Four and Five

The vision ended with another tremor. When we woke up from it, we were greeted with… with something monstrous.

It was Joey. No, it was a monster hiding inside Joey, as he had those black marks in his face, just like his son. He was carrying a sledgehammer, hitting a car with mad fury. Hiding inside it were Hayley and Louise, begging him to stop. His eyes weren't unfocused... No, they were keen on a task. He was smiling wickedly. He knew what he wanted to do.

I looked for the officer, but he was gone. He was nowhere to be seen.

I looked at Anderson with impotence, until I felt something… Something was bubbling in me… It hurt… It burned… It encouraged me.

I saw red in that moment. I couldn’t control myself… I ran at Joey and threw him to the ground.  I don’t know how, but I felt that my punches were going straight through him. I hit him as hard as that burning fury let me… I felt someone grabbing my arm, a crunching sound briefly awaking me… Joey was grabbing my arm with such strength…

But that just made me angrier. The pain in my arm did nothing to dissuade me. I held his neck, as hard as I could… A light cracking sound… And then I was back.

I saw his body… My best friend… sprawled in the ground, all life choked out of him. The shock in his eyes… God… I couldn’t … God… The black marks disappeared... Unlike Ritchie....

All the strength I gained was suddenly gone. I collapsed on top of the now lukewarm body of my friend… I wished to cry… But I was too weak to do it. I was too weak to even get up…

Everything was blurry, but I could hear steps. And laughter.

“Good… good…”

I tried to move, but nothing came from my muscles. I was immobile, tired… a wounded gazelle, with a lion coming from behind.

I felt a soft hand in my shoulder. I felt a huge weight in my back. Legs intertwined with mine, pinning me to the ground. A humid breath warmed my neck, but chilled the rest of me…

“Best in ages…”

Something wet ran through my neck, as hands caressed my tired arms. It felt so heavenly… so relaxing… The weight slowly got more bearable, and the touches and kisses… It remembered me of those days in Barbados.

I completely forgot about the bad feelings. It felt so pleasuring...

The delight in the experience made us roll to the side, falling from the inert base where we began. I was greeted by the sweet face of Hayley, framed by her beautiful… red… hair… I noticed the change, but she shut me up with a kiss.

A huge chill woke me up from the trance, much to the disgust of that… thing.

“Hush… Or you’ll spoil it.” She said, kissing me. An immense sense of revulsion struck me, making me squirm and push her back. She looked a little peeved, and she raised an eyebrow. Her face was very different from Hayley’s now, looking more refined and striking, despite the red weird marks in her face… Those marks…

She smiled, as a little drop of blood came from her mouth. She pinned me down again, keen on kissing me again, as more blood trickled from her mouth. I tried to shake her off, but my arm kept me from making rash movements. She lowered her face, now all covered in blood, it came from her mouth, her nose, her eyes…. She was about to kiss me, when she was suddenly pulled away from me.

I looked up, and the lieutenant was there. The bloodied monster stood up, and her face wasn’t bloodied anymore. She looked almost like Hayley, save for the monstrous red veins in her neck and her arms. She looked afraid; she threw herself to the ground… But it was useless.

“Not today.” Shane said, emptying his gun on her.

I was speechless… Then, something told me to look at the car… It was full of bullet holes. The man then came to me, helping me up.

“That thing has been busy.” Lieutenant Shane said. “It downed most of the population”

“How many are alive?”

He chuckled then he patted my shoulder. “We need to get out of here. Whenever there’s smoke…”