What Lurks Between - A SciFi Horror Novella - Part Six
Part Six of the story!
Barry's definitely in trouble, and the no ordinary rabbit with big sharp pointy teeth seems to be fairly diabolical. It beat him into submission pretty quick, and now wants his help with...something bad.
Looks like this will get very ugly, very quickly.
Let's see what happens next.
What Lurks Between - Part Five
I hugged my arms tight against my chest. Or as tight as I could with the bunny - or whatever the hell it was - tucked into my trench coat with its nose poking out from the little V where the two flaps of the coat folded over each other.
I walked slowly down the street, a few blocks from my little apartment. The late autumn chill made my breath freeze in the night air in front of my face, but it was not the cold that made me shiver so.
It was the company.
The bunny monster had been insistent that we go out. I knew what it wanted, but I could not say no. Even when it was not digging its claws into me, I felt a…force…bearing down on my mind when it projected its desires into my head. I found myself doing its bidding before I realized what was going on.
I did not know how, but it had ahold of my mind. That was scary enough. The suspicion - no, the certainty - of what it sought was terrifying.
I went. Unwillingly, but I went trudging past the boarded up storefronts, the broken windows, the trash-laden streets. My little corner of Boston had never been the best neighborhood, but the last few years had been especially unkind. Businesses closed every week, or left for fairer shores despite the “best efforts” of the local officials to entice them to stay. I suppose all the promises of kickbacks and tax incentives in the world don’t matter worth a damn if you can’t enforce the basic rule of law.
Who would have figured?
My mind whirled as I picked my way past the detritus of a failing city, and I could not help but feel it was appropriate to bear the bunny monster with me down the dark streets. If any place would feel like home for it, this would.
Then I felt that pressure in my head again.
There.
I stopped abruptly, glancing around in confusion. What was it…
That one.
The thought came accompanied by pain as its claws dug into my chest. I grimaced to hold back a scream and stumbled forward, nearly bending over double. What was it talking about? Where…
Then I saw, and a new chill spread down my spine.
I knew. I knew without it having to tell me, but I did not want to believe the bunny monster really meant it.
But when the bunny monster’s claws loosened their grip as I finally noticed the homeless man slumped against the wall of an alley ten meters ahead on the other side of the street and I felt that pressure in my mind again, I could not deny the truth.
We were out to get food.
I could not stop myself. My feet seemed to move of their own accord, jogging across the street in the wake of a passing Yellow Cab, then turning left toward the homeless man’s alley. Against my chest, the bunny monster began purring, or whatever it was, again.
As we approached, I saw the man’s features as clearly as if it were noon, and never mind that it was approaching midnight. Curly brown hair that hung in unwashed strands from his head. A matching beard, complete with bit of paper - or food? - caught in the long whiskers. High cheekbones and dark, defeated eyes. A ratty overcoat with several holes in it that he held close about his thin body, trying to preserve what little heat the thin garment would retain.
On any other night I might have thought about giving him a buck.
When I stopped in front of him and gestured into the alley, his eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Wha chu wan, buddy?”
Just as my feet had moved on their own, I found myself speaking before I realized what was happening. “Want to earn some money?”
The homeless man’s eyebrow quirked upward, then he spat off to the side. “I don’ turn tricks.”
I felt the bunny monster’s purring change, and I felt, faintly, a wry, almost derisive amusement seeping into my mind.
“No tricks. Job pays two hundred.”
Both eyebrows climbed high on the man’s forehead, and he suddenly grinned. He had several missing teeth and breath that would knock a moose over at twenty meters. It was all I could do not to gag. But then I found myself gesturing into the alley again.
This time the man nodded and, licking his lips, began walking in that direction.
As I followed him and the light from the street faded, it was like I was watching someone else. My heart pounded in my chest, and I could acutely feel every pulse through my my neck; the sound of my heartbeat was like a bass drum in my ears. My mouth grew dry and I found myself beginning to tremble. Was I really going to let this happen?
But I could not stop it.
The nameless man rounded a corner in the alley, taking us completely out of view from the street, and turned to face me. Before he completed the movement, the rabbit monster shoved itself off my chest and, springing from the low neck of my trench coat, landed on the man’s chest.
He had enough time to voice a wordless shout of surprise, then the beast was on him. Its little head darted upwards, toward the side of his neck, and I heard as much as saw its fangs penetrate.
The man’s eyes widened, and his shout became a rasping gurgle as he staggered backwards, his hands going reflexively to his neck, and the creature latched on there. He tugged at the bunny monster, but it did not budge. He stumbled back again, turning to the side as he did so, and slammed his back into the side of the building to my left. He beat on the bunny monster with his fists.
But it was all in vain. After maybe thirty seconds, he slumped to the ground. His eyes lost focus and rolled up in their sockets. His limbs began to spasm, his feet drumming against the alley’s cement paving stones. Then, finally, he lay still.
I watched this happen, my feet glued in place. Though part of my brain shouted, “Run, you idiot!”, another part was, unbelievably, fascinated.
I had never seen a man die before.
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