Just before he blew, Zak caught a quick glimpse of the others. Or what used to be them. They were little more than twitching limbs lying in a growing puddle of colorful liquid flesh. It looked like a mountain of melted ice cream, all flavors blended into a mess of color and cream. Bones clacked against the tile, a few screaming faces here and there emerging from the sloppy mound, though the only sound was sizzling and gurgling.
The pain began to fade slightly. Zak’s panic subsided a bit, long enough to collect himself. He blinked, was able to see his hands, the doorstep.
I’m not blind. I still have my eyes.
Everything was still blurred around the edges, but he was thankful for any sight at all. They still burned, and his mouth still tasted like hot bile as if he’d just thrown up, but he was able to ignore it as he jumped to his feet, faced the house.
“Gwen? Are you all right?”
No answer.
Zak blinked some more, used the inside of his shirt to wipe at his eyes again. Things became a little more clear, but not by much. Clear enough for him to realize pretty quickly that Gwen was not there.
He heard her scream, but only for a moment before silence took over.
Zak already knew it was Kip. Kip had her, grabbed her while Zak was smothered in pain.
“Kip! You motherfucker!” Zak gripped the doorframe on both sides, poked his head in. “Kip! What the fuck have you done!”
The last time Zak had caught a glimpse of this classmates, there were still pieces of them whole. Now, he didn’t even see bones. Just a huge puddle of color and blood, covering every inch of the floor, soaking into the living room carpet. The scent was like a honey-glazed ham baking in the oven, savory yet sweet, and Zak added to the growing puddle as a stream of vomit shot from his throat.
The only remaining corpse was Cash, who was still on his back, his body expanded to twice its girth, though blown wide open to reveal the tropical-colored viscera within. But even as Zak stared, it was melting like a glob of butter on a hot griddle, slowly, foaming and sizzling.
The boy’s face was frozen in a shriek of anguish, his face basted in Kip’s black blood. The expression melted away into a featureless blob of liquid flesh and bone.
“Kip! Where are you, you fucking bastard!”
Right before Zak placed a foot into the thick muck on the floor, something hit him in the back of the head so hard, everything went black and his mouth tasted like metal. The side of his face hit the floor, splashed in the warm goop there.
Zak only moaned and writhed for a second before flopping onto his back and facing the doorway.
Chuck smiled down at him.
Gwendolyn was heavier than she looked. And the way she flung her arms and kicked her legs, it was almost impossible getting her up the stairs, and even harder to get her up the attic steps and into his room.
But he got her there. She now sat on the floor, wiping the black from her eyes as she stared at the liquid puddle that used to be Jade Brewster.
Wow… I never thought in a million years I’d have Jade and Gwendolyn in my room. And at the same time!
Even though his body was numb, he could still feel the butterflies in his stomach as he stared down at Gwendolyn. The terror and revulsion knotting her face still didn’t hide her beauty. She looked as gorgeous and perfect as ever, and Kip didn’t know what else to do but sit beside her on the floor, rest his chin in his hands, and smile at her.
“Do you like my room? Do you know how many times I imagined you here with me?”
Gwendolyn crab-walked backwards away from him, her left hand plunging into the congealed puddle of Jade. She squealed and wiped the gooey substance off on her jeans, but kept crawling away until the back of her head hit the wall. Then she just sort of crumbled, hugged her knees and wept.
“I know,” Kip said, remaining in his spot. “I know I’m disgusting. It’s always been this way.”
She didn’t respond, didn’t even look at him. Her whispery cries made Kip want to hold her, kiss her, tell her everything would be okay, that he would take care of her from now on. That she was his girl now.
But I can’t make her love me. I’m all out of…
His eyes landed on the small plastic trash can sitting next to his standing mirror. Still overflowing with used tissue. Even from where Kip sat across the room, he could see the dried blood.
“Oh, Gwendolyn. We’re going to be so happy together. Don’t you see? It was always meant to be this way. We were supposed to be together.” He crawled across the room, and when he shot a glance toward Gwendolyn, she was watching him now, her eyes covered in black, but red and puffy from crying. “You know? Maybe that’s why all this happened. So we could be together. I mean… you’re here now. In my room. Just like in my dreams. And that wouldn’t be possible if none of this happened. It was worth it. Every one of those fucking assholes deserved it… don’t you think?”
“Not like this, Kip,” she said with a shaky voice, then sniffled and ran the back of her hand across her nose. “Nobody needed to die. All you had to do was ask. We could have hung out a long time ago. I’ve always liked you, Kip. I’ve always—”
“Hung out. We could have hung out. That’s not what I wanted. You always liked me? Well… I always loved you. I don’t want to hang out. I want you to love me! I want you to love me the way I’ve always loved you. Not Zak!”
Kip had his hands on the wastebasket now, pulled out a handful of tissues. He opened up the first one, and along with the blood, he found a few dried up globs of pus. Now petrified, but still powerful he hoped. Either way, Gwendolyn was going to eat it. She would eat it and then she would love him.
Her eyes fell on the ball of tissues squeezed in his fist.
“What are you doing?”
Kip walked toward her, his feet so full of fluid that they made a squishing sound with every step he took. As he grew nearer, his skin got to thrashing, inflating and deflating, spraying juice in all directions.
“I just want you to love me, Gwendolyn. That’s all. Not anyone else. Just you.”
She tried to jump to her feet and run away, but she slipped in Jade, left her feet, landed hard on her side.
Kip didn’t waste a second. He dove for her, crammed the tissue into her mouth. Then another. And another.
She fought, and though he couldn’t feel a thing, it was nice to have her under him like that. His skin against her skin. Their flesh mending into one being.
“Kip?” she said, her voice high-pitched and dreamy.
“I’m here. I’ll always be here.”
“I… I need you.”
Chuck’s bullet wounds still leaked that black fluid in a steady drip as if there was no end to the stuff. His intestines looked ripped apart, almost as if some animal had gotten a hold of them. Chewed up and torn to ribbons.
“Toad is alive. Can you feel him?” When Chuck said this, his eyes circled in opposite directions. When they were done, one pointed at the ceiling, the other at the floor, yet he still seemed to be able to see Zak. “He’s mine. Aaaaaall mine.”
Zak stood, his back soaked in liquid flesh. The back of his head throbbed from the hit he took and his vision started to blur on him. But when Chuck stepped past the threshold and toward him, both hands outstretched, that fucking smile pulled as tight as it would go, Zak reached into his waistline and pulled out his pistol. Chuck stopped but only laughed, grabbed hold of a tube of intestine and began stroking it.