WnW 1.10

Chase walked past me, wearing a wrinkled suit with a tie, the knot loose around his neck. 

I couldn’t believe what he was saying. “Where is it?” I asked.

He leaned over the sound board to look out the window. “One of the guests. It will look like a woman.”

Alarm bells were ringing in my head. This felt different. “How is that possible?” I said with a hesitant smile, hoping he was joking. “We’re talking about a monster, right? People would notice.”

His eyes roamed the wedding goers below. “This one is more capable of blending in with humans than the others.”

Dinner was in full swing. Young and old were eating, chatting with their neighbours, cheering whenever Mac and Claire kissed. I found myself examining the faces of the people. Was that smile too wide? Did that person just twitch weirdly? 

“I don’t understand. The other ones didn’t act like this,” I said, my pulse quickening at the thought of the wedding turning into a bloodbath. “Why would it hide? When is it going to attack?”

“Perhaps it’s an opportunistic hunter,” he said, “waiting to get somebody alone.”

I put my hands on my head. “Fuck. Why here, of all the places?!”

“Stay calm,” he said smoothly. “You’re friends with the happy couple, I take it?”

“Yeah,” I said, trying to breathe deeply.

“Don’t worry,” his words were calming and I relaxed a bit. “We’ll find it before it causes any chaos. They won’t even know it was here. There’s plenty of woods around to draw it into, away from the wedding.”

Chase downed the rest of his wine and walked towards the door. “I should recognize it if I see it. I’ve seen this one before.” He turned back to me. “If you manage to find it, come let me know, I wouldn’t want to miss the fun!”

Chase’s cheery attitude set my teeth on edge. Today was going so well and it had all come crashing down when he showed up. But I had a chance to prevent something catastrophic for the wedding. Making my decision, I quickly left the sound booth and went back downstairs. There was no way I was going to let Mac and Claire’s day be ruined. I would protect it with my life.

I did a lap of the patio and the inside of the restaurant, hoping that something would jump out at me. People were laughing and dancing to the upbeat jazz song that was playing. A man who had too much to drink was talking loudly. There was a group of kids that were all doing silly dances in a circle. I watched their faces, then moved on. What was I looking for? The Pianist and Squish had been so clearly inhuman looking. Would there be a tell?

I stopped walking. Staring down at my shoes, I wondered if Chase was delusional. Maybe there wasn’t any monster. Maybe there was some other explanation for why he was here.

I met Mac’s eyes from across the room. He smiled and beckoned me over. He was standing with Percy, his coworker who had talked to me before the ceremony. I navigated through the crowd and stopped in front of them.

Percy nodded to me, a mischievous smile on his face. “Hello again. Mac was trying to talk me down from sharing some stories about what we got up to during breaks in training.”

“Please do, he needs to be taken down a few pegs,” I joked, staring at a middle-aged woman in a blue dress. She met my eyes and I looked away, embarrassed.

“Nick,” Mac said, changing tones. “I tried calling you a few times. You weren’t picking up.”

An aging lady walked past. Her hanging jowls made me think of Squish. “I lost my phone,” I said absently.

“Nick.” Mac’s tone was concerned.

I looked at him. 

“Was that all that happened?”

“Yeah. Why?”

He said nothing for a moment and then shrugged. “I called your mom when you weren’t picking up. She sounded worried but she didn’t tell me anything. Just said that you had a rough night.”

“Don’t worry about me,” I said flatly. “I’m fine. Just enjoy the day! Speaking of,” I said, turning back to Percy, “I think you should definitely share what kind of trouble you and Mac got into.”

Percy’s smile widened. “Oh yeah. We had a few nights where we almost got kicked out. I sincerely thought Conrad was going to pop a blood vessel.”

My attention was ripped from the crowd around us. I stared at Percy. “Conrad?”

“Ah, just a guy we work with,” Percy explained. “Super tall, perpetually has a stick up his ass.”

Could it be the same Conrad that works for HESP?

Mac put a hand on my shoulder. “Nick, are you sure nothing happened?” he asked again. I tried to read his expression. Did he know about my trip to Old Town?

Before I could come up with a response, the jazz song ended and a gritty guitar chord rang out. A panting, gravelly voice sang through the speakers, “All hail a murder most foul!”

A heavy drum beat pounded down on us and the wedding goers reacted with confusion and shock, some covered their ears.

Mac whipped around as a killer bass line started up. I followed his gaze. As if he’d known exactly where to find his wife, there was Claire. She had a blank expression on her face as she stared back at Mac and I, slowly raising her hand, pointer and pinky fingers extended as horns. I returned the gesture stoically.

Mac’s hand left my shoulder and he gave me one last look before walking towards Claire, shaking his head.

My questions would have to wait. I left Percy, scanning the crowd for anyone who was acting strange during the chaos.

The lead singer of Crowblood began to croon out the first verse, “I’m not answering any questions, cause questions got me here. Neck deep in kisses and knives, and all these lives, hanging on me and I fear. When shudder hits the road it forebodes a greater thing comin’”

“Nick!” a voice called out.

My heart sank. The one person I didn’t want to see.

My Dad came up, leaning in so I could hear him. “Are you looking for your mother? I am too, she wandered off on me.” He chuckled, bobbing his head to the music. “I like this one. Sounds old school. It gave some people quite the scare though, including Mrs. Lionel. Do you remember her?”

I shook my head, leaning away from his breath.

“She taught you and Mac in middle school. You see that young lady over there?” He pointed over to a young woman wearing a yellow dress. She looked uncomfortable with the music choice as she stood alone, holding a glass of sparkling water.

“She’s Mrs. Lionel’s daughter. She was just telling me, before the song scared the living daylights out of her, that Grace had gone missing, around half a year ago.”

I stared at the woman. Half a year… Wasn’t that around the same time that Chase said he was kidnapped? Chase had described being taken to an abandoned asylum where his fellow captives had been transformed into monsters.

My dad shook his head. “Poor girl. Luckily she returned, after about a month of being missing, but she hasn’t been the same since. I wish there was something we could do for Mrs. Lionel, she is such a kind soul.”

“I think I just saw Mom near the appetizers,” I lied.

Dad craned his neck. “Really? Okay, well, you tell me if you want to leave. You know how Mom gets, she’ll keep talking until the morning if we let her.” He patted my shoulder and walked towards the food tables.

I shook off the interaction and approached the woman as the chorus of the song played:  “Pretty face, bloody lace. The trace that I’d forgotten. It’s my turn to taste. Huh, must be karma. Must be karma”

She was around the same age as me, with well-kept hair that spilled over her shoulders in curls. Was she the monster? Was it possible for one to hide so effectively? She looked normal. She was wearing a lot of makeup, it was cakey around her mouth especially, but that wasn’t that strange. As I got closer, I realized that Chase might not have been truthful with me about there not being any other survivors of the kidnapping incident except him. I cursed my stupidity for just taking him at face value. The intrigue had just been so strong.

She eyed me warily as I stopped in front of her.

“Hi, Grace? You don’t know me,” I started awkwardly. “My name is Nick.”

“Hi, Nick,” she said, giving me a polite smile.

“Do… do you know a guy named Chase?”

The polite expression fell from her face at the name. Her hands shook as she gripped her glass tightly.

My heart fell. What I’d been trying to not consider was coming true. Ah fuck. Chase isn’t just a little weird.

She gripped my sleeve, pulling me closer. “I don’t know how you know him,” she hissed, “but I want nothing to do with that man.”

I looked over my shoulder. “We should go then.”

Her eyes widened to their limits. “He’s here?!”

“Come on,” I said, taking her arm, pulling on it gently. “We can’t stay here. He’s looking for you. Let’s find somewhere else to talk.”

Grace allowed herself to be pulled along and I brought her away from the party and down the path that led to the ceremony area. The sun was low enough that the light barely reached above the dense trees.

Once we made it to the open area, I stopped and let go of her. “Okay, I need some answers. Were you kidnapped and brought to the same abandoned asylum as Chase?”

She nodded, staring into the dark woods like she was dissociating. “He did terrible things there. All with a smile on his face.”

I was starting to panic. “He told me that no one else survived.”

Her gaze slid back to me. “He’s the reason that there were so few of us,” she whispered angrily. “It was all a game to him. At times, I believed he was working for them. But he killed plenty of them too.”

I paced up and down the row of chairs. “Okay. Okay. This is fine. I can report him to the cops. We can testify.”

She quailed at the word we.

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“I just can’t!” she said, her voice starting to rasp. She was picking at the corner of her mouth with one fingernail. She turned back to the path. “I’m leaving.”

“Wait!” I called out. “I need answers. What are the monsters? Why is Chase doing this?”

She didn’t stop. She disappeared down the path and I sat down on the edge of the stage, putting my head in my hands.

A few moments later, I heard footsteps in the grass.

I looked up to see Grace backing up towards me. Her legs were shaking as she stared at the dark path and the shadow that was coming up it. The shadows slid off of the figure like oil, revealing Chase, toying with his switchblade.

“Good job, Nick!” he said, smiling. “I’m impressed. You’re improving with every hunt.”

Grace made a small noise of fear and sank to her knees. I stepped in front of her, holding out my hands. “Chase, you have some explaining to do.”

He took a few steps closer. “I would be careful standing so close to her. She’s dangerous.”

“She’s just a person. She’s not a monster.” My head was pounding. 

Chase wagged his finger. “What you’re seeing isn’t her true form, Nick. You’re being deceived.”

The sound of blood rushing in my ears started to fade as I listened to him. “What do you mean? You told me everyone had died.”

Chase shook his head and took another step. “No one made it out without transforming. ‘She’ isn’t an exception.”

I looked back at her. Grace looked up at me and she looked calmer, with an almost dead expression. The wind picked up, howling through the trees around us, making the birch trees creak and groan.

“You want to protect your friends, don’t you?” Chase said. “It’s their wedding. We do in the shadows what other people couldn’t stomach. That’s why we need to kill it.”

I shook my head. My fear was fading. What Chase said made sense.

“Now, Grace, was it?” Chase asked, coming to stand next to me.

“Yes,” she responded dully. The only remnant of her previous terror was her hand, clutching a handful of grass, as if to hang on to the spinning world.

“What do you know about Organ?”

The word was like fire, it shot through Grace’s expression, flaring up in her eyes. There was a silence. Everything was still. I couldn’t even hear the music of the party. 

Grace opened her mouth as if to speak. Her makeup cracked as the true lines of her mouth were exposed, reaching much further than a normal human’s. Her jaw opened further. Then further. There was a pop and the top half of her head continued to move further away from her jaw, leaning back to look at the sky. The inside of her mouth was a lattice of dark membranes, her teeth curving away to make room. 

Then she made a noise. It was quiet and deafening at the same time. Like a far away tsunami. An immense volume that threatened to destroy my eardrums with its sheer magnitude. The world warped around me. My eyes couldn’t focus on any one place. Everything tilted and parts of my vision slid away like pieces of a jenga tower being pulled out. I fell to my knees and threw up.

Then the noise was gone. I tried to rise, but faltered and collapsed into my own vomit. I raised my head, craning to look at Grace. My vision slowly returned, fuzziness dissipating like television static. Chase had also collapsed to his knees. Grace looked normal again, her face not monstrously stretched. She hugged her knees, sobbing in fear.

Chase swayed to his feet. No no no. He bent and picked up his knife. Get up. Get up!

He moved the knife closer to Grace’s face. She looked at me, pleading with her eyes.

I groaned and pushed myself up. Flinging out an arm desperately, I caught hold Chase’s suit jacket, dragging him staggering away from Grace.

My fear had returned like a raging river, unleashed by a broken dam. I lost my balance, but I kept Chase tightly gripped, pulling him down to the ground.

I landed on top of him. He was laughing as he struggled to get up. “Stop!” I shouted, sounding far away even to myself.

“You’re being tricked, Nick,” he said. “You saw it. She’s a monster.”

I felt my grip on his collar begin to slacken. Realizing it, I tightened my fist. “You’re doing something to me,” I said slowly, thoughts forming. “My anger, my fear, it slips away when you’re around, like you’re eating it.”

“You need to relax, Nick. You’re sounding a little crazy.” Chase’s expression looked bored, despite the circumstances. “You should let go of me before things get worse.”

I could feel it all slipping away as I stared at my hands. I have a choice, I realized. But it had to be made now, before I lost the will.

I reared back and punched Chase in the face. My knuckles stung and my emotions flared again, returning to normal, making me shake. I shook my head, trying to rid the ringing in my ears. Now I could recognize how strange I’d been feeling. I’d thought it was bravery, I thought it was my calling, this strange world of monsters and secrets. But it was just Chase, somehow meddling with my ability to be afraid.

I looked back down at Chase. He stared at me, no longer smiling. His nose was bleeding, running down the side of his cheek.

My feelings vanished in the blink of an eye. They didn’t bleed away subtly, they were erased, a hand wiping the slate clean. I stared blankly at my sore knuckles, wondering why I’d hit him in the first place.

“Get off me,” Chase’s words demanded.

Why not? I thought. So I complied, standing up and stepping to one side so he could rise. Had I been angry? I felt nothing. Had I been scared? Nothing here felt important enough to warrant that. It didn’t bother me.

Chase walked over to Grace, who held a slack expression, almost serene. He was going to kill her. I knew that as a fact, but I couldn’t muster an iota of concern.

There were noises on the forest path. People shouting, getting closer.

Chase tsked. He turned away from Grace and regarded me. The forest’s shadows stretched over his face, making him almost look like the birch trees, strips of white and black.

“Come with me, Nick,” he said. He turned and strolled into the dark woods.

Why not? A voice screamed in a far away corner of my mind, but I paid it no heed. I followed him into the woods. The evening shadows grew longer with every step as the last verse of the song played in my head, as if my brain had nothing else to do.

“Lady luck and justice share their blindness. Maybe things could be different but I don’t want kindness. The last lady stands before me in her likeness.”

“I’ll eat her too, I’ll eat her toooooooo.”