Symphony of Blood, A Hank Mondale Supernatural Case (21 page)

It stayed still, wrapped up like a ball in the dark corner of the cage, conserving strength.

“Why don’t you kill him?” she asked. “You told me you were hungry.” She looked at It with confusion, but there was more, she had anger in her voice as well. “Are you too weak? Is that the problem?”

The man walked slowly, a few paces towards them. “Mackenzie, please! Let me out.” Then he backtracked to the other side of the cage.

Without another word, she walked away.

“Mackenzie! Where are you going?”

It stayed huddled in its corner allowing time to pass. The man stood up on the other side, looking out between the rails and then twisting his head back towards It, never letting It out of his sight for more than a few seconds. He lit a small torch and put it in his mouth, then squatted, still watching It for any signs of movement. There were none.

While sucking hard on his torch, the man didn’t hear what It sensed. The keys didn’t jingle this time; but It caught her scent in a light downwind. Then, the door shot open.

Mackenzie kicked the door shut while charging in. She held a large metal tool with a half ring at the top, high over her head. She was on the man swiftly. He jumped up, dropped his torch, and shouted something It couldn’t understand. She swung the rod at him with a downward strike. He put up his arm in defense. The sound of metal smacking bone was like a wand smacking a triangle.

“
Ahhhh
!” he shouted and grabbed his sore arm with his good arm.

She swung again, this time separating his jaw from the rest of his skull. Teeth fragments flew and scattered in chunks. He shouted again, and again, managing to keep his feet but not managing to defend himself. He covered his face with both hands and she swung at his midsection. His body wobbled backwards as he spit blood from his drooping mouth.

When Mackenzie smashed the rod into his left kneecap, he finally went down. Then she smacked the back of his head, twice.

She took a deep inhale as her lips shook and the flaps of her nose waved, then looked over at It. It rose to its knees.

“You’re hungry, aren’t you?”

It began to crawl towards the man, on all fours.

“That’s it. It’s all for you.”

She backpedaled slowly towards the door as It closed in on the man. Within seconds, she was out the door, and It had mounted its meal.

* *

Alone with its prey, It savored the man. Slowly and efficiently, It broke down the innards. There was no hurry.

She had been gone for the dark times but returned as the red, hot ball appeared again. By then, the man had been drained of his fluids. His skin was leathery and pale white. Much of the man’s guts were scattered about the cage. It was carefully picking him apart, sucking up and absorbing his moisture, then laying the rest out in the hot light.

“Good morning, Symphony. How’s my sweetie-
kins
?” She said as she walked up, arms full with items. “Yuck! It really smells out here.” She emptied her hands and looked in between the rails. “I see you’ve eaten. Was it good?”

It didn’t look up from the meal. It just went about its business of pulling out guts through the man’s mouth with its tongue; once to the surface, It used its dull claws to yank them out. It was easier to digest the organs when they were dry and exposed.

“Symphony, why won’t you say hi to me?”

It stopped for an instant, but didn’t look up. Then It went back to the meat.

“Oh, Symphony! You’ll hurt mommy’s feelings.”

It continued, tugging and slurping, then laying well-measured strips of guts along the floor of the cell.

“Are you cooking?” she asked. Then she said, “Symphony, look at what mommy brought for you.” She began untangling a long black string. There was a pointed end of the string which she pushed into holes that were connected to a small wooden post about thirty feet from the cage. Then she took out a large box and put the other end of the string into it. She picked up a black case and opened it.

“Mommy brought music for you.”

It stopped what It was doing, but still didn’t look up.

“What do you like? Beethoven? Mozart? Mommy got a whole bunch of CDs for you.” She pulled a disk out of the case and put it into a slot on the top of the box, then pressed a button that brought the box to life.

Bliss filled It from head to toe, just as soon as It heard the first note. The song was an up-tempo number, which instantly made its insides tingle. It turned its head towards her. She was looking through the rails, smiling.

“
Muuuu
-sic.” It said, the ‘U’ drawn out to illustrate its pleasure.

“Yes. Music.”

“Thank you.”

“Say thank you, Mackenzie. My name is Mackenzie.”

“Thank you, Mackenzie.”

She smiled. It had never acknowledged emotion before, especially human emotion, and in one’s presence no less. But It couldn’t help it.

It smiled back.

* *

The red, hot ball stood brightly in the sky, then gave way to darkness, several times. It digested the man, slowly and steadily. It polished off the innards, then worked on the flesh and the hair, the tongue, the eyeballs and eventually the bones, and even the teeth. By the time she finally came back, it all was gone.

“Hello, Symphony. How’s my sweet baby doing?”

She looked around the cage with her eyes wide.

“My, it smells
much
better today. What did you do? Clean up after yourself.” She made joy-noises, but they weren’t completely genuine; they hinted at uncertainty. “My goodness, you really did clean up. Symphony, do you understand me?”

It looked at her through the rails, but didn’t speak. Speaking required energy. It never wasted energy.

“What did you do with Mario?”

“Ate him.”

She made more joy-noises, slightly more genuine, then shook her head. “I see that. But you ate all of him!”

It nodded. It had truly eaten all of the man, except for one tooth. She’d knocked it clear out of the cage when she’d bashed him with the long metal rod. The tooth landed in a patch of grass just past the stone path.

“Are you hungry again?”

It nodded again.

“I will try and get you more food. It may take some work though. And sooner or later, my father is going to come back here, or send somebody back here and they’ll find you. I think I will have to tell my father you’re here. It’s only a matter of time before he finds out on his own.” She looked at It with warmth in her eyes. “Don’t worry, Symphony. My daddy always lets me keep my animals. He built this entire zoo for me. He loves me. He’ll let you stay. I know he will.”

She stopped talking and walked over to the music box. She brought it to life.

It looked at her, and smiled.

She smiled back. “You love music, don’t you, Symphony.”

It nodded.

“Say thank you to Mackenzie. I love to hear your voice.”

“Thank you, Mackenzie.”

“You are very welcome, Symphony. You are such a special creature. Nobody else has a pet like you. Nobody!”

She started walking away and said, “I’ll be right back, Symphony. I just had a great idea. I want you to love your home and be happy here. I’ll be back in two
secs
.”

It watched through the rails as she walked quickly up the stone path. It spit out its tongue and stretched it, trying to get at the tooth. The aroma of the droplets of blood around its edges was taunting It. But the tooth was out of reach.

Soon, she was headed back down the path, wheeling something with a white cover over it.

It already knew from the scent what it was when she wheeled the glass tank in front of the cage and pulled off the cover.

“Voila!” she said with joy. “It’s the chameleon. I saw you admiring this guy the other day. And what good taste you have. This is one cool lizard. You two can be friends.”

“Chameleon,” It said. It now could put a name to this special, magical creature.

It moved closer to the rails to admire the chameleon. The lizard was
cozyied
into a corner of the tank, scales light brown to match the tree limb it was behind, tongue extended slightly as if feeling the air for warmth.

“Nice chameleon. Your friend.” She said.

“Friend.”

* *

The hot ball rose to the sky and set again a few more times. It was content. Despite being confined, It was comfortable. She’d left the music box alive. The same songs played over and over, but the repetition didn’t bother It one bit. It was happy to hear the symphony play on, and on, and on yet again.

Best of all, It had a companion: The chameleon. It would gaze at the lizard for hours on end, mimicking its every move. If the lizard stuck out its tongue, It followed. If the lizard changed colors, It did too.

It finally had the friend that It never knew was missing.

Sometimes the chameleon would bask in the warm light of the hot ball. It would do the same. Other times the lizard would scrunch up in a corner, almost hiding from It. It didn’t take offense. It simply retreated to its own dark corner and huddled in it.

It was starting to feel some slight pangs of hunger, but since It was using so little energy to maintain itself, It wasn’t concerned. It would stay in the cage. At that moment in time, the cage was the safest place It could possibly be.

The smell of humans filled the air, and It popped up and looked out before quickly retreating to the far corner of its cage. There were four approaching, It recognized the scents of three of them, the fourth, It did not.

As they came into view, walking quickly up the stone path, It saw Mackenzie and her two large companions, the large pale man and the fit, brown-skinned man. A man was leading the pack; he wore more clothes than the others, and he was older too. The man walked in a way that It had rarely seen in a human, if ever; he had confidence—not a single sign of fear or uncertainty in his body language.

They came up to the front of the cage, and the confident man spoke first.

“I can’t believe you’re serious,” he said.

“Look for yourself, Daddy,” she replied.

The man approached the rails slowly, yet still not showing one sign of fear or uncertainty.

“Don’t worry, Daddy. Symphony won’t hurt you. He’s more afraid of you than you are of him.”

“How do you know it’s a him?” the brown-skinned man asked.

“I don’t know, Wes. He just seems like a him.”

“This is absolutely the craziest thing you’ve ever done, Mackenzie,” the confident man said, now right up on the rails and looking at it. He turned to the large pale man and said, “Marty, turn that music off. I need to think.”

The pale man walked to the music box and killed its life. It drooped with sadness as the soothing sounds cut off.

“Why, Daddy? Symphony likes the music. It makes him happy.”

“It’s distracting me! I need to think, Mackenzie. Just be quiet.”

“Fine, Daddy.”

The man stared at It, without flinching or even blinking for quite a while. It cowered in the corner, its posture slight and submissive. It hoped he’d leave and she would bring the music box back to life.

“Look at him, Daddy. He’s scared.”

“Well, he should be. I should exterminate the thing.”

“Daddy! No.”

“What’s in there?” he asked.

“What?” she said.

“The clothes. Those are Mario’s, aren’t they?”

She didn’t answer.

“Did something happen to Mario? He’s been missing.”

“I thought he just ran out on his wife,” said the brown-skinned man.

The confident man glared at the brown-skinned man. Even though his shoulders touched his ears, the brown-skinned man remained submissive to the far smaller man.

“Daddy,” she walked up to him and whispered. “It needs to eat.”

The confident man looked at her with glowing eyes. His look of anger turned to something closer to curiosity.

“Look at what he did to Mario,” she said. “There’s nothing left but the clothes.” She paused, then said, “Nothing.”

The man eyeballed the cage while she continued talking. “No bones. No hair. No nothing. Symphony ate everything.”

“Mackenzie, would you stop calling this thing Symphony.”

“Why? That’s his name.”

“It is not a pet. It is a foul creature. It is dangerous.”

“The lions are dangerous. The snakes are dangerous.”

“Yes but I can hire zookeepers to tend to them. What am I supposed to do with this thing?”

“Wes and Marty can help me take care of it.”

“Hell, no!” the brown-skinned man said. “I
ain’t
going in there.”