This Town Needs a Monster

by Andersen Prunty

  She continued to wander around in the turnaround of the driveway, holding her stomach and moaning. I thought about asking her if she was okay but I didn’t really care. Plopsy seemed mean.

  I tossed my cigarette out into the yard. The girl had already disappeared back into the house. I wondered if she had a bellybutton. If she didn’t, what did that mean? I took a sip of my cold beer and contemplated smoking another cigarette but Plopsy’s distressed presence made me uncomfortable. Besides, it didn’t seem like there was really a lot going on and I didn’t really think I’d been around Dawn when there wasn’t much going on or I wasn’t incredibly fucked up. I imagined she had somehow engineered it that way.

  It looked like most of the girls were in the living room, dancing oddly to infuriatingly minimal electronic music, their limbs liquid, their eyes vacant.

  I went into the kitchen to grab another beer, the very first fingers of intoxication beginning to knead my head.

  One of the girls was in the kitchen amidst a loud noise. I couldn’t figure out where the noise was coming from until I noticed the girl pulling stuff from the refrigerator and jamming it into the sink. The garbage disposal was what was making the noise. I walked over to the sink and turned the garbage disposal off. The girl froze and straightened up. It looked like she had been in the process of feeding a can of biscuits to the disposal.

  She didn’t look at me. Just continued staring at the half-devoured can of biscuits with what I projected as a longing look. The air from the can made a weird wheezing sound.

  “Have you seen Dawn?” I asked.

  The girl still didn’t look at me or answer me.

  I poked her in the arm. Maybe she only responded to commands, not questions.

  “Suck my cock,” I said.

  She immediately turned toward me and dropped to her knees. I had to stop her before she actually started.

  “Never mind. Stand up.”

  She stood up but continued looking at me.

  “Tell me where Dawn is.”

  The girl pointed up.

  “Thanks.” I turned the garbage disposal back on and she went back to feeding the can of biscuits to it.

  I went up a small flight of stairs. Dawn’s house was many floors connected by a series of half-flights of stairs. There was probably a name for that kind of house.

  I hadn’t been this far into it before. This was probably the floor with the bedrooms on it. The thought of being near Dawn’s bedroom excited me a little even though this was probably where she had sex with Sheriff Bando, even though she said she didn’t.

  Slapping and moaning came from farther down the hall. A door was open, bright light spilling from it. I moved to the doorway and looked in.

  The room was bedecked with swastika banners and a large poster of Hitler at a Nazi rally. Dawn stood near the doorway with her camera trained toward the center of the room. Stasia was on her knees. Her top was pulled down over her breasts and her jeans were unbuttoned and unzipped. Three well-muscled and naked black men surrounded her. She had one of their cocks in her mouth while a second man pushed her head from behind and the third stood beside her and stroked himself.

  Dawn, spotting me skulking at the door, set the tripod down and came over.

  “What are you doing up here?” she said.

  “I don’t know. Just wanted to see what you were doing.”

  “I’m busy. Obviously. Go back downstairs. You can mess around with the girls if you want. Keep your phone on you.”

  I took one last look in the room to see the man whose cock Stasia had been sucking slap her in the face several times with it. Then she spit on him and he crammed his cock back into her mouth. I headed back down the hall.

  In the living room the girls were still dancing. A few of them had removed most of their clothes. There were two couples making out—one couple standing up, the other couple on the couch. The erection that had begun with seeing Stasia on her knees was now fully formed.

  I wandered around the room, inconspicuously bending and checking the naked ones’ bellybuttons. The light was low so I couldn’t be entirely sure, but I didn’t think any of them had navels. They all had piercings—large green jewels, for the most part—to possibly distract the eye from noticing their lack of bellybuttons. Maybe I should have been repulsed but I wasn’t. I was out of my head with lust, like they exuded some kind of aphrodisiac.

  I stripped off my clothes, thankful for the dimness of the room. Still, if this were a room of normal girls, I never would have done that for fear of embarrassment.

  I went over to the couple on the couch. The girl on top was busy sliding the girl on the bottom’s shorts down her hips. I watched her do this while guiding my cock toward the girl on the bottom’s mouth. She quickly and expertly took me in. The top girl finished removing the bottom’s shorts and underwear and began licking her pussy.

  Much like the other night with the other girl, there was a part of me that couldn’t believe this was happening. I thought of the old clichéd adage, “If it’s too good to be true then it probably is,” and added to that my favorite adage of all time: “Fuck it.” I was just drunk enough to not really care too much and what this girl was doing to me felt amazing. I fucked the slight suction of her mouth with the length of my cock, watching as her stomach muscles tensed, watching the back of the other girl’s head as she worked on her cunt. It wasn’t long before I felt like I was going to come so I pulled my cock out of her mouth.

  I went around to the back of the girl on top. I watched her ass as she continued working on the bottom girl. The bottom girl moaned and lifted up her shirt to play with her nipples. I reached around and unfastened the other girl’s shorts, sliding them over her ass. She wore a pair of white underwear. I pulled those down to the base of her ass and ran a couple fingers along her labia, sticking my middle finger into her tight cunt. I clutched myself with my right hand and pressed into her.

  A few girls stood around the couch watching us.

  I fucked her harder and harder until I was nearly ready to explode.

  I pulled out of her and turned to the girls who were watching.

  The girl who’d been in the kitchen feeding things into the garbage disposal was on the far left.

  “I want you to suck me off,” I said.

  She obediently approached me and dropped to her knees. She took me into her mouth and I wrapped my hands around the back of her head and pressed my cock in until she gagged.

  On the verge of coming, I heard an angry Dawn say, “Goddammit! I thought I told you to keep your phone on you! I’ve texted you like ten times.”

  She approached the girl attached to my shriveling dick and shoved her away by the forehead. She fell to the floor and the two girls who’d been on the couch swarmed her and began removing her clothes.

  “Follow me,” Dawn said. She held a camera in one hand and a chain in the other.

  I went over to my clothes and Dawn said, “There’s no time for that.”

  I followed her through the kitchen and outside.

  Plopsy was still out there. She was on her hands and knees on the manicured grass at the center of the turnaround. Her dress was hiked up around her waist. Dawn moved over top of her and turned the light on the camera on. It lit up Plopsy’s ass in a harsh bright light. There was some kind of bright green discharge oozing from Plopsy’s vagina. That killed what remained of my erection.

  “You gotta push, Plopsy! Push!”

  “It fuckin hurts!” Plopsy said. “Fuckin hurts like fuck!” Now her cheek was against the grass, her huge rump stuck up in the air.

  “I told you it wouldn’t be easy.”

  Dawn brought the chain down hard across Plopsy’s upper back.

  “Oh, God, please make it stop!” Plopsy cried out again.

  “Push, dammit!” Dawn barked and hit her with the chain again.

  Plopsy made a strained grunting noise and I saw something press from the inside of her dilated vagina.

  Dawn h
it her with the chain again. Plopsy held two fistfuls of grass. Blubbering and drooling, she again heaved and I saw whatever was in her break the surface of her vagina.

  Dawn looked at me and said, “Get over here.”

  I was too dazed to move. I barely registered her speaking to me.

  “Now!”

  I slowly approached whatever abomination was happening in front of me.

  “You’ve got to grab it,” Dawn said.

  “Grab what!” I was on the verge of hysteria. I wondered if Dawn was trying to permanently ruin sex for me and then felt ridiculous for even thinking that.

  “The head! Wrap your hands around it and pull. You won’t hurt it.”

  This was the first time it had occurred to me that Plopsy was giving birth. I didn’t even think of an actual baby because as I bent down to take hold of the head, it was so much larger than what I imagined a baby’s head would be.

  Suddenly glad I wasn’t wearing any clothes, I slid my hands in between Plopsy’s dilated labia and the head. It was warm and slimy.

  Dawn hit Plopsy with the chain again.

  “You have to pull when she pushes,” Dawn said.

  I got as much of a grip on the head as I could. Dawn brought the chain down again and I leaned back.

  I pulled about two feet of whatever was in Plopsy out before my hands slid off and I went staggering back, landing on my ass.

  Whatever was in her was . . . not normal. I didn’t even think it was human. It was glowing green and hairless, and the parts of it that were outside of Plopsy were bone thin.

  I continued sitting on my ass and watching as it began digging its sharp elbows into the grass, pulling itself out of Plopsy. I feared it was coming toward me but I was too paralyzed to move.

  Finally, with a sickening popping sound, perhaps imagined, it pulled itself from Plopsy and continued crawling toward me.

  Dawn now straddled the thing, bringing her chain down on its head until it was a quivering heap in the grass, an acrid vapor rising from its body.

  I leaned over and vomited up all the beer I had drank that night.

  I stood up on shaky legs and watched as Dawn scanned the whole incident with her camera.

  “What is it?” I said.

  “Dead, hopefully. A parasite. But it could have been a beautiful girl.”

  I thought about what I’d been doing to the girls in the house only a few minutes before and shuddered.

  “I’m gonna need you to run Plopsy to the hospital. They’ll know how to take care of her.”

  I was going to say no way but I wasn’t wearing any clothes and Dawn was holding the chain.

  I headed back toward the house.

  “Where are you going?” Dawn asked.

  “To get my clothes.”

  “Afraid not.”

  She tossed her keys to me.

  I wasn’t planning on driving Plopsy to the hospital but I didn’t think I’d get too far in the car with no clothes, money, wallet, or phone.

  I felt drained and exhausted.

  Plopsy was collapsed on the grass.

  I nudged her with my foot. “Can you walk to the car?”

  “Help her up, for fuck’s sake. She’s not a monster just because she’s fat.”

  I thought of her as a monster for reasons other than that, not the least of which was what I’d just seen her do.

  I bent down over her, grasped her under the arms and did my best to heave her up.

  She got up to her knees before collapsing back onto the grass.

  I went over to the car, started it, and pulled up right next to her. I got out and again tried to help her up. This time I managed to get her to the car and she collapsed into it.

  I was too mad to even look at Dawn. I got in the car and furiously sped down the driveway.

  I began driving toward Dayton but felt exhausted. I turned down a wooded side road. I pulled the car onto the shoulder. After making sure I didn’t see any lights coming from either direction, I got out of the car and went to the passenger side. I opened the door and Plopsy practically tumbled out.

  Easy enough, I thought.

  I dragged her into a ditch at the side of the road. I patted down her dress and found her phone. I activated the screen and pressed the emergency icon. Then I dropped the phone into the ditch with her, got back in the car, and drove back to my apartment.

  I freaked out when I realized I didn’t have my keys. I wasn’t going back to Dawn’s. I wanted to but felt like she would know what I did to Plopsy and there would be some form of punishment involved. I got out of the car and glanced up and down the street to make sure there were no cars or pedestrians. It was late enough this wasn’t a problem. There weren’t even many lights on. I went to the front of the apartment and started hitting buzzers. While standing there, a teenage boy came running down the street. He wore regular clothes and breathed heavily. No one was chasing him and he didn’t notice me.

  “Yeah?” a voice came through the speaker.

  “Sorry to bother you. It’s Brad Renfield from 2B. I seem to have locked myself out.”

  There was no other response other than the clicking of the door unlocking.

  I got to my apartment and forced the door open. Luckily, everything used to construct this building was so cheap I was able to do it with minimal commotion.

  I felt like I’d be able to sleep for a week.

  Sheriff Bando

  I felt isolated with no phone, wallet, money, or internet. I found a certain amount of comfort in this isolation.

  I thought Dawn would probably get in touch with me right away, if only to exact some form of punishment or the other but I hadn’t heard from her. Of course, there was really no way for me to hear from her unless she showed up. I did check out front to see if the car was still there, but it was gone.

  I couldn’t even think about what I had seen happen with Plopsy. There would have been a time when I would have obsessed upon it and let it terrify me. I was surprised at how easily I was able to put it out of my head. I thought, not for the first time, that Dawn was training me for something. Like everything I’d seen and done had prepared me to not really be shocked by much. My conscience, dubious to begin with, was being drained away.

  I cleaned the apartment really well.

  I listened to the music I had on vinyl since I didn’t have any way of streaming anything.

  I finished the Murakami book and debated finding another book to read but decided not to. I had read the few books I had in my apartment. I only kept the ones I’d really liked and was always leery about re-reading anything because I was afraid I wouldn’t like it as much the second time around. There was something depressing about art losing its magic.

  I masturbated once but couldn’t think about anything except Dawn and her creepy girl army and, after I came, I still found myself thinking about them. It was like you couldn’t get enough and would always want more. I decided not to jerk off again. Besides, it kind of burned.

  I had smoked through all the butts I had left in the ashtray and managed to last about twenty-four hours before I wanted another one so much I was willing to leave my apartment. My only option was if Kren was working, since he’d have to basically just give me a pack.

  I’d pick up some beer if he were there too.

  Once I mustered up the energy, I left the apartment.

  The afternoon air was stifling. By the time I reached the carryout, I was sweaty and my clothes were sticking to me.

  Kren was not behind the counter. Instead there was a balding, middle-aged woman who only had one arm. Although the air conditioning in the store felt great, I didn’t waste any time looking around and pretending I had the money to buy anything.

  I walked to the counter.

  “Is Kren working tonight?”

  “Nope. He don’t work here no more.”

  “Really?” I don’t know why this alarmed me so much. I guess I saw Kren becoming a high profile male prostitute while holding down h
is position at the carryout to stay in touch with his roots. Of course, he could also be dead.

  “He ain’t showed up the past two days.”

  “Okay. Thanks.”

  I turned to leave.

  “Wanna touch my stump?”

  I turned back to the woman, thinking I couldn’t have possibly heard her correctly. “Sorry?”

  “I ast if you wanted to touch my stump.” She held her stump arm toward me to make her point. “I’d let you rub it real good.”

  My first instinct was to get the fuck out of there as quickly as possible but, dammit, I’d come for a pack of cigarettes.

  “Will you give me a pack of cigarettes if I do?” I felt like the absolute cheapest, lowest form of whore at that point.

  “Ain’t none of this stuff mine. I’ll let you take whatever you want.”

  With employees like Kren and this woman, how did this place even continue to exist? It was like whoever owned the store hired the worst person he or she could find for the job.

  “Where do you want me to do it?” I walked back toward the counter.

  “Better go back to the break room.”

  She reached below the counter to grab something and came up with the honesty cup. It was flattering to see it become a fixture.

  She came out from behind the counter and I followed her back to the break room. She was about twice as wide as me.

  She pulled a molded plastic chair out into the middle of the brightly lit room. I noted the absence of vending machines, coffee makers, or microwaves before realizing they didn’t need them. A carryout was pretty much a public break room. They already had all that stuff.

  She sat down heavily in the chair and waggled her stump at me.

  “All right,” she said. “Here ya go.”

  I moved closer to her. She smelled like a bar. An overpowering smell of smoke clinging to her hair and clothes with hints of booze and sweat and a faint back note of something that reminded me of urinal cakes.

  I’d never felt a stump before and found myself genuinely curious. I reached out and touched it with my fingertips.

  “Get in there good,” she said. “No need to be gentle.”

  She unbuttoned her pants and slid her one hand into them, an even more vile smell rising from her.