(A sample from Crawlspace.)
© 2009 asotir.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.
1:17 AM
Briggsville High
THE SCHOOL HALLWAY was dark; only the emergency exit lights and security lights were on, gleaming down the polished floor and metal lockers all lined up one after the other. At one end Styles appeared, head and shoulders around the corner, Burner ready. He signaled. At the other end Trickman returned the sign. In the middle of the hall stood the door to the Science Lab.
From the door they could hear the sound of breaking glass.
SMASH! The cockroach terrarium burst into a hundred shards. Miss Quinn smashed the specimen jars. Mantises, wasps and cockroaches scattered about the room, flying, fluttering, scuttling free.
Tommy shook his head. He was almost human again. Agnes was trying to wrap him in bandages but there was too much blood to staunch. ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘I’m pretty tired.’
Miss Quinn strode up to Tommy and slapped his face – hard.
Agnes cried, ‘Miss Quinn!’
‘Quiet, Agnes. Don’t interfere.’
Miss Quinn slapped Tommy harder. And again.
‘Stop it!’ Tommy shouted.
Miss Quinn grinned. ‘That’s right, Tommy. Get mad. Fight back. Did you like what your friends did to you? Did you like that? Did you?’
She struck him again. Tommy reared up and flung Miss Quinn half across the room.
THE SOUND of the crash echoed in the darkened hall. Trickman and Styles halted. Trickman signaled – Huh? Styles signaled back – Who knows?
They cocked their Burners and converged on the door.
AGNES held Tommy back. ‘Tommy! Stop it!’
Miss Quinn smiled and drew herself up from the broken glass. She seemed unharmed. ‘It’s all right, Agnes. Tommy’s just waking up. And learning who he really is.’
Tommy turned and turned again. ‘Papers tortured me – and the Professor – he just watched—’
‘You never got mad before, did you, Tommy? You never felt much of anything before. Your Professor kept you on drugs all the time. He was afraid of you – of what you could do – if you ever came alive!’
Just then the door smashed open. Trickman and Styles burst in, guns blazing.
OUT IN THE PARKING LOT the Ford pulled in and parked. The Professor got out.
He stopped by the gym bag lying open on the pavement. He looked at the school. In one window bursts of red light were flickering.
IN THE SCIENCE LAB the red rays carved through beakers, benches, and stools. Windows burst under the heat. Tommy shielded Agnes behind the experiment table. He got madder.
‘Damn them! Damn them! Damn them!’
Tommy twisted away and shot across the room straight for the two men. He bowled them over and smashed them back out the door.
Miss Quinn smiled and slithered out the window. Her skirts barely concealed her long legs but they were starting no longer to look like human legs.
TOMMY sprang out into the hall. The two men were lying moaning, half conscious. He picked up Styles in one arm and hurled him down the hall. Trickman lay balled up under the water fountain. He clawed at the levers of his Burner.
Agnes came out, dribbling the basketball. She passed to Tommy. ‘ “And it’s Little Aggie with the shovel pass!” ’
Tommy hurled the basketball like a missile at Trickman. It smashed his shoulder and flipped him a dozen feet down the hall. The Burner went skating.
Agnes cheered. ‘ “And the Rookie takes it to them!” ’
Tommy stood over Trickman. He laughed. He picked Trickman up and slammed him against the wall and Trickman’s head cracked and Trickman slumped to the floor dead.
OUTSIDE IN THE NIGHT, on the outer edges of the building, black shapes appeared in the starlight. Their eyes glittered black. Their antennas twitched.
Down below on the pavement, the Professor pulled a Burner from the Ford. When he slammed the door, Miss Quinn appeared behind him. She stripped the Burner out of his hands with a slap and pinned him against the Ford. It was an oddly erotic embrace.
Miss Quinn smiled and licked her lips. Her nether parts were beetle-plates, tentacles, jointed legs oozing Jelly. Only her head was still somewhat human. ‘Good evening, Professor. Going out?’
From the school came the sounds of the battle.
Miss Quinn twitched an antenna. ‘Hear that, Professor? That’s your pupil Tommy. I taught him a few extra-credit lessons. He’s a very apt pupil, wouldn’t you say so? Yes, very apt!’
AT THE END OF THE HALLWAY Styles screamed and fired his Burner. Tommy darted forward, dodged, tackled Styles. They smashed through the glass doors onto the sidewalk outside.
MISS QUINN laughed. She licked the Professor’s ear and whispered into it. ‘Do you miss your wife, Professor? Do you dream sometimes of your child bride? I miss the man you murdered two weeks ago – the man in the warehouse down south. He was my lover. He was carrying those eggs for me. Those were my eggs!’
She twisted him around. Faced him toward the school.
Across the parking they could see Styles stagger to his feet. Tommy was crouching watching him. Agnes was standing in her white dress in the smashed doorway.
Miss Quinn tightened her grip. ‘Did you think I’d let you get away with it, Professor, oh, Professor, no, Professor! But I won’t do it to you. I’ll let your protégé take care of that!’
Styles fired and Tommy leapt and lifted Styles up. He shook him and twisted his back until it cracked.
Miss Quinn released the Professor. He staggered away from the Ford. His Burner lay nearby.
Tommy dropped Styles’ body and started for the Professor. The Professor cocked the Burner. ‘Tommy – listen to me – it was for your own good, Tommy! We had to do it! It was necessary!’
Tommy didn’t answer. He came on. The Professor fired but Tommy sidestepped and the ray shot toward the school at Agnes. It hit her. She doubled over, crying out.
‘Agnes!’ Tommy cried.
He leapt on the Professor. He jammed the Burner’s muzzle into the Professor’s throat and his fingers found the trigger.
‘Do it, Tommy!’ Miss Quinn panted. ‘Do it!’
Tommy shook his head. ‘No.’
He let the Professor go. He took the Burner and twisted it into bits.
‘Go away,’ he said.
Miss Quinn was Changing again, becoming more human. She stood in the cold night wind, naked but for a few scraps of her dress. ‘Listen to him, Professor. Go now – while you can.’
The Professor staggered back. A look of utter fear and horror bloomed on his face. He limped off.
Miss Quinn leaned her head back and whistled.
Down the sides of the buildings the black shapes poured.
The Professor ran across the schoolyard. He paused by the basketball backboard, gasping for breath. The roach-like things, dozens of them, scurried toward him across the pavement. The Professor tried to climb the fence. He slipped and fell. He reached up once more – too late.
A dozen of the things swarmed over his legs and lower torso. The Professor choked and gurgled. He collapsed under the swarm.
His screams were cut short by the sound of awful, inhuman munching.
Miss Quinn smiled. She took the last Burner out of the Ford and blasted the car. The Ford exploded, lighting up the parking lot.
Near the high school doors, Tommy knelt over Agnes.
‘Aggie – Little Aggie. How is it?’
Her eyes flickered open. ‘Tommy. I feel okay. Only, something inside me – it’s burning, Tommy. It’s burning…’
The Spyder pulled up on the sidewalk. Miss Quinn threw open the door. She sat at the wheel, naked, gleaming with Jelly.
Miss Quinn beckoned. ‘Come on.’
As naked as Miss Quinn and as bright with Jelly, Tommy lifted Agnes in his arms.
THE LIGHTS and signs of the interstate streamed past. The lanes were almost empty at this hour. The sports car swallowed the miles.
Miss Quinn drove. Agnes huddled on Tommy’s lap.
‘Take me back to the motel,’ Tommy said.
Miss Quinn glanced at him. ‘Why? There’s nothing for you there.’
‘My clothes are there. And there’s something I got to do.’
‘It’s your party, lover. After all. You’re a grownup now.’
Miss Quinn slammed on the brakes and shifted.
The Spyder fishtailed and swung face-about and started back north on the open, empty lanes.
CRICKETS chirped in the late spring night. The Bright Dayz Motel was quiet. Only a few cars stood in the lot.
In Room No. 9 the Kid watched Papers stuff their things into suitcases.
Eddie was worked up. He sat on the edge of the bed. He was almost in tears. ‘Papers – I had a dream! A bad dream!’
Then the door smashed open and Tommy stood in the Spyder’s headlights, a figure shrouded in rage and strength.
‘Papers!’ Eddie shrieked. ‘Papers!’
Tommy grabbed Papers by the collar and dragged him outside.
AT THE EDGE of the vacant lot over the interstate, the gnarled tree twisted in the wind. Tommy dragged Papers up to it. He lifted him high over his head.
‘Tuh, Tommy! No, please, no!’
Tommy pressed Papers’ body back on the stub of a branch until he saw Papers’ mouth dribble with blood. Tommy stepped back. He looked at what he’d done.
Papers hung dying on the branch, his arms bent back.
Tommy turned. He walked back across the parking lot.
In the Spyder Agnes lay curled in a tight ball on the passenger seat. Her eyes were closed in pain. Miss Quinn stroked her hair.
Tommy walked into Room No. 9. He headed to the suitcases and pulled out his clothes. The Kid huddled behind the bed.
Tommy noticed him. ‘Go on! Beat it! Get out of here, you little creep!’
The Kid hesitated. Then he scrambled over the bed into the bathroom and slammed the door. Tommy turned back to his clothes.
