by Peter Fang
Koda found himself drenched in the rain. He noticed the pigs inside the pen frantically avoided him; some of the larger sows squeaked loudly and displayed signs of hostility. Koda quickly walked past the rows of pigpens and reached the end of the barn. He exited a side door and came upon the well; then he pointed his flashlight down the well and saw a dark pool of water, perhaps twenty feet down. There was a sudden urge inside of Koda that made him gag. The convulsion had him pitched over the well, and he fell over—the sound of a loud splash and the icy water cut into his entire body. He panicked and swallowed gulps of muddy water before his body was completely submerged.
Mary already went to bed, but Blake was watching a late-night show when he heard the pigs’ commotion over the security channel. Unfortunately, his security camera was out of service, so there was no video feed. Could be the damn coyotes again, looking for food? Unwelcome guests pissed him off the most––be they human or animal. There was a rash of burglaries and vandalisms recently, so he had his shotguns always ready in his living room. Two days ago, there was a pair of coyotes settling around the area, starting a family. Blake barely missed the clever vermin the other day with his shotgun. He even laid down traps, but he only caught the stupid gophers and rats. The commotion in the barn was getting louder, and it didn't sound like coyotes. Pigs were too big for the coyotes to take down, unless there were piglets, and none of his sows were bearing young at the moment. Better not be those cocksuckers damaging my barns again! Blake rushed into his living room and picked up his shotgun with a built-in flashlight and headed out to the barn.
Blake kept his flashlight off as he got closer to the barn. He knew the place like the back of his hand, so he could get to the barn and back with his eyes closed. He stood quietly and listened while the rain pattered around his raincoat. A movement stirred near the corner of his eyes; it was a dark silhouette that walked past the pigpen and went straight towards the well. Blake could not see what was going on from that angle, so he quickly ran over to the side of the barn and slowly leaned over the edge to peek. He saw a man standing over the well and bending over with a flashlight like he was throwing up over the well. Damn drunk. If he threw up in that well, it was going to be a big mess to clean it up.
But before he could shout out at the man, the figure doubled over and fell into the well. “Hey, drunk!” Blake yelled, but it was too late. He ran over to the well and looked down with his flashlight but didn’t see the man, except a faint light submerged under the surface. The light soon flickered and went out. He reached into his pocket for his phone but realized he had forgotten to bring it with him. Blake yelled into the well. “Hey drunk! You gotta swim, or you’ll drown. You better not die down there!” Blake thought about jumping into the well but knew better not to. The only way to possibly save this guy was to throw something that would float down the well. Blake searched the barn and found an empty two-gallon water jug.
He threw the jug into the well and yelled, “Hey, if you can hear me, grab on to the jug and try to stay afloat. I'm going to go get help.” Blake backed up and was about to run back to the house when he heard the man cry out for help.
“Help me! I'm drowning!”
Blake turned around and pointed his light back into the well. This time, he saw a man hanging on to the foam, face down. Blake strained his voice again. “I’m going to lower the rope to you. Wrap it around yourself until I get back with help. Count to a thousand, and do not fall asleep.” Then Blake saw something black twitching near the man’s face.
“What the f—” Blake saw the man leap into the air and turn in mid-air towards him. There was a web of spider-like tentacles that extended out of the man’s mouth and grabbed on to Blake’s head. In desperation, Blake pulled his shotgun, and a round went off. He felt a sharp pain and realized he just shot himself in the foot. He heard himself screaming until his face hit the icy water inside the well. The cutting pain from the cold quickly gave way to a peculiar feeling that reached into his spine, something burning and painful, yet paralyzing. Soon he couldn’t breathe, and then everything went dark.
Back in Maria’s apartment, she whispered, “Feed, grow, then come to protect me and the queen. I’m trapped inside the apartment.”
Ansen was bathing Joey. He tried to keep the routines and not act any differently. He couldn’t sleep well last night, so he stayed up the entire night surfing the web. As with Maria, Ansen noticed something different about Joey; the way Joey now looked at him, and how he reacted to his commands had changed. Joey used to be a goofy pushover, but now he was the opposite. Ansen looked at Joey with curiosity and ran his fingers through his fur to rinse off the soap. As the fingers moved across the dog’s back, he felt some rough spots. He looked closely and saw new scars. When the bath was done, he noticed Maria was still in the bedroom.
“Honey, you okay?” Ansen tapped his fingers on the door.
“I’m fine. I’m just tired and want to be alone.”
“Could you open the door, please? I think Joey has some skin rashes again.”
There was a long pause, then the door unlocked. Maria said, “I know that. It is just a bug bite, don’t worry. You look funny; where have you been?”
Ansen smiled. “Had to go out with some coworkers to socialize a bit. God knows what I got on my clothes.”
Maria tilted her head. “Really? You haven’t forgotten about me, have you?” She snickered and walked over to the bed. “Come to bed.”
“Oh, I need to go to the bathroom first. I think I ate something weird tonight.” Ansen hastened into the master bedroom’s toilet and shut the door behind him.
Outside of their bedroom window, Maria sensed intense grief. It was Riker—he was hollering and crying while holding his injured dog. Riker wandered aimlessly, looking for something. He tripped over the pavement and dropped the large dog on the ground. The animal howled but didn’t move. Riker bent over the large dog’s body and cried.
Maria smiled, and next to her, Joey was wagging.
34
The Horseman - Assassin
Blair saw himself galloping on a black stallion. He was flanked by five other horsemen, each regaled in full war suits. They were fleeing from a dark cloud, and it was getting closer. Blair spurred the stallion, and it pulled away from the rest, but one of the horsemen was on a red stallion and he was faster than him. He looked back and saw the remaining four horsemen shooting arrows at the dark cloud, but it soon engulfed them. Hundreds of eyes lit up inside the cloud and stared into Blair’s soul.
“The box!” the cloud screamed.
Blair woke up in a cold sweat. He heard himself screaming as he sat up in his bed.
It really happened, Blair thought, and then he realized he had just woke up.
The story was passed down from his family that if any of the siblings one day dreamed of a red stallion and a dark cloud, they were in danger.
Blair chuckled as he rolled off the bed and went into the shower. He couldn’t believe the story his grandfather told him would ever surface. He recalled his father also talked about it but only used it to discipline him when he was a kid.
After the shower, he dried himself in front of a mirror and focused his mind on the job.
He got paid by Mr. Reed––half of the total, of course. He would supposedly get the second half when the job was done. It was another cleanup job that Mr. Reed had asked him to do. Usually, he would celebrate a gig the night before, but this time he didn’t feel up to it. He needed to finish this job so he could get out of town––get far away from this rainy, dreary city. He imagined himself on the beach of Acapulco, his favorite city. Today was different, though; the sun was out, and when he looked out his hotel windows, he could only see blue sky and curls of high cirrus spreading across the entire canvas of the cerulean sky.
“What a fucked-up, despicable existence,” he spat. This was one last job, and then he would graciously get out of God’s way.
He sat in the middle of his small, almost barre
n, studio. The bleak setting helped keep him focused. In front of him, he had his usual ritual––a glass of tea, some money, a small tool set to break locks, and a knife. This job was going to be a setup to make it look like a break-in gone bad. He wasn’t sure why they wanted that girl, that Maria, dead. For a man in his profession, it was not his business to care. It was curious to Blair that Ansen didn’t make any attempt to stop Reed from calling him to do this contract. Ansen was new to Blair, but he had worked with Reed before. Reed always rewarded him well, so it was not his place to question the motive. Yet, this time it was different; there was no bonus from Reed. But he had left that with Ansen. Blair never got paid indirectly before; he always got paid by Reed. He was too proud to ask for a bonus from Ansen, so Ansen never offered. It was going to be a straight-up deal—a fixed amount. Blair wondered if Reed was hinting to him his time was up. Maybe it was the last job? It didn’t matter. He felt it in his gut that it was time to hang up his hat after this.
He went through his drawers, deciding which knife to use for the job. There was a small collection of them from different brands. The choice was only something that suited his habit. He preferred something that was small, efficient, and didn’t make a big mess, but he heard that there was a dog, so he was not going to take any chances. A Glock 21 with a silencer was in order.
Ansen told him that he was going to take the dog for a walk, so if everything went well, the dog should be a non-issue, but he had been in the business long enough to know that things never went as planned.
He picked out a clean shirt and jeans, grabbed a pair of leather gloves and a small backpack; then he went out the door. He felt angry today, but he didn’t know why. It was an emotion that slowly grew over the last week and was starting to eat him raw from the inside. He had been trying to search the source of this anger, but it was like an itch that couldn’t be scratched. Perhaps it was the next-door neighbor––several times he wanted to pay them a not-so-innocent “visit”; perhaps it was the noise outside on the street––someone was lighting up random fireworks in the middle of the night as a prank; or it could be the dent in the door that some asshole left on his new car. He breathed slowly as he waited for the elevator and counted the number of floors as it ascended. He watched the light stopped at Floor 5 and it didn’t move for a while. Must be some kind of fuckin’ cleaning crew. He almost screamed in frustration but managed to hold it under his breath. A few seconds later, he gave up and went for the nearest exit sign. He decided on his way down that tonight’s job would be messy. He wanted to take out all of his frustrations on Maria tonight. Do it slowly, but don’t be stupid. Blair grinned at the prospect of killing someone his way.
Blair felt much better as he jogged down the stairs, thinking along each step how he would torture Maria, and then extinguish her. It reminded him of a job he did in New Orleans ten years ago, and a warm smile slowly spread across his face.
His fascination with the job was interrupted by a buzz on his phone. A text message from an unknown source: 25679. Security code to the apartment.
He nodded absently, then put his phone back into his leather jacket and quickened his pace. He couldn’t wait for the job to start.
Ansen was nervous about setting the day up for the cleaner. The night before, he sat silently in front of the TV watching some reruns. Maria was next to him, but she was only watching some other shows on her computer, not paying any attention to Ansen. The closer the day drew to an end, the worse Ansen felt, and it really bothered him that he felt that way. He was mad at himself for getting too close to Maria, even too close to that stupid dog of hers. He knew that soon all of this would come to an end, and he wondered if he would miss her a year from now.
Maria was able to read Ansen's mind now. She could sense that he was very nervous, and she knew that he was involved in money laundering. Yes, he was using her account to plan for the offshore transaction, but what was she going to do? Report it to the police?
She figured that after that happened, she would just disappear and probably drop a line to the police about where they might be able to find Ansen and possibly that Mr. Reed. Plus, Ansen really was all about that girlfriend of his––Elise. Maria didn’t even feel angry when she found out he was messing around. That was when she knew she was emotionally detached from Ansen. If she didn’t have an injury to recover from, she might have snapped his neck and left him with the queen. She sensed that Ansen wanted to get out of the house, so why not give him a push? She needed the time to heal from Gretchen’s skirmish.
“Hey, Ansen, looks like the weather is going to be great tomorrow; why don’t you take Joey out around town? He’s been locked up in here too long.”
Ansen’s body was stiff, but he quickly recovered. “Sure, I can do that. But what about you?”
“I still don’t feel like myself yet. Give me another day and if later this week the weather holds, we can go out together and celebrate our one-year anniversary.” She paused and then smirked. “You didn’t forget, did you?”
“Oh my god, of course not. In fact, I have a surprise for you. You can’t ask what it is, but you have to be here to receive it. Call me after you get it.”
Maria tilted her head and tried to read Ansen, but nothing came through. Was that why he was nervous? And needed to leave the house? She still wanted to believe that even a criminal like Ansen could yet have moments of tenderness. For a brief moment, she felt a fleeting sense of relief and joy, but it quickly evaporated.
Ansen smiled. “You are trying to read me, aren’t you? Trust me, you will like the present.”
“But tomorrow is not our anniversary yet,” Maria protested.
“Okay. Fine. Don’t open the box until our anniversary.”
“I promise.” Maria leaned over and kissed Ansen. Now, I want you to have a pleasant walk with Joey tomorrow.”
She looked down at Joey and noticed him wagging his tail but whimpering with anxiety. Maria hugged Joey and whispered in his ears, “Don’t worry about me; I can take care of myself.”
The next morning, Ansen was already up when Maria awoke. Ansen seemed very stiff and preoccupied by something on his mind. He avoided Maria’s attempt to make eye contact and only answered her questions with very brief answers. By the time 10 a.m. rolled around, Ansen was ready to take Joey out, but Joey refused to leave the apartment. It took a good slap on Joey’s behind from Maria to get him going. For some reason, Maria followed them to the elevator. Joey stared at her until the elevator door opened; he whimpered one last time before following Ansen into the elevator.
Right before the door shut, Maria yelled, “By the way, I think I sold the antique to someone.”
Ansen reached his hands out to stop the elevator door from closing. He yelled back, “Oh, I totally forgot about that piece of crap. Probably was a good thing to get rid of that thing. God knows what else was rotting inside that antique.”
Maria locked the front door and took out the golden box. She let the feeder leg sting her back and draw her blood for a good five minutes before passing out. The queen inside the box took the blood and then withdrew her legs, and then pushed a needle into Maria’s mouth, slowly. Several other fingers split up from the tip, and they went deep inside her throat, probing for something.
Maria heard the queen talking to her in her semi-conscious state. The queen told her that if she didn’t take the parasite out, she would soon become gravely injured; infecting her with a new one would be too much for her fragile body. She said she would let Maria go since Koda would be there soon. All Maria had to do was to drop her off in a nearby trash can, and Koda would pick her up from there. After that, Maria would have no more obligations. The queen also warned Maria to stay away from Ansen and advised her to leave the apartment as soon as possible.
“Why can’t I wait a few days?” asked Maria.
The queen replied, “If you wait one more day, you will fuse with the parasite permanently. Also, the parasite in you was almost dead, and it was rel
easing too many toxins. I injected something into the parasite, and it will naturally come out later. You will have some unpleasant days, but you will survive.”
Maria knew she agreed to the exchange, but she wondered if she would still remember everything she experienced so far.
“It’s too bad, because it’s hard to find a match,” the queen said. Not everyone can be a host. Your friend Ansen, for example, is not compatible, but your body is a perfect match, though fragile, so I can’t change your right away, or you will die. It’s worthy of my personal attention. If I get out of this box, I may decide to live inside of you. But to get you to where you are, it takes time. Unlike Koda—his body is built like an ox, compatible with the parasite.”
“Why are you letting me go then?”
“Because you have set me free from that antique. I just need to find another host. It’s hard to find a good option, but it’s only a matter of time. I have waited thousands of years—a few more years is not going to make a difference.”
“I thought all of this was part of your revenge?” Maria continued to ask.
“Revenge? For what? All of the people who caused my pain are long gone. Most of those people’s descendants are all dead. This is not about revenge; it is about survival.”
“So, I just need to leave this place, and everything behind?”
“Yes, and the sooner, the better. Koda and I will take care of the rest. You know the type of people Ansen is dealing with. Once I let you go, we will be gone tomorrow. You will not be able to read him at all, and no one could protect you anymore. You know people are coming, so you don’t have time left to wonder. You need to go.”