He took the left turn into her driveway, the bike wobbling a bit. He was kind of hungry and the beer seemed to be hitting him hard. He gained control, uprighting it, and sped past the house, pulling up in front of the dilapidated barn. He shut the bike off and laid it on its side. Somewhere along the line, he’d lost the kickstand to it. Patel wouldn’t even let him keep it in front of the station. He had to store it out back by the dumpster. Crank was pretty sure Patel was hoping someone would either steal it or the trash people would claim it. It was an affront to Patel’s upward mobility.
The barn had a large sliding door in the front and a normal-size door to its right. Crank always used the normal-size door, although he thought it would be a really grand entrance to throw back the sliding door. He never knocked. He sauntered in.
The barn actually had a lower level that had once been used to house cattle or horses or something. This was the ground floor level, so it had a plank wooden floor. They’d run electricity out here too but Chloe preferred candles. She sat on the couch she’d dragged from her parents’ basement. Some sort of trippy electronic music hummed along in the background. A guy sat next to her on the couch. Crank’s heart picked up a little until he remembered he wasn’t a jealous guy and had plans to fuck another girl later tonight. The other guy was an interest only. Definitely not a threat. Crank didn’t recognize him.
“Hey,” Crank said, not knowing if they could even see him.
“Oh, hi Crank,” Chloe said. “This is Daniel.” She put her hand on the guy’s shoulder. She spoke slowly. Crank thought she was probably already tripping. Daniel stared straight forward. His eyes looked black, his skin looked waxy, and he had blond hair spiked up all around his head. A frat version of Sid Vicious. A real douche.
“Hey.” Crank nodded. “You got somethin for me?”
Chloe giggled. “I sure do.”
She stood up and crossed the floor, pulling up her ragged, too big jeans. When she reached him, she held out her right hand. On the fingertip of her index finger rested a tab of acid. It was black with a white cross on it.
“Nice.” Crank took the tab delicately between thumb and forefinger.
“Now...” Chloe straightened her ripped black t-shirt, pulling it over an exposed shoulder. “If you put it on your tongue upside down, you’ll have a bad trip but if you put it right side up, it’ll be...”
“Yeah, absolutely divine. Fuck that shit.” Crank put it on his tongue, never minding which way the cross was turned.
“It’s your head.” She grabbed his hand and pulled him over to the couch. He’d already gotten what he came for but the beer was still making him feel a little drunk. Maybe he would stick around until it wore off. Find out what this Daniel guy’s deal was. Find out if Chloe was fucking him.
He didn’t have to wait long for the answer. Chloe went down on her knees in front of Daniel, unbuttoned and unzipped his pants, and pulled them down his hips. She freed his penis from his boxers and it sprung to life. She wrapped a hand around it and began running her tongue along the head. Daniel closed his eyes, his head lolling back.
This guy’s a fucking corpse, Crank thought. “Hey, Chloe, I don’t know if I’m into this.”
She looked back over her shoulder. “Well, you can either take off or hop in or watch. I don’t really care. I just want to get fucked before this shit wears off.”
Crank was about ready to go hop on the bike, drunk or not, before realizing he was extremely, almost painfully, aroused. Chloe had gone back to sucking Daniel. Crank took in her slender back and the curve of ass. He went down on his knees behind her, pulled her ass to him, tugging her jeans and underwear down to the bend in her legs.
“Good choice,” she said.
Crank pulled her ass cheeks apart, spit onto her anus and worked a finger into her. He spit into his palm and slathered that onto his cock. Things were getting a little weird. It was like the only things that existed were him and Chloe and Daniel. He couldn’t think of anything besides being inside Chloe. She now had all of Daniel in her mouth. He was grabbing onto the back of her head and pushing her onto him. Crank worked himself into her ass. He watched her hands clench Daniel’s thighs with the pain. Crank looked at Daniel’s face. His eyes were open now. He was snarling or something. He looked mad. His eyes looked red or orange or something. Acid had always made Crank feel appropriately trippy, but he had never actually hallucinated before. He thought maybe this was a hallucination. The dude had seemed almost comatose a moment before and no one had red eyes, did they? Certainly not this guy. He hadn’t ordered the special lenses from some goth site. Not if he was dressed like that. Crank closed his eyes but they didn’t want to be closed. He looked down at his cock sliding in and out of Chloe’s asshole. It sounded like she was gagging.
The Daniel dude started growling or something and Crank gave him another glance. It seemed like he was being unnecessarily harsh with Chloe, grabbing her head so hard the muscles in his forearms stood out. Crank wanted to do something but Chloe’s ass felt so good he couldn’t make himself stop. Besides, maybe she had done this with Daniel before. Sometimes Chloe liked it rough.
Crank continued to stare at Daniel. This didn’t even look like the same guy as before. His skin looked reddish and it looked like he was growing hair where there shouldn’t have been any. Daniel continued to snarl as he thrust into Chloe’s mouth. Crank saw long pointed teeth. He was still well aware he was probably hallucinating. Especially when he saw the guy sprout a set of reddish brown horns. Some kind of involuntary noise escaped Crank’s throat.
Maybe he wasn’t hallucinating.
No. No. He was definitely hallucinating. That’s how the fear starts.
But, still, this guy, he’s turning into a fucking monster. This could be dangerous.
The voices in Crank’s head wouldn’t shut up. They kept running in circles. He watched Daniel sprout talons from the tips of his fingers, running them down Chloe’s back and shredding her shirt. Crank’s heart pounded. His testicles retreated deep inside his pelvic cavity and his penis shrunk and grew flaccid until he was just hammering against Chloe’s buttocks.
“Dude,” he mumbled.
Then it looked like the guy was reaching for him. His arms shouldn’t have been that long but those talons were right there in front of Crank’s face and he could smell the guy or the monster or whatever and he smelled like fire.
“Fuck!” Crank shouted.
He jumped up and turned to run, got caught up in his pants and went sprawling across the floor of the barn. He stood up as quickly as he could and, without sparing a backward glance, pulled up his pants and ran for his bike.
He picked up the bike and hopped on, kicking the starter and finally looking inside the barn. It was semi-dark in there. The bike roared to life. He thought he heard footsteps thundering across the barn floor. But he was already roaring down Chloe’s driveway and on his way home. Sweat drenched his clothes and his heart continued to hammer away. Now he didn’t feel like he was tripping at all. He felt as sober as he had all day. Had the fear straightened him up that quickly or was it possible he wasn’t even hallucinating in the first place?
Seven
Mindy turned onto Mountain Bottom and pulled the car to the side of the road.
“You ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
She put the car in neutral and climbed out. Doug did the same, crossing to the driver’s side. He sat behind the wheel. He was nervous and glad this was not a well traveled road. Mindy sat in the passenger seat, stretching around to grab something from the back seat, her shirt straining against her breasts. Doug noticed a shiny silver cross hanging on a chain between her nipples.
“That’s a nice cross,” Doug said.
“Huh?”
“Your necklace. I like it.”
“Oh, thanks.”
“Do you go to church?”
“Every Sunday.”
Doug immediately found himself even more relaxed. Now there w
as something he could talk to her about.
“Which one?”
“The Church of the New Covenant.”
“Really?”
“Yep.”
“That’s the church I go to. I’ve never seen you there.”
“Well, I don’t actually go to the Church itself. Me and some of the other girls go to the Tabernacle.”
“The Tabernacle?”
“Yeah. Haven’t you ever heard of it?”
“No.”
“It’s out in the woods about a half-mile behind the Church. It’s an all day thing. A little more intensive than regular services.”
“Sounds neat.”
“It’s great. It really feels like we’re doing something important.”
“And it’s just for girls?”
“Well, women, yes.”
“Hm.”
Mindy pulled a red motorcycle helmet over her head and flipped up the tinted visor. Doug must not have hid his surprise very well. “I don’t take any chances,” she said. “If we get into a wreck, I don’t want anything to happen to my face or my brain so this takes care of both of them.”
“Hopefully you won’t need it.”
“I’m sure I won’t. Okay, we’ll take it slow. Have you ever driven before?”
“Nope.”
“Not even up and down the driveway?”
“Not even that.”
“Oh boy.”
She explained to him what he was supposed to do. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I have a brake over here. Just don’t go too fast and I’ll stop us before we go off the road or anything.”
Doug pressed on the brake pedal and slid the car into gear. He took his foot off the brake and pressed the accelerator lightly until the car crept onto the road.
“You can press it a little harder than that. You just don’t want to do it all at once.”
Doug did it all at once. The car lurched into the oncoming lane, nearly off the other side of the road. Mindy must have jammed on the brake. She guided him through the reversal process until they were in their proper lane and helped him straighten the wheel. He tried it again. It went a little better. Mindy encouraged him to take it slow. It wasn’t as hard as Doug imagined it. He remembered playing a lot of racing video games a few years back. Maybe that helped.
“You’re doing great,” Mindy said.
“Thanks.” Doug glanced over at her. She looked ridiculous in the helmet and delicious everywhere else. She stared straight ahead at the road. His gaze lingered on her nipples and the cross dangling in between. He couldn’t believe he’d never seen her at church before. Even if she went to some part of it called the Tabernacle, it seemed like they would have intersected at certain church socials and functions and things. And why hadn’t he ever even heard of the Tabernacle?
“Look out!” Mindy jammed on her brake. Doug jerked his head back around to the road. The car’s tires squealed.
Something huge and hairy darted in front of the car, diving into the woods on the other side and quickly becoming obscured. Mindy whipped off her helmet and placed a hand over her heart.
“What was that?” Doug asked.
“I have no idea. I’ve never seen anything like it. Could it have been a dog or a coyote or something?”
“It was huge.”
“Maybe a deer.”
They sat in silence for what felt a lot longer than it actually was, the car idling, both of them breathing heavily. Doug’s adrenaline raced. Mindy told him to start driving whenever he felt like it. Strangely, the incident made it easier to concentrate on driving. By the time he was heading back to his house, he felt like he’d grown pretty good at it. And, before saying goodbye, he and Mindy were laughing about the creature they almost hit.
Eight
Crank crossed the living room where his mother slept on the couch looking like a skeleton covered in denim. Must have been another rough night if she was still sleeping it off. He closed the door to his room, sat down on the bed, and started shaking violently. “Fuck fuck fuck shit fuck holy fucking shit. Jesus.” He ran a hand through his hair, pulled a cigarette out of his pocket, started to light it, realized that wasn’t what he needed, and dug into his jeans pocket to pull out what was left of his stash. That was what he needed. Hopefully it mellowed him out and didn’t make him paranoid. Too shaky to roll a joint, he packed the one hitter from his desk drawer and sucked it down faster than he ever had. He held the smoke into his lungs as long as possible and lay back on the bed. As he exhaled, he pulled out his phone and called Doug.
The phone rang three times before Doug’s mom said, “Hello?”
“Is Doug around?”
“No. He’s taking his driving lessons.”
“Can you tell him I called? It’s really important.”
“Is this Stephen?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I’ll tell him if I remember.”
“I’ll try back later.”
“Make sure it’s not too late.”
He started to say, “Okay,” but she had already hung up on him.
The pot hadn’t helped his nerves a whole lot. He was still scared. Actually scared. Once he was away from the jock bullies at the high school, he didn’t think he would ever be scared of anything again. Especially not of anything as ridiculous as... as...
Monsters.
Was that what it was?
He had to have just been hallucinating. People can’t do that. Change shapes right in front of him. What the fuck? Now he almost wanted to laugh, it seemed so ridiculous. What did he think the monster was, anyway? The Devil? He’d have to stop listening to some of his music if it started making him think of shit like that.
He could just call Chloe.
But she probably didn’t want to talk to him after running out like that. It had to be embarrassing. Hell, he was kind of embarrassed. Especially if it turned out to be nothing. He’d actually been so scared he’d lost his erection. That had never happened before. He’d never even thought of it before. What if he wouldn’t be able to have sex anymore? What if he always thought of that?
Okay. He tried to reason with his conscience. He needed to call Chloe. So what if it was embarrassing. Less than a half hour ago, he’d been fucking her in the ass while she was sucking off a practical stranger and they were all tripping on acid. There didn’t seem to be any reason for shame or embarrassment.
He pressed the ‘6’, speed dial for Chloe, and chewed his bottom lip while the phone rang. Once he was sure it was about ready to go to voice mail, she said, “Crank?”
“Yeah. Chloe?”
“Um, yeah.”
“I was just calling to make sure you, uh, you’re okay and everything.”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“No reason. It was just strange, that’s all.”
“Only strange if you’re a fucking puritan who can’t keep it up and gets freaked out by things like that.”
“Things like...”
“Me and another guy. What else? You know if the situation had been reversed, I would have been cool with it. I’ve practically begged you to bring Amber around but...”
“Oh, yeah...” He tried to laugh it off. “Sorry about that. Maybe next time, huh?”
“I’m glad you called, Crank. I was actually going to call you a little later.”
“Yeah. What for?”
“To tell you there wouldn’t be a next time.”
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“Come on, Chloe...”
“You blew it, asshole. I’m with Daniel now. He’s all I need. Maybe with him I won’t need to feel like I need more.”
“Certainly seems like you wanted more a while ago.”
“It’s over, Crank. Please don’t call me anymore.”
“Fine. You’re a fucking hog anyway.” Crank pressed the end button and tossed the phone toward the foot of the bed.
Bitch.
Crank slunk down on the bed and clo
sed his eyes. He felt relieved. Just like he had thought, it was nothing. Just a hallucination. So what if Chloe didn’t want to see him anymore? He could live with that. As long as there wasn’t a monster out there. That was something that caused him a great amount of anxiety. But now he could forget about it. Girls were the real monsters.
He drifted off after a few minutes.
Nine
Doug walked in the door to find his mother asleep on the couch with the TV at top volume. He thought about waking her up and then decided he didn’t want to talk to her. He took the cordless phone up to his room and called Crank. He had to tell him about nearly hitting the animal out on Mountain Bottom. Crank didn’t answer his phone. He briefly thought about calling Whitney and then wondered why she would want to talk to him. She had made it pretty clear they were neighbors and nothing more. He didn’t know why he would want to talk to her anyway. She was crazy, after all. That hadn’t seemed to change over the years. She wasn’t even particularly cute, yet he found himself wanting her to come to the station again. Maybe she was a chain smoker and the cigarettes wouldn’t last much through the night. Maybe she was a chain fornicator and would have to get more condoms.
What if she came to the store while Crank was there?
She wasn’t really Crank’s type though.
Wait a minute, he corrected himself. Every girl was pretty much Crank’s type. He had never met a less discriminating individual.
He turned on his computer and logged in to Redemption. If he could survive the sordid streets of Sodom then he might earn the golden cross. Just one level away from the golden crown. He didn’t know what he would do if he won the game. Hopefully, they would come out with a new version soon. Or maybe he could play it again and be one of the sinners. That could be kind of fun. To fornicate with all the whores and sluts that populated the game. But what fun would that be? They were just images on a computer. The person on the other end was probably someone like him. Or some fat middle-aged guy who was afraid to leave his house. Or someone like Whitney.
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