Apeshit (13 page)

because he was afraid of losing you as a friend.”

By the way he glares at her, Desdemona realizes that

what she just said upset him more strongly than she thought

it would. Perhaps because he knows there’s some truth to

that. Perhaps he’s known for a long time now.

“Fuck you, Des,” he says. “It’s over.”

Then he turns around and walks away. Desdemona

stands up to chase after him but another wave of diarrhea

hits her and she is forced to squat down and continue. She

winces as she feels her liquid shit running downhill and col-

lecting against her bare foot.

“Ewww,
gross
,” she says. “I’m never shitting in the

woods again.”

Desdemona realizes she is alone in the middle of the

woods, barefoot, shit in her toes, her underwear around her

knees, and she can’t stop going to the bathroom. The cabin

is an acre or two away. She can see a few of the cabin’s

lights up ahead, but she can’t see much of the cabin. It is

silent around her. There isn’t even a breeze.

A rustling sound approaches her. It is the sound of an

animal running through the bushes. She turns around. There

is nothing there. She grabs some leaves from the ground and

wipes her ass, but most of the leaves are mixed with dried

pine needles that pierce and scratch her skin raw. She tries

again, but she can’t wipe it properly without toilet paper.

Something charges out of the bushes and runs past

her. She doesn’t know what it is. All she can see is move-

ment. A gray blur. It rushes through the trees toward the

cabin.

Desdemona quickly wipes her ass with her hand and

rubs it against the bark of a nearby tree. She pulls her un-

derwear up and crawls slowly forward, trying not to make a

sound. It was something big and something fast. Either a

deer or a really fast human.

After a few minutes of examining the distance, and

seeing nothing, Desdemona decides that it must have been a

deer. She straightens herself up, getting ready to head back.

Then she realizes that she’s extremely dirty and smells like

shit, yet she won’t be able to take a shower any time soon.

She’ll have to use bottled water. She groans when she re-

members that all of the water is still in the van. She’s going

to have to clean herself off with beer.

A shattering sound forces Desdemona to drop back

down on the ground. One of the lights at the cabin has dis-

appeared. She crawls forward to get a closer look. She sees

a rock fly out from the forest and smash into another one of

the lights. It explodes into sparks and then becomes dark.

As the last of the lights is shattered, darkening the

woods around her, she curses Rick for leaving her in the

woods, and curses Crystal for not letting her go to the hos-

pital with them, and curses herself for agreeing to go on this

stupid trip in the first place.

Jason and Rick are out on the deck, drinking beers,

smoking cigarettes, and looking up at the stars.

Rick doesn’t feel much like drinking anymore. He

uses his half-filled can of beer as an ashtray.

“My brother really did die out here,” Jason says. “I

wasn’t making that part up.”

Rick squints his eyes and looks over at his friend.

“We don’t know how it happened,” Jason says. “He

just disappeared.”

Rick puts out his cigarette into the beer can.

“I always figured my dad did it,” he says. “The old

asshole liked to shoot guns randomly into the woods back

then. My grandpa always told him to use the targets, but my

dad didn’t care where the bullets went. He wasn’t afraid of

hitting anybody.”

“You think he shot him?” Rick says.

“By accident,” Jason says. “He probably hit him and

killed him without knowing it. Once he found the body, I’m

sure he buried it or figured out a way to get rid of it.”

“But if it was an accident, why would he hide the

body?”

“He would hide the body especially if it was an ac-

cident,” Jason says. “He never lets anyone know when he

makes a mistake, no matter what the cost. That’s the kind of

person he is.”

“Fuck . . .” Rick says.

“Yeah . . .
fuck
is right,” Jason says.

Rick sees something moving over Jason’s shoulder,

in the distance. He cuts Jason off and points at it. Jason

turns and squints his eyes. There is a white figure crawling

down the side of the cliff about eighty feet away from the

side of the cabin.

“What the fuck is that?” Rick says.

“I can’t tell,” Jason says.

They watch as the figure moves like a spider climb-

ing down a wall.

“It’s like a monkey of some kind,” Jason says.

“It looks like a man,” Rick says.

“It can’t be human,” Jason says. “Nobody can climb

a cliff like that. And it’s too fucking fast.”

“What the fuck do you think it is?”

Jason squints his eyes. “Some kind of alien.” Then

he laughs at the idea.

Rick laughs with him and drinks a sip of his beer full

of cigarette ashes.

The thing stops and looks at them with cold glowing

eyes. They stop laughing. They realize this thing isn’t a

joke. It is real. And it is the scariest fucking thing they have

ever seen. As they stand in a frozen stare, the thing climbs

back up the cliff and disappears into the forest in front of the

cabin.

“Shit,” Jason says. “It’s in our front yard now.”

“Where’s Desdemona?” Rick says.

“Probably downstairs,” Jason says.

“She might still be outside,” Rick says, running in-

side of the house and down the stairs.

Jason grabs the pistol as they run through the living

room and out the front door.

“Des!” Rick calls to the dark woods. “Desdemona!”

“Desdemona!” Jason screams.

A white figure flies past them through the trees. They

aren't sure if it is the thing from the cliff or not. They only

see it for a second. Jason points the revolver at the figure

and shoots twice. Both bullets miss.

“Des!” Rick calls.

The white figure turns around and darts towards

them. It is definitely the thing from the cliff and it is a lot

bigger than they thought it was. Jason points the gun and

pulls the trigger, but it only clicks. He’s out of bullets.

“Back inside!” Jason yells, as the figure gets closer.

Rick and Jason jump into the house and shut the door.

The thing outside sweeps in at them and crashes into the side

of the house. It scrapes on the screen of the door with what

sounds like hooks or long fingernails.

“What the fuck is it?” Rick cries.

The thing turns the doorknob. Jason locks it. The

thing breaks the doorknob off on the other side. It makes

gurgling whisper sounds.

“It’s a creature of some kind,” Jason says.

“It looked like a really pale-skinned naked bald guy,”

Rick says.

“He’s not fucking human,” Jason says. “Did you see

how fast he was running? Did you see him climbing that

cliff? He’s like a fucking vampire.”

A loud pounding hits the door. The wood cracks.

The creature slams its head into the door again, the wood

cracks wider. Jason runs to the kitchen counter and reloads

his revolver. He fires two shots into the door. The pounding

stops. They hear the thing rush into the woods from where it

came.

Jason loads two more bullets into the gun, to replace

the ones he fired.

“Did I get it?” he asks.

“I don’t think so,” Rick says. “Might have wounded it.”

They calm themselves and take some deep breaths.