Monster (2 page)

Something wasn't right, besides the obvious. Mary w
as
not crazy. Angela had only known her three months, b
ut they'd spent a lot of t
ime together in that period. Wh
y,
Angela had stayed at her house several times, and they
’d
talked late into the night. Mary was a strong girl; she ha
d
strong opinions. But she was intelligent
–
her eyes we
re
open and she had plans for the future. She wasn't one
to
throw her life away on a wave of rash emotion.

Yet she had just shot two people.

Wasted them, Todd a
nd Kathy. Those two in particular.

Now she wanted
Jim
.

Angela knew Mary and
Jim hadn't been getting along
lately, but from the bits Mary had dropped it didn't soun
d
that serious
.
Angela had had no idea Mary wanted to
brea
k
up with him, never mind blow his brains out.

Angela made a quick decision. A car couldn't cross
the
field, but she might be able to get to the wooded ar
ea
where Mary had gone before the police did if she drov
e
around the
entire
lake and
came at it from the other side.
She'd arrived at the party late. Her car was parked halfwa
y
down the blocks and it wasn't hemmed in.

But
h
ow will you st
op her
?
You
’ve tried twice already. She could accidentally kill you while trying to kill Jim.

Angela decided to risk it – she couldn't let Mary die. She
raced down the block to her brand-new dark green Toyo
ta Camr
y, a present from her father to try to make up for
all
the pain he'd caused her by divorcing her mother. She hadn't seen either of her parents since the previous June.

The car started immediately, and Angela peeled rubber as she pulled off from the curb. At
first she headed away from the fi
eld and Point Lake towards View Street
– it
was the only road that circled the lake. When she caught it a few minutes later, she upped her speed to seventy, the body of water on her right now. Point Lake was over a quarter of a mile across
–
almost a perfect circle of deep blue water. Even though her own grandfather's house sat on the shore of the lake, Angela had never gone swimming in it. The water remained remarkably cold even during the hot Michigan summer days.

She reached the wooded area south of the lake a few minutes later and parked near the water behind a grove of trees. Getting out of her car, Angela was struck by the fact that she might be in as much danger from the police as Mary
.
They both had short brown hair and were about the same
he
ight; the police could shoot her thinking she was M
ary.
Angela quickly pus
hed the thought away. The plain-
clothes man who had spoken to her wouldn't shoot without giving either of them a chance to surrender.

Angela strode briskly into the trees. The place was a favourite of he
rs
. Only a s
hort distance from her grand-fat
her's house, she often went there to hi
ke
. In fact, she had been there only a week earlier with Mary. Mary had been unusually silent, as if she had a lot on her mind. If only Angela had pro
b
ed her silence, perhaps tonigh
t
could
have been avoided.

Angela had to fight down a sudden wave of nausea.

Todd's intesti
nes slipping down the walls.

Bits of Kathy's brain smeared on the railing and floor.

It was too much.

“
Mary,
”
Angela whispered.
“
Why?
”
Then she raised her
hand to her mouth and called. “Mary! Mary! It's me! It's Angela!”

Her voice faintly echo
ed back to her through the pine-trees
and out over the water. It was a warm night
–
the
air strangely still.
She moved deeper into the trees,
away
from the water, alternately jogging and walking.
This
is
crazy,
she thought.
Jim
might not even have come this
way.
Ma
r
y might have already blown his head off.
Angela Warner
could be next on the list. Yet Angela didn't really beli
eve
that. Mary wanted
Jim
Kline
–
she wanted him bad.

Jim
and Todd and Kathy. What did those three have common?

Jim
and Todd were football players
, Kathy a cheerleader –
used to be. That wasn't much of a pattern. Angela felt s
ick
when she thought of Todd and Kathy's parents he
aring
about their kids. It was ironic; Angela was originally
from
Chicago. One of the reasons she had decided to co
me
to live with her grandfather in Point for her final of high school was to be in a peaceful environment
. Her
parents' wars as their marriage was collapsing had etc
hed
a deep disdain for strife into her heart
.
And now she
was
in this nice small town for only three months and saw
two
people killed right in front of her.

“Mary!”
she called again.

A hand reached out from behind a tree and closed
off
her mouth.

Angela silently shrieked.

“Don't tell her where we are!”
a voice hissed in her
ear.

It was
Jim
. Angela relaxed as he slowly eased his h
and
off her face. He raised a finger to his
l
ips. She got
the
picture.

“
Is she near?
” she whispered.

“
I think so,
”
he whispered back. He was breathing h
ard,
she could smell the sweat pouring off him. He glan
ced
nervously around.
“
Christ,
”
he muttered.

“
The police
should be here in a few minutes,”
An
gela said softl
y.

He nodded vigorously. “Good.”

“
What
the hell is going on?”

“
I wish
I
kn
ew. Who did she get downstairs?”

“Todd and Kathy,”
she said.

“They're dead?”

Angela shivered. “They're real dead.”

“God.”

“She must have a reason for this.”

Jim
snorted quietly. “
She's lost
it. It's as simple as that.”

“
Did you see it coming?
”

“No,”
he said.

Angela thought she heard something, bu
t could see nothing in the dark. “
You know, maybe we shouldn't
wait for the pol
ice. My car isn't far from here.”

“
Why didn't you
say so? Let's get out of here.”

They crept back the way she had come. She hoped she was going the right way. The woods looked much different at nigh
t.
They came to a clearing she couldn't remember crossing
and hesitated at the edge of it.

“
Maybe we should stick to the trees
,” Angela said.

“Where's your car?”
Jim
demanded.

“I’
m beginning to wonder
,” Angela muttered.

Dried grass cracked nearby. Angela froze.
Jim
turned round anxiously. Yet they could see nothing. He raised a finger to his lips again, and Angela nodded
s
ligh
tly. It could have been the wind.

Except the wind didn't manually pump a shotgun. Th
ey heard the distinctive snap.

“Don't move,”
Mary ordered.

Angela was surprised Mary hadn't fired without announcing her presence. But when Mary did not immediately appear, Angela reali
zed her friend had been too f
ar away to get off a clean shot. She must have figured she wouldn't be able to creep any closer without their hearing her
. Angela remembered the plain-clot
hes man's comment
about having to reload. Mary mig
ht have been down to her
last shell.

A
n
ge
l
a glanced at
Jim
.
She kept expecting him to
b
olt, but understood his dilemma
–
he didn't know which way to run. Mary had spoken little, and the trees did funny
things
with sound; it was impossible to tell exactly where
she
was approaching from. Still, Angela thought, there
was
no point in waiting for Mary
–
she had made her
intentions cl
ear at the party. Angela
realized
that
Jim
m
ight
have simply frozen with fear.

“Go,” Angela hissed at him.

“No,”
Mary said from behind them.

Angela turned in time to see Mary raise the shotgun
to
her shoulder. She was approximately thirty feet away had a few low-hangi
ng branches in her path to them. She t
ook a step closer.

“Stay,”
Mary said.

“Wait,”
Angela cried, jumping in front of
Jim
, who
was
taking the short, rapid breaths of a man on the verge
of
collapsing. Mary took another step towards them.

“
Get out of the way, Angie
,”
Mary said, her voice cold
.

“I’
m not going to let you kill him
!”
Angela yelled. S
he
spoke as loud as she could, hoping to alert the police
to
their whereabouts. Mary continued to approach.

“
I have t
o kill him,”
Mary said.

“Why?”
Angela pleaded.

“
Because he's no
t human,”
Mary said.

“Talk sense,”
Angela said
. “Think what you're doing.”

“
I know exactly what I'm doing,
”
Mary said. She motion
ed
her friend to move to the side with the barrel of the
gun. “G
et out of my way, Angie. I mean it
.”

“
No
,”
she said.

Mary was angry. “
You don't understand. I have to do
this.
This is your last chance. I'll kill you if I have to
– to get to him.”

Angela glanced over her shoulder at
Jim
. He
wasn’t
holding on to her, but he was cowering behind her,
using
her as a human shield. She didn't blame him one bit
. He
had the meadow at his back, but it was too late to run n
ow.
Mary would cut him down before he got ten feet
.

Angela was surprised he wasn't begging Mary for me
rcy.

Angela turned back to Mary and stared her straight
in
the eye. Mary couldn't have been more than fifteen
feet
away. There were no more branches between them.

“
You're my friend
,” Angela said. “
I don't believe yo
u’d kill me.”

Mary thought for a moment
. I
t seemed she was on the
ve
rge of listening to reason. Angela even began to relax
sli
gh
tl
y, but then Mary's grip on the weapon tightened.

“I'm sorry, Angle,”
she said with genuine sorrow in her voice
. “
There are things in this world that are more import
ant than friendship.”

S
he’s
going to shoot. I'm going to die.

Angela couldn't believe it was really happening.

She closed her eyes.

And said goodbye to
the
world Mary said she didn't understand.

But the fatal blast never came.

“
Hold it
!”
a male voice ordered
. “Don't move an inch.”