"And then I told him to screw off, before I beat him to a pulp right there." Jerry, the black haired and bragging, spat.
"What happened after?" Jessica, blonde to the point of stereotyping, urged.
"The little sucker booked it, haven't seen him since."
"Dude, that's like, the seventeenth time you've told that story." I pointed out.
"But itnever gets old!" He boasted. Jessica leaned closer to him after every word, so far I half expected her boobs to fall out of the striped bikini she wore. Jerry gave her a wink, causing her to blush a bright red. I sighed and shook my head, turning to gaze at the campfire instead. The orange colours were almost hypnotic in the way they flickered back and forth.
"How long do you plan to stare at the fire?" Finally, someone I felt comfortable around. Becky, a childhood friend or mine with short brown hair spoke behind a set of black frames. Her crystal eyes shimmered at me, calculating my expression, which cracked into a smile.
"For the rest of my life, probably."
She laughed. Oh, man, how I loved her laugh. It was gentle at first, but if youreally cracked her up it turned into a psychotic laugh.
"Want one?" Becky held a can of beer out to me.
"Sure." I took it. Ice cold, the drips of water still streaming down the side of the can. My favourite. She cracked hers, and held it out.
"Cheers." We clinked cans, and each took a swig. After a nice 'ah' and a small burp, I felt a lot better than I had before. I glanced over to Becky, who was fidgeting with her sweater sleeves. The movement was unlike her, normally she would tell other people off for clicking a pen one too many times. But I did enjoy how baggy the sweater was on her, Becky always looked cute as hell in them. If I didn't know any better, I would confess my love for her right then and there. I'd had a crush on her since middle school, and it seemed now would be a good time since it was just us- well, the four of us- out camping for the weekend.
The place we found was completely deserted, so we took the advantage and set up our tents. We brought two, originally one for Jerry and I, the other for Jessica and Becky. But the rate things were going Jessica would be in our tent before I had any say in it. Leaving Becky and I alone. Together. In the middle of the woods. The thought alone sent a shiver up my spine. I lifted the drink to my mouth to hide my gleeful expression.
"Actually, I want to tell you something." She started, eyes not leaving her opened beer can. I almost choked on my sip, but cleared my throat and replied as nonchalantly as I could.
"Yeah?"
"Well-"
"EEEEEEEEEEK!" Jessica's high pitched squeal interrupted Becky mid-sentence. Jerry had hoisted her over his shoulder, and proceeded to slap her ass while smirking broadly.
"We're going on an adventure, you and I!" He stumbled towards the bushes. Wow, he must be really drunk. Jessica, too. Speaking of Jessica, she didn't protest at all, but instead hiccuped between laughs, which were so shrill I thought my ears might bleed.
"Don't get lost." I called out to them. Jerry gave me the finger, but I knew he didn't mean it. He wobbly walked into the bushes and out of sight, thank god. Whatever they planned to do I didn't want to watch and hear them at the same time. I wasn't too bad about hearing it, but it would just get awkward watching them do it.
"So, anyway, you were saying?" I turned my eyes back to Becky, tucking a loose strand of pitch black hair behind my ear. I knew I had long hair, my mom would relentlessly bother me about cutting it every day before I left for school.
"Um...yeah." She bit her lip. I scooted closer to her, staring her straight in the eyes.
"You can tell me anything, you know that, right?" Romantic move number one: complete. Wait for phase two.
"Y-Yeah, I'm just nervous." Becky admitted. I waited patiently, gesturing for her to continue.
"Look, I've kind of... had a bit of a crush on you for a while." I was right! She did like me! There was hope! Move to phase two!
"Really?" I couldn't help but smile. "So have I, since middle school actually." Was it okay revealing how long I had liked her? Hopefully I didn't come off as a creeper now.
"Serious?" Her face lifted
.
"More than a lawyer."
I could see Becky smile through the beer. Crap, did that mean my previous grinwasn't concealed? Well, it didn't matter now. I just found out that my crush had a crush on me. It was like one of those cheesy movies, where the guy gets the girl, but this was reality! I was so caught up in my thoughts that I didn't notice at first when Becky was leaning closer to me. Taking the opportunity, our lips met awkwardly. As soon as we broke apart, we kissed again, and before I could comprehend what was happening, we were making out. The first time I had ever kissed a girl, and now it was a full on tongue-fest. After a couple minutes of this, I took it a step further, and stroked her leg. She let me, and we continued on.
That is, until a ear-splitting scream broke the silence. We stopped, mid make out, and looked into the darkness. The bushes rustled, and I stood up, taking a defensive pose over Becky, who sat petrified. Jerry burst from the woos, looking disheveled. There were scratches on his face, and he was limping.
"Holy shit, do you like it rough or something?" I could've saidanything better, but no. Go for the terrible humour.
"Z-Z-Zach." He stuttered. Suddenly I knew it was no joke. There were dark rings around his eyes, and to be honest, he looked scared to death.
"You're pale as a ghost. What happened? Where's Jessica?" Becky observed, getting up from her seat. Jerry shook his head so fast it might fall off.
"No, no, no, no..." He grasped his head, and sobbed. In all the time I knew him, I had never once seen Jerry cry.
"Tell us what happened." I demanded, staring at his hollow face.
"Jessica... kinky... but then... m-monster... killed..." He shuddered. I got the gist of it.
"What do you mean monster?" I started to sweat. "I swear to god, if this is a prank..." Jerry shook his head again, and whimpered.
"Mentioned...you." Now it was my turn to have the blood run out of my head.
"W-What?"
Before he could answer my question, a tremendous roar sent the bushes and trees flying. A monster, taking the body of an ape- only six times the size- stood before us. It's eyes were completely black, so I couldn't tell where the pupil or iris was, and blood leaked from the sockets. The things mouth had a row of long, jagged, pointy teeth. It's 'fur' was a snow white. I say 'fur' because what seemed to be fur looked more like bloody skin. The upper body of the thing was over sized compared to it's legs. But what bothered me the most about it's appearance, was the fact that in a long ponytail a wide number of heads were tied together via their hair. All the faces had the same look upon their face- the look of sheer and utter terror.
The creature held in it's hand the remains of Jessica, who's once beautiful skin that was baby soft to the touch, was now torn and sandpaper looking. Her eyes had been gouged out, and even more disturbing was the fact that she wastorn in half. Her intestines poured out blood, hanging out of her body like a wet spaghetti noodle. I noticed that several organs were missing, including her stomach and liver, but then also saw the trickle of blood leaking from the beasts mouth.
Jerry screamed first, and started to crawl like mad, as if he were in the baby Olympics. The monster curled its lip into a cruel smile, and threw the rest of Jessica into his mouth. With ease, it scooped Jerry into a bloody fist, and dangled him over his mouth. Snapping his teeth shut, the only thing remaining of Jerry was his head, which the monster threw on his back, and merged with the rest of the heads. Now the monster looked and Becky and I.
"RUN!" I snatched Becky's hand, pulling her as hard as I could away from danger. The monster let out what could only be perceived as a morbid laugh, and galloped towards us. It was toying with us. In that moment, I had never felt so weak. Not even when I got two black eyes and a broken rib when I fought against the guy who had constantly teased me. Not even then had I felt completely useless, as I did when I felt a force on the other side of Becky. My head turned, and my eyes widened as the monster pinched two of its fingers around Becky's other arm, and pulled. The strength was so powerful, that before I could do anything, all I had left of Becky was the arm I had a death grip on.No... I thought frantically. Becky...
Then the monster grabbed me, by the back of my shirt, and gazed at me through black, beady eyes. It chuckled darkly, and placed the bleeding Becky gently on the ground.
"How much longer do you plan to play this game, Zachariah?" It cooed at me, like I was a toddler. Raising an eyebrow at the creature, I gave it a questioning look.
"And how much more of my dinner do you plan to eat?"
"Fair enough." The creature agreed, setting me down on my feet. I straightened out my shirt, and hiked up my pants. Then, I morphed into my real form, the same as the other creature, only my skin-fur was an inky black. I stretched and let out a purr, observing the startled girl before me.
"Now that you took my appetizers away, the main course will be served cold, Jack."
"Not entirely." Jack-the-Monster held out the other half of Jessica. "For dessert." He stuck a long, thin tongue out at me, and started to morph into his human form. He brushed a shock of white hair from his eyes and grinned up at me with bronze eyes, Jessica laying in front of him. I picked up Becky's severed arm, and swallowed it whole. Then I grasped Becky herself, and our eyes met. My completely black ones with her crystal, tear stained ones.
"You taste splendid, love."
ns 15.158.61.20da2
