Queeroes

by Steven Bereznai

  “My dad used to introduce me to his buddies as his Little Animal, and make a grrr noise,” said Chad. “He hasn’t called me that in a long time, not since he caught me putting my G.I. Joes in dresses. Screw him, I figured. But he was right, you know. I am an ani-mal—and not just a peacock. It’s always been in me. It’s wild, and predatory, and hungry. It’s also very precise.”

  He looked up at the anatomy poster and then back to her.

  “I cut your vocal cords, Liza. You won’t hurt anybody else with your voice.”

  Tears bubbled in her eyes.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” Chad said. “You wish I had killed you instead. But unlike you, Liza, I’m not a killer. I’m sorry you got teased all these years. I’m sorry for the teasing that I did. But as a fag whose father hates him, I know that we all have choices. You can suck it up. You can shut it down. You can take revenge. Or you can be so goddamn fabulous that you change the world, and make it your own. You had a choice, Liza. Jesse had a choice. To make the world a better place.”

  There was a tear in Liza’s eye. She mouthed the words, “I hate you.”

  “Sometimes I hate me too,” Chad agreed. “Doesn’t make murder cool, though. And another thing—if you ever come for me or any of my friends ever again, I still won’t kill you. But I will cut your tongue off. If that doesn’t convince you to leave us alone, your fingers will be next. Do you understand?”

  She nodded.

  “Good girl.”

  Mandy gazed at him with wonder, and a touch of fear.

  “Damn. You really are fierce.”

  Before he could answer, they both heard a buzzing from Liza’s purse. It was her cellphone vibrating. Mandy pulled it out.

  “Devon sent her a text message,” she said, staring at the call display.

  Chad’s fake-and-bake tan went ashen.

  “What?” she asked. “You look like you’re going to hurl, and not in an ‘I want to stay thin’ kind of way.”

  “What does it say?” he asked.

  Mandy flipped open the phone, and read, “Where are you? It’s time.”

  They looked at each other with worried expressions.

  “Too bad she can’t talk anymore,” Mandy said, jerking her head towards Liza.

  Chad kneeled down and picked up a pair of paper scraps that had fallen out of Liza’s purse.

  “She doesn’t have to.”

  He handed them to Mandy.

  “The Assembly,” she read, and then the other one: “Hit List: Nuffim High.”

  They stood staring at each other.

  “Well,” Mandy said, “since the fat lady’s finished singing, I guess it’s over.”

  “No,” Chad said. “Devon’s like us. He’s got the power to…twist things.”

  “The whole assembly?” Mandy pressed.

  Chad nodded. “They showed me their ‘Creation.’ It was all these people, what was left of them, melded together. Give me her phone.”

  He took it from Mandy’s outstretched hand and hit No. 1 on Liza’s speed-dial. Devon’s name popped up as it started to ring.

  “Where the hell are you?” Devon snapped from the other end.

  “There’s been a change in plans,” Chad replied calmly.

  Stunned silence greeted him.

  “Your girlfriend’s lying in a pool of her own blood,” Chad continued. “She’s still alive but she needs help.”

  “I’m going to kill you!” Devon yelled.

  “Game on,” Chad replied, snapping the phone shut.

  “Fierce,” Mandy smiled, holding her hand up for a high-five.

  Their palms slapped together.

  “We should warn Troy and Gibbie,” Mandy said.

  “Warn us about what?” Troy asked.

  The two cheerleaders turned around and looked at the Allstar brothers, both of them roughed up in their suits. They stood on the other side of the hole Liza had blown through the wall. They stared down at her.

  “We were set up,” Mandy said to Gibbie.

  “I was starting to think that,” he replied.

  “We’ve still got Devon to deal with,” Chad piped in.

  “From our class?” Troy asked.

  “Apparently he’s planning to pull a Carrie at the assembly,” Mandy said, and then, to Chad, “You know, you kind of blew the whole element of surprise thing by calling him like that.”

  “Like I said, we all have a choice,” Chad said. “I didn’t want to take that away from him. He can come help Liza, or go ahead with his plan. Besides, you can turn invisible. How much more of an element of surprise do we need?”

  “When did you get so smart?” she asked.

  “I prefer the word conniving. And it was last year, when I seduced the captain of the football team.”

  “You seduced Jake Saunders?” Troy demanded.

  “And how,” Chad triple-snapped.

  “Don’t forget this year’s captain of the wrestling team,”

  Mandy added.

  “Does everybody know?” Troy demanded.

  “Is that a problem?” Chad asked.

  “No,” Gibbie said, looking at Chad, “it’s not a problem.”

  In return Chad mouthed the words “thank you.”

  “So, what’s the plan for stopping psycho boy?” Gibbie asked.

  “Wait for him to come to us. Four against one,” Chad shrugged. Gazing at himself in the mirror, he twisted to see his ass in the silver Speedo. “Wow, they really had a nerd-on for Flash Gordon, and I am totally carrying it off.”

  “Uh, yeah,” Troy cut in, “unless Devon doesn’t come for her, in which case he takes out 99 per cent of the student body.”

  “Oh,” Chad replied, “I guess I just figured true love would prevail.”

  “Here’s what we do,” Troy continued. “Mandy and Gibbie, you guys stay here in case he comes for Liza. Chad, you’re with me. You’ve got his scent. Let’s track him down, and maybe with a little empathic push I can convince him not to go Columbine on our butts. Cool?”

  He looked to Gibbie.

  “Yeah,” Gibbie said, “it’s cool.”

  Chad pushed on the door to get out. It didn’t budge.

  “Uh, guys, I think we might be locked in.”

  “Let me try,” Troy said with exasperation. “It’s probably just stuck.”

  The horizontal handle rattled in his grip but the door wouldn’t move.

  “Gibbie,” Troy called.

  There was a crack and a dull thump echoed in the room. Troy turned and saw Gibbie on the floor, unconscious, a trickle of blood running from his skull. For an instant it filled Troy with fury—except that the sight of the attacker made him go completely numb.

  It was Jesse. The dead teen stood there, leering at them all, a dumbbell in his hand, red with Gibbie’s blood. The dead youth was dressed only in football pants. His lips cracked a demented smile.

  “Let’s get this party started.”

  Chapter 30

  “Jesse!” Troy said, about to rush towards his friend.

  Chad grabbed the elder Allstar brother by the arm.

  “That’s not Jesse,” Chad said, “not the way you knew him anyway. Devon’s scent is all over him.”

  “Devon?” Troy asked, his eyes narrowing. Even with his empathy muted, he still felt anger coming from within his buddy’s body, but not from him. It was almost as if someone else inhabited Jesse’s form. Mandy was closest to Jesse and took a swing at him. He caught her hand, force field and all.

  “Nice pants,” she said, referring to his football bottoms. “Too bad you forgot your helmet.”

  She head-butted him with her shield crackling away, but instead of the expected ka-thud sound, there was a muffled phu-losh, and her shield sank into his face as if it were soft butter. She pulled away, and strings of Jesse’s gooey flesh came with her.

  “Time to free the statue within,” he said. He pressed his whole body against her, hugging her as tight as he could. The field protected
her but his skin began to crawl onto it, not trying to penetrate it, but sluicing all over the surface. His muscles globbed onto the barrier, the flesh flinging itself around her field like a living

  blob and sticking to it; Jesse’s rib cage bent around and cracked into place about her, giving the fleshy mass support. The leg bones coiled like serpents, entrapping her thighs and calves, and holding together his quad muscles as they pulsed around her upper legs. Within seconds she was almost completely encased in dripping flesh. Jesse’s vertebrae poked out as his spine ran the length of her pelvis, belly, and chest, all of them covered by his oozing cadaver, turned inside out.

  The only opening that remained was over one of her eyes. Her screams were muffled, and that one eye roved about wildly.

  Devon stood in front of her, dripping in gunk.

  “I gotta tell ya, it is hard to breathe in there.”

  He reached forward and with his thumb he smoothed a portion of Jesse’s inverted skull to cover up the eyehole Mandy peered out of. All that could be seen now was a lumpy form in the vague shape of a person, made up of twisted sinew, bone, and veins.

  It was over so quickly, no one had time to react. Devon turned to the others.

  “I was saving that for the assembly, but oh well. So”—he clapped—“who’s next?”

  Chad charged him, but not fast enough. Devon dropped to his knees and, pressing his palms to the concrete floor, he sank into it and out of view. Troy looked ready to punch the floor, but Chad held him back.

  “He’ll pay,” Chad assured him, “but we’ve got to help Mandy and Gibbie first.”

  Devon’s hand burst up from the floor and grabbed Chad by the ankle.

  He squealed, desperately trying to yank himself free. Devon began pulling him down. Chad’s heel sunk into concrete, its feel cold and clammy.

  “So you think you can dance?” Chad shouted, claws slashing

  deep into Devon’s forearm. There was a muffled groan and the entire room shook, but the fingers released Chad and disappeared within the ground.

  Gibbie moaned and Troy knelt beside him.

  “Hang in there, buddy.”

  Chad tried helping Mandy, pulling and slashing at what was left of Jesse.

  “This stuff’s harder than rock!” he said.

  He came and squatted next to Troy and Gibbie.

  “Hey there, little man, any chance of your super strength saving the day?”

  Gibbie’s eyes fluttered open. He smiled drowsily at Chad.

  “You’re pretty,” he said, and his eyes fell shut.

  “Guess not,” Chad said. “Maybe if we…”

  His words were cut off.

  “Behind you!” Troy warned, but it was too late.

  A steel coil flew through the air and wrapped itself around Chad’s throat. It squeezed tight and yanked him backwards, dragging him across the floor, out of the hole in the wall and into the weightlifting room.

  He was lifted off the ground with a snap, and stopped with a jolt, hanging from what was left of the weightlifting machine Gibbie had trashed earlier. Chad’s eyes rolled in their sockets. He looked up and Devon crouched atop the machine, leering down at him. His power over matter was growing.

  “Feel the burn,” the black-haired youth taunted.

  He hopped off, leaving Chad hanging there like a piece of meat.

  The blond gazed about frantically, his toes barely touching the ground and his gasping lungs struggling to catch a breath. The metal cord strangling him looped over a pulley, and then down to a stack of weights. The pin was pushed into the bottom plate, which meant the entire stack was what held him aloft.

  He reached desperately for the metal pin. If he could pull it free…

  “Nice try,” Devon smirked, reaching for the weight pin himself.

  Troy came at him and Devon spun about, fingers at the ready.

  “Don’t!” Chad gasped between struggling breaths. “His hands!”

  “It’s good advice,” Devon added, crouching down and touching the pin. It writhed and melded into place. Chad’s face was turning a deep red, and his cheeks puffed in and out. Spit bubbled over his lips with every gasping breath.

  “You don’t have to do this,” Troy said.

  “I want to do this,” Devon replied.

  “Part of you does,” Troy agreed.

  “Right, you can feel emotions,” Devon said. “Fag.”

  Troy looked at the skimpy silver panties Devon had squeezed Chad into, but let it go. The cheerleader’s face was turning purple. He heaved and managed to lift the weight up half-an-inch, giving Chad a chance to catch his breath, but he couldn’t hold it. There was a clang and he sputtered once more.

  “I know Liza’s in a lot of pain,” Troy said.

  Devon finally noticed her, and for a moment a haze lifted from him. Troy stood between the two of them, just as Devon stood between him and Chad.

  “Just try and stop me,” Devon dared, wiggling his fingers.

  Troy stood back. They circled each other. Devon knelt next to Liza; Troy gripped the cable choking Chad. Between the two of them they were able to ease the weight from his windpipe.

  “Thanks,” he gasped.

  They watched as Devon knelt beside Liza.

  “It’s okay, baby,” he murmured.

  He touched the bandages around her throat and they recoiled off of her as if they were alive.

  “What did he do to you?” he asked, his voice shaking.

  “I cut her vocal cords,” Chad snapped.

  “You sure this is the time to be digging it in?” Troy asked, grimacing as he helped keep the weight off Chad’s windpipe.

  Under Devon’s angry glare, Chad whispered, “Having second thoughts.”

  Devon moved his hands over Liza’s bleeding throat. Under his touch her skin smeared over the wound and in moments the bleeding stopped.

  “Now for the internal damage,” Devon said.

  His fingers pressed against her neck and, as if her flesh were heated wax, the digits sank into her. He wriggled them for a few moments. She gasped and jerked up into a sitting position. He pulled his fingers free.

  “How does that feel?” he asked.

  She nodded, patting her chest.

  “Better, much better,” she said, her voice as good as new.

  “Oh crap,” Chad murmured.

  She smiled at Devon adoringly.

  “I strung up the twinky trash who did this to you,” he said, flicking his hair in Chad’s direction. “Saved him for you to finish off.”

  She looked at Troy and Chad, her face a sour glare.

  “Nice knowing you boys,” Devon said, pulling a pair of earplugs from his pocket and wedging them into place. He then covered his ears with his hands and hunched down behind her.

  Taking a deep breath, Liza unleashed her scream of death.

  Chapter 31

  “Die motherfrakkers,” Liza yelled. “Diiiiiiieeeee!”

  A high-pitched wail rose out of her, shaking the room.

  “Diiiiiiieeeee!”

  Chad instinctively buried his head into Troy’s chest, and Troy held him tight, shielding him as best he could. The vibrations penetrated them. Their temples throbbed and bodies trembled. They both were whimpering in pain, their knees shaking. They tried plugging their ears, but they were directly in her line of fire.

  “Diiiiiiieeeee!”

  A trickle of blood formed in their ears, droplets running down the sides of their necks.

  “Diiiiiiieeeee!”

  The shriek built in their skulls, a hammering pressure within their fragile shells, and they knew they were about to explode. Even Devon, with his earplugs and hiding behind her, was gritting his teeth.

  This was it, the sound of death.

  And with a warbling croak, death went silent.

  Troy and Chad remained frozen as statues, pressed against each other. A few seconds passed. They still weren’t dead. The sound of a dripping tap was the only sound in the room.
>
  They slowly opened their eyes, bracing themselves, for surely this was a trick.

  Liza panted and scowled at them. Devon looked at her questioningly, still pressing his hands to his ears.

  “Die!” she screamed again, “diiiiieee…”

  Troy and Chad pressed together once more for this, their final moment of life.

  “…iiiiiieeeee…”

  “I love you, Chad!” Troy cried.

  “I love you too!” Chad called back.

  An instant later, all they could do was whimper under Liza’s onslaught. Their skulls felt ready to burst, until…

  There was a catch in Liza’s throat, like a clutch grinding between gears. Her cry snapped back inside of her and she grasped her throat as if she’d swallowed a stinging bee. The room fell silent.

  Panting and shaking, Chad and Troy blinked repeatedly in a pained daze. They looked to each other, then to her, and slowly straightened, both of them carefully holding on to the cord around Chad’s neck.

  “Is that it?” Chad asked.

  “Di…” Liza began, but a coughing fit doubled her over.

  She looked to Devon in confusion.

  “What’s wrong with me?”

  “I…I don’t know,” he replied. “I reconnected everything as best I could.”

  “As best you could?” she rasped, sounding like Kathleen Turner with a cold.

  There was anger in her voice, and fear, and desperation. Beneath that Troy could feel something more, elusive yet powerful, the emotion that whipped all her other feelings into a frenzy.

  I can feel her, he thought, but what is she feeling?

  Troy carefully opened the door in his head.

  “Fix me!” she demanded, grabbing Devon by the collar of his black shirt.

  Troy looked to Chad, and the jock knew what drove her to desperation.

  “She loves you,” Troy said to Devon.

  Devon glared at him.

  “Of course she loves me.”

  Troy’s brain worked frantically. He could feel Mandy growing weaker inside her prison of human flesh. Blood pooled around Gibbie’s cracked head. The weight he and Chad held dropped a notch in their weakening grip, making Chad gurgle for air.

  “She’s afraid,” Troy added, “that you’re not going to love her anymore, not as she is now, not without her voice.”