The searing pain traveled from his gut up into his throat, building speed as it went, leaving a trail of fire behind. Once it reached his head, Chuck was flopping around in the dirt, no longer capable of screaming, no longer capable of thinking.
It was as if the shit had crawled itself into his skull, ate his brain, and was now doing his thinking for him.
Chuck rolled over onto his back, stared up at the sky. The black of the night had been transformed into streaks of vibrating and pulsating color, like an orgy of rainbows.
Chuck smiled. At least he thought he smiled. Something hot and chunky kept spilling from his mouth, running from his nostrils. It wasn’t until he stood that he realized his stomach had blown out and that his innards hung from the gaping cave like giant squid tentacles.
He laughed, poked and prodded at the fleshy tubes. Pain erupted there, but it was a different kind of pain, an almost ticklish, silly pain.
The ground moved, looked like a sea of rotting flesh, and every time he took a step, his foot plunged into the rancid meat and maggots wiggled out and danced over his feet.
The trees looked like giant corpses, hanging over him, promising him death and torture, so he climbed one of them, his intestines snagging and ripping open on branches as he went. He found the thickest limb he could, wrapped both hands around it, then hung from it, bouncing his body weight until it snapped free and he went tumbling back to the sea of rot beneath him.
The limb bled in his hands, and he gave it a few test swings.
“Killkillkillkillkill. Blood and pus and shit and everyone will fucking die!”
He didn’t mean to say anything, the words just sort of spilled out of his mouth, hot and salty. But in his mind, it made perfect sense. He knew what he had to do. It’s what Toad would have wanted him to do. Make them suffer.
Everyone must suffer.
And then he felt it. As if the sky had opened up and was raining cactus needles.
Toad is alive. And he’s calling for me.
Chuck bounded through the woods, following the directions that echoed through his shattered mind.
“Ho. Lee. Shit.” Gwen blew air from her tight lips as she ran both hands through her hair. She shot Zak a look, slightly smirking, as if she were waiting for him to tell her he was joking.
But Zak kept a straight face, was doing everything he could not to cry in front of her.
“That’s just… that’s more fucked up than anything should be allowed to be. I mean… fuck, man.”
“Yeah. Exactly. I still don’t believe it’s happening, but there’s no denying it now. The shit is real, and it’s my fucking cousin it’s happening to.” Zak slammed his palms against the steering wheel, honking the horn. “Why him? Why Kip? There are so many more fucking assholes in this world, in this fucking town, that deserves it more than him. He’s been nothing but good his whole life… and now this?”
“I always thought he had the worst case of acne I’ve ever seen. But… wow. Just wow.”
Zak didn’t know how he expected Gwen to react, but her tone was pissing him off.
“So what now? Are you really going to tell that story to the police?”
“No, of course not. I’ll just tell them… fuck, I don’t know. I’ll tell them Kip might be dangerous, you know? Like Columbine dangerous. They’ll sure as fuck listen then.”
She scrunched her brow, and for a minute, Zak thought she was going to protest, but she just nodded. “Yeah. That’s pretty smart actually. Then when they get to the house, we won’t have to tell them anything, they’ll see it for themselves, right?”
“Exactly.”
They were silent for a few minutes, both seeming to marinate in their own deep thoughts. Then Gwen wrinkled her nose, stuck out her tongue, and wiggled like she had a tingle in her spine.
“They actually ate his pus? Jesus that’s so fucked up. But you know what?” She smiled, raised an eyebrow, glared out the windshield with blank eyes. “They all deserved it. For treating him like shit for so long.”
“They deserved to have their asses kicked, yes. But this? I don’t think anyone deserves this. And you know what’s fucked up? I wasn’t gonna tell you this…”
“What? What is it?”
“I felt it too. I wanted to suck his pus down just like everyone else. I think his body releases something into the air, makes the people around him crave it. Or maybe it’s just fucked up people like me and all those other fucking kids.”
“Did you… did you eat—”
“No! Hell no. I could feel the craving, but I fought it off. It woke up some feelings that I’ve been working really hard to bury, though. Even now I can kind of feel it. And it pisses me off.”
“There!” Gwen pointed out the window with one hand, slapped Zak on the shoulder with the other.
“What?”
“There, right fucking there.”
The police car was parked at a Seven Eleven, the officer sipping coffee and leaning against the vehicle, absently fiddling with his cell phone.
Zak nearly zoomed right past the gas station, but swung the wheel to the left, cutting across traffic and nearly getting t-boned by a minivan. He pulled the car into the parking lot, the officer already approaching the car, one hand resting on his sidearm.
“Don’t start screaming at him, Zak. Be calm.”
“Yeah… okay.” Zak rolled the window down.
“Get out of the car, son.” The officer squinted at him, then knelt down so he could get a look at Gwen.
Zak didn’t resist, got out, hands up. “I’m sorry, sir. We saw you standing here and we really need to talk with you. I didn’t mean to—”
“You could have killed somebody with a stunt like that. Are you crazy?”
“I know, and I’m sorry, sir. But there’s something way more serious going on. And it’s time sensitive. People could be in danger. Kids.”
“How much you had to drink today, son? And be honest with me.” Still squinting.
“Drink? Nothing. I panicked, that’s all.”
“Step over here, please. Arms out.”
Zak shot a quick look at Gwen and she widened her eyes, nodded toward the officer. Zak sighed, went along with the entire sobriety test. When he passed, he was about ready to scream. He had no idea how much time had passed, but it felt like a lifetime.
“Be more careful, you hear me? Now go on.”
“Go on? Did you not hear what I said? People are in trouble, high school kids could be dead before tonight is over.”
“Dead?”
Zak laid out the whole lie. Just sort of made it up as he went, making sure to make it sound serious so the officer would listen.
“And I don’t know how to make bombs, but it sure looks like he’s stockpiling a whole lot of chemicals and serious-looking equipment. He’s been bullied his whole life, and I’m scared he’s finally had enough. I’m scared he’s going to do something bad tonight. I need you to come to the house. You can follow me there.”
The officer scratched his chin, face as red as diaper rash. When he nodded, Zak almost hugged him.
“Tell you what… let me call this in, get some backup just in case. If what you’re telling me is true, I don’t want to be there alone.” The officer smiled, placed a hard hand on Zak’s shoulder. “I know it’s hard to turn in your cousin like this, but you did—”
Something warm and wet splashed Zak in the face at the same moment Gwen shrieked.
Zak didn’t know what he was looking at at first. The officer’s hand dropped to his side, and he sort of blinked, mouth opening and closing. Something big had been smashed into the top of his head, and it wasn’t until the officer dropped to his knees that Zak saw Chuck standing there, the blood that had been covering his body earlier now a flaky red crust. It looked like his stomach had been blown out from the inside, flaps of skin hanging off in tattered ribbons, and his intestines dragged on the concrete in torn loops.