“The forest primeval would resound with ‘fuckers,’ ‘motherfuckers.’ and all the usual variations thereof,” Chad added.
This did little to calm Karen. “But you didn’t see that… that thing.”
Alicia frowned. “What are you talking about, sweetie?”
Agitation showed in Karen’s restless eyes. “I tripped over a rock.” She pointed to a spot near Dream and Chad. They were standing in a small circle of moonlight between the trees, a space just large enough to qualify as a clearing. “Knocked myself woozy. I wasn’t out, but everything went fuzzy for a minute. There was… something. Something big.” Terror edged back into her voice as she described what happened. “Something that wasn’t a man. Something that wasn’t even human. But it walked on two legs like a man. It was … it was …”
She started to sob again.
Chad quietly hummed the familiar notes of the X-Files theme.
Dream successfully resisted an impulse to ram an elbow into his stomach, but she wrenched her shoulder free of his grip and approached the other women. “Karen, what did this thing look like?”
Chad snorted. “You can’t be taking her seriously.”
Alicia said, “Ignore him.”
Frustration showed in Karen’s eyes. “I don’t know. I didn’t see it so much as sense it.” She sniffled. “Everything was shadows, shapes. But I could feel it standing over me. I could sense how big it was. And I could smell its breath. Oh, God …” She put a hand to her mouth. “I can’t tell you how awful that smell was.”
They all heard Chad’s exaggerated sigh. “Oh, Christ. So what we’re really talking about here is a tall hermit who hasn’t brushed his teeth in ten years. A deranged former Harlem Globetrotter, maybe. But we’re certainly not talking about, what, a monster?” He sneered at them. “Karen, do you realize how insane that sounds?”
Dream breathed a weary sigh. “You’re neither needed nor wanted here, Chad. In fact, I’d appreciate it if you’d go back to the car and wait while we sort things out with Karen.” An alien flicker of cruelty stirred within her, causing her to speak before she could reconsider the harshness of her words. “You heartless piece of shit. Somehow you got to be as ugly inside as you are outside.”
Dream winced at the sharp intake of breath from Alicia. She was instantly horrified at the sound of her own voice. That wasn’t her speaking those hurtful, terrible words. It couldn’t be. And, oh, how the tables had suddenly turned. A tide of shame welled within her. “I’m sorry, Chad.”
But the damage had been done.
Chad looked away from her. His chin trembled. “See, girls. Maybe this is why I’ve spurned her all these years, the monster lurking beneath the pretty exterior. Maybe I knew it was there all along.” His voice broke. “Good-bye, Dream. I’m out of here.”
He spun around, stepped back through the line of trees, and disappeared from view.
Dream’s heart lurched. “Chad-“
“Let him go.” Alicia’s voice was stern. “The sheer quantity of dysfunction is making me dizzy. He’s been goading you all night. You snapped and said something out of character. Let it go at that. We’ve more important things to tend to.”
Dream met Alicia’s unwavering gaze, derived some strength from it, and nodded. “Okay, what now?”
“We find Shane.” Karen’s voice was insistent, rife with impatience. “He could be hurt. He could be dead.”
She made a move to plunge again into the gloom, but Alicia restrained her. “Hold on. Let’s do this right this time. There a flashlight in your car, Dream?”
Dream nodded. “In the glove compartment.”
“Go get it, girl.” Alicia held Karen’s gaze. “We’ll go find your man when she gets back, okay?”
Dream moved in the direction of the road.
Karen said, “Wait!”
Dream hesitated, glancing first at Alicia then meeting Karen’s gaze. “Yes?”
“Shane didn’t want anyone to know, but there’s a gun in his bag. A Glock.” The admission seemed to pain her. “I don’t care what Chad says, there’s something out here.” She swallowed hard. “You should get the gun.”
Dream looked at Alicia. “I don’t know anything about guns.”
Alicia shrugged. “Shit, I sure don’t.” There was a new hint of nervousness in her voice. “And I’m not sure we should be fucking around with firearms anyway.”
Karen said, “Shane took me to the shooting range.” She was trying to sound confident, but her voice was still all ragged edges. “I know how to use it.”
Dream said, “I’ll look for it.”
But she thought, And I’ll leave the goddamn thing right where it is.
She decided to keep the sudden flare of anger she felt toward Shane to herself. The son of a bitch had transported a firearm over several state lines.
In her car!
Karen said, “Thank you.”
Dream moved again toward the road, but pulled up short when she heard Alicia say, “Hey… hear that?”
Dream frowned, and listened. “What? I-“
Alicia made a low shushing noise. “Listen!”
There was a moment of absolute stillness.
Then they heard it.
The sound of something approaching from deeper within the woods. Dream was suddenly very afraid. The rational part of her understood what they were hearing was probably just Shane finally returning from whatever he’d been doing-Dream had a strange, almost extrasensory inkling about that-but she was surprised to find a part of herself suddenly buying Karen’s giant monster story. The now significantly louder approach of lumbering footsteps filled her with dread. Her imagination supplied a very vivid image of some horror-movie abomination emerging from the darkness to eat them alive.
Something was flailing about out there. Something very clumsy, to judge from the sound of it. Then Dream detected another sound. She couldn’t quite make it out. It could have been a moan, or a low growl-the kind of sound a monster might make.
A nearby snapping of twigs made them all flinch.
Dream gasped.
It was even closer than she’d thought.
Run! her mind implored her.
Her feet managed a backward a step or two before the presence finally emerged from the darkness and into the little clearing.
It was Shane.
Only, he was nearly impossible to recognize. He was covered in blood, and his clothes were shredded rags. He staggered toward them, his mouth opening as he attempted to tell them something, but blood burbled out instead. He took one more unsteady step, wobbled, and crashed to the ground.
Karen sank to her knees beside him and wailed.
Dream heard another scream.
Her own.
Chad was more than a quarter mile down the road by the time the situation he was leaving behind attained genuine crisis status. His travel bag was slung over his right shoulder, and he was walking briskly. He was in excellent condition from daily workouts at the neighborhood gym, so a walk into town wouldn’t be too taxing. Of course, he wasn’t so sure how far away this theoretical town was, but he had little doubt an oasis of civilization would be nearby. Soon he’d reach one of those little clusters of mcDonald’s restaurants and Holiday Inns that were so liberally interspersed at regular intervals along the major highways. Any minute now he’d round a bend in the road and the golden arches would be looming in the distance. He didn’t doubt he was doing the right thing by leaving his former friends. Alicia was right, damn her-this break was long overdue. He’d outgrown them. The prospect of a future without the girls was at once exhilarating and frightening. He would establish an identity that wasn’t informed by mostly female perspectives. Yet he couldn’t deny the encroaching feeling of bittersweet regret that was gaining a foothold in his heart. It was a kind of grief, he supposed, the loss one feels at the passage of youth. They’d been such good friends in the old days. He’d always been closest to Dream, but he’d known Alicia since high school and Karen since sophomore year of college.