by Rob Shepherd
“Y-You’re Corey?” she demanded nervously. “My date?”
“Of course I am, Cat!” she answered. “I have no reason to hide my identity, do I?”
Cat did not answer her directly. What she wanted to do was curse this girl up and down for tricking her, for making her believe the boy of her dreams was just a reasonable walk away, and punish her for her deception. If they had to settle their differences by an impromptu punch-up or wrestling match, that would’ve been fine with Cat. Corey, if that was her name, certainly looked tough and strong, and she’d likely be a formidable opponent based on the fact that she was only a few inches shorter than Cat, but Cat was used to fighting and defending herself, and if it came to such an exchange, she’d take her good!
Fortunately, nothing of the sort happened, since, as Cat later put it, she was so shocked about the changing circumstances of her predicament that her mouth simply “quit working”. Instead of the curses she’d hoped to level her opponent with, what did manage to make its way out of her mouth was simply a scared and intimidated series of vibrating w, s, m, y, and I sounds as she fought to form the right words. Corey quickly silenced her by putting a delicately shaped hand over Cat’s mouth.
“Look,” Corey said to her, “something obviously got screwed up here. Maybe I should’ve told you I was a girl to begin with, to get things out of the way and all. But I don’t know anybody in town, and I’ve only been here a little while, so if I came out immediately as what I am, they’d surely find someway to kill me, and I don’t want that. By any means. Besides, it’s perfectly reasonable nowadays for us girls to hang out and have fun together.” Here she relaxed her grip on Cat’s mouth and allowed her to speak again.
“You mean you’re not worried about what people are gonna say… if we go together? To the dance?” asked Cat.
“God, no!” Corey thrusted Cat’s parry. “I’ve been through this before. You would not believe how many times it’s happened. But I never let those stupid small town gossips get to me- those kids never think about anything that concerns other people positively! But you’re different, Cat. I’ve seen you help out underdogs at your school so many times that I feel like I could be one of ’em! And you’d never turn down a chance to help out somebody in need, would you?”
“I…guess not,” Cat said without confidence. “But…”
“Then let’s go!” Corey cut her off and hooked her right arm like a tentacle under Cat’s left armpit. “No sense in holding in back. Trust me, Cat- this is going to be good! For you- and for me!”
And so, before Cat could log any more complaints, they began walking off to the school in the moonlight. But not before Cat noticed something that made her even more scared than before.
Corey was NOT casting a shadow!
***
Just before they reached the school, Cat shook her side to get Corey’s arm out of her armpit. This struck her companion as being odd.
“What was that about?” she demanded.
“Dude,” said Cat, “you’re getting too damn close!”
“I thought you said you were okay with this!” Corey responded.
“Within reason, dude!” responded Cat. “You’re new in town, and you obviously don’t care a lot about what people think about you and what image you present to the world and all that. But I do. I got enough trouble at school being me as it is without them thinking about me as a…”
“Point taken!” said Corey as she twirled a finger through Cat’s hair. “This was completely my fault, like I said before. So I’ll make it up to you. After the dance, you can come back to my place and we’ll hang and get to know each other better. Okay?”
“Fine,” said Cat without commitment. “Only GET YOUR HANDS OUT OF MY HAIR, Creepy!”
“All right!” said Corey as she abruptly pulled her hands out. “What have I got to do to make you happy?”
“What can you do?” snapped Cat. “You can BACK OFF and stop treating me like a TOY!”
She walked off, alone, into the door leading to the auditorium where the dance was to be held. Corey stood open jawed for a moment- nobody had the audacity to talk like that to her in all of her days!
“Go ahead and snub me, Cat Anderson!” Corey snapped as Cat stormed away from her. “But, like it or not, before this night is over, your body and your soul will be UTTERLY AND COMPLETELY MINE!”
Dude! Cat muttered to herself. She’s more nuts than I thought!
***
And so it was that, while Cat and Corey attended the dance together, they kept their distance from each other most of the time they were there. Separately, they chuckled privately over Dean MacLeod’s efforts to remain sober and not fall on his fat, lard-shaped ass as he made his usual drunken introduction and welcome to the students. And separately, they hovered around the auditorium as the happier and more hetero couples around them made dance tracks on the floor. But eventually they were forced together again, and not in a pleasant way, either.
As Corey hung out near the punch bowl, she was approached in an unfriendly way by two of the reigning “queens” of the school. Margaux and Marcy, respectively dressed in blue and red dresses, tended to view strange and non-conformist people around the Matheson environment as somehow being “threats” to their dominance of the school’s social environment. And there was no one more threatening or strange at that dance, in their eyes, than Corey Eprimav. Consequently, late into the evening, the duo confronted the stranger viciously, Marcy holding a hand on her neck and another on Corey’s back to hold her own hand back while Margaux unsheathed a knife from some mysterious place on her person.
“What the hell?” Corey snapped as Marcy’s hand snapped around her neck. But she was temporarily silenced as she saw the blade approach her stomach.
“We’ll ask the questions around here, stranger!” Watt spat at her. “First of all, just where the hell did you come from?”
“What are you talking about?” Corey demanded.
“We mean you don’t go to this school, and, ergo, you don’t belong here!” Marcy snapped as she tightened the pressure on Corey at both ends. “So why the hell are you here?”
“I was invited,” Corey spat. “By my date!”
“And who’s that?” said Margaux viciously.
“Cat Anderson,” said Corey without hesitation or shame. “You must know her!”
Margaux began laughing viciously, as did Marcy as she relaxed her grip on the strange girl. Once the reason and source of the laughter became apparent, it quickly spread. But it stopped as quickly as it began as Cat Anderson herself became aware of what was going on and stormed to the scene of the action with heavily flushed cheeks.
“WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?” Cat demanded with a vicious roar.
“Well,” said Margaux snidely to Corey. “Looks like your man is jealous of us!”
Cat lunged towards Margaux, who raised her knife to her chest as a means of defending herself. That meant little to Cat, however. With the speed and agility she was famous for, she grabbed the knife out of Margaux’s hand before she could react and impaled it into the ground with a grunt. Then she grabbed the girl by her dress and pulled her harshly forward with her athletic strength.
“Unhand me!” Margaux demanded haughtily.
“SHUT UP and LET ME TALK!” Cat snapped. “I don’t know what the HELL you’re trying to say about me, but if you don’t want me to start beating the CRAP out of you…”
“Oh, you’d do that, would you?” Margaux snarled. “Just like you’d to your girlfriend if she got out of line!”
Enraged, Cat knocked her fist into Margaux’s face, knocking her to the floor. Before she could continue, however, Marcy jumped on her, preventing a further attack. Soon, Cat was the victim instead of the victimizer as Margaux and Marcy began to beat her up in tandem. But not for long.
Corey, seeing the struggle break out, broke out in a furious anger of her own. She stormed towards the melee, and, without uttering a single word, separated Margau
x and Marcy from Cat with her hands. To the shock and horror of all present, she lifted the two drama queens up by their necks with her hands, and, with formidable, super-human strength, threw them directly to the other side of the auditorium. Afterwards, she helped Cat get to her feet while the others turned their attention elsewhere, and the two left the building quickly before anybody could detect them.
It wasn’t until they were at the base of the hill where Corey’s house lay that Cat fully recovered her senses, and, at that point, she violently retracted her hand from the grasp of the strange and powerful girl she had been forcibly coupled with.
“What’s the matter with you?” Corey demanded harshly. “I saved your life, didn’t I?”
“Sure you did,” Cat retorted sarcastically. “You saved me so you could save me for yourself!”
“Please, Cat,” Corey said, trying to calm her friend. “I wasn’t trying to…”
“I don’t give a DAMN about what you were “trying” to do, sister!” Cat growled. “How DARE YOU refer to me as your “date”! We are not a couple! I only came out here ’cause I thought you were going to be a good-looking guy, not some creepy girl into kinky relationships with other kids! Now you’ve got the whole school thinking I’m some sort of nutty fudge bar! I am NEVER going to live this down, and it’s all YOUR FAULT!” Here she pointed an accusing finger at Corey like a gun, and the other girl reacted almost as if it was a gun. “If I wasn’t a decent human being, I would KILL you RIGHT NOW!”
At this, Corey called upon the strength she had used on Cat’s attackers and used it on Cat herself, grabbing the hand with the pointed finger and squeezing it with a power that made Cat flinch with pain. At the same time, Corey’s eyes took on a menacing glow as her voice lowered to a similar threatening timbre.
“You’re one to talk about killing people, you ungrateful mortal!” she said in a most unearthly voice. “You’re lucky I find you attractive, or else I’d do the job to you myself! As it is, I’ll just have to soften you up a bit before I use you up!”
Cat’s eyes widened in spite of her pain. But before she could do anything, Corey had grabbed her by the hips, picked her up and, with her unearthly power, threw her with a vicious pile-driver on the ground, causing Cat to lapse into unconsciousness.
III.
“So! It seems the Cat has her fire back!”
Cat had opened her eyes again. Looking up and down, she saw that she was now Corey’s prisoner. They were obviously somewhere in the bowels of Corey’s house, given the interior setting. And this was some sort of laboratory, given the variety of scientific equipment in the room surrounding them. But Cat knew she was in trouble when she saw that her powerful arms and legs had been shackled in manacles protruding from both the ceiling and floor, preventing her from moving with any speed or strength. And heaven only knew what Corey planned to do with her now, now that she was trussed up helplessly like a piece of meat!
As Corey spoke, Cat had revived and had begun shaking heavily in her manacles. Corey took her jacket off, revealing a powerful upper torso, and then popped her teeth out of her mouth. They were false! What was worse, her real teeth emerged from confinement, and they were fangs, as sharp and as deadly as stiletto daggers. Fangs!
“Ah!” Corey said as her natural teeth re-set themselves into their proper position. “That feels GOOD! Human teeth are so uncomfortable!”
“Dude!” Cat ejaculated helplessly as she shook in the manacles. “Who are you? I mean, really? You’re not a…”
“…Human being?” Corey finished. “Of course I’m not! I thought you might have discovered me and found me out sooner, but that would have been a mistake! You might have ended up like THE OTHERS!”
“The…OTHERS?” said Cat.
“I’ll have to show you!” Corey responded. “That’s what usually makes them crack!”
She grabbed a nearby remote control and pressed the button. The walls shook and retracted, turning over to reveal that a glass plated surface. And, suspended in embalming fluid within the confines of the extended glass plate, were dozens of dead bodies, human and otherwise! The color drained from Cat’s face with horror as she contemplated what was going on. Was she to become part of this freakish museum exhibit?
“You see,” Corey explained, “I’m a pretty well-traveled girl. I’ve been around a lot, and I’ve had a lot of playmates. The problem is, I’m pretty high-maintenance, and they all can’t take care of me the way I want! So I killed them! I had hoped that you, dear Cat, would be more sympathetic to my plight, knowing how much of an outsider you are as well! You could have been my lover, what with your obvious athletic prowess, and we could have taken over this universe together! BUT NO! You refused my offer, and now you’ll suffer the consequences!”
“How could I suffer more than I am now, dude?” uttered Cat. “You already got me trussed up like a Virginia ham, and you’ve been staring at me like I was meat since we first met! What else you could possibly do to me to make me feel more like CRAP than I already feel?”
“Simple,” Corey answered. “I’m going to puncture your neck and suck out all of your powerful, life-giving blood! Then all of the strength, muscle power and vigor in your body will belong to ME, and I’ll be even more powerful than I am now! I’ll be UNSTOPPABLE, and you’ll be just another corpse in my collection!”
“Suck my blood?” shouted Cat. “Dude, you’re a…a vampire!”
Hearing herself say those words, Cat cursed herself for not knowing this before. What a fool she had been! Corey was powerful beyond any human strength, and she didn’t cast any shadow even in this dimly lit room. The evidence was even in her name: re-arrange the letters in E-P-R-I-M-A-V and you easily had V-A-M-P-I-R-E!
“Let’s not get into stereotyping here!” Corey responded archly. “I may suck human blood, but I am not a vampire!”
“Uh, yes you are, dude!” Cat answered snidely. “Vampires live on human blood! That’s why they suck!”
Corey viciously swatted the helpless Cat in the face.
“You human beings are the most insolent and arrogant WHELPS in the whole galaxy!” she railed at the helpless girl. “Give you some technology to use and you think you own the whole f——g universe! Well, it’s not gonna be like that here, see? My people used to own this planet until your kind drove us off into the universe, to the far reaches of Mercury! And that’s where I come from!”
“So you’re an alien, too?” Cat was quivering in horror in the manacles with as much strength as she had left. “Oh, God…”
“Your deity won’t help you out of this one, Anderson, any more than mine helped me to win your love!” Corey spat viciously. “I just want to be loved by somebody, somebody just like me! Is that too much to ask? Sure, I suck blood to get people’s strength out of them, and I like to make out with girls ’cause they’re prettier and more fun to be with than boys, but IS THAT SO WRONG? Apparently, IT IS, judged by how many times I’ve been exiled and made to be a FREAKISH FOOL by everyone at every other planet I’ve visited! I thought you would be different, Cat. You are a friendly and caring person, and you take care of the people you like. Plus you were virtually as fast and strong as I was, and you seemed like you would be willing to help me out! FAT LOT OF GOOD TRYING TO MAKE YOU LIKE ME DID! I thought Earth was a tolerant place, but I guess I was wrong!
“But no matter. I have you captured now, and once I have your blood, your power, your strength, your essence inside of me, I’ll be able to take over this puny planet! And then everyone will HAVE TO BE MY FRIENDS!”
And, with fangs drawn out, she stalked towards the helpless Cat…
***
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you!”
The alien vampire turned around and confronted the speaker, a short figure in a blue turtleneck shirt, black pants and a large black motorcycle helmet. Without words, she growled and lunged at the intruder. But it was prepared for her.
The stranger ducked when the vampire swung one of its powerful
arms and jumped up when the thrown fist missed it. It then took out a generous portion of a bulbous white plant and stuffed it in the villain’s mouth. As she attempted to scream through her blocked larynx and failed, the stranger drew out a knife, held the vampire by her head, and severed the head from her body, killing her.
Without speaking, the stranger grabbed a key ring from the vampire’s dead body and released an exhausted and weak Cat from her bonds. Then, once it had gotten her outside, it threw a match into the old building, and quickly it began burning and consuming the horrors within.
Once Cat had recovered enough strength to move and walk on her own, she stared up at the stranger, who had placed her on the ground after rescuing her.
“Dude!” she said with returning strength. “You saved me! I only wish I knew you so I could maybe repay you in some way…”
“You do know me, Cat!”
The stranger lifted the helmet off its head, revealing himself to be Skip Langdale!
“Skip!” Cat exclaimed as she embraced him. “You risked your ass to save me?”
“I risked my ass to save a friend,” he corrected her. “The only one I have!”
“But how’d you know?” Cat asked him. “I mean, she had all of us fooled into thinking she was a kid like us. But she really conned me good! Had me going on about how I was going to find the boy of my dreams! What a DOPE I was!”
“You’re NOT a dope!” he reminded her. “Anybody who’s like her has to be pretty smart for somebody to fool you like that! You don’t suffer fools likely- and I don’t either!”
“I know,” she said as they sat down on the ground as they reached the end of the hill. “But still, how did you know, dude?”
“I ran into her on the floor,” he answered. “She looked good, and I thought I might take a chance with her. So I chatted her up during one of the dances, but when I tried to make a move, she gave me the finger! Said that she’d come with you and that you and she were going steady!”
“She was LYING,” Cat snarled.