Ante Mortem (21 page)

“
I’m not leaving you,” Daniel tried to sooth him. “He’s afraid and he’s my friend. I’m just going to check on him. I’ll come back.”

“
You’re lying.”

“
Jeremy, you’re overreacting.” Daniel edged himself to the door.

“
You’re just like the rest of them!” Jeremy screamed. “You think I’m ugly! Don’t leave me Danny, you’ll regret it!”

Daniel bolted for the stairs, nearly tumbling down them.

“
Don’t you leave me Danny! I showed them all, the whole goddamn gay community—and I’ll show you too! All of you, you are the ugly ones!”

Daniel managed to get to the street and make it to the subway without Jeremy in pursuit, ending up at Peter’s, who was more than grateful to see him. Safety in numbers Pete always said, ever since he, Chad and Daniel had narrowly escaped a gay bashing years ago.

Daniel kept his domestic issues to himself and slept on Peter’s couch. All he could think of was Jeremy and the look on his face—a face that appeared to come apart at the seams.

Daniel woke, suddenly cold. He opened his eyes and caught a whiff of sulfur in the air.
Peter, no!
He stumbled from the couch and ran to Peter’s bedroom, but it was too late.

The entire room was saturated in dark crimson. The walls were covered in quills. Peter was still in bed, nothing more than a shell now, his desiccated skin stretching from one side to the other. Daniel hung his head low and wept.

He’s not going to stop.
Daniel remembered the book, the picture of the creature and knew there was no more doubt. Something needed to be done.
I need to go back and do something. He’ll listen to me and if he won’t…

Their house was ominously silent. Daniel didn’t even need his key, the front door was unlocked. He looked around for signs of Jeremy’s presence, but knew he would only be in one place. He made his way slowly to the office door and pushed it open.

“
You kept your word,” Jeremy whispered as he knelt naked in front of a lone candle.

“
I had to come back. You’d only send it after me next.”

“
They got to you too, my love. Turned you against me. I knew they would. You think I’m ugly now.”

“
You were never ugly on the outside, Jeremy. Just on the inside, and I wish I’d seen that before.”

“
Oh Danny, you don’t have to worry about me sending the Darg after you. The Darg is right here.”

Daniel watched in mute terror as quills burst out of Jeremy’s flesh. His body stretched and muscles cracked. He turned, his nose forming a flaring, wet snout and his eyes a burning azure blue.

Daniel raced out of the room as quills whistled by his head, striking the wall. He scrambled up the stairs as the beast trailed him. As he hit the bathroom, the book’s words flashed past his consciousness… if the beast should see its own
reflection
…

Just as the Jeremy-Darg burst into the room, Daniel went for the medicine chest’s mirror but the Darg lunged for him and the two collided against it, shattering it in a deafening clatter.

The creature pulled Daniel up and hurled him into the bedroom. A howl echoed. It crawled to him like a panther and climbed on top of his chest. A prickly tongue oozed out of its mouth and caressed Daniel’s cheek.

Turning away, he spotted a shard of the mirror still in his hand. He drew his blood-soaked palm before the beast’s eyes and a shriek rocked the room.

There was a thundering roar of fear and anger as it fell backwards and clawed the floor in a fit. Daniel watched as all of its quills crumbled and the creature soared out of Jeremy’s body, leaving him prone on the floor.

Daniel edged his way over and was aghast to see a now gaunt and shriveled man, his skin wrinkled, and eyes deep sunk. Nearly all of his hair was gone. After all of his fears he had truly become what he feared most. Daniel dropped to his knees and wept, not only for Jeremy but for every gay man who feared growing old.

* * * *

Territory

Kelly M. Hudson

Travis snapped another photo of the barren woods at the foot of the hill and when he did, he saw something small and black dart in-between the trees. He looked up from his camera and stared into the woods but couldn’t see any more movement.

It was probably a raccoon.

But that didn’t make much sense. He hadn’t seen a living thing all afternoon, not even a bird, so it was puzzling that he’d see something now. The woods were only a hundred yards away and any animal out there would surely smell him and stay away.

Unless it was rabid.
Travis laughed at himself. The city boy, hard at work scaring the crap out of himself.

He hadn’t always been a city boy, though. There was a time that he had every nook and cranny of his Grandmother’s land memorized. He used to come out here and play, whenever his Dad brought them to visit. Travis remembered conquering worlds, fighting hordes and finding buried treasures. It was all magic conjured by his child’s mind though, and he was always aware, even back then, that nature was like a pretty cat: it was beautiful, but it also had claws and teeth.

He’d come back here this one last time, on the eve of the developers swooping in and bulldozing the woods, to take pictures and document a lost part of his life; the last time he could truly remember being happy.

What he’d found had surprised him a bit and made him more than a little sad. They’d had an earthquake two days ago, which was pretty unusual for Kentucky, and when Travis had walked around, he saw trees uprooted and a couple of cracks in the earth. He dutifully took pictures to record it all as he walked the old paths, reliving the days of yonder one last time before the blades cut up the earth that the earthquake hadn’t, and new houses dotted the land.

Travis checked the picture on his digital camera but couldn’t make much out of it other than the creature was small and black. He brought the camera up, pointed in the direction where he’d seen it, and sighted it again.

This time, the creature stood on its hind legs and stared at him. Travis stared back, too far away to figure out what the animal was.

Then it
hissed
at him. He heard it, clear as day, as if the critter was standing right in front of him.

Travis zoomed in with his camera and what his eyes saw his mind could not put a name to. The creature was about the size of a small dog, with black fur. Its head was shaped oddly like a horse, and had no lips, just skin pulled back tight at the gum lines to reveal jagged, sharp teeth. It had a small black nose, wet with snot, which quivered as it sniffed the air. Its eyes, big and white like saucers with pin-prick black irises, stared intently through him. It didn’t blink, just fixed him with its gaze and held him there as if he were hypnotized.

Then it hissed again.

Storm clouds rolled in the sky, making the early afternoon feel like dusk. Travis snapped a few pictures of the creature and decided it was time to go.

The only problem was, to get to his SUV he’d have to walk past the creature. Travis looked at the creature again. It reared back and hissed again.

He pulled out his cell phone and looked at it; he could call for help, but found there was no signal that far out.

Well, I can always go around.
Travis walked to his right; the woods were close, and ten yards into them was the mound where the old railroad tracks used to run. He would follow that back to the road.

The creature watched him, wary and angry. It continued to hiss but Travis kept a good distance from it. He watched it as he walked, slowly and surely, like this was his land and he belonged there.

The creature went to all fours and cautiously took a few steps towards Travis. He stopped and stared at the creature. It stopped and stared back.

There was a good hundred yards between them, but for some reason, Travis didn’t feel like that was enough. Chills crept up his spine. There was something unnerving about the creature, the way it stared and didn’t blink, the intense malice in those eyes. Suddenly, he was very afraid; he had been curious, but that melted away as he felt the creature hone in on him, mark him in some strange way, and Travis went from reminiscing photographer to prey.

Screw that thing
, Travis thought.
I’m a man, something to be feared.
No little creepy-looking bastard was going to make him feel uneasy.

Where the bravado came from, Travis couldn’t say. But it made him do something stupid, and he picked up a rock by his feet, chucking it at the creature. Of course the rock missed, but it was enough to infuriate the little thing.

It hissed and dashed at him, its feet clawing at the dirt as it tore through the brown grass. Travis screeched and ran, sprinting into the woods.

The creature gained on him. It had stopped hissing and sped along, sliding over the ground like a bobsled over ice. Travis ran, casting glances over his shoulder, but he knew he wasn’t going to make it to the road before the creature caught up with him. Hell, he wasn’t even going to make it out of the woods.

He found where the railroad tracks had been and ran along them, his mind clamoring for ideas, for something that would help him out. He looked around, his eyes searching for anything that could work as a weapon. All he saw were a few rocks and some branches. They would have to do.

Travis stopped and bent down. He grabbed another rock and threw it at the creature and this time, he hit home. The rock struck the thing in the head with a terrific, hollow thunk and the creature screamed, falling over sideways. Travis wasn’t sure if he’d killed it or not and he didn’t care. He turned and ran as hard as he could through the woods.

Behind him, he heard the most God-awful howl he’d ever heard in his life. He used the sound to spur him on, to run faster, to get to the road and to his truck so he could get the hell out of there. What used to be a land of comfort and fun for him as a child, had turned into a territory of terror.

Through his heavy breathing, through the sounds of his feet thudding through the woods and the cracking of dry branches, Travis heard another sound.
Sounds
, actually. Despite his fear, he turned to look, and instantly wished he hadn’t.

Dotting the woods were over a dozen of those creatures, same as the first, and they were
all
hissing at him, now.

Travis screamed. The howl from the thing had brought others to its side and they sprinted, like a wolf pack, after him.

He could hear them, their little feet, scrambling over the dirt and dried grass and small twigs, scampering and clawing and hissing, hungry for his blood. He heard them close the distance in seconds, gaining on him, just as he could see his truck, not more than fifteen feet away, sitting there like a beacon of safety.

Travis dug in and ran harder than he had since he was a kid, literally running for his life. And still they gained.

He could feel the hot, foul breath of two of them as they ran right on his heels, snapping those teeth together. It sounded like green-sticks breaking as they gnashed their teeth, and they hissed, their spit splattering on the back of his pantlegs.