Such was life in rural Pennsylvania where men were men and they expected their women to shut up, do the dishes, and raise the kids.
I glanced toward Riva and smiled. It was silly of me to think that way, especially since my friend had it far worse than I ever did. If I was a bit of an outsider here, she was practically from another planet.
Her parents were Hindi, albeit not overly strict about it. They moved to High Moon right around the time I was born. Both worked, although after all these years, I still wasn’t sure exactly what they did. As for Riva, it wasn’t easy being a girl of Indian descent in a town where any complexion darker than copier paper gave the local bullies ammunition. To top it off, she’d outed herself as bi, which was fine for a big city, but yet another strike in a county where buying Bud in a bottle was considered high class. The citizens of High Moon were mostly okay, don’t get me wrong, but anywhere you’ll find people, you’ll find assholes. Our sleepy little town was no exception to that rule.
That’s probably why we’d bonded so well as kids. Two black sheep who didn’t conform, stuck in a small town where it was hard to go unnoticed.
Speaking of being noticed, I checked myself out in the mirror one last time. Not too shabby. Pity there was little chance of showing it off to anyone, not unless... “I don’t suppose you’d be up for getting an oil change before we head out.”
“Why?” Riva asked with a wry grin.
“I just figured maybe I could give Gary a personal tour of your back seat.”
“And what am I supposed to do?”
“Wait in the lobby, I guess?”
“Nice try. But nobody’s greasing their monkey in my car except me.”
I let out a laugh. “You’re no fun.”
Dismissing any plans for a late day lube job, we walked back downstairs. Now, where was my ... ah, over there. I found my backpack lying on the couch. Someone had moved it after I’d left this morning, probably Chris. God forbid he saw something of mine and resisted the urge to press his sticky little fingers all over it. Oh well, no harm done.
I zipped it shut and we headed out to Riva’s car, but not before stopping to grab a few bottles from my parents’ liquor cabinet.
It was time to get this show on the road.
CHAPTER 3
“Gary, Kevin, or Deke?”
“Deke?” I asked.
“The fat kid with the bad acne who sat behind you in physics. He was always staring at your ass while pretending to read his textbook.”
“He did?” I replied. “Gonna have to take your word on that. No eyes in the back of my head.”
“Probably a good thing for him,” Riva said with a laugh. “So c’mon, what do you choose?”
I swallowed a mouthful of vodka, pausing to cough as it burned on the way down.
“Lightweight.”
“Doesn’t your religion forbid drinking?” I shot back.
“Probably. I really should look that up one of these days.”
I passed her the bottle, the light from the fire glinting off the glass. “Fine. I’d marry Gary. I guess I’d fuck Deke. And then I’d definitely kill Kevin.”
“I hear Deke got a scholarship to Clemson.”
“So?”
“So, in a few years he’s going to be making a couple hundred grand. And where does that leave you? Married to Gary the grease monkey.”
“I’ll have my degree by then.”
Riva laughed. “Because environmental science is where the big bucks are, right?”
“Yeah, well, Deke will probably still be gross. Money isn’t everything, especially if I have to feel his Cheetos-stained fingers groping my tits every night. And, hey, Gary might get promoted to assistant manager one of these days.”
“Ooh, big dreamer.”
“Hey, here in High Moon that’s practically royalty. We’ll just get a second double-wide once I spit out our six kids.”
“You slut!”
I pretended to look shocked. “What? I married the guy. You can’t be a slut with your own husband.”
“Debatable, but I’ll let you have that one for now. How about this, then? What if you found out that Gary was hung like a mouse while hundred-grand Deke had a horse dick?”
I waved her off. “It doesn’t work that way. You’re changing the rules.”
She glared at me. “Fine. Be happy with micro-dick Gary. Your turn.”
“Emma Stone, Jake Gyllenhaal ... and me.”
“Really?”
“Sorry, sister. I’m not lobbing any softballs tonight.”
She took a sip, swallowing with no adverse effects, probably just to spite me. “That’s easy. I marry Jake, because, damn, our kids would be good looking. But I fuck the socks off of Emma.”
“And you’d kill me?”
“Sorry.”
“I’m your best friend!”
“I know, but they’re really hot.”
“Okay, you want to play it that way.” I grabbed the bottle from her and took another drink, pausing as a small wave of dizziness hit me. “Here’s one for you. Emma again, me, and Darla McIntyre.”
Darla was Riva’s personal nemesis from high school. She was tall, blonde, and oh-so-white, three of her favorite things to constantly give my friend shit about.
“You can’t go twice.”
“Fuck that,” I said. “You already cheated.”
“Fine. I marry Emma and I fuck Darla.”
“What?!”
“Oh yeah. I’d fuck her so hard that she’d never forget my face ... especially on those cold nights when she’s lying awake all alone, longing for my touch.” After a beat, she added, “I still kill you.”
“Bitch!” I grabbed a clod of dirt from the ground and threw it at her. Riva just barely dodged, laughing as she did. Her balance was thrown off, though, and she ended up falling backwards off the camp chair.
After a moment when she didn’t get up, I asked, “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Just checking out the sky. What a view.”
I looked up. She was right.
“And the moon, it’s so big and bright.”
She had a point. One could practically hike through the woods without a flashlight on a night like this, albeit that wasn’t something I really cared to try.
Riva folded her arms behind her head and continued to stare up. “Makes you feel so small and alone.”
“Yeah, but you’re not alone.”
“I know that,” she shot back. “I mean the two of us. It’s so peaceful out here. So quiet.”
She was right. Aside from the dying crackle of the campfire, there was nothing to hear save our voices. Even though we were both talking at a normal conversation level, we sounded very loud.
A thought hit me and I stood up while looking around.
“What’s up, Bent? That vodka working its way through you already?”
“No. It’s just that ... listen.”
“To what?”
“Exactly. There’s nothing. No bugs, no birds.”
“So?”
“Weren’t you the one complaining earlier that you weren’t going to get any sleep unless the goddamned crickets shut up?”
“Maybe they were listening.”
“I sincerely doubt ... whoa.” All at once, I felt dizzy again. I blinked, thinking maybe I’d stood up too fast, but rather than help things, my vision instead doubled.
“You sure you’re not feeling the...”
A branch snapped somewhere outside the small clearing we’d set up in, causing Riva’s question to dissolve into a shriek.
Had the world not been spinning, I’d have screamed, too. It had sounded very loud in the quiet forest. Probably just a deer. I opened my mouth to laugh at my friend’s skittishness, but then abruptly doubled over as my stomach clenched up. I fell to my knees retching.
All at once that wave of dizziness exploded into full-blown nausea.
What the hell?
Moments later, a wave of intense pain rip
ped through my innards. It had been a long time since I’d felt anything like that, but I knew instinctively what it meant.
Riva had climbed back to her feet by then and was standing over me. “I was right, you are a lightweight.”
“Not ... that,” I sputtered. “What time is it?”
There was a pause, then she replied, “About quarter to ten.”
Fuck!
She apparently realized it, too. “Oh shit! You’re late.”
That was an understatement. My meds would have worn off almost two hours ago. I’d completely forgotten, like I was no more than a stupid child. I had a reminder set on my phone, but of course I’d left that in the tent.
“Get ... my ... bag,” I whispered, struggling to not puke, although I had a feeling that was a fight I wasn’t going to win.
“On it!” Riva stood, then hesitated. “What the...?”
I vaguely heard what I thought to be another branch snapping, but it was getting hard to concentrate. Once I took my pills, we could go back to debating whether Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers was stalking us out there in the woods, but that would have to wait. “Any ... year ... now.”
“Sorry!” Riva bolted into the tent, appearing a few seconds later with my backpack. Seeing that I wasn’t in much condition to do anything except retch, she unzipped it and began looking through the contents. “Where is it?”
“The ... top pouch.”
She kept digging. “I can’t find them.”
“Next to ... the game system.”
“I don’t see a game system!”
That’s when a horrible realization crossed my mind. I hadn’t found the bag where I’d originally left it. It had been lying open on the couch. I knew my brother and, despite every nasty snipe we took at each other, was certain he would never misplace my pills on purpose. But what if he’d been looking for his 3DS? What if he’d been rooting through my bag and accidentally knocked my pill bottle out in the process? It wasn’t entirely unlikely. We occasionally swiped each other’s stuff to annoy the other.
I hadn’t seen my pills on the floor or couch, but then, I hadn’t actually looked for them either.
After another minute of searching, Riva upended the backpack and dumped out the contents. By then, my whole body was beginning to tremble.
“They’re not here!”
She was right. No Nintendo 3DS and no pills. God, how stupid was I? I always double-checked that I had my meds whenever I went anywhere. Hell, my freshman year roommate at college had once inadvertently moved them and I’d almost lost my shit on her. Yet here I was, out in the woods, probably a good quarter mile from where we’d parked the car, and I’d stupidly left the damn things at home.
Riva obviously came to the same conclusion. She bent down and lifted my arm over her shoulder so as to help me up. “Come on. The car’s not far. Let’s get you home.”
“Good id...” My acknowledgement of her rightness would have to wait as my stomach picked that moment to protest. I spewed its contents all over the ground, my belongings, and myself.
If I wasn’t already feeling so sick, I’d have been seriously grossed out.
Despite the mess, Riva hauled me to my feet. “Let’s go. You don’t have time to be lying around.”
That’s my best friend, always a barrel of laughs. She was right, though. Shitty as I felt, this was only the beginning. It was either get to my pills or it would be all downhill from there. I didn’t remember much of what happened when I was three, but I’d been told it was bad, really bad. My condition was normally kept in a state of equilibrium by my meds, but without them the onset of symptoms would be fast, brutal, and ultimately lethal.
Showing weakness to anyone wasn’t my style, but right then, I leaned on Riva as much as I could. It was either that or crawl back to the car.
She stopped long enough to grab a flashlight, then dragged me toward the trail we’d used to get here.
“Fifteen minutes, maybe twenty,” she told me. “You can do this.”
I was debating whether my stomach was settled enough for me to answer without barfing all over her when that decision became a moot point.
There came sounds from ahead of us. More branches breaking. Before I could reassure my friend that it was just a harmless woodland animal, the most godawful snarl rose up from the tree line before us.
I once knew a kid who had a pet Rottweiler. The thing was the size of a small bear, yet whatever was out there made it sound like a puppy in comparison.
We froze in our tracks. Well, Riva did anyway. By that point I was mostly coming along for the ride. “What the hell is that?” she whispered.
A plethora of semi-witty answers raced through my mind: a cougar, a bear, maybe some asshole with a bullhorn playing a prank on us.
Sadly, that last one didn’t seem likely as Riva’s flashlight briefly lit upon something. It was still mostly hidden by the trees, and there was likewise a good chance that I’d already started hallucinating, but I could have sworn I caught sight of dark brown fur, the white flash of teeth, and the shine of a predator’s eyes. Worst of all, they’d been looking down upon us. Whatever was out there, it was big.
Apparently hungry, too. A howling roar rose up that caused the hair on the back of my neck to stand on end.
There came the crash of wood splintering and, disoriented as I was, there was one thing I was certain of.
It was coming for us.
♦ ♦ ♦
“C’mon, Bent! We’ve got to keep moving!”
Moving? Was she crazy? I was lucky to still be breathing. It had been years since I’d missed taking my meds. So stupid of me. Got caught up in the fun and hadn’t been thinking.
Now, with that thing after us I ... I...
I fell to my knees and puked my guts out all over the forest floor as yet another cramp wracked my midsection. The pain caused me to curl up into a fetal position while the stench from my sick left me dry heaving. Lucky me. Two for the price of one.
Even in the throes of my misery, I heard the sound of branches snapping underfoot. Whatever was after us wasn’t even trying to be stealthy anymore. It had probably sensed my weakness, knew I was easy prey.
“Oh shit! It’s getting closer.” Panic colored the edge of Riva’s voice. She was trying to keep it together but only doing a so-so job at best.
“Run.” The words were barely audible as pain continued to eat away at my gut.
“I need to get you to a hospital.”
“No ... hospital ... if we’re both ... dead ... only morgue.” Yep, that’s me. A ray of sunshine in the middle of a shit storm.
I needed to convince Riva she had to leave me and find help. I was done for. Even if we weren’t being chased by a goddamned grizzly bear, I began to suspect it had been too long. I’d been taking my medication religiously ever since I was barely out of training pants. I’d been late with my dosage before and paid the price, but it had never been this bad.
My body began to convulse and I cried out in agony. It was a challenge to not bite my own tongue in half as I tried to hold it together long enough to tell my oldest friend, “Go ... please.”
Even if it was too late for me, she could still make it – get to the police. They could find my remains, hunt down whatever was stalking us. At least that way my family could have some closure.
With any luck, they’d throw me a beautiful funeral. Yeah, with tulips. I always liked those.
There came a snarl, terrifyingly close from the sound of it. That was no bear. Not a dog either, unless it was the size of a moose. What the hell? I cracked my eyes open and tried to force them to focus.
Still unable to do much more than grip my stomach as my innards churned, I saw Riva. Her eyes were wide as saucers and she was staring at something past where I lay. When she spoke, her voice was barely a whisper. “You need to get up, now.”
What a joke. The only way I was moving was if that thing dragged me back to its lair. Right then, that actually didn’t s
eem so horrible. The pain lancing through every inch of my body was enough to make me relish death’s embrace – especially if it would save my friend.
I was easy prey. No challenge. Surely it would choose me over a foe who could fight back ... in theory anyway. Riva was a great friend, but I’d once watched a squirrel chase her out of her own backyard. “Please!” I begged, using every ounce of willpower to speak.
She backed up a step, then another, her eyes never wavering.
There came a crackle of leaves and the soft thud of a heavy foot setting down. Whatever it was, it was standing right behind me.
“Remarkable.” For one odd moment, Riva’s voice sounded disturbingly calm, but then she let loose an ear-splitting scream.
She was answered by an animalistic roar like nothing I’d ever heard before. Then, whatever had been chasing us stepped over me toward her.
The fuck?
Coarse brown fur, claws three inches long, legs seemingly made of pure muscle, and ... bipedal?
Surely I must’ve been hallucinating. Hadn’t my doctor said something about that? Yeah. He’d been talking about worst-case scenarios for my illness. This was one of them, the last stages before my body began to shut down. After that, I’d slip into an irreversible coma. Death would follow shortly after.
Funny. If I had to hallucinate, I would’ve thought it would be of something a bit more friendly. Certainly, I could have imagined better – Gary, for example. Instead, I was serving myself up something straight from Chiller Theater, a nightmare to follow me down into the darkness as my organs seized and I went into cardiac arrest.
Riva continued to back up and the creature followed, affording me a better look. It moved with a disturbing sort of grace, a surety of step. It was almost as if it knew it were an apex predator stalking prey that would offer little in the way of resistance.
I couldn’t see its front from my angle, curled in a fetal ball as I was, but it towered over my friend. At least six feet tall with broad shoulders. I could see the ridges of its spine, almost as if they were trying to tear their way out of the creature’s hairy skin.
Atop a short, thick neck rested a massive head. Two ears poked out at the top, over its fur. It wasn’t hard to imagine the rest – the cold eyes of a predator, a snout filled with rows of sharp teeth.
Get Bent! Page 3