The Beast

by Barry Hutchison

  ‘One sec,’ Ameena replied.

  ‘One sec? Are you mental? She’s trying to – aaah, get off ! She’s trying to eat me!’

  ‘Stop being such a cry-baby, she’s not trying to—’

  CHOMP!

  ‘OK, she’s trying to eat you.’

  ‘I know! Do something about it!’

  CLANG.

  My extreme close-up of the policewoman’s face vanished as a metal bucket was wedged violently down over her head.

  ‘There,’ Ameena said. ‘She can’t eat you now.’

  With a shove, she sent the policewoman sprawling sideways on to the snow. I leapt up and we watched the woman for a moment, thrashing around, struggling to get back to her feet.

  ‘You’d think she’d take the bucket off,’ I said.

  ‘I dunno, I shoved it on there pretty damn hard.’

  ‘But she hasn’t even tried pulling it off,’ I pointed out. ‘You’d think she’d at least give it a go.’

  ‘I’m guessing she’s not thinking straight,’ Ameena replied. ‘What with the growling and the black eyes and the biting and all that.’

  ‘And the being dead,’ I added quietly.

  ‘Yeah. That can’t help either.’

  The policewoman didn’t look frightening any more. Maybe it was the way she was slipping and sliding on her knees in the snow. Maybe it was the window-cleaner’s bucket she had stuck on her head. Whatever, she looked more pathetic now than scary. I almost felt sorry for her.

  ‘She’s just like Mrs Angelo,’ I said. ‘That’s what she was like at the bedroom window.’ I looked over my shoulder to where Mrs Angelo’s house stood, but all I could see was falling snow. ‘Something’s happening again, isn’t it?’

  Ameena nodded. ‘Probably a safe bet.’

  With a muffled scream of frustration, the policewoman tried once again to stand. Once again, she failed. Her legs moved in different directions and she fell backwards on to the snow. She kicked and punched the ground, like a toddler having a tantrum.

  ‘What’s wrong with her?’

  ‘Dunno, but she definitely looks pale.’ Ameena turned to me, grinning. ‘Pale. Get it? Pail. Because... the bucket. Pale.’

  ‘Genius,’ I sighed.

  ‘Ah, you’re just jealous you don’t have my... Oh.’

  Ameena’s face fell. Down in the snow, the policewoman was sitting up. The bucket was not coming with her.

  ‘It fell off,’ I spluttered, stumbling backwards. The policewoman’s black eyes were darting between us, sizing us up. ‘We need to run.’

  Ameena raised her fists, bouncing cautiously on the balls of her feet. ‘I can take her,’ she said.

  Squealing like an injured animal, the policewoman sprung forward on to all fours. Her face contorted and her lips pulled back until we could see every one of her teeth.

  Ameena stopped bouncing. ‘On second thoughts, let’s go with your plan.’

  She took off past me, running with her knees high to avoid tripping through the snow. I ran too, trying to follow in her footprints while keeping an eye on the policewoman.

  ‘She’s coming,’ I yelled, as she began to give chase. She bounded along on all fours at first, then straightened up into a sprint. The snow barely slowed her down. She ploughed through it, gnashing and grabbing and howling at our backs.

  ‘Move!’ Ameena barked. ‘Run faster.’

  ‘I’m trying,’ I protested. ‘It’s the snow, it—’

  My foot snagged on a kerb and I landed face-first in a cushion of cold. I heard the policewoman screech in triumph.

  ‘Kyle!’

  Ameena’s voice was far away. Too far.

  That familiar electrical charge crackled across my scalp as I rolled on to my back. The policewoman was six metres away. Five. Four. Her teeth chomped the air. Her fingers curled into claws. She closed the remaining gap in three big bounds, too swiftly for me to do anything about it.

  She was one step away from me when—

  KA-RUNCH!

  The car came from nowhere, slamming into her and sending her pinwheeling. She spun several times, before landing in an awkward and motionless heap on the ground.

  With a squeal of brakes the car slid to a stop in the snow. Both front doors flew open. I couldn’t see who got out of the driver’s seat, but I recognised the passenger right away.

  He was the boy who had made my school life hell for years. The boy who, just a few short weeks ago, had plunged a knife into my stomach. The boy who had created Caddie and Raggy Maggie, the psychotic imaginary girl and her equally deranged doll.

  ‘Billy?’ I gasped.

  He looked down at me. If he was surprised, he didn’t show it. ‘It’s you,’ he said, matter-of-fact.

  ‘Bullseye! I got her. Ooyah, check out the state of that,’ cackled the boy on the other side of the car. He stepped around to the front and leaned one hand on the bonnet. In the other hand he gripped a short metal pole. Even though he was now standing in full view, I had no idea who he was.

  ‘My cousin,’ Billy said, as if reading my mind. ‘Guggs.’

  ‘Guggs?’ Ameena snorted, jogging back to join us. ‘Christ, that’s unfortunate.’

  ‘It’s not my real name,’ Guggs scowled. He had a fluffy, almost-but-not-quite moustache on his top lip and a neck that looked thicker than his head. Billy was big, but his cousin was bigger. ‘Duh.’

  Ameena took my hand and pulled me up with one yank. ‘So, what, you chose it yourself ? Seriously? You called yourself Guggs?’

  Guggs brought the arm holding the metal bar down to his side. He held it by his hip, sticking out, ready to swing. ‘Got a problem with that?’

  ‘You killed her,’ I said, cutting the argument short. The policewoman was still an unmoving heap, her arms and legs twisted at unnatural angles, her face half-buried in the snow. ‘You killed her!’ I said again, panicking now. ‘You’ve gone and killed her. You idiots!’

  ‘What did you call me?’ Guggs snarled.

  ‘Calm down, freak,’ Billy warned me. ‘We haven’t killed anyone.’

  ‘Look at her!’ I hissed. ‘Her head’s back to front! You think she’s supposed to bend that way?’

  ‘No, but—’

  ‘What did you call me?’ Guggs asked again, more slowly this time.

  ‘Shut up,’ I told him. A few weeks ago he would’ve terrified me, but now he was just Billy’s brain-dead cousin with the stupid name. ‘Just... shut up.’

  ‘You tell him, kiddo,’ Ameena smirked.

  ‘Right, you’re getting it,’ he snarled. He took a step towards me, but Billy quickly put himself between us.

  ‘She’s not dead,’ he said.

  A flicker of surprise crossed Guggs’ face, quickly replaced by a wicked grin. ‘Oh, yeah, that’s right. Forgot,’ he said, slapping the iron bar against the palm of his hand. ‘That’s why I’ve got this.’

  ‘Of course she’s dead,’ I said. The policewoman’s body was a mangled mess, like a one-woman game of Twister. She had to be dead. Then again, I’d thought she’d been dead earlier too.

  ‘Just watch,’ Billy said, his voice hushed. The snow had eased off now. Just a few flakes drifted down from the sky. All four of us fell silent as we watched the policewoman’s body, and waited.

  And waited.

  And waited.

  ‘I think she’s actually more dead than she was a minute ago,’ Ameena said. ‘If that’s possible.’

  ‘Sssh! Shut up,’ Billy hissed. He nodded towards the body. ‘Just watch and... There. Did you see that?’

  ‘See what?’ I asked. ‘I didn’t see anything.’

  ‘She moved.’

  Ameena snorted. ‘She didn’t.’

  Guggs changed his grip on the bar, holding it in both hands now, like a baseball batter about to hit a home run. ‘Get ready,’ he said quietly.

  ‘Get ready for what?’ I asked, but neither of them answered. The way Billy and Guggs were staring at the body, it was like they really, tr
uly believed that—

  ‘She moved.’ It was Ameena who spoke. ‘Her arm. There. See?’

  And she was right. The policewoman’s arm was moving, bending at the elbow, getting into the push-up position. Her other arm was moving too. As it raised up, her hand bent fully back, revealing a broken stump of bone at her wrist.

  ‘Told you,’ Billy said, puffing out his chest.

  ‘Who’s the idiot now?’ Guggs grunted. He took a sudden step towards the policewoman and raised the metal rod.

  ‘Stop!’ I cried. ‘What are you doing?’

  Guggs paused, mid-swing. ‘Tell him, Bill.’

  ‘Destroying the brain,’ Billy explained.

  I blinked. ‘“Destroying the brain”? What are you on about?’

  ‘It’s what you do, innit?’ said Billy, shrugging. ‘With zombies.’

  I almost laughed. ‘She’s not a zombie.’

  From down on the ground there was a cracking of bone. The policewoman gave a low groan as she tried to raise up on her broken legs.

  ‘She does have certain... zombie qualities,’ Ameena admitted. ‘And she did try to eat you.’

  The cousins turned on me. ‘Did you get bit?’ Guggs demanded, pointing the bar between my eyes.

  ‘What? No! Shut up,’ I scowled. ‘She didn’t bite me.’

  ‘But she did try,’ Ameena reminded me.

  ‘Because she’s a zombie,’ Guggs said.

  ‘Exactly,’ Billy agreed. He gave his cousin a nod. ‘Do it.’

  Guggs raised the bar above his head. ‘Destroy the brain!’ he roared, cackling with glee.

  ‘No,’ I cried, feeling the sparks surge through me. By the time Guggs swung down, his hands were empty.

  ‘What the hell? Where’d my pole go?’

  Billy glared at me. His eyes narrowed, but he didn’t say anything.

  ‘No one’s getting their brain destroyed,’ I said. ‘Whatever she is, she’s still human. She’s still a person.’

  ‘It was there in my hand,’ Guggs complained, searching the snow behind him for his missing weapon. ‘Where’d it go?’

  ‘OK. Well, what do we do with her, then?’ Billy demanded, stabbing a finger in the policewoman’s direction.

  I looked to Ameena. ‘Your call,’ she said, shrugging.

  My breath came out as a big white cloud of mist, but I was too numb to feel the cold.

  ‘Right,’ I said, barely able to believe what I was about to do. ‘I’ve got an idea.’

  HUM-WHUM-WHUM.

  The windscreen wipers whipped back and forth, valiantly battling with the snow that had begun, once more, to fall. It was a battle they could never win. Caught in the headlights, the snowflakes looked like stars, whipping towards us, giving the impression the car was travelling at the speed of light.

  It very much wasn’t.

  I leaned forward from the back seat. ‘Can’t you go any faster?’

  Guggs gave a curt shake of his head. In the front passenger seat, Ameena rested her feet on the dashboard. She’d claimed the front seat immediately, leaving me hunched in the back with Billy.

  ‘Hey, give Huggs a break,’ Ameena said. ‘Twenty’s plenty. Am I right, Huggs?’

  ‘It’s Guggs.’

  ‘I think you suit Huggs better. You look like a Huggs kind of guy. You’re Huggs now. That’s that.’

  A leery grin spread across Guggs’ face. ‘I can do a lot more than just hug. You ever been kissed by a real man, sweetheart?’

  ‘You ever had your lungs ripped out through your eyes?’ Ameena asked, smiling sweetly. ‘Because it can be arranged.’

  ‘I’d just like to get to wherever we’re going a bit quicker,’ I said. ‘Considering what we’ve got in the boot.’

  ‘A zombie,’ Billy said.

  I sat back in my seat, arms crossed over my chest. ‘Whatever. Let’s just get a move on.’

  We drove on in silence for a while, the only sounds the swishing of the wiper blades, the crunching of snow beneath the tyres and, I thought, a faint knocking coming from within the boot.

  I wasn’t sure what the penalty was for kidnapping a police officer – even a zombie one – but considering I was already wanted for murder and attempted murder, I suppose it couldn’t really make things much worse.

  ‘So.’

  I turned to find Billy staring at me. ‘So?’ I replied.

  ‘How’s your stomach?’

  Remembering the pain, my fingers felt for the spot where Billy’s knife had punctured my belly. It had fully healed within hours – my abilities had seen to that – but I didn’t want to let him know what had happened.

  ‘Still hurts,’ I lied. ‘How’s your ankle?’

  He shrugged. ‘Fine. Wasn’t broken.’

  Damn.

  ‘Right,’ I said. ‘Well, maybe next time.’

  He grunted and shook his head. ‘Maybe.’

  I thought that was the conversation over, but then he surprised me. ‘Sorry,’ he said quietly. ‘When I stabbed you, it... it wasn’t me. It was like something got inside my head and made me do it. I couldn’t stop myself.’

  I nodded. Billy saying sorry – now there was something I never thought I’d hear. ‘It’s OK. It was a crazy day,’ I said. ‘How’s Lily coping? Where is she?’

  It bugged me that I cared about Billy’s little sister, but then it was partly my fault she’d been caught up in the battle with Caddie and Raggy Maggie, her big brother’s imaginary friends. Ameena and I had saved her, but I hadn’t seen her again since.

  He looked away then, turning his face to the window and gazing out at the blizzard of white beyond.

  ‘Billy—?’ I began, but a growl from the front passenger seat cut me off.

  ‘Touch me again and I’ll kill you,’ Ameena said. ‘Consider that fair warning.’

  ‘Yeah, right,’ Guggs smirked. ‘I think you’re complaining a bit too much. You’re well into me.’

  ‘My fist’s going to be well into your face in a minute.’

  ‘What’s going on?’ I demanded, leaning forward.

  ‘Huggs just grabbed my leg,’ Ameena said.

  ‘He did what?’ I spluttered.

  ‘Wait...’ Guggs said. ‘You two? You’re together?’

  ‘What? No!’ I said, a bit too loudly.

  Ameena didn’t answer. Why didn’t she answer? Did she...?

  ‘Come on, sweetheart, you can do better than him. Why not get with a real man?’

  ‘You keep calling yourself that, but seriously, Huggs, real men don’t drive at fifteen miles per hour.’

  Even Billy laughed at that, though he made sure he did it quietly. Even so, rage flashed across the strip of Guggs’ face I could see in the rear view mirror.

  ‘Stop calling me Huggs!’ he protested. His foot hit the floor and the car surged forward. I was thrown back into the seat as we began hurtling along the snow-covered street.

  ‘Whoa, easy,’ I complained, but Guggs didn’t seem to be listening. He was staring straight ahead now, gripping the wheel until his knuckles burned white.

  There was a whooshing from beneath the wheels as the car slid sideways around a sharp corner. Guggs crunched down the gears and the engine whined loudly. With a sudden jolt we shot forward again, weaving from side to side as the wheels struggled to grip the snow.

  ‘OK, Guggs,’ Billy said, as he bounced against the side window. ‘Point proved. Slow down, mate.’

  ‘Shut up, Billy,’ Guggs seethed. The wipers were whumming across the screen, but for all the good they were doing, we may as well have been driving blind. ‘You want to see how a real man drives?’ he said, scowling at Ameena. ‘How’s this?’

  Ameena yawned. ‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘I must’ve nodded off.’

  ‘Stop winding him up!’ I hissed, as we roared around another corner, spraying dirty slush in our wake. Outside, the snow streaked sideways past the windows, disappearing beyond the red glow of the car’s tail lights. ‘Guggs, stop the car. Cut it out.’
>
  ‘What’s the matter, you scared?’ he sneered, grinding through the gears again. ‘Too fast for you? What do you think of your boyfriend now, sweetheart?’

  Ameena blinked. ‘Whoops,’ she said innocently. ‘Must’ve fallen asleep again. Are we still moving?’

  ‘Ameena!’ I wailed, giving the back of her seat a shove.

  ‘Guggs,’ Billy cried. ‘Come on, cuz, chill out!’

  ‘I’ll chill out when she stops playing hard to get,’ Guggs snapped. ‘What do you say, sweetheart?’

  And that was when he went too far. That was when he grabbed Ameena’s leg again.

  The moment he made contact, she caught his thumb. He howled in agony as she bent it into his wrist, twisting his arm at the same time until it was bending up his back.

  BAM.

  His face hit the steering wheel hard enough to sound the horn. Out of control, the car lurched violently sideways. Even with my seatbelt on, I was thrown on top of Billy. He gave a pained hiss and clutched his lower leg. So, it seemed he hadn’t completely healed up, after all.

  As I leaned back to my own side, I caught sight of something in the darkness up ahead. Something large, solid, and half-buried by snow.

  ‘Look out!’ I cried, lunging for the steering wheel to try to change course. ‘Car—’

  There was a noise then that I can’t describe. Not a bang or a crash, but something more, as the front of our car ploughed into the back of one that was parked by the side of the road.

  I slid towards the front until the seatbelt tightened across my chest. It slammed me back down, but my arms flailed out like a rag doll’s and my head snapped sharply forward, then back.

  There was a loud hissing sound and an airbag exploded free of the steering wheel, pushing Guggs back into the driving seat.

  The car spun, but the snow churning beneath the wheels quickly brought it to a full stop. For a moment there was no sound in the car but the unsteady rasping of our breathing.

  ‘Now,’ smiled Ameena, ‘you cannot say that wasn’t fun.’

  ‘You idiot!’ Billy cried. His face was as white as the snow on the windscreen. ‘You could’ve killed us!’

  ‘Not my fault,’ Ameena said. She had released her grip on Guggs, who was now struggling with a slowly deflating airbag. ‘I did warn him.’ She turned to me. ‘You heard me warn him, right?’