open a crack. “Abby? I thought you were going straight to bed.”

  “So did I. But I found something that woke me up. Listen, Officer Mooney is coming over here and I wish you’d be with me when I talk to him.”

  Gina stopped yawning and her eyes widened. “The police? Come in, Abby, quietly. My poor roommate thinks I never sleep. And wishes by now that I’d move out. I’ll get dressed.”

  Gina pulled on the clothes she’d tossed on a chair by her bed. She pulled a brush through her short, pixy hair, then pushed Abby back out the door.

  “What happened?” she asked as they hurried downstairs to let Officer Mooney into the dorm.

  “I — I think I’ve found out who the monster is. I think it’s Carrie.”

  “Carrie Milholland? Your roommate? She’s barely five feet tall. How could she attack those guys?”

  Officer Mooney and his partner were waiting in the lobby when Abby and Gina got downstairs.

  Abby was so tired she felt a bit dizzy. But she knew this was important.

  The two policemen followed the girls upstairs to Abby’s room where Abby handed them the ball of fur.

  “You found this on Carrie Milholland’s bed?” Mooney asked. He smelled it and rolled it around between his fingers.

  “Yes, when I came home from the hospital.”

  “Isn’t this the same girl we talked to the other day?” Officer Rodgers asked Mooney.

  “Yes, she has some … problems.” Mooney didn’t say what they were. Abby knew he couldn’t tell, but she wished she could ask.

  “She’s hardly ever here at night,” Abby added. “And the other day she said she’d done something awful, but she didn’t tell me what it was.” She gave Office Mooney a chance to share if he knew.

  “Hummmm.” Mooney nodded. “Abby, did it occur to you that someone might have put this fur here? While you were at the hospital.”

  Abby’s mind was fuzzy. She thought that over. “Someone is trying to scare me?”

  “You don’t really believe this is some kind of a monster, do you?” Rodgers grinned slightly.

  “Well —” Abby looked at Gina who shrugged as if to say, what did you expect from the police? “You think it’s someone dressing up like this and attacking people? Who would do that?”

  “If we knew, then we’d talk to him. Arrest him. Think that over, Abby. Make a list of people you could suspect of doing something like this. Maybe it was a prank that got out of hand. But stop thinking it’s something supernatural. That’s for the comics and the movies.” Mooney’s grin was sympathetic, but Abby could see he thought her imagination had run away with her.

  “And get some sleep,” Mooney continued. “I’ll take this fur to the lab and have them run some tests.”

  “We’ve found fur before,” Gina thought to say. “One of the guys has it, I think. It was just like this.”

  Rodgers laughed outright. “The monster’s costume must be getting threadbare by now.” He followed Mooney down the hall.

  “They think we’re nuts, Abby. They were just being nice about not saying it.” Gina sat on Carrie’s bed. “You afraid to sleep here by yourself? I can sleep on Carrie’s bed.”

  “Would you, Gina?” Abby said. “Maybe I could feel safe then.”

  “Yeah, I’ll protect you.” Gina laughed. She wasn’t much bigger than Carrie. Abby always felt gigantic around her, even though she wasn’t much over average height.

  Before Abby dozed off, she said, “We’ll find Carrie later, Gina. We’ll follow her and find out where she’s going at night.”

  The next morning Abby cut her nine o’clock class and hurried to the hospital. David was sipping orange juice through a straw, sitting up in bed. He must feel stronger, Abby realized.

  She perched on the edge of the crisp white bed sheets and squeezed his hand. “How long will you have to stay here?”

  “They want to make sure no infection sets in. They think an animal attacked me, and animal claws have tons of germs. I might have to start rabies shots today.”

  “Did you see what attacked you, David? The police think your attacker might have been someone dressed like a monster.”

  “I couldn’t see very well. It was dark and foggy, and I was busy trying to get away from it. If this is a person, he’s sure strong.”

  There was a moment of silence between them. A moment where Abby could feel David’s fear. His fingers traced her hand, then took a strong hold.

  “I’m going to have a lot of scars, Abby.”

  “You’ll still be handsome.” Abby tried to be reassuring, but David looked doubtful. She wanted to stay with him, to cheer him up, because he seemed so shaken by the attack. But she
couldn’t miss her next class.

  “I’ll come back.” She told David when she got up to go. “We all will. You can have other visitors this afternoon. I asked.” She rushed out and down the hall, and caught the shuttle back to campus to get to Griswold by ten.

  Jerry rushed over to her as she came into the classroom. “How’s David?”

  “Go see him this afternoon, Jerry. He needs your sense of humor. I think he’s lost his. He’s really down today.”

  Abby dumped her books at her table and hurried over to the lab half of the room. Stan Hurley stopped her.

  “You went to the hospital? How’s David?”

  Abby stared at Stan. His hair stuck up wildly on one side as if he’d slept on it funny. She had a strange urge to touch those kinky curls. Would they be coarse? Abby hadn’t crossed Stan off her list of suspects. It seemed much more like something he’d do. And she could see that he was strong enough.

  “Do you really care, Stan?” Abby snapped. She whirled around and gripped the counter by her station. Pulling out the drawer with her name on it, she set out test tubes, rubber tubing, tongs. She didn’t even know what the assignment was for today, but she needed to keep busy until Stan walked away.

  She felt his eyes burn into her, but she kept her own averted.

  The experiment was easy. She finished it in a few minutes, entering the results and her notes into her lab notebook. Then she took the rest of the period to mess with her extra-credit work.

  When she finally looked around the room, Stan had his back to her, engrossed in his own work. She breathed a little more smoothly, but she felt dead tired. She could lie down on the floor right now and sleep for days.

  “Jerry, where’s Gina?” She had finally realized Gina wasn’t in class.

  “She’s got the stomach flu.” Jerry moved over beside Abby. “Said to tell you the plans you made last night are out for her. To wait until tomorrow.”

  Abby looked at Jerry. “She really just slept in, didn’t she? I know I wanted to.”

  “No, I stopped to get her, and she pushed past me and ran to the bathroom.”