Monster (20 page)

“
Nothing
,”
she said. Then there was the feeling that she
neede
d
him. Her body was changing. A doctor wouldn't
under
stand how. But
Jim
knew; she could see sub
tl
e signs
of c
hange in him, too. His right hand rested on the kitchen
t
abl
e.
His fingernails —
as if they had been caught in someth
ing heavy
–
were all black. He tapped them lightly
on th
e
wooden table-top and sent rhythmic echoes through th
e
silent house.

“Is the steak almost done?”
he asked.

“I j
ust
put it on.”

“It doesn't matter.”

“
I
guess not.” She turned off the flame. “
Let's go. I'll put
the
food
in a sack.”

But
everything she thought about
Jim
and her reaction
to hi
m
was also absurd. She hadn't yet forgotten that she
was a
human being. She cer
tainly wasn't ready to kill anybody.
Sh
e would die before she did that.
In the bathroom,
before
leaving the house, sh
e put Shining Feather's amulet on un
der her shirt. She didn't know what protection it
could
afford her. Maybe none. But she kept it close to
her
skin nevertheless.
It reminded her of the old man’s comm
and:

“Kill
them
– the hungry ones.”

Jim
didn't say a word as they hiked up to the oil wells,
and s
he didn't mind. It was
all she could do to catch her brea
th as she tried to keep up with him. He carried the
sack of food, though; the smell
of it pulled her like a
leash
on a puppy. She had tossed a loaf of bread and a
bottle
of wine in with the steaks.

The
we
ll
s were tall, insect-like structures. There were only
six t
hat she could see, not the twelve he had mentioned. They
ploughed the earth with tireless indifference, sucking it
dry
of its natural resources. Yet in the light of the moon
they
were sensual. The silver light gleamed on the oily tub
ing.
Up and down, in and out
– pumping. Her thoughts
re
eled
in lustful circles. If
Jim
had tried to undress her at
that
moment, she would have wished for scissors to help him
.

They sat at the concrete footing of one of the wells, th
e
valley and lake stretched splendidly out beneath the
m
. They reached for their food.
Jim
ate and drank some
of everything, but Angela just wanted her steak
–
ext
ra
rare, if it could be called that. She ate with her hands, and that made it taste all the better.

“
The Lake is round,
”
Jim
said when they were done eating. He was right, of course
–
the water appeared a perfect circle when seen from above. From space, in t
he
moonlight, it probably appeared to be a single pale eye.
A cloud could cross
the sky and make the eye blink.
Ange
la
considered telling
Jim
her nightmare, but dismissed
the
idea. She didn't know what he knew of her suspic
ions.
Better to keep it that way.

In case she had to kill him after she loved him.

But she was no Mary. She still couldn't imagine
killing
anybody.

“
I hear it was formed by a meteor,
”
she said.

“I
t wa
s. A hundred thousand years ago.”

She turned to him.
“How did you know that?”

He shrugged
. “
It's known. Can you imagine it?
A
hunk
of rock comes hurtl
ing
out of the sky and crashes here
. In
a fraction of a sec
ond the impact liberates more energy
than a thousand nuclear warheads. This valley is for
med
and for days on end it is a valley of fire. Of molten rock melting deeper and deeper into the earth, beco
ming
a part of it. Cooling finally, and leaving a bowl for the
water to gather in.”

“
Sethia,
”
she said. His description evoked po
werful
images. It was almost as if he had been there to
wit
ness the coming of the meteor.

He frowned. “
I
don't know that name.”

“
That's what the Manton called Point Lake.
”

“What does it mean?”

“I don't know,”
she said.
“
How's your arm?
”
He had on
a long-s
leeved shirt. She couldn't remember if he had
cut the right
or left arm. S
he wondered if he could.

“It’s
better,
”
he said.
“
Is
it
bandaged?
”

“Yes.”

“Does it hurt?”
she asked.

“
No.
” He stood suddenly. “
Let's go.
”

“Where?”

“Swimming.”

“Sh
ould
you go swimming with your cut?
”

“
I
don't care
,”
he said.

She felt fear. “The water's cold.”

He stuck out his arm. “
You'll be hot by the
time
you walk
back
down.
”

She
was sweating by
the time they reached her house.
She
d
idn't kno
w what was going to happen next.
The fact
was, a
potential KAtuu was asking her to go swimming
in a
Bath of Blood. Of course,
people swam in the lake all s
u
m
mer, and none of them ate their neighbours. She
wondered
if it was possible that she would look back o
n days when she was thirty years old and wonder if h
adn't been taking drugs. She certainly had thrown
logic
to the wind. She was close to believing in monsters,
and at
the same time she wanted to sleep with one.

Jim
kissed her the moment they stepped inside her
house.

H
e
kept on kissing her.

It
was better than the previous night
.
He
was better. He
was
a
h
unk of male meat wrapped around the deepest
nerve
in her
body. It was cool, she thought.
He could eat
her
when he was done. As long as she got to watch. He ran
his h
ands over the front of her blouse, and she moaned
with pleasure and pain, never realizing before how cl
ose two could be. She wanted him so bad it hurt.

H
e led her deeper into the house. Up to her bedroom.
But they
didn't
stop
there
–
more
’s the pit
y
, she though
t.
He opened
the
door on to the balcony
.
Plas
ti
c loo
k
ed
up
from her white steak bone and dashed inside the ho
use.
Jim
stepped out and surveyed the ca
lm lake.
The air
was
even warmer than it had been the night before, sil
ent as
a tomb.

“Let's swim,”
he said.

Don't you want to
exercise
another way?

“
How deep is this lake?
”
she asked aloud.

“
Deeper than you imagine
.” He pulled off his shirt. He
was built like Hercules. His right arm was bandaged. H
e fl
ashed a faint smile
–
his first smile of the evening
–
when he saw her
eyes dart to the white gauze. “
Do you still have your cold?
” he asked.

She he
si
ta
ted. “No.”

He b
egan to take off his trousers. “
Can you swim?
”

“I can swim,”
she said. She thought about the amu
let
round her neck
. She didn't want him to see it. “
But I h
ave to go to the bathroom first.”

“
Go
.”
He was practically naked.

She ran inside to the
bathroom and pulled off the gold
bat with no head. She c
ouldn't imagine what it symboliz
e
d;
the KAtuu surely were not bats. They were supposed to
b
e
alien monsters. She stuffed it in the medicine cabinet
.

She heard a l
oud splash. He had already dived in.
This
was her chance. She co
uld run out to her car and drive
away
.
She could go over to Kevin's house and huddle
in
front of his TV and watch a rented horror movie and
eat
popcorn and have a nice normal safe Saturday nigh
t. But
something kept her where she was, and she had ano
ther
insight into what it was. She was horny as hell, sure,
and
who really believed in monsters? But if there was an
evil
force at work there, then she couldn't simply run awa
y
an
d
pretend it didn't exist.

“
What am
I su
pp
ose
d
to
do?
You
tell me
that J
i
m
's
walking
death
on
the
loose
and I'm just supposed to
sit bac
k
and
see i
f h
e kills s
omebody
?
You should be happy
I went out with
h
i
m. I'm c
arrying on your research.”

She
had yelled
that
at Mary spontaneously, but it must
have
come from deep inside. She had to get close to
Jim
to see
what he was
.
It
was the only way she'd be able t
o
make
up her mind what to do.

Ang
ela did not reach for a bathing suit as she walked
back to
the balcony. It was research, after all.

Jim
was a hundred feet out. He waved as she stepped
out
into the moonlight.

“
Come on,
”
he called

Sethia.
Bath of Blood. KAtuu. Cold as
the lake.

“Coming,”
Angela whispered. She slipped out of her
cloth
es
and let them fall on the boards. The night air
touch
ed her where she was seldom seen
.
She crept to
the e
dge and peered down. The water glittered like a
million-f
aceted diamond. She did not know how deep it
was at
the edge. She didn't want to break her neck and
end up paralyzed like poor Fred Keith.