Leech 01 Caleo

by James Crawford

  A gunshot filled the air and blood splattered on the ice next to Caleo’s face. The werewolf grabbed his ear, and turned angrily towards his attacker only to be shot for a second time. Caleo watched through tear filled eyes as the werewolf fell to his knees, clutching its chest as blood poured between his paw-like hands. Out of the corner of his eye Caleo could just make out a blurry Nolan advancing on the werewolf, gun still aimed at its target.

  “He's the Angel! You have broken sacred law in harming him,” Nolan announced, his loud voice booming in Caleo’s ears.

  “The laws of the Blessed are no longer our laws.” The werewolf turned and staggered a few steps towards the woods, only to be shot again. He emitted a shrill howl of pain. Nolan shot him a fourth time and the werewolf fell silent as the back of his skull exploded out. He crumbled forward, where he lay motionless, eyes staring straight at Caleo.

  “Get me out of here.” Caleo looked back to see Nolan running towards him. He turned back to the werewolf. The hair seemed to be melting off his body. His face started to cave in on itself as his arms and legs began to take on a more human appearance. Once most of the wolf’s fur had disappeared off the beast, Caleo noticed that the man left behind looked quite normal. He had a long, black, unkempt beard and hair and the build of a high school quarterback. His skin was a caramel color; his chest and legs were covered with large, thick patches of hair.

  “Nolan!” Caleo yelled as a small stream of silver liquid oozed from under the man’s body and snaked its way towards him. “Something’s coming at me!” Caleo looked back over his shoulder nervously to Nolan sliding on his pants. “Nolan!” he yelled again.

  “It’s okay, it won’t hurt you. Just relax.” Nolan knelt down beside Caleo and grabbed his uninjured hand. As the liquid slithered closer, Caleo squeezed Nolan’s hand tight unable to move. “This is the energy being passed to you. Relax, it’s normal. You’re going to like it.” When the liquid was inches away, Caleo closed his eyes and waited, not knowing what to expect, but nothing happened. Caleo opened his eyes, relieved, and a little disappointed.

  “Where did it go?” Caleo asked, just before a shocking mixture of pleasure and pain pulsed through his body, making him feel as if both heaven and hell were pulling him apart at a cellular level. “Oh!” Caleo groaned, as the pleasure overwhelmed his body. Every cell felt as if it were getting its own massage, only to be replaced by a pulse of pain, like that of an electric cattle prod hitting every inch of his body before returning back to pleasure. Caleo wished it would go away, but hoped it would never end at the same time. The pleasure was so intoxicating that he would endure all the pain required just to feel it again. His arm felt like it was on fire and he wanted to scream out in pain, but it sounded more like exhilaration. The sensation vanished as abruptly as it started, forcing Caleo to collapse on the frozen rocks in front of him, gasping for breath.

  After recovering for a moment, Caleo looked up at Nolan and smiled weakly. “What was that?” he asked, his voice shaky from the experience.

  “That, my friend, is why most Leeches go on killing sprees. It’s the energy passed from a dead Leech to the closest living Leech. We call it their essence or energy. The longer the transference process lasts, the more energy the Leech possessed; most say it’s better than sex.” Nolan patted Caleo on the back. “Now you have even more power, and I think we've discovered a use for it.”

  Caleo watched lazily with his face against the ice as Nolan withdrew a knife from his pocket and made an incision in Caleo’s shirt, then proceeded to rip it off of him, down the spine and across the arms. Caleo pushed off the ground with both hands before collapsing back down.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Caleo turned his arm over in front of his face. “My arm it’s healed!”

  “Yes it is,” Nolan said chuckling. “One of the perks to gaining another Leeches’ energy, your body gets a complete overhaul back to the day you became a Leech.”

  Amazed, Caleo struggled to sit up only to find that his shorts had frozen under the ice, too. “Great!”

  Nolan shook his head, laughing, “This isn't your day.” Then, pulling Caleo’s boxers out at the waistband, he cut an incision in the shorts and ripped them down the center. “Okay, you should be free.”

  Caleo slid out and crawled for the shore, where he crashed face down in the grass and just stared at his arm in amazement. This is so cool!

  “I got his pants.” Jack’s voice brought Caleo out of his awe and he turned to face Jack.

  “Thanks,” Nolan said, taking the pants and handing them to Caleo.

  The second Caleo’s eyes met with Jack’s, his friend turned away and looked back towards the opposite side of the bank.

  “I was watching from the woods. I couldn’t just leave you,” Jack said, as if he had to explain his presence.

  “Jack, I wanted to tell you. I just …” Caleo started, but Jack held up his hands to stop him.

  “Wow, I've never seen someone so white before, there isn’t even a tan line,” the Hispanic man joked, trying to lessen the tension. Caleo watched as Jack glared at the Latino defensively until he walked away towards the lake. Caleo shyly slid on his pants and Nolan helped him to his feet.

  “Look at this! It’s like the ice molded around his skin, freezing everything but him,” the Mexican said.

  Nolan walked over to the ice and Caleo watched as he traced the deep indentations with his fingers. Caleo looked to Jack and realized that he was walking away, back in the direction of the cave.

  “Jack?” Caleo said, but it sounded more like a squeak from the fear of Jack actually leaving him.

  Jack turned his head and Caleo could tell Jack was fighting back tears. Caleo took a step closer, but stopped when Jack whipped around to face him. “You‘re one of them! How? Why wouldn’t you tell me?” He screamed while tears streamed down his face. Caleo wanted to go hug him, to explain everything.

  “Because I was scared,” Caleo said softly as he took a step closer. Jack shook his head, then turned and bolted in the direction of the cave.

  Caleo stood there for a moment, wondering if he should run after him. What would that accomplish? It won’t change the fact that I'm a monster, and now Jack hates me. We have to get food for the camp. Not knowing what else to do, Caleo walked over to where Nolan and the man were still examining the frozen lake.

  “What are you doing?”

  “When the lake froze, it conformed around your body, leaving an impression.” Nolan looked up at Caleo, his eyes asking the question, "Are you okay?" Caleo nodded in response.

  “You sure you don’t have any frost bite or anything?” the Hispanic man asked, shaking his head with a smile.

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” Caleo snapped.

  “You sure left quite an impression,” he added, pointing to the center of the indentation.

  Caleo looked over the imprint; he saw where the ice had conformed to the front of his thighs all the way up to his stomach. Caleo could see his boxer shorts still frozen under the ice. Then he realized with embarrassment that the ice had made a perfect imprint of his lower body down to the last detail. Caleo could feel his face getting warm with anger and embarrassment. He lowered his head to hide his face.

  “Can we go get this done with?”

  Nolan stood up and dusted off his pants and waved for the man to follow.

  “Where did Jack go?” Nolan asked and Caleo knew he was just pretending to notice Jack’s disappearance for the first time.

  “He went home to check on the family. He was worried about them,” Caleo lied, to himself or to Nolan, he wasn’t sure.

  “Well let’s get back to the mission,” Nolan said, taking the lead and heading back to the road.

  “You know, before the other day I wouldn’t have believed in werewolves, but after the last few days I guess anything's possible.” The Hispanic man raced to catch up with Nolan.

  “Before this morning, I've never heard you say a single English word in the year
I've known you.” Nolan laughed and the man joined him.

  “Well, most people will make the Mexican man work like a slave if they think he understands the instructions, so I learned to play dumb. I don’t mind doing my fair share, but I don’t want to be treated like a mule.”

  “Okay, since you speak English, what’s your name?” Nolan asked.

  “Nick, and my wife’s name is Rita.” Nick glanced over his shoulder at Caleo, whispering something to Nolan.

  Nolan nodded in response, but said nothing. And for the rest of the trip no one said a word.

  13

  “Okay, everyone pay attention and stay low. If the city isn't destroyed, then it’s either a trap or we just got lucky, my money is on a trap,” Nolan said. They were lying flat on their bellies on top of a hill that overlooked a small city with a Wal-Mart in the center, a few fast food places, and couple of housing complexes.

  “We need to grab what we need and run it out of here. You see those dumpsters behind the store? Stash everything back there until we're ready to go. We should start in sporting goods and get duffle bags, fill the bags and hide them in the dumpster. That way we can make multiple trips if needed. Not too many people will look in the dumpster for supplies with the store in front of them. Not right away at least.”

  The three men crept down the road and started running from building to building, trying to stay out of sight as much as possible.

  “There's no one here,” Nolan said in confusion. “The whole town is empty, not a single person is left.”

  Caleo’s eyes searched for danger. “It’s a trap then.”

  “No, there's no one here. The whole town is empty. The only living creatures in this town are the rodents and a few cats. My guess, they already came here.” Nolan turned to Caleo. “I don’t like this. Let’s get in and out as soon as possible.”

  The three of them ran for the store as fast as they could. When they reached the door to the building Caleo was the first to try the door.

  “It’s open.” Caleo pushed open the door with ease and the three men went inside.

  “Caleo, you're in charge of camping supplies and bedding. Nick, you get food and medicine, only canned goods and stuff that won’t expire soon. I'll get weapons and lighting.” Nolan pointed in the different directions they were to go as he directed them. “Fill all the bags you can carry in one load and stash them in the dumpster, then come back for more. Once we're done we'll take as much as we can carry to the woods, then we'll come back for the rest.” Nolan addressed them like his troops. “Now go, and let’s not waste time. The less time we're here the better.”

  Caleo left as Nolan finished his last word, grabbing a shopping cart as he went and heading down the dark aisles of the store in search of sporting goods. When he came across the lawn and garden department, Caleo had an idea and made a slight detour, running past shelves and rakes to the planting seeds where he grabbed as many vegetable seeds as he could find. When the shelves were empty, Caleo turned and saw shelves full of solar powered walkway lights. He quickly grabbed a few boxes off the shelves and threw them into the cart, too.

  He left lawn and garden and went back to his original mission, ignoring the clothing departments and heading straight for sporting goods, for the camping supplies. There he found pots, pans, a couple grilling racks to place over a campfire, a solar powered shower, and emptied the shelf of its entire stock of all in one fork, knife, and spoon kits. He had just emptied the racks of their supplies of freeze dried food and was about to turn the corner into the next aisle when glass shattered close by. Caleo peeked around the corner and saw nothing. He crept to the next aisle on his hands and knees, trying to stay hidden from possible attackers.

  “It’s just me,” Nolan called as Caleo peeked around the corner to see that Nolan had broken into the knife case and was emptying its contents into a duffel bag of his own. Three more full bags were slung across his back.

  Caleo took a deep breath trying to slow his heart. “Okay, I’m off to the bedding.” He ran back, retrieved his cart, and pushed it down the main aisle. It wasn’t until he got there that he realized the problem.

  How are we going to get more than two of these back to the cave? Caleo thought, looking at the oversized bed in a bag.

  He picked one up and squeezed. “Full,” Caleo said.

  Then a thought occurred to him; he opened the bag and removed the fitted sheet and bed skirt, then he opened another and removed the comforter and shoved it into the bag. He repeated the process until he had five bags full of only comforters. He shoved two of them in the cart and put the other three under it. He pushed it to the front of the store where he found a box of trash bags. He opened the box and proceeded to stuff everything in the cart into the bags, making sure to double them so they were less likely to rip. When he was done he had two trash bags stuffed full, which he carried out of the store one over each shoulder and proceeded to the dumpster, stashing the bags inside. Then he went back in the store to get more.

  When he entered the store Nolan was walking out, arms full with four duffle bags and six bows strung across his back. Caleo nodded a greeting, then proceeded down the main aisle, stopping when he made it to the woman’s department. He grabbed a few dresses for his grandmother, and a few smaller dresses for Jillian hoping that they were the right size. He knew she would prefer pants, but he didn’t have a clue on what size anything she wore and thought dresses would be the easiest. Next, he ran straight for the girls department where he grabbed a few outfits for Kylie when Nolan appeared behind him.

  “Come with me, you need new clothes, too.” Nolan grabbed him by the arm and dragged him away from the cart. “And you really don’t want me picking something for you. I can’t match colors at all … Or read sizes.”

  “Okay,” Caleo said, laughing as Nolan pulled him along. “Men’s wear is in the other direction.

  Nolan stopped and smiled. “First, let’s get you some new underwear, being that your last pair is in the lake.” He thumped Caleo in the side of the head. “Now lead the way.”

  Caleo scowled up at Nolan in annoyance as he led him to the aisle and started looking for boxers.

  “You'll need something tight, so we don’t end up in the same situation as earlier today,” Nolan said.

  Caleo groaned at the thought.

  Nolan smirked down at Caleo “Spandex will probably be your best bet.”

  Caleo grabbed a pair and added it to the other clothes in the cart.

  “Don’t you think you should get a few more? This may be one of our only shopping trips.”

  Caleo grabbed a few more off the hook and layered them over his arm.

  “Can you grab me a few? I’m size thirty eight.”

  “Underwear isn't measured in inches; it’s measured in sizes small, medium, large, or extra large.”

  “I'll take large then.” Nolan smiled down at Caleo as he passed him a pair. “Remember, I'm a trained killer. If I find out they’re pink, I'll hunt you down.”

  “I don’t think there's anyone brave enough to even bring up that you're wearing pink underwear.”

  “Are you getting cheap on me? I’m not going to wear the same pair every day. Load me up,” Nolan teased.

  Caleo handed him three more pairs.

  “Okay, now put them on.” Nolan nodded to the bundle in Caleo’s arms.

  “What?” Caleo looked around the store to see if anyone was watching. “Why?”

  “We have enough to carry in our arms. The more we can put on, the less we'll have to carry in bags,” Nolan explained. “Besides, there's no one else in the store. You'll be fine.”

  Caleo groaned, unable to come up with an argument. He turned his back to Nolan and slid off his pants and froze. “Nolan?”

  “If you’re afraid I’m going to see something, I promise you I won’t. ”

  Caleo looked back over his shoulder to see Nolan’s smile spreading from ear to ear.

  “Not funny,” Caleo said awkwardly. He qu
ickly slid on a pair of the underwear, and went for his pants.

  Nolan put his hand on Caleo’s shoulder as if to stop him. “All of them. The less we have to carry in our arms the better.”

  Caleo rolled his eyes and slid on the two other pairs, then turned to face Nolan. “Any more and blood flow will be an issue.” Caleo tugged the crouch of the underwear for some breathing room. “So this essence thing you talked about … It heals the Leech’s body, right? Would it say … grow something back if it was cut off?”

  “You mean, like a finger or arm? If it was cut off after they became a Leech it would come back. It might take a few kills to provide enough energy, but it would come back. My brother actually shot off my pinky finger once. It grew back after I took out two of his goon’s as I escaped.” Nolan smiled, lost in the memory.

  “Hold this.” Nolan passed Caleo his underwear, then dropped his sweatpants and took a pair back out of Caleo’s hands. He felt for the tag, then grabbed Caleo’s shoulder with one hand for balance. He leaned forward to slide the underwear on, but stopped when he got it over his foot and looked up at Caleo. “You know, I don’t have to be looking in your direction to see you.” Nolan winked. “It’s a good thing I’m not shy.”

  Caleo looked away, ashamed that he wasn’t more careful.

  “When did you get those scars?” Caleo asked, thankful that he had thought of an excuse for why he was looking at Nolan while he was getting dressed.

  “It was back when I first became a Leech, but you already knew that from when I told you earlier.” Nolan straightened up to his full height, letting the underwear fall to the floor.

  Nolan slid his hand from Caleo’s shoulder to the back of his head and stepped closer. Their bodies were inches from each other as Nolan placed his other hand around Caleo’s waist. Staring down into Caleo’s eyes, he slowly lowered his face level with his. Then he stopped and stood up like a prairie dog watching for a predator, leaving Caleo confused.