-
Well, we chatted for a bit, and now he’s working. He said he likes me, too. Said he would like to take me out to dinner sometime. He said that he can’t afford anything too fancy, but if I’m okay like that, he knows a good place for ribs.
“Pam, you like ribs? I can’t take you some place fancy, but I do know an excellent mom and pop place that does fantastic barbecue ribs.”
I love it when he calls me Pam.
Are you kidding me? Of course I’m okay with that! I don’t want to get all dressed up and go to some fancy restaurant, either! I want to be relaxed, comfortable, and want to just be able to talk to him without worrying about keeping up social etiquette or whatever.
Just watching him work, get all sweaty, from the kitchen window… it’s doing things to me. He turns me on a great deal. I can’t explain it. I’ve never felt this way about a man before.
Anyway, it’s time I start fixing together something nice for him. Then we can talk more about the date we’re going to have tonight!
Oh, yeah, did I forget to write it down, diary?
It’s TONIGHT!!!
*
“Wow,” Emily said, wincing and peering at the apparent hole in the rock face on the side of the mountain. “It’s almost invisible when you’re more than fifty feet or so away.”
“It’s the color of the rock, and the way the light hits it,” Michael explained. “Come on.”
Emily nodded at Jason, and the two fell into step behind the grizzled old man. She could smell a vague waft of sweat in his wake.
“Think there’s really a fossil in there?” Jason asked.
“Could be.”
“Think it’s really the Minotaur?”
“Not sure on that one,” Emily said, deciding now was as good a time as any to channel her inner skeptic. “I mean, why are we the only ones here?”
“What do you mean?”
“Why isn’t there a whole media frenzy?”
“Maybe he didn’t tell them.”
“Yes, but why wouldn’t he tell them?” Emily hissed, turning to face Jason. She realized she had been whispering. “Look, I don’t really trust this guy, so just… I don’t know, stay alert or something.”
“Stay alert?” Jason repeated, grinning. “Shit, Emily, I think at this point he’s got us where he wants us.”
“Well, anyway, just, you know,” Emily said, waving her hand at the boy. Before she turned back around, she caught a flicker of a smile and grinned back at him. “Listen, I don’t think we’re in any danger, but I have to protect the son of my boss.”
“Oh, so that’s what this is about,” Jason said, still grinning. “You’re protecting your own interests.”
“Of course,” Emily replied, matter-of-factly. “You didn’t think I cared about you, did you?” She turned around and went after Michael, pushing through foliage that all but masked the path.
She got to the mouth of the cave and found the old man sitting on a rock, chewing on a blade of grass. “Inside,” he said, gesturing with his head.
“Well lead on,” Emily replied, gesturing with her hand.
“I… don’t want to go inside.”
“Why?” Emily demanded, a little alarm sounding inside her skull. What was this Nimon up to?
“Because, the cave smells, I have been in there for many, many hours already, and I just don’t want to smell the damp anymore.”
“That’s it? You’re afraid of a little damp?” Jason chimed.
“Yes. Every time I smell that wet rock and soil, I feel like I want to vomit.”
“Vomit.”
“Yes,” Michael said, nodding his head gravely. “Vomit. Wouldn’t be good for the fossils.” He offered a wry smile.
“Well, how deep are the fossils in the cave?” Emily asked, her voice cracking.
“Not far. Twenty feet maybe. Don’t worry, it’s not dark or anything, and there’s nothing to worry about. The ground is quite flat, the space is big. You won’t hit your head or slip or fall. In fact,” Michael said, tapping his forefinger against his knee. “This is probably why the Minotaur stayed there in its dying days.”
“Dying days?”
“Yes. The creature must have been weak, and so searched for shelter. At least, this is my guess.”
“Right,” Emily said, shaking her head. “Come on, Jason. Let’s see if this is the real thing or not.”
“Stay alert,” Jason whispered, mocking.
“Don’t you ever take anything seriously?”
“No.”
“That explains a lot.” Emily took a few ginger steps toward the mouth of the cave. Michael was right – it didn’t look to be particularly dangerous. It was a large, cavernous opening with what seemed to be an unusually flat ground surface.
“Well, if I had to pick a cave to die in, this would be it,” Jason said. “Except for the smell.”
“The air is cool,” Emily commented. “Water probably doesn’t get much of a chance to evaporate.” She touched the side of the cave wall and her hand came away damp. “Yup. Everything in here is wet.”
“Yeah.”
“That’s weird,” Emily murmured.
“What?”
“Do things fossilize well in wet and cold environments?”
“I don’t know,” Jason said, shrugging.
“Me neither,” Emily responded, pushing the stray worry aside.
“Come on,” Jason said, moving ahead. She followed after him, catching a few strands of his scent. For some reason, it didn’t offend her as much as she thought it would. The smell of sweat was generally not something she liked, but Jason actually smelled alright.
“Here!” the boy called, jogging forward. She chased after him and found a large rectangle, cordoned off with what looked like packing string tied to chopsticks shoved hastily into the shallow soil. She could tell the soil was shallow because, around the edge of the rectangle, a large slab of stone had been unearthed. Only, Michael had only had to ‘dig’ one inch.
“Can you make it out?” she asked, squinting. She couldn’t really frame what she was looking at.
“Come here,” Jason said, and she followed him to one end of the rectangle. That was when she saw it. It was more than just errant scratches in the rock. She clearly saw huge, curved horns, a strange skull that looked monstrous, and a set of bones that formed the rough shape of a human body.
“It looked like this creature, whatever it was, died lying on its side.”
“Jason,” Emily said, turning to him. “Do you think this is really a…” her voice faltered.
“I don’t know. Looks like it, right? I mean, the horns? The human-ish body? I mean, if this is really a fossil, it’s been here for what, like, thousands of years?”
“More, maybe.”
“Wait a minute,” Jason said, and Emily didn’t fail to notice that he had touched her arm inadvertently. “We’re being so stupid.”
“Don’t say that, Jason.”
“Don’t fossils take millions of years to form?”
“Uh.”
“Don’t they?”
“I don’t know.”
“I think they do,” he said. “Like dinosaurs. Come on, this is a fake.”
“Wait!” Emily called, chasing after Jason who was storming out of the cave. She exited the opening, and was instantly glad to be drenched in sunlight. She turned to see Jason pointing his finger at Michael.
“This is a fake!” Jason shouted.
“Jason!” Emily called.
“This is a fake!” he continued. “Fossils take millions of years to form. Why the hell had you wasted our time?”
The man simply looked at Jason, and as Emily jogged up to them, she saw he was grinning. “What’s so damn funny?” she asked, glaring at him.
“Your friend is right. Fossils usually take millions of years to develop,” Michael said, shrugging.
“See, I told you,” Jason said, looking away in disgust.
“But,” Michael continued. “When
conditions are right, a fossil can form in as little as five years.”
“What?” Emily asked.
“You’re lying,” Jason accused.
“Ever read that story about some people unearthing fossils that looked like some strange, unknown bird, only to have it revealed that they were chicken bones? More than that, our genus of chicken, nothing from history. They dated the fossil to between five and ten years. This was after it made the rounds in the news and scientific journals as a new prehistoric species discovery. Interesting, huh?”
“So that Minotaur fossil is real?” Emily asked.
“Yes,” Michael said. “You saw it for yourself.”
“Were the conditions in that cave just right for a fossil to form in a few thousand years?”
“No,” Michael said, taking a deep breath. Emily could hear the proverbial other shoe drop.
“No?” Jason echoed, his voice cracking.
“No. Those fossils are much older.”
“Older?”
“Yes. My guess is more than one hundred thousand years old.”
“Woah, woah, that’s way before the myth of the Minotaur,” Emily said, distantly realizing that what she had said was the understatement of the century. It was way before any form of civilization.
“Let me ask you something,” the old man said. “Where do myths, legends, and stories originate from?”
“Where?” Jason and Emily said simultaneously.
“Why, from real life! People see things, and they tell stories. But in order for a story to become a myth, it must first be retold. Not just once. But millions of times. Only then does it enter the vernacular, as it were.”
“Vernacular,” Jason repeated, shaking his head.
“Yes. So does it follow that, there ever only having been one Minotaur, that a story would survive even to this day?”
“What are you saying?” Emily asked. “That there was more than one Minotaur?”
“Of course!” Michael exclaimed, suddenly animated. “I might even go so far as to suggest that they were a subspecies, similar to Neanderthals.”
“Neanderthals went extinct like, thirty thousand years ago or something,” Emily said. “You said this fossil was over one hundred thousand years old.”
“Yes,” Michael said, nodding. “But that is simply the fact. If this fossil is that old, and stories of the Minotaur were around four hundred years before Anno Domini, I think it’s safe to say that the Minotaur was not only a subspecies, but a recent one.”
“So what, you think they only recently went extinct?”
“Extinct?” the old man asked. “No, no. Not extinct.”
“What,” Emily said, shouting it. “Are you talking about?”
“The Minotaur is fairly unique to Mediterranean region. References to it exist in Greek culture, some in Egyptian, and bits and pieces here and there. But all in the region. So, we can draw the conclusion that the Minotaur only existed in this region, right? I mean, lived here, called this region home.”
“Right,” Emily said, before glancing at Jason. The young man was pacing up and down across the mouth of the cave.
“Well, why here?”
“What do you mean why here?”
“Why Greece? Why this area, this region?”
“How should I know?” Emily cried, exasperated.
“I’ve been studying these myths and stories for a long time,” Michael said. “Believe it or not, this is not the first Minotaur fossil I’ve seen.”
“What?” Emily asked.
“It isn’t. This is the second I’ve seen. There is a university, I won’t say which, that has actually taken genetic samples from the previously discovered one. Their findings were… startling.”
“You have got to be kidding me,” Emily blurted. “You’re lying. You’re just another loon. Why didn’t you tell us this before?”
“I’m not lying,” Michael said, shaking his head. “Now, I’m no geneticist, but from what I understand, it is suggested that the Minotaur was not just a subspecies, but a parallel species. That is, an offshoot of homo sapiens, separated by a single genetic marker.”
“Genetic marker?” Emily said, shaking her head, irritated. “What do you mean? And why only this region?”
“There are numerous animals in nature that can change shape, appearance, and color,” Michael said, seemingly going on a tangent. “This genetic marker is theorized to have similar functionality.”
“So why here? Why this region? And what are you saying,” Emily asked, the words coming out together and too quickly. “That the Minotaur can change color?”
“That the Minotaur can shapeshift,” Michael corrected.
Emily laughed. “Okay, now I know you’re full of shit.” She turned to walk way.
“And,” Michael added, raising his voice, interrupting her movement.
“And what?”
“And that it is something unique to this region that activates it.”
“What?”
“Yes,” Michael said. “Now, it can’t be the air, obviously. And that also rules out the water. But, what isn’t ruled out is the soil. The landscape. The geology.”
“The soil?”
“It has an odd smell, doesn’t it?”
Emily looked from the old man to Jason, and when she saw him on the ground, doubled over, and panting, she screamed. She ran to him, her head on a swivel between Michael and the boy.
“What have you done?” she hurled at him, her voice a panicked shriek. She watched as Michael ambled over, set his bag down on the ground, and take from it a video recorder.
“Your friend,” he said, “is descended from a Minotaur, from a member of the parallel species. His genetic marker is being awakened now. You are here because the Minotaur will need a mate.”
Emily tried to speak, but no words would come out.
*
Dallas is a Minotaur!
We were sitting outside, and we had finished eating, and then we started fooling around. It got pretty serious, and we went into the house and I got him naked, and, yeah, well, I lost my virginity to him.
And fuck if it wasn’t a really good lay. He was so big, so gentle yet firm at the same time. He made me squeal and moan and writhe in pleasure. My whole body… I felt something that I’d never felt before. He filled me up, so thick, so big. It was painful at first, but when I got used to it… well, then we were really going at it. Loud. Heavy. Wet.
But then he started to change!
Oh my God!
I saw it first in his eyes. They changed from green to… red! His head started to change shape, and his body started to grow even bigger.
He fell of me, groaning in pain, off the bed and onto the floor. I was just lying on the bed, watching him as he… as he shifted! Horns grew from his head! His nose changed, two huge nostrils appeared, steam pouring out of them.
Still half human, he spoke to me. His voice was so deep. It was like a tremor in my soul.
“Where does your fertilizer come from?”
I shook my head. I didn’t know what he was talking about.
“Did you put new fertilizer out today?” He groaned in pain after that.
“Yes!” I shrieked. I remembered then. Dad said he’d got some new stuff in from Greece. Crete to be exact. Something about the soil on the mountainside, and how it was different, how it was more nutritious for the crops.
“Oh, God!” he cried then, rolling on the floor. “Not again!”
I blinked at him. I didn’t know what he meant.
“Get out of here!” he roared. “Go hide!”
But I couldn’t move. He was still changing. His body was growing. Bits of his meat and flesh just started pulsing and fluctuating. It was sickening.
And then he rose to his feet. He had the head of a bull. He was a… a Minotaur!
I couldn’t move.
Fear gripped my heart.
He mounted me.
And he…
And he made l
ove to me!
At first I didn’t want it…
But then I did…
And I even finished! So did he… he filled me up with his monstrous seed.
And then he changed back, back into a man. The episode was over, like a fit or a seizure.
He held me and apologized. Said that hadn’t happened in a long time.
I told him… I told him it was okay.
I think I’m going to keep his secret.
I think I have to.
*
CHAPTER FOUR
Emily screamed, scrambling backward. She was staring at Jason, but it wasn’t him. Something was happening to him. Something grotesque. Something impossible!
She tried to back up even more, but the shredded foliage beneath her feet kept slipping and sliding, and she couldn’t get a foothold anywhere, not even on the jutting root of a tree as it bent beneath her weight.
Before her, Jason’s shirt, now ripped to shreds, loose strands of string hanging everywhere giving him every appearance of a caveman, hung from a gigantic, fur-laden, musclebound body. He was enormous. Twice the size he had been as a man, and was already a muscular, tall man. Emily cried out in fear again, unwilling to believe what she was looking at. On top of the human-ish body was a gigantic bull’s head, flared nostrils out of which poured columns of steam, and two curled yellow-bone horns that could puncture sheets of steel.
“Jason?” she yelled, wondering if the bull-beast before her, the monster of myth and legend, still had an ounce of humanity left in him… if he could remember that he was once a man named Jason Harris. She had watched him collapse to the floor, seizing and shuddering, every muscle in his body stringy-hard and tight. She had first heard the snap of his leather belt, splitting the air, before his t-shirt was demolished by the shifting, growing form. She had seen his eyes, normally green, turn to a glowing, menacing red. She had watched as he looked down at his changing body, as though in utter horror.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” she whispered to herself. “I can’t believe Jason’s a fucking Minotaur.”
It all clicked in her mind. Why Michael Nimon had asked for him specifically. How had he known they’d send her, though? He did say that the Minotaur would need a… mate!
Shifters, Beasts, and Monsters Page 61
