Chapter 4

The ride relaxed him. Between the light traffic on these dirt roads and the starlight from above, TJ gained confidence. The roar of the bike’s motor soothed him, grinding out all the other sounds into a steady white noise. The trees around him had new leaves, so bright that they were still green in the grayscale of night. He wasn’t the kind of guy to get sentimental, but this was one pretty night.

Something tan moved in the trees beside him. A deer? He smiled, he didn’t see them too often, it slid out of his vision before he had a chance to get a fix on it. Thought of jacking deer with his dad as a kid, he missed that. You had to be real quiet, watch them at the lick, then be ready to go when the lights went on.

He hit a pothole in the dirt road and it got him thinking about the task at hand.

How could she love Val? She just thought she did, cause TJ’d been there to listen while he was in jail. Of course he listened to her, what else could he do? Now that he was out, TJ suspected Val Slade wouldn’t be sticking around for too long. TJ was the kind of guy who sticks around. Yessir. He’d get her away from Val and get her away from her brother, didn’t sound like she needed either one of them. He tried to ignore what Val said, what Rich made him say he didn’t hear. Was he the only guy in town who hadn’t raped Kate?

The cone of like the Suzuki threw out lit the bright green of the leaves, the only color in the grayscale of night.

It didnt light up the man in the road until it was too late, TJ made a little whispery gasp of surprise as he mashed on the brake, hand and foot, and jerked the bike to one side. The back tire lost its purchase on road and TJ went down, the gravel chewing into his skin, pushing up his jacket and shredding his jeans. The bike stalled, the ticking of its engine was the only sound.

TJs pulse pounded in his ears as he took a mental inventory of himself. Road rash, yep, but nothing broken. He was fine, the bike was probably finebut what had
The man stepped into the light.

He wore a light leather jacket and jeans, his hair and eyes were dark. The light, coming from below, played strange shadows on his face. His eyes were luminous pools.

“You all right?” TJ asked, getting to his knees, plucking a little bloody stone out of his side. He wanted to ask what the fuck the guy was doing out here, but his momma raised him better than that.

The man looked around and pulled a glass bottle out of his pocket. It looked like a mayonnaise jar, lit from underneath TJ saw something in it, did the guy have a jar of tequila? That would explain a lot, that was the only drink he could think of that would have a worm in it. TJ stood, wobbling. He’d thunked his head on the road, but not hard. He rubbed at it. He took a step towards his bike to pick it up. The gas cap didnt stay on too well, and he wanted to get it up before the spilled gas got on the paint just as the man took a step towards him.

No, TJ thought, in answer to his own question. This man was not okay. Without even meaning to, he took a step back.

Uneasiness washed over him. The man was so silent, so precise, yet something about the way he peered past TJ into the night unnerved him, made him turn, too, looking for whatever the man thought was out there. The night felt warm, now that he was off the bike, but goosebumps still rose all over TJs body.

No way he was going to let some drunk city fellow scare him off from his own bike. He took another step forward, and the man did too, now they were nose to nose. TJ opened his mouth to speak, but the man reached out, faster than TJ could prepare for, and grabbed his chin. Two of the man’s fingers were in his mouth and he could taste the guys fingers, salty like skin, but also there was a chemical taste to them. He stumbled back and started to fall, but the guy held him by the chin and TJ dropped down to his knees. Any urge to fight was gone, he just wanted the mans fucking hand out of his fucking mouth. He gagged and tears sprang up in his eyes.

The lid was off the jar, and the man poured it at TJs face, mostly hitting his open mouth, but also gushing into his nose, down his chin, up into his eyes. He screamed, but it just came out as a gurgle.

It wasn’t tequila, but there had been a worm, and that was in his mouth now. The guy moved around behind him, grabbed both of his arms, held them back there, kept his head pulled back because now the hand on his chin was gone. The worm was longer than his tongue, about half as wide, and it was alive, because it was moving, plunging hungrily towards the back of his throat, blocking up the airway, Jesus Christ he couldnt breathe! It was soft and hard all at the same time, expanding and contrasting, not down his throat but up into his sinuses, he gagged and his airways were clear and he sucked in the sweet spring air, but he could feel it up behind his nose, like a pisser of an allergy attack, but one that moved and squirmed and settled itself in like it was getting comfortable.

Tears streamed out of TJ’s eyes as he dropped onto his shredded butt, and when he pleaded with the man to get it out, his voice was high and nasal.
The man let him go, stepping back and wiping his hands on his jeans. He looked around, then set off at a sprint. TJ turned, slow and stupid, his head feeling like it weighed a million pounds in the direction that the man ran from. Was there something out there? The light from the bike made it seem so dark everywhere else.

There was a flash of tan (the deer hed seen earlier?) and a heavy smell. Whatever that thing in his head was, he could still smell, and something smelled like the reptile house at the zoo. TJ struggled up onto one knee. His head seemed to weigh so much, he just wanted to lay it on the dirt so his poor neck didn’t have to carry it any more. He turned, stumbling a bit in the dark. A cougar? Not moving that fast, impossible. He lost it out of his vision, and before he could see it again, the weight was on him, tan and stinking and knocking him back, feeling for all the world like his mother’s camel hair coat. He pushed at it as he fell, his huge head pulling him off balance. He kept a knife in his boot, he just needed to get to it.
When the thing’s claws sliced through him he hollered. They didn’t hurt, not at first, they were so sharp his skin gave no resistance. It deadened his right arm, his smart arm, and then a beat later the pain came, moving like a speeding train. He sucked in as much breath as he needed to scream, a guttural breathy yell, and reached across himself and wrapped his fingers around the hilt of the knife.

He got to his knees and looked for it. It had attacked and melted into darkness. The bike. He had to get back on the bike. His blood dropped to the dirt road with a sound like rain. Blood was supposed to be sticky but this was just wet and falling. White pressed at the edges of his vision and he blinked it away. He didn’t know if he could get the bike up with his arm like this. He was loosing blood.

The white grew harder to overcome and he swayed as he got to his feet. When the thing came again TJ jabbed at it with his knife, he stuck it, but it didn’t cry out. Weren’t you supposed to get real calm when you were in shock? Not feel pain?

The claws flashed in the moonlight, much larger than TJ’s buck knife. He flailed at it again, and the claws dropped on him. His knees stopped supporting his weight and he landed back on his ass. He whimpered, his head feeling so full, and the knife dropped from his fingers.

Two black, diamond shaped eyes reflected the stars, and then the light slowly bled into the white. He screamed his new nasal scream as long as he had air to do s