Monster (31 page)

Authors: Christopher Pike

BOOK: Monster

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“I’m all right,”
she said, getting up without his help.
A
wave o
f dizziness passed through her,
but soon
she was
steady on her fe
et. The basement had no windows, of
course; she knew
that
without checking. There was on
ly
one way out
–
the door up to the
fi
rst floor of the house
. She strode over to the corn
er where she had hidden her bot
tl
es of gasoline under a big blue plastic tarp. She pulled away the covering. The bottles were stil
l
there.

But the fuse was gone.

She searched in her pockets. They had taken her lighters.

“
What's in those bo
tt
les?
”
Kevin asked. He was not stupid. The way they were roped together said she was not storing up fresh drinking water.

“Gasoline,”
she said.

His eyes widened.
“
Are they going to blow us up?
”

“
No
,” she said. “
I was going to blow them up
.”

“
Why
, for God's sakes?”

“F
or the sake of God,
”
she told him. She understood right then that there was no getting awa
y
. The b
est she could hope for was to st
op them. It was going to mean
that
both she and Kevin would die, and that made her sadder than she could b
ear. But it was the way it had t
o be. He was watching her with fear in his eyes.

“
Have you lost your mind?
”
he asked.

“
Kevin
,”
she
said
sadly, “
those people up there are evil. Mary was right
–
they kill others. There's no way
to
co
n
vince the authorities of what they're really like because for a
long
time
they look like you and me. But t
hey
’
re not
like
us. They've got something growing in them that
they’ve
got to feed, that pushes them t
o take revenge against all
of
humanity. There's no way
to stop them but to kill them.”

“You sound as bad as Mary.”

“Mary's dead,”
she
said.

He was shocked. “
What happened?
”

“They killed her.”

He t
ri
ed to hug her.
“
Ang
ie?”

“
Stay away
,”
she said, pushing him aside a bit too hard
. He
almost fell down. She reminded herself how strong
she h
ad become. She seemed a lo
t
stronger than she had
been
when
Jim
had arrived with Kevin tonight.
Had they
really
poured blood down her throat? Whose blood had it
been?
Kevin was totally confused
.

“W
hat's wrong with you?
”
he pleaded
.

“R
ight now
I
have man
y
personal problems, but I can't
go
into all of them
.”
She scanned the basement
.
There
were
the concrete walls and one wood-panelled
–
her
gran
dfather neve
r finished panelling the room. “
Do you
have
any matches?
” she asked quietly.

“No.”

“D
o you have a lighter?
”

“I don't smoke, Angie.
You're not going to try to light
those bottles off.”

She
stared him straight in the eye. Once more, as
i
n
Mary’s
cabin, she felt a magnetic current flow up her
spine,
into her head, and out her eyes. The invisible mind
-twister –
she hoped it was working well this time.

“But
I am, Kevin,
” she said softly. “T
hat's exactly what
I’m g
oing to do. Now
I
want you to stand there and do
nothi
ng
.
I don't want you to interfere
.”

Sud
den
l
y he was breathing hard
–
sweating profusely
. “You c
an't
,”
he whispered.

“I c
an.
I will. Don't interfere.
”
She
t
ore at a corner
piece
of the wood panelling. Tightening her fingers on
the w
ood, she heard it crunch beneath the pressure of her
grip. Her tendons felt
like steel cords. She had broken off
a three-foot
section of splintered wood, which she snapped
in two
across her knee. One end looked like a
jagged spear
. She
returned to her bot
tl
es in the co
rn
er and stabbed the
near
est one. Gasoline gurgled on to the floor.

“Angie,”
Kevin croaked at her back, frozen in pl
ace.

“Shut up. Be still.”

“Yo
u
must stop.”

“I’ll stop when they're stopped,”
she said. She knelt and
stood
the jagged piece up in the middle of the growing
puddle of gasoline. She gripped the top of it tightly
with
her left hand. In her right hand
s
he held the second
p
iece
of wood. The monsters upstairs obviously had never
been
Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts, and didn't know a
ll th
e ga
mes
she knew. They had taken away her lighters
–
big de
al.
She needed just one good spark. She struck the piece of wood hard alon
g the length of the other piece. She was strong –
it would take only a few tries. She closed her eyes
. I
t would be over soon.

But she weakened. She had driven herself within an inch of death, and perhaps the alien organism that flowed in her veins had even helped her so far. But the human part of her couldn't bear it. She was only eighteen. She didn't want to die. Certainly, she didn't want to die by her own hand. Tears burst ou
t
of her eyes, and the pieces of wood in her hands shook and fell into the gasoline
. Blood and tears and gasoli
ne; she tasted all three of them at once
–
a potion of despair.

“
I
can't,
”
she moaned.

The next thing she knew, Kevin's arms were round her, comforting her. His gent
l
e words in her ear told her everything was going to be all right. Bur his tou
ch brought her no relief. It onl
y hammered on the already unbearable pounding in her skull. He turned her toward
s
him
,
and she smelt him a million times more intensely than the way she used to smell the meat on the barbecue wh
en
she was starving and it was almost, but not quite, ready
to
eat.

I am so ready, God.

“
We'll get out of here,” Kevin promised her.

She studied him
–
such a beautiful bo
y, so handsome.
He had never really
t
u
rn
ed her on before, and now
she
couldn'
t imagine why not.
She stroked his hair. She
felt
the bump where he had hit the wall. He had broke
n
skin there. Taking a deep breath, she caressed the sp
ot.
It seemed to bring him pleasure, just her touching
his
head. He closed his eyes briefly. She withdrew the f
inger
and licked it quickly with her tongue. A drop of
blood, a pinch of
pleasure. She touched his small wound again
. She dug into it deeper this t
ime, using her nails.

“
Ouch
,”
he said, drawing back slightly. His eyes popped
open.

“I'm sorry,” she
said quickly. She had more blood on
her
hands now. But she couldn't lick it with him watch
ing
her
– he wouldn't approve.

He stared at her. “You look different.”

“You look good.”

“
R
eally?”

“
Yeah
,”
she
c
r
oaked. His eye
s
were sort of bloodshot. She
could count t
he veins round his irises. She could almost
count
the veins inside his pupils, the openings into his
bra
in.
She felt as if she could just reach ou
t
and touch his
brain
,
squeeze it a little, she could make him feel a little
better
and herself a whole lot better. It was the thought
of
these
little
things that seemed to ease the pounding in
h
er
head. She really had to stop it from pounding, or else
she
was going t
o go mad.
“
Kiss me
,”
she said suddenly.

“
What
?”

“Kiss me.”

He chuckled. “
Angie, we have
to get out of here.”

“
I know. Kiss me.
”
She grabbed him and pulled him closer. “Now.”

He kissed her. He was not as aggressive as good old
Jimm
y boy. But he was swee
t nevertheless. He kissed with m
or
e style, in a way, more flavour.
She nibbled on his lip
a
tiny bit. He lasted just fine in her book. He drew back
. He
had blood on his mouth. My
,
my, where had that
co
me from? It didn't l
ook bad on him. He didn't need to
wipe it away, but he did anyhow.

“
You bit me
,”
he said, l
ooking at the back of his hand.

“
I'm sorry
,” she panted. “
Did it hurt?
”

“No. But—”

“
Kiss me again.
”

“I can’t do it right now.”

“Yes.”
She grabbed his head and pulled his lips on to
hers.
She sucked on them hungrily, and when he tried to
pull away she didn't let him. The pleasure was exquisite,
but the more she had, the more she wanted. They w
ere
sitting in a puddle of gasoline, but they were fanning
the wrong kind of fl
ames, the easy ones
that
di
d not req
uire
the cour
age to look death in the face.

This she knew. This she remembered
.

Deep inside a warning bell finally went off. It told her that she was doing exact
l
y what she
h
ad sworn that she would never do. But the bell could hardly compete with the pounding in her cranium. The bel
l
was a drugstore-s
iz
e alarm; the pounding was being rung b
y
the hammer of Thor
himself.
Her need to f
eed drowned out everything else.
She began to cry again even
as
she held on to h
i
m. She had told him to
st
ay away
.
She had told him she
just
wanted
t
o be
friends.
It was all h
is
fault!

“
Angie,
”
he cried as he burst from her grasp
.
He wa
s
breathing hard again; his eyes blinked rapidly. Half hi
s face was smeared with blood. “
What's wrong with you?
”
he demanded.