by M. O. McLeod
9.
The man with a plan
VIN was fierce—Santino could see that. When Santino jumped from the inside of the elevator, so did VIN, no questions asked.
Santino heard the men’s voices calling out in fear, but they were slow and drawn out. Whatever he was… had multiplied eyesight, strength, hearing, and speed. Santino felt like a superhero, although superheroes didn’t have his kind of appetite.
The cops’ warnings had no influence on him. Santino hit and smashed whatever came into sight. Likewise, VIN seemed to be in a rage. He bared his teeth at the officers, and ducked and dodged their bullets as he counteracted with his own deadly assault.
Santino’s senses were stretched to the max. He could see how he affected the cops. They were scared, huddled in groups, acting erratic, and making careless mistakes. He felt their bullets hit his body: some scratched his skin, others bounced off, but none penetrated him enough to stop him. The cops weren’t slowing him or VIN down, and Santino saw fear in their eyes before smashing their heads in. The smells of sweat, piss, and blood hung in the air.
Santino heard one officer to his side radio in for help, and quickly turned to snatch the walkie-talkie from him. He ended up crushing the man’s hand and radio at the same time.
He could see an emergency exit down the corridor, and tried to signal for VIN and Kosner to follow him there. The only problem was that Kosner was nowhere to be found. While Santino and VIN were busy fighting for their lives and holding off the police, it seemed as if Kosner, double the size of his old self, was cooped up in the elevator, shivering of fear.
VIN was taking care of two police officers at once and couldn’t drag Kosner out. Santino would have to do it, and the realization annoyed him. He was the youngest of the three of them, and he felt he should be the one who was babied, not Kosner. However, this was not the time to pick a fight; a fight was clearly already in progress.
“Kosner, come out of there,” Santino said. In the three seconds it took to scream this, a wounded police officer shot at him, and this only infuriated Santino even more. He reached down and snapped the cop’s neck, finishing him off. Then he ran back to the elevator, grabbed Kosner by his torn shirt, and dragged him out.
“Let go of me,” yelled Kosner. He squirmed and kicked away from Santino, but could not get out of his grip.
After finishing up with the last police officers, VIN showed up next to Santino and alerted him of the footsteps he heard approaching from the floor below.
“Either you stay here or you come with us,” Santino screamed at Kosner. “This isn’t a game. This is real life. Those are real cops laying here dead. Do you get that, man?”
Kosner lay sprawled on the flood, dirty and confused.
VIN was the first to react. He understood Santino completely, and knew it was either kill or be killed. All the questions would have to wait for later. He ran down the hallway and burst through the exit door. Santino gave Kosner one last look and hoped the guy would get a brain and some balls. Then he was right behind VIN as the door to the stairs went flying off its hinges.
Kosner heard it too, and it finally registered that he couldn’t just lay there and let the cops haul him off. He hadn’t killed these men he saw as he lifted his body from the ground and ran behind Santino, but it certainly looked as if he’d been an accomplice.
Kosner could feel the vibrations on the floor as the RAID team swarmed into the tiny corridor. The exit doors were inches before him and open. He could see the open sky and the tops of buildings as he fled into the night. VIN was nowhere to be found, but he spotted Santino way up ahead, dashing in between vents and pipes. Kosner could smell his scent; it was kind of guiding him as a map would. He looked behind him, and sure enough the RAID team had followed him through the doors and was gaining on him.
Kosner felt his legs double up with speed, so much that his body levitated. He could leap several feet in the air. He ran faster after Santino, and soon caught up to him.
The two of them ran from roof to roof, slid here and there, and jumped from building to building. Only one guy from the RAID team could keep up with them.
“We have to jump a building that’s not connected on this block,” Kosner yelled to Santino as the two ran on. “This guy isn’t getting the hint.”
Santino nodded his head in agreement and changed direction—and ran directly into VIN. Santino almost knocked him from the top of the roof with the force of his velocity; he couldn’t control his own strength.
“Dude, I can’t jump this length. How are we going to get across?” asked VIN nervously. He was afraid of heights, though nothing else.
“You can do it. Trust me,” said Santino. “It’s all in your mind. See the building, measure it with your eyes, and tell your body the distance you need to cover by going the speed you think will have the most force to propel you forward.”
VIN looked confused.
Kosner said, “This is something I think I can do.” Without hesitation he backed away from the ledge and ran full speed at the edge of the building. He zeroed in on the other side and told his body to close the gap, which was several feet of free fall. He hurled himself in the air and felt his feet leave the ground. His legs and arms kept spinning; he had to keep his body moving, or gravity would pull him straight down. Kosner could see the roof of the other building looming large in front of him. He landed on it and skidded to a stop. His legs burned from impact, and he felt his breath catch a bit, but other than that he felt accomplished. Kosner had never been the guy to do something first, let alone the guy who did something first and right.
Santino saw Kosner complete the jump without the slightest of problems. He really liked VIN for the most part, but he couldn’t let the guy slow him down.
“Stop!” yelled someone from behind.
Santino didn’t hesitate for a second. He backed away and jumped the same way Kosner had, using his momentum to add to his height so he could clear the gap between the roofs.
Santino heard gunshots as he flew through the air, but couldn’t worry about it. He made it across the gap and landed several feet behind where Kosner had. Santino turned, and was glad to see VIN coming across just as he had, although not as smoothly.
VIN fell short and ended up barely hanging on to the edge of the building. Kosner was the first to respond. VIN was huge and heavy, and growled in fear as he hung limply on the edge.
“Give me your hand,” screamed Kosner. “Let go with one hand, and I won’t let you go, I promise.”
Santino reached over Kosner and bent over the edge of the roof. He grabbed for VIN’s clothes. In one smooth motion, Santino pulled VIN’s weight up and over onto the roof.
Kosner looked at Santino in amazement and envy at the same time. It seemed to Kosner that Santino did everything right—he didn’t have to try hard at all. How was it that some guys had it all so easy, as if they were genetically predisposed to succeed?
VIN rose from the ground shaken and embarrassed. He and Kosner hurried behind Santino to the access door that led back into the building.
“I’m glad that’s over,” said Santino as he took the stairs down. “Good thinking, Kosner. Jumping buildings should keep the police off our tracks for a while.”
“But where are we going now?” asked Kosner. It was clear to him that Santino was the leader, and that he possibly held the answer to why he could run abnormally fast and jump outrageous lengths.
“We need to find a place where it’s dark. Somewhere out of the way, secluded,” VIN responded.
The three men walked in unison under the night’s protection, taking as many back alleys as possible. The nights in Alexandria were quite loud. The restaurants, bars, and diners stayed open all night, and the sidewalks and bus stations were crowded with people trying to get to and from. Most minded their own business; Alexandria wasn’t a friendly city. T
here was no brotherly love or random acts of kindness to one’s neighbor.
Santino could think of only one place that was open yet vacant enough to hide out in: the gym he used when he was growing up. When Santino was very young, his dad had introduced him to boxing. Santino had loved the sport and loved his dad for putting him on to it. However, that was the only thing his father ever did for him before going away to prison.
Trinidad Gym closed late and opened early for those who had hectic work schedules. Santino still went from time to time to check up on his old coach and spar with his friends from school. Ever since he had hooked up with Kurma, though, he had sort of dropped everything for her; he’d stopped practicing and seldom showed his face around the gym anymore. Most of the guys his age there were into some crazy stuff, and Kurma had always disapproved.
Santino knew the gym would be the perfect cover for the guys. It would be quiet around that time of night, with guys focusing on their workouts instead of worrying about three goonies.
“We can go up to Trinidad’s on thirty-fifth Ave. and lay low for a while,” said Santino.
“You don’t think there’ll be people around? A gym is pretty bright. I don’t want anybody seeing me like this,” said Kosner.
“Trust me. The guys there mind their own business. We won’t be in the gym anyway, but behind it where they keep their extra equipment and stuff,” Santino said. “It’s time I had the talk with you two.”
“This guy,” VIN said jokingly. “You sound like my father.”
“I am your father in a way.”
VIN didn’t like that. He was the kind of guy who was his own man. He had had a dad, and he didn’t like him; besides, VIN was twice Santino’s age, and he didn’t like being guided by a teenager who was still in high school. “Don’t joke around with that,” he said.
Santino could feel a slight tension, but it was what it was. Whether VIN wanted to admit it or not, he came from Santino. Whatever was in Santino’s hands or skin passed on to VIN, and spawned something very much like an offspring.
“Look, I’m hungry and thirsty,” said Kosner. “I’m ready to stop moving. I say we go up to the gym. Cut the macho stuff out, alright?”
VIN looked at him as if he were crazy, but didn’t egg him on. Kosner wasn’t a threat, just puffed out a bit from jumping that building. He wasn’t talking like this back in that elevator, thought VIN.
“We also need new clothes and jackets, and bigger pants,” Santino said. “I must have grown. My shirt is split, and my pants are too tight. We’re going to stand out like this. We need to blend in better.”
“Good thinking. It’s late, though. What clothes store will be open?” Kosner asked.
“Who said we need it to be open? Goodwill is right down the street.” VIN wasn’t into following the rules. With his size there weren’t many who could challenge him. “We sneak in through the back undetected, grab what we need, and be on our merry way.”
“You down, Kosner?” asked Santino.
“Doesn’t look like I have a choice,” he said in a sullen tone.
Goodwill was on the way to the gym, and Santino didn’t see any harm in breaking into the store. If it was closed, then there was less of a chance for the guys to attack anyone, or worse touch anyone and cause another transmutation.
Santino and the guys walked around the back of Goodwill looking silent and deadly. Santino led, and Kosner and VIN followed. Santino’s eyes darted here and there to make sure there were no eyewitnesses around. He knew there would be security cameras, but he didn’t look the same as he used to, so someone possibly figuring out that he had broken into a store was his last concern.
Fog and the city’s underground heat created the perfect hazy cover. The lights were on but dim in the back of Goodwill’s loading dock. VIN climbed the railing and checked to see if the coast was clear. He signaled to the others, and Santino and Kosner quickly closed the gap between the street and the building’s employee access door. There was a huge gate nearby that the trucks backed up to, and VIN was already at work trying to pry it from its hinges.
“It’s locked for a reason,” Kosner tried to whisper to VIN, but VIN wasn’t paying attention. “You’re going to have to break the chain or the lock itself.”
VIN stopped and looked to him with death in his shiny, black eyes. “You wouldn’t happen to have a lock cutter in your back pocket, would you?”
Kosner didn’t understand the question. “No, of course I don’t.”
“Well then shut the hell up and stand back, and watch a real man work!”
Santino blew air out of his mouth at VIN’s response, and knew not to get in his way. He watched as VIN tried countless times to break the bulky lock and chain. The more VIN tried, the more noise he created.
“Let me try,” said Santino when he’d had enough of the ruckus. Sooner or later the cops would come to investigate.
VIN looked irritated as he stepped back. Santino approached the gate and peered up the chain to see how it kept the gate closed. The contraption was difficult and intricate. He thought it would be smarter simply to rip the employees’ door off its hinges, rather than mess with the loading gate. He jumped from the platform and walked the short distance to the back door. He wiggled the knob to see if it was locked, and it was. Santino steadied his grip on it and looked to VIN and Kosner, who were still up on the loading platform. He wanted them to see how it took two seconds for him to figure out a better plan, compared to the five minutes VIN had spent trying to muscle his way into the gate.
Santino pulled the doorknob clean through its hole. He took his pointer and middle fingers and hooked them in the gaping hole, and pulled the door away in a soft swoop. “And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how it’s done.” He smiled at the other two.
“Yeah, whatever,” VIN said under his breath as he jumped to the ground.
Kosner was the last to jump, and then he followed the other two in silence. They were in a small, completely dark hallway when he realized he could see everything as if he had on night goggles. In the dark he saw VIN pause and feel out into the open space.
“Do you think we could get some light?” VIN asked.
Kosner realized VIN didn’t have the night vision he had. He saw Santino walk around tables and chairs over to a wall where he reached for a light switch, and his hope diminished. It seemed that everything he had, Santino had as well and more. Well, at least he could see in the dark and VIN couldn’t. That was better than nothing.
“You couldn’t see, VIN?” Santino asked. He could see fine in the dark. Everything was on a grayscale instead of pitch black.
VIN’s eyes adjusted to the light, and he saw that he was in a break room of some kind. “It was pitch black man, like no one paid the light bill.”
Santino found that odd. He looked to Kosner, who seemed fine—he wasn’t blocking the room’s light with his hands as VIN was doing. Santino realized Kosner could do things VIN couldn’t, and VIN had abilities Santino had but Kosner didn’t.
“Let’s just get the stuff,” Kosner said as he walked to a refrigerator. “I’m starving. Like, eat-my-own-hand hungry.”
He opened the fridge and peered in. He saw old leftovers and a wrapped turkey sandwich. “Yahtzee!” he proclaimed, then ripped open the sandwich and tore into it.
Santino watched and waited to see if maybe he could eat regular food instead of human flesh.
“Aargh. What the hell?” Kosner frowned at the food. He sniffed it. “It smells okay.” He took a bite from the other side of the sandwich and frowned again. “Okay, the meat must be bad.”
“What does it taste like?” asked VIN.
Kosner grimaced. “Like vinegar, and grass with a hint of salt and old, spoiled eggs.”
VIN laughed. “Well, I guess it’s like the guy said—only raw meat for us.”
“My name is Santino,” he said.
“Wow, you know, this whole time I never even knew your name,” said Kosner as he dropped the sandwich on the floor. He held his stomach and made his way to the front of the building, into the main shopping area. “Food’s on hold for a while. I’m not sure I want to just take the teenager’s word on what I can and cannot eat.”
Santino and VIN followed Kosner into the store. Santino thought it looked creepy with all the odd things hanging from the ceilings and walls. “Look at all this old crap,” he said.
VIN darted from aisle to aisle, looking for the men’s section.
“Stay away from the windows,” warned Santino.
“They’re over here guys,” Kosner yelled across the room.
“Sshhh,” said VIN in a hushed voice. “I hear something.”
Santino’s sixth sense perked up, and he scanned the room for anything out of the ordinary. He saw stairs leading up to a second level and a light coming from a little room that seemed to be an office.
VIN growled under his breath. Someone was in the store, and that meant food. He hadn’t let on how hungry he was because then he would have to believe that Santino was telling the truth about eating people. That was his last hope—that whatever he was, he was not a carnivore that preyed on humans. But his mouth went right on salivating. His breathing slowed down as he listened intently to what was going on upstairs. He could hear music and voices. His empty stomach growled, and his feet seemed as if they had their own mind. They led the rest of his body toward the stairs. His eyes stayed focused on the room’s light, never leaving their mark.
Santino smelled it too: food. He saw Kosner try to sneak around the side to join VIN. Even though he was hungry—starving even—he had to be smart about it. If VIN or Kosner mistakenly touched someone then that person too would turn into a Phantom—unless they killed him, and that would lead to more police, and Santino’s plan to stay off the grid would be ruined. He would have to stop them before they went too far. They weren’t there to eat, after all, but to get clothes so they could get from point A to point B.
Just as VIN and Kosner made it to the first step, Santino reached out and pulled them back. Kosner hissed at him and bared his teeth. His ears drew back, and his eyes turned reddish black. VIN didn’t even pause, but shook Santino’s arm off him and continued up with a quickened pace.
Santino had no way to control the two unless he used real physical force, and he didn’t want to hurt his protégés. He felt helpless as VIN and Kosner ran up the stairs, making a ruckus as they went, following the warm scent of food.
VIN was the first to reach the room and tore the door off as if it were a butterfly wing. There were two people in the tiny room. One was a female, and the other was a male who must have been the manager of the store since he had a huge set of keys on his hip. The two were in the middle of something—the guy’s pants were down, and the lady had her shirt unbuttoned.
VIN charged at her. A bloodcurdling scream erupted from her mouth. Kosner rushed and knocked the guy over a table in his attempt to join VIN in the feast. The woman’s hands went up to protect her face, and VIN played with her like a cat with a mouse. He grabbed her arms and squeezed them tight. Santino, who was frozen in place, heard her bones cracking. He looked on in horror. Was this how he’d looked when he’d attacked Kurma?
VIN licked the woman’s face, and she cried out in disgust and pain. Kosner wasn’t into all that; if he was going to eat, then that was what he was going to do. Breaking arms, pulling out hair, licking faces and all that was not his style. He came from behind VIN and grabbed the woman by her throat, squeezed tight, and snatched her head clean off her neck. He felt the meat’s last pulse as the blood poured on the floor, bathing his shoes in red. Her mouth hung agape, and her eyelids closed slightly. Kosner felt his lips slide back over his teeth. He closed his eyes and opened his mouth wide.
VIN snatched the head from Kosner and bit into it. Kosner was taking too long with the thing, and he was starving. Kosner flared up and let out a growl, then lunged for the head.
Santino watched as the two wrestled for the prize. He looked over to where the man had fallen unconscious. He wasn’t dead; Santino knew this, and shook his head at the thought. Another mouth to feed and another man to follow him. Santino could see the pros and cons of the situation. He walked over to the man and kicked him. The man was in his late twenties, white, with sandy hair and an eyebrow piercing. Santino watched as the transmutation took place. Fortunately the man slept through the pain. Behind him VIN and Kosner finished with the woman’s head and tore into the body.
“Save some for this guy,” said Santino.
Kosner looked up from the floor where he sat biting into the carcass’s chest. “For who? Don’t you want some?” He held the woman’s hand up for Santino.
He wasn’t worried about the food anymore. “You can’t touch people. Whatever is in your blood, or whatever it is that is making us like this, is highly contagious. Kosner, you knocked this guy over trying to get to his girlfriend and didn’t kill him, therefore he has been exposed.”
“Basically I turned him into us.” Kosner wiped blood from his mouth. “Dude, are you hearing this?” he asked VIN, who was busily tearing into a chunk of flesh. He only growled in response.
Kosner stood up from the dead body and instructed Santino to try to eat. “We don’t know when we’ll have another opportunity. I’ll watch out for him until he wakes up.” Kosner had eaten his fill, and was thinking more clearly than before. His throat felt ten times better, and his head had stopped spinning. He walked to Santino, patted him on his back, and parked himself on the overturned table. “Don’t worry. As soon as he comes to, I’ll let you know. Eat something, Santino.”
He was hungry. The scent of the woman’s blood was intoxicating, and he was thirsty. “Alright,” he agreed. “VIN, slide over.”
Santino dropped to his knees and then on all fours. He dipped his fingers into the pool of blood that had collected around the body. He bent his head and sniffed. He took a long slurp and breathed the metallic smell in deep. Next to him VIN slowed down his eating, and Santino pushed him out of the way. VIN fell over like an overstuffed teddy bear.
Santino inspected the woman’s remains and saw there was a leg, an arm, and her torso left. Everything else was a bloody mess. He went for the torso first. He dug his sharp nails into the ribcage, reaching in to the heart. It felt lukewarm and soft and squishy. Santino pulled it from its dead owner and put it in his mouth. He chewed quietly, savoring the flavor. He took another bite, wiped his mouth, and smacked his lips.
“Who knew we taste so good,” said VIN, who had crawled off into a corner.
Kosner and Santino looked at one another and laughed, low at first, then more loudly and nervously.
“Hey, hey, hey, this guy is moving.” Kosner stood up from the table and backed away from the man.
Santino stood up and went close. He could hear a groggy, deep voice and tried to make out what the man was trying to say.
“My mouth, my head… It hurts so badly.”
“Get him on his feet,” VIN said. “That should wake him right up.”
Santino and Kosner hoisted the new guy up. “What’s your name?” asked Kosner. He slapped the man’s face lightly. “Can you hear me?”
The guy’s head slouched forward and backward, like a newborn babies. “Leon. My name is Leon.”
“Leon, there we go. His name is Leon,” proclaimed Kosner with a goofy smile on his face.
Santino rolled his eyes. Kosner wasn’t the brightest of the bunch. “VIN, bring me a piece of meat.”
VIN rolled over, big and bulky, and pulled the woman’s leg from its socket, then brought it to Santino.
Santino handled the meat with care as he put it under Leon’s nose, waving it back and forth.
“Good idea,” said Kosner.
Leon came too shortly, sniffing and breathing in the smell. His eyes opened, and his neck stiffened, steadying his head. He pushed Santino and Kosner away and stumbled a bit on his own.
Santino watched Leon as he stood up. Every time he saw one of his creations in the beginning stages, he felt so proud, like a father who had taught his son how to ride without training wheels.
Leon’s mouth hung open, and drool clung to his chin. He had a crazed look about him; his blond hair had fallen off in patches, and the veins in his face were bulged. He took in his old office. He smelled blood in the air, blood and sweat and tears. He felt bone-shivering cold, like when he was a child growing up on Lake Michigan. He hated it. He saw the desk lamp, the only light in the room. His eyes adjusted, and he saw three men. Where was Mona? He tried to back away from the trio, but his body bumped into something. He put his hands up in defense and saw they were grotesque and swollen.
“It’s okay. Just breathe deep, and slow down your thoughts,” Leon heard a voice say.
His hands were claws. They were white and long and thick, with razor-sharp nails. Black veins ran up his arms as if his blood was made of tar.
“What am I?” he asked.
“You’re a Phantom,” replied Santino.
“So that’s what you’re going to call us?” Kosner asked.
“Do you have a better idea?” Santino replied.
VIN and Kosner looked at one another as they racked their brains for a cleverer name. Neither one responded.
“Exactly what I thought,” Santino said. He turned back to Leon, who seemed to be in shock. “You must be hungry. You should eat something.”
Leon didn’t feel hungry. He felt confused and lost. The last thing he remembered was making out with Mona, the lead clerk at Goodwill. Mona, busty Mona with her sweet smile. Leon couldn’t say where she was right now. He could only hope she had left before these thugs showed up.
“Who are you guys?” he asked.
“I think it’s time to go,” VIN said as if he hadn’t heard Leon.
“Yeah, I’m gonna go downstairs and clean up,” said Kosner.
“So you all are just gonna leave me with the new guy like that?” Santino couldn’t believe it. Kosner and VIN left the room looking like a crime scene, and closed the door behind them. Santino knew Leon would ask a million and one questions about how and why and what was going on. He had some answers, but not all. He turned around and saw Leon staring at him, patiently waiting for an explanation. At least he wasn’t freaking out like Kosner had.
“Look,” Santino started, “I know you have a lot of questions for me.”
“Not just you, for all of you. Like how did you get in here? Where is Mona?” Leon took in the room again, and all he saw was red…red blood, liquid and bright, in puddles with chunks of bones and meat. His eyes widened in horror.
Santino couldn’t handle this. If only they hadn’t eaten this guy’s girlfriend, he might have been able to explain things better.
“Is that Mona?” Leon uttered. Then he began to scream. “You killed her! Mona!” He dropped to his knees and crawled toward the puddle of blood.
Santino had had enough. First he had an adrenaline junkie, then a scary cat, now a crybaby. What was in this stuff that had all these grown men becoming so extreme in the beginning stages? Santino bet Leon didn’t even like Mona that much, that she was just a work fling. Yet here he was going on and crying like he’d lost his first love. You don’t sneak your first love into your office after hours.
Santino bent down and dragged Leon away from the gory mess. He pulled Leon onto his feet and tried to direct him toward the door. He had to clean up, and if Leon wasn’t going to eat anything, then staying in the room with human remains would just upset him even more.
“Let’s go, buddy,” Santino said.
Leon sniffled and let Santino push him from the room. “What happened?”
“Just take a walk, and I’ll tell you whatever you need to hear. Watch the steps.” Santino directed Leon down the stairs to join the rest of the guys. He saw Kosner had picked out a new outfit, all black and trendy with a huge scarf that covered half his face and leather combat boots. VIN had chosen a dark black and blue ensemble. He had on an oversized trench coat with a cardigan underneath, and a black fitted cap on his head.
“Look at you two. What are you guys now, fashion models?” asked Santino. “Why didn’t you find anything for the new guy?”
“I did. Nothing too fancy, though.” Kosner tossed clothes at Leon’s feet.
Leon stood there with a blank expression on his face. Santino was still holding on to him. He felt light, like he could fly away at any given time. Santino didn’t know if he was in shock or just very nonchalant.
Leon bent to pick up the clothes. He peered at them and said, “I don’t look good in camouflage.”
VIN burst out in laughter. “We have a fruitcake onboard, boys!”
“Enough,” said Santino. “Put those on. We’re taking a walk,” he told Leon as he went to find himself some clothes. His were covered in dirt and blood, and were ripping at the seams. He picked out a leather jacket and a black hoodie. He looked at the glasses display case and found some black aviators.
“Just leave everything as it is,” he said. “We’re going out the back.”
Leon asked, “Where are we going?”
“Someplace where we won’t be bothered,” Santino responded.
“Can’t we just stay here? This place is empty.”
“Not for long it won’t be,” answered VIN. “As soon as it opens up tomorrow morning, someone’s going to find your pretty little Mona. That was her name, right?
Leon looked as if he was about to cry all over again.
“Leave him alone,” said Santino.
VIN huffed. “Stop trying to be Mr. Save-a-Captain, alright?”
Santino ignored VIN and his childish ways, and walked back toward the break room. Kosner followed, leaving VIN with Leon.
“Well, are you coming?”
Leon jumped at VIN’s voice. He didn’t want to go anywhere, not with these guys. He didn’t know what was going on. All he wanted to do was go home, but his parents probably would be there watching his nieces and nephews. He didn’t want to bring this drama back to his house, especially since it involved the death of his coworker.
Leon shuffled his feet for a moment and followed the two guys. The big one came behind him, and he truly felt his life was in danger. What if these guys were kidnappers and were trying to hold him for ransom in trade for his parents’ four-bedroom house? All around the big cities, especially Alexandria, kidnapping and ransom cases were becoming the norm. The schemes went like this: kidnap someone with a huge house, and have them sign it over in trade for the loved one.
Leon didn’t know what was going on. There were a million and one questions going through his head. It seemed as if the tall one was the leader. Still, nothing could explain why they looked hideous, like monsters out of a book. Though they dressed themselves up, they couldn’t fool the naked eye. They weren’t anything like average citizens for sure.
Out on the empty backstreet, Leon saw things he had never seen before. A slight drizzle had begun, and it seemed to distort everything. The dim streetlights glowed bright. He noticed the cracks in the pavement—all of them, even the tiny fractures. He noticed the graffiti on the buildings, how colorful and intricate the patterns were. Even the night wasn’t black, more like a grayish coal color. The stars, though still blocked out by the city’s murky smog, seemed to twinkle a bit. Leon’s vision had doubled, even tripled.
“What’s happened to me?” he whispered to himself. Then he felt a hard shove from behind.
“Keep it moving.” VIN said.
Santino lo
oked back at Leon and VIN. For some reason VIN had taken a liking to the new guy, and not in a good way. “Hey, Leon, let me talk to you quickly.”
Leon was glad he had a reason to get away from this bully. He made his way up to the front, and came in between the smaller one and the taller one on his right. “What’s your name?” he asked the tall one.
“Santino.”
Leon pointed at Kosner and asked him the same thing.
“Call me Kosner. The guy behind us is called VIN.”
“As in the vehicle number of a car?” asked Leon. He couldn’t believe his luck. Here he was being kidnapped by three thugs. His mother would have a fit.
Santino looked over Leon’s head. Kosner looked back at him with a ‘yeah, he went there’ look.
“No, his real name is Vincin,” said Santino. This new guy turned him off. He felt Leon had a judgmental vibe and wondered how he would affect the group’s camaraderie.
Santino directed the others toward the AirTrains. The Trinidad Gym was in the middle of the city, and they needed to get there as quickly as possible. Walking any farther was out of the question since there were too many of them. No way could they go unnoticed.
The four followed the walking traffic into the AirTrains tunnel that led up to the platform.
“Keep your head down and don’t talk to anyone,” Santino instructed the group.
“VIN, try not to mess with anyone, including babies and pets,” joked Kosner.
The men huddled together as they made their way through the tunnel with its polished, gray walls. The group was dark and silent, and tried their best to blend in without anyone noticing them. Hundreds of people crowded the tunnel carrying backpacks and suitcases; most of them looking at the ground as they walked, minding their own business. Santino couldn’t have been happier.
The train was just as crowded, and the ride was rough. The lights flickered on and off as usual. The walls were covered in advertisements. All the seats were taken, and Santino and the guys stood huddled together at the end of the car. They were big and bulky; some people stared at them, others quickly looked away. Santino had a posse now, and he imagined he looked like a badass in his leather jacket. But was that what he wanted? He had a brother who looked up to him. He had friends and teammates. He didn’t know if he wanted to trade his old life for this new one.
As he watched everyone else going about their day-to-day lives, he thought about where his was headed. Was he immortal? He knew bullets didn’t penetrate his skin; he knew he could jump high, look far, and see in the dark; he knew he had abilities he had never dreamed of. And he had an appetite that caused other people deadly harm, which meant he could never go back to his old life.
The call for St. Peter’s station came over the PA, and Santino alerted the others.
“St. Peter’s is going to be crazy tonight since it’s the weekend,” said Kosner. “I don’t want anyone to see us like this. I think we should stay near the walls.”
The group agreed and silently stalked out of the AirTrains one by one. They went down the stairs in single file with their heads down. Santino pulled up his hood, VIN repositioned his cap, Leon put his hands in his pockets, and Kosner quickly led the group out of the station.
“Which way, boss?” he asked Santino.
“Boss?” asked VIN in a sarcastic tone.
Santino looked at VIN and knew that sooner rather than later he would need to let VIN in on the secret: Santino was the leader—period. He didn’t want to be a tyrant, but when it came down to it he was the strongest, fastest, and oldest out of the four. He believed VIN saw him as a dictator, but he had to find a way to show he wasn’t like that.
“Go up 40th Ave. and make the first right onto McClire Lane. You can’t miss it,” Santino said.
The night was cold and misty with a light drizzle, and the streets were still teemed with people as the group neared the heart of the city. All the skyscrapers were lit, and the restaurants and clubs were coming alive. The group weaved in and out of the walking traffic and attracted unwanted attention here and there. Santino was afraid someone would antagonize them because of their size and height, but fortunately it didn’t happen, and they made it to McClire Lane in one piece—without touching anyone.
Trinidad Gym had the perfect location. It was in the middle of the city, and the only building on its block. The street was off of a main drag, and most of the time got few visitors. Santino’s grandfather had once owned the gym until the building had gone into foreclosure, and he sold it. Santino’s father had even managed the place at one time. His father used to train real fighters before he went to prison. When he was released, he got a position back at the gym as a junior training coach. Santino wasn’t worried about running into his dad today though; he knew Darius was on leave because he’d gotten into an altercation with one of the new hitters. This was good. He was the last person Santino wanted to see.
The gym came into view, and Santino directed the guys around back. A huge, metal fence blocked off the entrance. Santino had snuck in hundreds of times, and this time was no different. There was a bunker in the back that used to be the custodian’s room, but then the gym was renovated and the bunker became an extra space for old gloves, ropes, sandbags, and weights. Only a few people knew about it—the original owners and the custodian. It seemed like a good place for Santino to collect his thoughts.
Leon needed help jumping the fence, but the group went unnoticed by the patrons of the gym. Santino could hear sparring inside as he looked for the bunker. He found it, looking just as tiny and isolated as he remembered from his younger years, when he would hang back there with his dad.
The door was unlocked. There were no windows, and inside the room was pitch black.
“This looks like it should be in a horror film,” Leon said from the back, his eyes scanning the empty lot behind the gym.
Santino felt around on the wall for the light switch, H found it and flicked it on, then hurried the guys, who were acting reluctant and scared, into the room and shut the door behind them. They crouched in the crowded space. The room was filled with old equipment, a desk and a chair, three old sandbags, and two duffels overflowing with athletic tape.
Santino hoisted himself up onto the desk and felt it creak under his weight. He remembered bringing girls back there and doing things on that desk that would have shamed a nun.
“Alright, so now that we’re all here, let’s hear it. What did you do to us?” VIN was the first to ask. He parked himself on a bench in the back and waited for Santino to fill him in on everything. He wanted to know why he could hear so good, why he had sharp nails, how he was twice as strong as he used to be, why had all his hair fallen out, why he needed two rows of shark-like teeth, and, most of all, why did human flesh tasted like turkey and stuffing on Thanksgiving day. He wanted answers. He hadn’t stayed behind and snitched to the police about Santino. Now Santino had better hold up his end of the deal, or VIN would talk about what happened—but to the cops.
Santino clapped his hands and took off his jacket. He got comfortable on top of the hard, wooden desk. The lights flickered a bit as he prepared to begin his story. Everybody quieted down, and all eyes were on him. Santino breathed in deeply and began.
“I wasn’t bit by a spider. I’m not an alien from another planet. I didn’t run away from an underground testing facility that was doing unapproved experiments.” He paused as he collected his thoughts. “As I tried to say before, I was a regular teenager. I go to Cacheus High School over on Brixton Circle. My mom’s is cool. I got two little sisters and a little brother. I’m All-City, varsity, I play football, basketball, the works. I used to box in this very gym until I quit last year. I had a girlfriend named Kurma up until recently.”
He stopped and his voice broke when he said her name. Where was she right now? Last he had seen, she had wings and was we
t and scared.
“My story gets complicated.” He looked at the guys, who were on the edges of their seats, taking in everything he said. “Kurma and I were messing around.”
“Messing around how?” VIN’s voice exploded in the small, quiet room. “Don’t leave anything out.”
Santino cleared his throat and continued. “I took my girlfriend’s virginity. It was okay. She was kind of shy, kind of stiff, but all in all not bad. I was laying there after we were done, and all of a sudden she got up and ran to the bathroom. That was where things got weird. I was lying in bed, waiting for her to come back so I could go for another round, and then I got this intense pain in my head. My face felt like all the blood had drained out of it.”
Kosner nodded his head in recognition.
“I changed,” Santino went on. “I do not lie when I say I went through the exact same things you experienced. I even tried to attack my girlfriend who was in the bathroom. I realized my hunger when I came upon her. I fell out of her apartment’s window when I attempted to chase her down.”
Santino looked at Leon. “I survived the fall and immediately began to attack people. One wasn’t lucky enough to make it out alive. While I was eating his face off, these guys”—he indicated VIN and Kosner—“tried to stop me. I touched them with my bare hands and spread this thing to them without even knowing it. I turned them into Phantoms like me.”
Leon looked scared. VIN was listening intently. Kosner looked somber, nodding his head at Santino’s pauses and breaks.
“I now realize that whatever is in my blood and in my pores can contaminate other human beings, and change their DNA so they become like me,” said Santino.
“Do you recall anything that could have been the reason you changed originally?” asked VIN. “Anything you ate or any person you encountered? Someone who could have passed something on to you?”
Santino became quiet; he thought long and hard. He came up with nothing. “If I could talk to my girlfriend then I might be able to ask her opinion on the subject. We were together for most of that day.”
“We eat people. That’s so crazy to me,” Kosner said in a quiet voice. “Why do you think we were created to eat people?”
Santino had never thought of that. “In time, I’m sure all the pieces to the puzzle will fit. Until then we just have to adjust and move on. We have to make sure we don’t touch anyone, because then they’ll be turned into Phantoms, and their new food source could be your mother, your father, your nieces and nephews. This will turn into an epidemic if we aren’t careful. We have to kill to eat and eat to kill. There is no in between.”
The room was still as his message sunk in.
“I want to change the energy in here a bit,” said Santino as he moved around the bunker. “You guys now know my story. What about yours?”
VIN was the first to speak up. “I work at a warehouse in Midtown. I have a girlfriend, and recently we’ve been having financial issues. I’ve been taking overnight shifts to avoid the tension between us. My mom is retired and lives down south. Also, I’ve always disliked pets, and I have zero offspring. I think that pretty much sums up my life.”
Santino asked, “Kosner, what about you? I thought I heard you say you were an undercover police officer.”
“Well, I lied about that.” Kosner shuffled his feet. “I’m a security guard down at Walleygreens, and I live on Sussex Way with a couple of college buddies. I would take you guys by my flat, but I might eat them and their girlfriends.” He smirked and then turned serious again. “My dad is dead, and my mom is basically brain dead, and I work odd jobs trying to keep her in an elderly home. I’m kind of all over the place at the moment trying to make ends meet. This doesn’t help my cause one bit.”
Santino noticed that Kosner looked sad. He would have to accept things, as Santino had. At least he’d been there to look after them when they had first turned. Santino thought about how he had learned everything on his own. He’d had to fight for his life.
“It will get better, Kosner, I swear it,” he said.
“Last but not least, the new girl has the floor,” VIN joked.
Leon stood up and walked to the middle of the room.
“My name is Leon Kirkerfield. I plan on going about my life as best as I can. I have a good job. I just made assistant manager two months ago. I have a mother and a father and brothers and sisters who I love very much. I am a family-oriented man and I believe that they will accept me,” Leon spoke loud and proud. “I don’t believe they would disown me, and I have every intention of going back to them and somehow reversing this thing that has happened to me.”
“Buddy, look at you. You have teeth like a shark, and veins growing out of your face. You eat people for sport,” yelled VIN. “For God’s sake, man, your hair has fallen out in patches all over your head. Do you really think you can go back to your old life as if nothing happened?”
“There are things called science and hospitals. I know there is some way to reverse whatever it is that I am.” Leon stood his ground and believed in his message. “You can come with me. We can both go to the hospital and get the medical treatment that could turn our lives around.”
Leon was the kind of guy who looked at his glass as half full. Yes, he was hideous and a monster, but he knew there was always a way around everything. “I haven’t eaten any humans, and I don’t plan on it. That is a choice you all have made, but I just don’t buy it. I believe that with help and support I can go back to my normal life.”
“This guy is a character,” said Kosner out of the side of his mouth.
Santino had had enough of this crazy talk. “We have blood on our hands. I can’t just let you go to the hospital and talk to God knows who. You have to understand that you are one of us now.”
Leon believed Santino when he said he was different. He felt different; he saw how these men looked and knew he must look as they did. But he remembered what they’d done to Mona back at his job. Even though they had given him a way to avoid telling his girlfriend of ten years about his infidelity with Mona, it still wasn’t right to go around killing and eating people. He wanted no part of this group of thugs, and the first chance he got he had plans to tell a police officer about the events of the night.
“How about this? We take him on a hunting trip with us,” said VIN. “If he passes up meat and is still on this holier-than-thou kick, we let him go.” He stared directly into Leon’s eyes as he talked. “But if you take the bait, which I believe you will, then you will have to forget about hospitals and your old life, and you will have to fully accept your new one.”
Santino liked VIN’s plan very much. He wanted to add on to it, but then thought better of it. He had to take baby steps with the new guy.
Leon looked scared and cornered. He didn’t want to associate himself with these people. They were murderers and carnivores who had low morals. However, the door was blocked off, and Leon knew he wouldn’t be able to take all of them at once. He gave in and hoped they kept to their promise about letting him go.
“Okay, fine. I will do this stupid little test. But I’m telling you now that I am not like you guys. I’m not even hungry, and don’t plan on eating any human flesh. Let’s get this over with.”
Santino looked at VIN, who looked over to Kosner, and all three of them grinned. They knew this guy was as good as theirs. They all had blood on their hands, and now so would he.