Letting the Demons Out

by Ray Wallace

  Asshole... Should toilet paper his yard one of these nights...

  Bill Junior walked around to the back of the house, pushing his way through the waist high grass like some Amazonian explorer, paused near the swimming pool to look at the dog shit and what looked like a great smear of blood on the deck area. And what were those? Teeth? Damn sure looked like it. What the hell had happened here? Feeling ill at ease, he went over to the sliding glass door, found it unlocked, then went back into the house closing the door behind him. What should he do? Call the police? Maybe he should call his father first, make sure there wasn't some other explanation for his mother's absence. Yeah, that's what he'd do. Now to find the phone. The thing could be anywhere. He started searching among the trash that covered the counter when he heard the door through which he'd just entered the house slide open behind him. Expecting to see his mother standing there he turned to ask her where she'd been. It wasn't his mother standing there. Well, not exactly.

  The thing had grown legs. They were thick and flabby and the same brownish-green color as its body with a half dollar sized mole down near the ankle that looked oddly familiar to Bill Junior. The creature had gained mass, could now barely fit into the open doorway. On the top half of its body, above where the tentacles sprouted, was an odd protuberance that resembled a dog snout. Next to the snout was what looked like a face pressing outward against the creature's skin from the inside. The face's mouth opened and a badly distorted, guttural voice emitted three words that caused Bill Junior to follow in Patches' distinguished footsteps and lose control of his bowels. Those words were "Help me, Billy..."

  Run! shouted a voice in Bill Junior's mind. You need to get the hell outta here!!

  But he couldn't. His legs were frozen, paralyzed with fear. This was definitely turning out to be the worst summer vacation ever. As Bill Junior stood there the thing from the swimming pool waddled into the house and lashed out with its tentacles, wrapped them about Bill Junior's husky form then pulled the boy toward its body in a much too intimate embrace. Bill Junior started to scream as the creature's skin became jelly-like and he was sucked through that permeable flesh and reunited with his mother and the family dog. Needles to say, this was one reunion that would never be referred to as a Hallmark moment.

  *

  The thing sat on the couch and waited. An hour after incorporating Bill Junior into its being Bobby Sue came home. The girl was made a part of the creature's growing mass and consciousness. Bill Senior would be next but the creature knew it had a few hours to kill before that would happen so it reached out with a tentacle and grabbed the remote, turned on the TV and sat back to watch Jenny Jones through its four sets of eyes. One of her patented "Geek to Chic" episodes was on in which badly dressed, unattractive volunteers were given makeovers to impress the people who had berated them in the past. Definitely paled in comparison to a transvestite love triangle but it would do.

  The creature passed the afternoon watching TV until eventually the front door opened and Bill called out, "Honey, I'm - oh, fuck me!!" That's when his family welcomed him home and wrapped him in their loving tentacles.

  *

  Later that evening...

  "Something needs to be done, Margaret, and I'm just the man to do it!"

  "Wilbur! How many times do we have to go over this?"

  "After tonight? None. Because I'm marching over there and giving those lowlifes a piece of my mind. It's shape up or ship out time for those lousy Plummers! A man can only take so much..."

  With that Wilbur was out the front door and crossing the street over to the Plummer residence just as fast as his old man's legs would carry him, muttering curses under his breath all the while. He was walking up the oil stained driveway and about to turn onto the cracked and broken walkway when movement through one of the house's front windows caught his attention.

  "What in the hell?..."

  He stopped and got as close to the window as the unkempt hedgerow growing before it would allow, took a good long look through the grimy glass to make sure his eyes weren't deceiving him. Nope, they sure weren't. There was a monster in the Plummer's kitchen pulling food and beer from the refrigerator and into its hideous body with its many tentacles. Wilbur let out a shriek and the creature stopped what it was doing, turned in his direction and lashed out with a tentacle, a full beer can held at its tip, breaking the window through which Wilbur was watching. Shards of glass peppered Wilbur's face giving him a collection of tiny cuts. Luckily none of the glass went in his eyes. Wilbur turned and fled back the way he came.

  Sonsabitches! he thought, filled with fear and indignation. They've gone too far this time!

  He went straight for the tool shed behind his house and emerged a few moments later with a cardboard box full of Molotov cocktails, a cigarette lighter, and an old hand gun that he'd brought back from Korea, all of which he'd kept hidden there for just such an occasion. If Margaret had ever known she would have killed him but now he was glad he'd taken the risk. Just as he figured it would, the Day of Reckoning for those godforsaken Plummers had arrived! Their filthy, slovenly ways had spawned an unholy creature of darkness. Now it was up to Wilbur to send it back to whatever hell it had come from!

  When Wilbur reached the Plummers yard he ducked into the deep grass and approached the house in stealth, for once grateful that the slobs had neglected their yard to such an extent. When he neared the walkway he stopped and reached into the box for one of his special cocktails. Without a moment's hesitation he lit the rag emerging from the neck of the bottle and tossed the cocktail in a long swooping arc just the way he'd tossed grenades back in the war. The bottle went through the already broken window and burst open in the room beyond. Flames bloomed and began to dance within the Plummer's kitchen. The living room window was next then Wilbur circled around and hit the bedroom windows before returning to the front yard to observe his handiwork. He was standing there watching the flames consume the interior of the house through the living room window just as the front door burst open. And there it was, the creature itself in all its hideous design. As Wilbur liked to tell anyone who'd listen, he'd left all his fear behind on the field of battle. Well, most of it anyway. To his credit he didn't freeze like poor Bill Junior had. Instead, he crouched down and reached into that box of his and pulled out the loaded handgun and fired away at the bloated, many faced, tentacle sprouting obscenity that filled the front entrance of the Plummer's house. The shots rang out over the roar of the flames as the creature screamed and retreated back into the house.

  "That's right!" Wilbur shouted. "Back to Hell with you, Satan spawn!!"

  A short while later the police and the fire department arrived and Wilbur was led off in handcuffs as the neighbors watched the spectacle in disbelief and Margaret stood nearby, weeping, her face in her hands.

  "I'm a hero, I tell you!" Wilbur said as he was placed in the back of a squad car. "A fuckin' hero!!" Then Wilbur was driven away and the firemen went about the business of putting out the blaze that had by now left the Plummer house in utter ruin.

  *

  The next day they decided to drain the pool. It seemed like the logical thing to do as no bodies had been found within the house and, quite frankly, nobody had any better ideas on how to proceed with the investigation. After all, a family had lived there, one that may have been killed by that crazy old lunatic. Which meant that there had to be remains somewhere. It was theorized that the old guy could have dumped the bodies into the swimming pool before torching the place. Why he would have done such a thing was anybody's guess. Quite frankly, why he would have done any of the things he'd done was anybody's guess. The guy had rambled on and on about a monster living in the house. When dealing with such an obviously disturbed individual it was best to just go ahead and cover all the bases.

  It was shortly past noon when two pool servicemen arrived and set about the task of draining the pool as a pair of investigating officers looked on. The thick hose used for the procedure had been r
un into the deep end. When about a quarter of the water was gone and the shallow end lay mostly dry, covered in a blanket of algae and garbage, the hose became clogged and stopped sucking water. One of the servicemen knelt at the edge of the pool and gave the hose a tug to try and shake free whatever was blocking it. That's when he discovered that the old man wasn't crazy nor was he the hero he thought he'd been. A tentacle lashed out and just like that the serviceman disappeared into the more than five feet of opaque water. As none of the other three men present had gotten a clear look at what had happened they all approached the pool to help. This, of course, was a mistake. Tentacles whipped up and out of the pool and the remaining men also fell in. The water splashed and churned for a time but eventually lay still.

  And beneath the water the creature grew.

  When it emerged it now had two sets of legs to help support its sizable girth. It also held in two of its tentacles the police issue handguns the officers had been carrying. It also knew how to use them. The creature had gone into the pool to heal the gunshot wounds and the burns it had suffered the night before. It was all better now. And it was stronger after feasting again, and smarter due to the incorporation of four additional minds. Smart enough to know that it had to get out of there. Other policemen would be on the scene soon enough. It had to find somewhere safe to hide.

  The part of it that was Bill Junior thought about the river where he had gone to fish on occasion. It was a mile away and would be the perfect place to live for a while. There were alligators and all manner of other aquatic life to eat, not to mention the fishermen and the boaters that frequented the place. To reach its destination, the creature could stick to back yards and a section of sparsely traveled roadway.

  Having settled on a plan, the creature climbed onto the deck then headed off across the yard toward the neighbor's property. It waved the loaded pistols around, the tips of its tentacles on the triggers. Visions of the river danced through its conjoined minds like promises of peace and salvation. It was a place that, at least for a time, the creature would be able to call "home."

  And God help anyone who tried to stop it from getting there.

  - A DREAM OF AN ENDLESS HIGHWAY -

  Author's note: I believe this is the only story I've ever written specifically for a themed anthology. It was for a collection of "weird car stories" and I really can't recall what it was about this particular market that caught my interest. Something about it did, though, and I sat down and wrote this story, one that centered around the love affair that modern humans - men, for the most part it seems - have had with their cars and took it to the extreme. As a big sci-fi fan (I got into Frank Herbert and Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke years before I discovered Stephen King and H. P. Lovecraft as a teenager), it was fun setting the story in the near future and incorporating a few sci-fi elements into the mix. There are also a few references to the Tampa Bay area where I've lived for more than twenty years now. Looking back, this is one of those stories that just seemed to happen, that didn't require as much effort as some of the others. It makes me think that maybe I should start targeting more themed anthologies in the future...

  *

  Larry stopped dead in his tracks the moment he laid eyes on her for the first time. God, what a beauty, he thought. All sleek lines and gentle curves. Her body was painted the deep red of a movie starlet's lipstick. The chrome of her grill gleamed like a supermodel's smile. Her windows were as clean and clear as a cloudless summer sky. The lift of her rear end promised all the speed and action a man of his advancing years might hope to handle. Forget love at first sight, what he felt right then and there was pure lust. He had to have her. The salesman didn't even have to go into his pitch.

  "Get the papers," Larry said. "Show me where to sign."

  Half-an-hour later he drove off the lot in his brand new, two door, American made sports car.

  Her name was Rhonda and she handled like a dream. Her interior had that new car smell mixed with the scent of violet perfume. The steering wheel was warm and pliable in his hands.

  "Hello, Rhonda," he said as the two of them glided through traffic. In the sales office, as soon as the purchase went through they had coded the car to his voice print and retinal pattern.

  "Hello, Mr. Baxter." Her voice, low and seemingly full of insinuation, came from speakers placed discreetly in the doors and the dash. The crotch of Larry's jeans suddenly felt cramped and uncomfortable. He took a deep breath.

  "Larry," he said. "Call me Larry."

  "Sure, Larry. And where are we headed today?"

  Good question. He had recently retired from work. Only fifty years old and he had put enough money away to live out the remainder of his days in his plush Tampa home quite comfortably. He had also recently gotten divorced. It had gone amiably enough. Unlike what he had seen some of his former associates go through, his ex had not found it necessary to get every last cent out of him that she could. And now he was free. No relationship. No job. No one to answer to but himself. The time had come to make a few changes in his life. Time to do something nice for himself. Something fun. Thus, Rhonda.

  "Oh, I don't know," he finally replied. "It's such a beautiful day. How about we lower the top, maybe drive down to the beach."

  Rhonda laughed. The sound sent a tingle down his spine. "Sounds good to me." The top came down. The wind played with his thinning hair. He smiled and pressed his foot down on the accelerator.

  *

  In 2029 the Unites States of America finally claimed its independence from foreign oil. The administration at the time said that it was taking this unprecedented step in order to help protect the Earth's fragile environment, that the evidence supporting global warming was now overwhelming and a large scale reduction in the burning of fossil fuels was needed immediately. Of course, there was also the fact that oil supplies were running low which was driving prices higher and higher. On top of that, there was a prominent biotech company who had made major contributions to the president elect's campaign. This company had recently developed a sophisticated yet cost effective little piece of technology they called the biocar. Part machine, part living organism, it required no gasoline whatsoever to run. What it needed was basically what its human drivers and passengers needed in order to run: protein, carbohydrates, calories, a certain mix of vitamins. What it needed was food. And the kind of food that these things ran on was cheap. A lot cheaper than oil.

  The vast majority of the American public went along with the changeover in technology. The pros of such a move far outweighed the cons, after all. Of course, there were those who would sooner give up their lives than their internal combustion engines. It was their right as US citizens, by God, to race up and down the highways spewing as much atmosphere-choking toxins as they wanted. No way would they ever be caught behind the wheel of a wimpy little food burner. After a few of these individuals actually did die in clashes with the police, the rest of those who held similar beliefs quickly fell in line. Within five years of their introduction, the biocars were the only cars on the road.

  *

  "Where shall we go today, Larry?"

  Six months now and Larry's relationship with Rhonda had been a blessing and a revelation. He'd spent more time than he ever had before just cruising around town or road tripping with no particular destination in mind. He couldn't remember a time when he was happier. Who knew that life after divorce would be so good? Especially at this stage of his life. Well, when one finds the right companion...

  "I was thinking about going by Vern's house, picking him up. Maybe catching a baseball game. The Rays are back in contention again this year."

  There was a pause, very slight, but Larry noticed it.

  So I'm not the only one a little uncomfortable with the idea, of having someone else in here for the first time, he thought. But that's ridiculous. She doesn't actually have any feelings. Just a damned convincing simulation of them.

  "Well, all right," said Rhonda. "What's the address?"

&nbs
p; Fifteen minutes later Vern was climbing into the passenger seat of Larry's car. Larry had known Vern for more than twenty years now. They'd worked at the same firm, had become fast friends and drinking buddies. The latter, at least, when their wives allowed them to be. Vern still had a wife and this was the first time he and Larry had gotten together in quite a while now. The first time since Rhonda had come into Larry's life.

  "So, old pal," said Vern with a big smile and a pat on the shoulder. "How goes retirement? You lucky bastard."

  Larry shrugged. "So far, so good."

  "Huh. I bet. Looking forward to the day when I can do the same. But the way Janice likes to spend, spend, spend... Probably be working until the day I die."

  They talked about the old times then planned a fishing trip as they made their way over to the stadium. Traffic was heavy but smooth. Truth be told, traffic was always smooth since the biocars became the dominant mode of transportation. With advanced GPS systems built into their brains, they were continuously aware of the exact speed and positioning of the other vehicles around them. This form of "telepathy," claimed one major car manufacturer, made an accident nearly impossible as the car could take over breaking and steering functions if an impact was imminent. And with current advances in technology, it was widely believed that the biocars were only a few years away from being able to completely drive themselves.