MonsterVille
Seven

Mellie left again. River heard the front door slam shut behind her, which left him sitting alone in his new room contemplating his existence. He had just pissed off the only person that stood between him and death, probably not his smartest move but in his own defence he was still in shock. It took time to adapt to something like slavery and the perpetual threat of being eaten by hungry monsters.

River sighed as he threw himself backwards and sprawled out. What the hell was he going to do? He needed to apologise to her, that would be a good start and she had seemed to like the uncooked marinated steak so that was something he could do at least. Clean maybe? No point, the house was spotless.

In the end River found himself idly wandering through the house trying to figure out a way to prove useful. He wound up sitting on the white couch in the main room just staring up at the ravenous eyes of the woman in the portrait.

“Screw it,” he muttered.

Sitting around was going to drive him crazy. The nights were cold, there was a lovely ornate fireplace filled with ashes, logic dictated the need for firewood. It wasn’t much but it was something.

When he stepped outside the night was brisk but not icy yet, still he rubbed his arms for a moment of warmth while he went to look for some wood. He hesitated as he stepped off the porch and onto the open ground of the backyard. Mellie had said to stay in the house, did her property count?

He cast a wary glance towards the woodland a hundred odd metres away. She had implied things would be lurking in there to take advantage if he tried to flee, but he wasn’t running, he was just taking a stroll through the yard. He swallowed nervously but stepped out anyway, the damp grass was cool against his blistered feet and it was surprisingly comfortable to walk across. He found a small shed around the side of the house and low and behold there was an axe inside and a large bundle of wood just waiting to be chopped.

River used to chop wood for his parents back when he lived at home so it was quite comforting, the heft of the axe in his hand, the sharp plunge and the sound of a large chunk of wood splintering in multiple directions.

Of course wood cutting did something else he hadn’t expected, it made him think of home. River hadn’t seen his parents in almost a year, college had just been so intense he couldn’t take the time out to visit. He had been planning to just as soon as his finals were done, now he wondered if he would ever see them again, his mom, his dad, his sisters. His precocious little sister who thought she was always right, and annoyingly she usually was. She’d be a senior in high school next year.

Then there was his older sister, she was a tough as nails Detective in the New York Police Department. Thinking of them was depressing, and being depressed was counterproductive. He needed to be positive, think good thoughts, he needed to stay alive so maybe one day he could see his family again.

So he put his family out of mind. The axe rose and fell rhythmically for a few minutes and all seemed well, until that feeling began to creep up his spine. That sense of dread lurking in the shadows, the sense that he was being watched and whatever was out there wasn’t friendly. He had ignored it before, pushed it away, but not this time, not now that he knew what was really out there. Part of him was screaming for him to go hide in the house, but another part of him felt the solid shaft of the axe in his hand, the heft of it, and thought maybe he didn’t need to be so afraid. That was the stupid part of him. He recognised that, but sometimes when fear was all consuming the only way to function was with a show of bravado.

River tightened his grip on the axe and moved around to the other side of the block so he could keep the tree line in sight rather than at his back. He hefted the axe and brought it down with another splintering crunch. He refused to run and hide, but that didn’t mean he was going to run out in the woods waving a melee weapon like some first level noob in an rpg.

The feeling remained but nothing happened. Just eyes in the dark watching him work. Another ten minutes past and despite the brisk wind River had worked up a sweat, he glanced down at his wood pile and figured it was enough. He had made his point. Maybe he had just made his point to himself and no one else but it was still a start. He didn’t like the idea of being a quivering wreck just waiting for the monsters to come eat him.

River planted the axe firmly in the wood block and reached down to collect a bundle of wood to take back inside. He was so busy watching the trees he skewered his hand on a splinter the size of his finger, it sliced across his palm in a harsh bloody splash and he cussed as he leapt about like a fool. The trees rustled and River looked up sharply, something was coming, and it was coming fast. The hundred metres between him and the trees vanished in a second, he had just enough time to look down at that jagged bleeding cut and curse himself for being such an idiot. Mellie said all monsters had a taste for human flesh, a nice big bloody wound was probably all the invitation one of them needed to come take a bite.

In desperation River threw himself to the ground and a monster passed over him, he heard the whistle of claws raking through the air where he had been standing. He hit the ground, rolled and turned as he came up on his feet. The thing looked like a malformed bipedal rat, beady little black eyes, whiskers and a twitching nose coupled with a nasty set of claws, or rather pincers, yep, definitely pincers. Rat/Pray Mantis. What kind of monster was it…? It squeaked and River’s heart skipped a beat, it slashed a pincer at him and he threw up an arm in defence. Yet another act of stupidity to add to his list because pincer vs. human flesh? He was lucky it didn’t slice to the bone, even so it cut deep enough to hurt like hell and leave his arm shaking.

“You know what,” River breathed out in frustration, “Screw you.” Either the thing understood English or it got the gist of the cuss because it did its shriek squeak and lunged at the same second River ripped the axe free from the wood block and swung it with every iota of force he could muster. The axe head buried in the monster’s chest and the thing roared a high pitch infuriated squeak.

“Screw you!” he screamed again and ripped the axe head free before he swung it again with all his might.

It caught the shaft of the axe in one pincer and with a delicate snip the head of the axe fell to the grass with a thump. River reared back with the shaft and tried to beat the thing into submission only to have the shaft batted away, in the process he was thrown to the ground. He landed awkwardly but he refused to cower. He wasn’t going to be afraid, he refused to be afraid.

His arms were trembling, his entire body was trembling, but he refused to show it. The monster hunched over him and quirked its head to one side as if deciding where to sink its teeth first, that moment of indecision cost the creature its head. River didn’t see it happen, one moment the creature’s head was attached, the next it was rolling along the grass and the monster’s body was smacking into the ground to reveal a petite young woman standing behind it with all the innocence of a cherubim.

She was five four, five five at a stretch. Her wavy brown hair was loose around her shoulders, and the smile she offered him was both sinister and enticing. She was stunning in a way, and the girl next door in another, but it was the eyes that betrayed the lie. Eyes so empty, so dark, so ravenously hungry. The dead creature had scared him, but this innocent appearing girl? She terrified him to the depths of his soul. In her eyes he saw carnage and evisceration, the raw primal force of death, an unrelenting force neither good nor evil, although he would read later that most considered her kind to be the epitome of evil. All he knew was that the petite young woman in front of him had just saved his life and now she was extending an arm towards him, her fingers curled slightly in invitation. There was no hesitation, River took her hand and she effortlessly drew him to his feet. He got the sense that she could have manhandled him with that same effortless motion, could have broken him in half with a twist of her wrist.

Her dark eyes swept over the woods and whatever else might have been out there vanished. The trees shook in the wake of their abrupt flight. Whatever the girl was she scared the monsters, which was food for thought.

“Hey there,” her voice was light, almost perky. “So what’s a nice guy like you doing in a place like this?”

She released his hand and he felt the absence of her touch like a physical pain. She smiled as she raised a finger to her lips and slowly sucked the blood from it. River glanced down in surprise, he hadn’t even realised she had taken the hand he cut. She closed her eyes and moaned sensuously at the taste of his blood; blood that left a thin red line on her lips.

“Mmm, I like you,” she purred. “You taste like salt and adrenaline.”

“You can’t taste adrenaline,” River retorted before he could help himself.

“Can’t I?” She replied with wide eyes, “Perhaps you can’t, but I can.” She bit her lower lip appreciatively, “And it tastes delicious. Some monsters don’t like it though; they prefer to kill quickly, before you even know you’re being hunted. They replace the adrenaline distasteful, but me? I enjoy the taste of salt and sweat and fear, I enjoy feeling those fight or flight reflexes turned up to eleven when I eat.”

“You’re trying to scare me,” River said.

“But you’re not afraid are you? Not even a little bit.”

“No.” he replied in a slow breath.

“Why? Do you think I won’t kill you because I just saved your life? How terribly presumptuous.”

“That’s not it. I think if you want to kill me you will and nothing in this world could stop you.”

Her smile widened and it was anything but innocent. She was abruptly behind River in a motion he couldn’t begin to see, her very human fingers trailing along his shoulder playfully.

“Flattery will get you everywhere,” she whispered, the warmth of her breath sending tantalising shivers down his spine. “So why so bold?”

“Because if you wanted to kill me I’d already be dead.”

“Try again,” she murmured, her tongue licking along the back of his ear.

“Because I’ve seen you.” He said softly.

“Have you now? Where?”

River swallowed hard, “Mellie paints you,” he finally managed to get out. It wasn’t fear constricting his vocal chords, it was something more libidinous.

“Yes she does.”

Her hands roamed along his chest and further down till they rested at the top of his pants. The slight pressure so close to sensitive areas made him tense. He closed his eyes as he struggled to keep breathing normally. He could feel the smile radiating off her as her gently probing hands pushed further down and he gasped in response.

“Mmm,” she murmured quietly, sensuously, “but I don’t think that’s why you’re so bold with me,” her fingers tightened along the bulge and his breathing grew ragged, “I think maybe this,” she stroked down, “is the culprit. Fight, flight, fuck. It all gets mixed together honey and your body has a twisted sense of pleasure.”

Her teeth grazed his ear and he whimpered, he actually whimpered, “You want me, and that’s why you’re not afraid. You’re thinking with the wrong head.”

She laughed and she was gone, the utter absence of her presence deflated him and he sagged forward weakly, her voice danced along the wind, caressed him even in her absence and he shivered in delight. Who was she? What was she?

River gathered the firewood and went inside before any other monsters decided he would be fun to play with.