The Monsters in Your Neighborhood

by Jesse Petersen

  “You are just a plethora of information, aren’t you?” Kai smirked.

  Igor glanced at her. “I’m an assistant. It’s what I do. Assist.”

  “Call him,” Alec snapped. “Crazy, violent, or not, if he can help me, I’ll take the chance.”

  “Good, we’ll do that and keep researching the rest.” Drake sighed. “Now I grow tired. I’m not up during the day often and my wound is still healing. I must ask you to leave me so that I may feed and sleep.”

  Everyone started getting up from chairs and couches, gathering coats, pulling up hoodies, and saying good-bye. Drake walked them all to the door, and one by one they moved into the hallway. Pat was the first to go, heading toward the servants’ elevator at the opposite end of the hallway.

  “Cross your fingers no one gets nosy,” he mumbled as he disappeared around the corner.

  Igor shook his head. “You have to admire his balls. I’m not sure I would be able to head out like that and just hope it would be okay.”

  Kai pursed her lips. “I still say he’s going to be the death of us all.”

  Natalie glanced at the Mummy Girl as they all walked down the hallway together.

  “I can’t imagine how hard it is for him,” Natalie offered. “To be trapped alone in the sewers. I don’t blame him for wanting to come out, to join us. Shit, I don’t even like wearing short sleeves, and I’m just scarred to hell thanks to my body part . . . issues.”

  Kai stepped into the elevator and pressed the lobby floor once everyone else had joined her. “Look, I know you’re all ‘all for one and one for all’ about this, Natalie, but Rehu and I have survived all these years by watching out for ourselves.”

  Natalie glanced at Alec, then at Rehu. “And?”

  Rehu cleared his throat. “I think what Kai is saying is that if we end up being threatened because of everyone else, this kumbaya shit you’re so fond of, it’s going out the window.”

  The elevator dinged and they stepped out into the lobby.

  “You would really blow off our group?” Alec asked. “Even though we’ve all been together for so long? Even after everything we’ve been through?”

  Kai’s lips pursed and Natalie could see that the Mummy Girl didn’t really like the idea. Was it Rehu driving this?

  “If I have to,” Kai answered after a long pause, “I would. But we’re not there yet, okay? We’ll talk about it later. Come on, Rehu.”

  She grabbed the other mummy’s arm and the two of them left the building. Alec and Natalie looked at each other, their expressions twins of concern. But the mood was broken as Igor stepped between them.

  “Mummies . . . always such worriers.” He smiled at the two of them cluelessly. “Well, what should we do with the rest of our day?”

  Natalie arched a brow. “We’re all going back to the apartment. I want you to call Hyde and get him here right away.” She gazed at the street where Rehu and Kai had disappeared. “In a moment filled with irony, it seems like he might be the only way to keep us all together.”

  “Actually,” Igor said, flipping open his phone, “I texted him from Drake’s apartment and I just got a response. Hyde is in the city and he’ll meet with you today.”

  Natalie’s eyes went wide. “What?”

  “He’s in the city?” Alec repeated.

  Igor smiled. “See, told you I could get things done.”

  Natalie looked at Alec. “Is this okay?” she whispered.

  He seemed to ponder that for a moment. “I guess it has to be, if he’s the only one who could help me. It’s our only choice.”

  Natalie rubbed her eyes. “Yeah. And I’m sure Hyde will love that we’re in a corner. Like prey.”

  9

  It had been a long time since Alec had been at the old Jekyll and Hyde apartment. Six months, to be precise: the night Jekyll had been murdered and Hyde had bolted off into the city, intent on the destruction of everyone and everything he could hurt. Since then, Hyde had been curiously quiet. If he had committed murders, rapes, robberies, mob hits, whatever, he’d done it all quite discreetly.

  Now they were back, with Igor in tow, and Alec couldn’t help but feel nervous about the prospect of facing Hyde again. The other man’s uncontrolled, pure emotion had always been disconcerting.

  The doorman in the lobby signed them in and cleared them past the bulletproof glass partition. As they got into the elevator for the penthouse, Igor whistled.

  “Some digs, huh?”

  Natalie chewed her lip like she always did when she was anxious.

  “Yeah,” she breathed. “Jekyll and Hyde had . . . have a fortune. This place is a museum, you’ll see.”

  The elevator glided open and there at the end of the hallway was Hyde, standing by his open door. He was dressed in one of the designer suits he’d always been so proud of, his hair slicked back like an eighties stockbroker’s. He was smiling.

  “Oh, shit, he’s Hannibal Lecter,” Natalie muttered. “Look at him.”

  Normally Alec would have laughed at the Lecter reference, but right now he couldn’t. He felt like he was being dragged forward, compelled to go to Hyde. To find out why he was feeling so . . . wrong.

  “Good afternoon,” their host said as he stepped back to let them pass into the apartment.

  Alec hesitated. He didn’t really want Hyde behind him; that was how people ended up with silver bullets in their backs. But he doubted Hyde would go first, since it would probably be considered beneath him. He swallowed his instincts and walked past the cocksure figure.

  Once inside the apartment, he skidded to a halt. The once-marble halls and impeccable furniture that Jekyll had no doubt carefully picked out had been replaced. The walls were painted blood-red. The furniture was black, leather, hard, and comprised of angles and edges. Even the art was now sexual and disturbing.

  “It seems when you take over a place, you truly take over,” Natalie murmured.

  “Indeed,” Hyde said with a Cheshire Cat smile. He glanced at Igor dismissively. “Igor. It has been a long time.”

  “Yes,” the buggy man said with a deferent bow. “It’s a pleasure, sir.”

  “Go into the kitchen,” Hyde said with a wave of his hand. “My manservant is there and I’m sure he can find some task for you to perform.”

  Alec raised both eyebrows, but to his surprise, Igor did exactly what he was told, with only a quick glance back at them.

  Natalie put her hands on her hips. “What the hell, Hyde?”

  “He’s a servant,” Hyde said with a sniff. “He doesn’t belong in the living room.”

  Alec shook his head. “Dude, he hasn’t been a servant for centuries.”

  “We cannot change our nature,” Hyde said with a quick smile. “As I’ve heard you are discovering, Wolf. So did you come here for me to examine you, or to discuss the intricacies of class warfare?”

  “Wait, just wait,” Natalie said with a raised hand. She moved toward Hyde, examining him closely. “Where have you been?”

  “Around,” Hyde said, terse. “Here in the city, off in my country place upstate. Even back to Europe for a few weeks. But don’t worry, I’ve been keeping up with the group.”

  Alec stared at him. “You were watching us?”

  “Of course. Did you think I had forgotten you? Forgotten everything that happened? I simply had things to attend to. Tasks to be performed.”

  “What did you do, Hyde?” Natalie whispered. “I never saw anything in the morgue reports that made me think you were on a rampage.”

  He stared at her evenly, and Alec was struck by how dead and lifeless his eyes were. His monster abilities had once been the strange bio-psychic connection to Jekyll—their ability to meld bodies and minds. But Hyde also had other strengths: super speed, heightened emotions, hyper-intelligence, and a propensity toward violence that only Jekyll had been able to control. And when he committed that violence? He warped into a twisted, huge beast of a man capable of tearing someone in half. As strong as any Creatu
re.

  “You know that I can be discreet,” Hyde finally answered. “Especially so now.”

  “What do you mean?” Alec asked.

  “Jekyll’s thoughts have been fully integrated into me since his death,” Hyde explained.

  “And what about his goodness, his control?”

  Hyde laughed. “No. I do not want those attributes. My body has rejected them like an organ recipient rejects a new kidney. But I have been able to cover my more . . . unsavory aspects more easily, I find. When it suits my purposes.”

  Natalie shivered, but pressed forward. “And what about Jekyll’s medical training?”

  “I always had that, my dear.”

  “So you’re qualified to examine Alec?” she asked.

  Alec shot her a look from the corner of his eye. With all this, she was worried that he wasn’t going to get proper medical care or something? It was a bit adorable, actually.

  Hyde’s cold gaze slipped from Natalie and settled onto Alec. A slow, sinister smile eased onto his face. “I believe I am the most qualified person you’ll find anywhere.”

  Alec rolled his eyes. “Modest as always. Look, can we do this? Just examine me and tell me why I’m missing time.”

  Hyde motioned him over to a chair in the middle of the room. He took a place across from Alec and began to look him over. He shone a light into Alec’s eyes that made him flinch and then ran his hands over Alec’s head, feeling the skull.

  Hyde pressed his fingers hard into the flesh and Alec grunted in discomfort. “Are you doing that for medical purposes or just because you like hurting me?” he snapped.

  “Why can’t I have both?” Hyde moved behind him and continued to look at his skull, his head, his neck. He picked up a stethoscope from the coffee table and listened to Alec’s heart, took his pulse. Finally, he returned to the chair across from him.

  “Explain the symptoms,” he said.

  Alec rolled his eyes. He really didn’t want to tell the entire troubling, horrifying story again, especially not to someone he did not trust. But what choice did he have? Quickly, he recapped the past few days as best he could.

  Hyde leaned back. “So you have no recollection after this phone call in Drake’s home? Have you checked your cell history?”

  He nodded. “As soon as I realized I was missing time. But it’s been wiped clean.”

  Hyde nodded. “I see. I must tell you, Wolf, I see nothing out of the ordinary when I examine you. No injury to your head, no difference in respiration or heart rate or anything else that would lead me to believe you have been physically tampered with.”

  Alec’s lips parted in surprise, which was quickly followed by dismay. “Nothing?” he asked in a tone laced with more panic than he wished to show to Hyde.

  Hyde leaned back in his chair. “No.”

  “There must be something causing this,” Natalie burst out from her place behind his couch.

  Hyde gave her a dismissive look, then he shifted his attention back to Alec.

  “Perhaps you did something you do not wish to remember,” he suggested, and his smug smile told Alec how much he was enjoying this. “A psychological explanation is just as likely as something physical.”

  A phone began to buzz on the console table next to Natalie. Picking it up reflexively, she handed it to Hyde.

  The “good” doctor stood up and snatched it from her, hitting a button to silence it before he shoved it in his pocket. “I would thank you not to touch my things.”

  She shook her head. “Sorry. But look, he’s been exhibiting signs of his wolf transformation even when it isn’t close to a full moon. Surely you can’t tell me that is psychological!”

  Hyde paced away and picked up a bottle of hand sanitizer from the same table where he had retrieved the stethoscope. As he generously doused his hands, he shrugged.

  “I don’t see why not. Alec knows that any behavior may be excused when he is in his ‘wolf’ state. Perhaps he wants you, and even himself, to believe that what he has done was caused by powers outside of his control.”

  “So you’re saying I went off and did something I would regret and covered it up myself by faking some kind of amnesia?” Alec asked.

  He could scarcely believe he was saying that. That it would be true. But if there wasn’t some big physical sign that blinked off and on reading YOU GOT FUCKED OVER, what other explanation was there?

  “Now I’ve done what you asked, at great inconvenience to myself. If there’s nothing more . . .” Hyde motioned for the door.

  Natalie blinked in disbelief. “That’s it? That’s all you’re going to say?”

  He stared at her. “My dear girl, what else is there to say? In my opinion there is no medical cause for Alec’s behavior. Now I’d like to return to my life.”

  Natalie squeezed her eyes shut and Alec could read her well enough to tell that she was trying to sort herself out, calm herself down. She was about to lose it and it was his fault.

  “Hyde, since we are here, you should know that the Van Helsing family has increased its efforts against us,” she said, her voice trembling ever so slightly.

  “Are you trying to imply Alec’s current state is caused by them?” Hyde laughed, the sound ugly and hollow. “My dear, they aren’t smart enough to figure something out of that nature.”

  Alec shook his head. “I think she’s trying to warn you. They are coming for us.”

  “I am well aware,” Hyde sniffed. “Trust me.”

  “Then why don’t you come back to the group?” Natalie asked. “We could—”

  Hyde moved on her swiftly, coming around the couch before Alec even guessed his movements. He leaned in close to Natalie. He was taller than she was and towered over her in a clear display of power. Not that Natalie reacted to the implied threat. She just stared at him, hatred bleeding off of her.

  “Perhaps I’m not making myself clear,” Hyde hissed. “I do not want, nor do I need, your help. I did you this favor. Now leave.”

  Natalie swallowed hard, but then nodded. “Fine. Igor,” she called out toward the kitchen. “Come on.”

  Alec pushed past Hyde and into the hallway without waiting for Natalie. He leaned against the smooth, cool wall, pressing his forehead into the material so that he would know, for certain, that he was awake, alive, and aware of everything around him.

  He heard Natalie and Igor step into the hallway, he heard Hyde snap the door shut behind them, but he refused to look at them. Refused to look at her, really. After all, she was the one who could leave, who had every reason to abandon him.

  And for once, he actually gave a damn if someone did that.

  “So what happened? Is he okay?” Igor asked in hushed tones, like they were talking about the dead.

  Alec pivoted. “He is crazy, apparently. Hyde says it’s all in my head.”

  “He’s wrong,” Natalie insisted, but once again her hesitation was back. Her wariness of his words, his explanations . . . just him.

  “What do you want to do, Nat, get a second opinion?” he asked, sharper than he intended.

  “He’s lying,” she insisted. “Alec, when his phone rang I saw the caller ID. It said Linda.”

  He stared at her. At this moment, she wanted to talk to him about the Swamp Dweller?

  “So?”

  She sighed. “So, Linda never said she was in contact with him and we’ve been asking for months if anyone had heard anything.”

  “It doesn’t fucking matter, Natalie,” he snapped, his head throbbing. “Don’t you get it? Linda is the least important person in the universe to me. She has nothing to do with whatever is wrong with my head.”

  Natalie’s face fell and he saw brief hurt flicker there before she wiped it away and left stoic stoniness.

  “Okay,” she finally said. “Well, we’ll figure it out. Now come on, let’s get out of this mausoleum. Let’s go home.”

  Alec followed her, always her faithful companion, but in his heart he knew that they might never “
figure it out.” Because if it was all in his head, if it was all something he had created, that meant nothing good for him.

  Or for them.

  10

  Natalie didn’t want to get ready for work, but she had very little choice in the matter. Igor had muttered something to her about sightseeing and left the apartment very suddenly. She might have taken the opportunity to spend some time with Alec, but he kept saying he wanted to be alone. Staying was only going to agitate him, and he was agitated enough right now. So she was going to leave in a couple of hours and give him his space, whatever that meant.

  It gave her time to ponder Hyde’s words, anyway.

  All in his head.

  Could that be? Was it possible she had to go back to the idea that Alec had done something really wrong and was just trying to protect himself by lying or forgetting it?

  And did the something wrong have to do with some twenty-three-year-old slut in a sparkly tank top and red lipstick?

  She rubbed her eyes. After decades, centuries actually, of being alone, in the last six months she’d really gotten used to having someone to depend on. If Alec had done something that betrayed their relationship . . . well, that Creature in the park, whoever he was, wasn’t going to have anything on her once she started her rampage.

  She shook her head as she applied a thin layer of mascara. She was about to start curling her eyelashes when there was a pounding on the front door. Not a knock. A pounding.

  She froze as what Alec called her “pitchfork nightmares” ran through her head briefly. It took everything in her to shake off those thoughts and head out of the bathroom toward the front door. Alec was coming from the bedroom and they met in the hall, as wary of each other as much as they were of whatever was outside.

  “You expecting anyone?” he asked.

  She shook her head as she leaned forward to the peephole.