A Crying Shame (151 page)

Will opened the back door and stepped onto the porch, one hand still inside the house, on the light switch. He never got a chance to flip on the light. He froze in paralyzing fear, for one terrifying instant standing face-to-face with the most hideous creature he had ever seen. Will opened his mouth to scream and the Link stuck his clawed fingers in the man's mouth and jerked. Will's lower jaw became separated from his head. Blood gushed, splattering the Link, the wall, and the floor of the porch. Will passed out from the shock and pain of seeing his entire lower jaw tossed out into the back yard.

The Link tore out the man's throat and Will bled to death on the back porch he had built.

Honey?” Helen called.
Will? What is it? What's the matter?”

She walked to the archway between kitchen and dining room. For one long, heart-stopping second she was frozen in absolute terror, staring at the monsters that had entered her house, tracking in blood and gore and a hideous odor. Her eyes flicked to the dangling maleness that flopped about between their hairy legs. She began screaming.

Helen turned to run, making it as far as the living-room floor before they caught her, forcing her to the floor, on her knees. They ripped the clothing from her and savagely raped her, snarling at her screams of fear and pain as they violated her.

Two of them took her, then clubbed her unconscious with one practiced blow on the neck. They left her raped and bruised on the carpet, then ran down the road, toward the lights of yet another house in the country, on the edge of the great dark swamp.

If we can take enough women this night, impregnate enough, a few will birth our offspring, and the chances are good their children will be in human form. That way the humans can never really destroy us. One day, we shall return.

In some form.

But the call of the swamp will always be in our offspring.

Always.

 

I still think what we're doing is dumb!” the young man said to his wife of only a few months.
The state police told us to leave; we should have obeyed that order.”

The young wife said nothing in reply. She stood on the dark front porch of their home. She could not take her eyes from the great swamp, looming dark against the backdrop of diamond-pocked sky, just a couple of miles away, across a rice field.

He put a hand on her shoulder. She rudely slapped it away.

Anger reared up in him. He grabbed her and spun her around.
What in the hell's the matter with you, Betsy? You lost your goddamned mind, or something?”

Just leave me alone, Jack.”

The young man could not believe that voice belonged to his wife. It rolled out of her mouth like some sort of grunting.
You got a cold, or something?”

Something.”

A wind blew across the swamp, touching them both. The young man shivered unexpectedly; the young woman smiled.
What's the matter, Jack?” she sneered at him.
Are you afraid?”

No.” His reply came slowly.
But something's the matter with you, though. Come on in the house; let's talk about this.”