“What you gonna do with that?”
Zak let Chuck take a few more steps forward before he pulled the trigger. The bullet hit Chuck in the face, rocked his head back, splashed black over the wall behind him. He staggered but didn’t fall, but Zak rushed forward, jabbed the barrel into Chuck’s left eye, then pulled the trigger until it clicked empty.
Chuck fell this time, smacked the back of his ruined skull on the floor and splashed the multicolored liquid. The stuff soaked into Chuck’s hair, matted it. His eye was a smoking mess of torn flesh and black.
But Chuck only giggled, waved his arms and legs and splashed. As he laughed, the black blood sprayed from his lips, rained back down onto his face and freckled it in ink.
“The Toad is miiiiiiine!”
Zak grabbed hold of the rail by the stairs with one hand to steady himself, then lifted his foot as high as it would go before slamming it down into Chuck’s face. He kept stomping, putting everything he had into each thrust. Blood and melted flesh splashed everywhere, slapped against Zak’s face and torso, but he didn’t let that slow him as he pummeled Chuck and roared as he did it.
Each stomp only made Chuck laugh harder, even when his skull caved in and crushed under the onslaught, his mouth still moved as if laughing, though the laughs themselves had become nothing more than gurgled choking sounds.
Zak stomped until Chuck’s head was nothing more than a pile of meat, and still Chuck’s arms and legs moved in lazy circular motions, a wet clicking sound rattling from his throat.
There was a commotion from upstairs. Coming from the attic. Loud bangs. As Zak stormed up the stairs, he tried to listen for Gwen’s voice, maybe a scream, but only heard the occasional knock against the ceiling.
The attic steps were already down. Zak took them two at a time, fists as hard as marble, teeth clenched so his entire head hurt.
“Kip, don’t you hurt her!” he screamed as he rushed into the room. But he stopped short. Stood there. His stomach dropped and his chest tightened. His knees went weak and he collapsed to the floor, shaking his head.
Kip and Gwen stood in the middle of the room. Holding each other. Gwen running her tongue across his chest and stomach and legs and groin, nibbling at his flesh and consuming the rainbow colors that flowed free. The stuff covered her face like yogurt, all flavors.
Her skin was already sizzling by the time she locked lips with Kip. Bubbles formed and popped, and the purple and green ooze burst out. Kip held her close, roamed her body with his chubby hands, their tongues swirling as they writhed against each other.
“Kip… Kip no…”
Kip pulled away from Gwendolyn, turned toward Zak. Black tears ran from his eyes, his skin in a frenzy as if thousands of birds were trapped within his body and trying to flap out.
Gwen’s head rocked back, hung loose, dropped between her shoulder blades. Her face looked like purple custard, and as Zak stared at it, it slid off her skull and slapped the floor. Her hair burned away like dynamite fuses.
“We can’t be together. Gwendolyn and I. Not here. There’s only one way, Zak.”
“K-Kip… wait…”
Kip dropped Gwen’s molten body to the floor. He held her pistol, used the back of his hand to wipe his tears as he watched Gwen continue to melt away. Her skull face rocked left and right, as if she were still denying what was happening to her. What was left of her arms and legs knocked against the floor as she twitched, her body dissolving and spreading out. The iridescent puddle had just about reached Zak, and he stuck his hand out, ran his fingers through the hot liquid, his shoulders jumping as he wept.
Not just for Gwen, but for Kip. For himself.
“I loved her so much. You know that. I told you that.” Kip had the gun pointed at Zak, gouts of slime falling from his hand. “I fucking told you that, Zak!”
Zak wanted to explain, let Kip know that nothing happened, that it was their concern for him that had brought them together in the first place. But he couldn’t say that. Couldn’t say anything. He just lowered his head and cried.
“How could you do this to me? You were the only friend I ever had… and you took her from me.”
Zak shook his head, waited for the bullet to come.
“This is the only way. The only way we’ll ever be together. She’s worth it.”
When the shot rang out, Zak thought he was dead. He didn’t feel any pain, but he just knew it would show itself any second.
But it never did. Then there was a loud thump, and Zak uncovered his face.
Kip lay face-down on the floor, a black puddle spreading from his head. A ghost finger of smoke twirled from the gun’s barrel.
“Kip… Kip!”
Zak crawled across Gwen’s liquefied remains, the runny flesh soaking into his pants and searing his palms like hot grease. As he grew nearer, he saw the exit wound in the back of Kip’s head. He hoped Kip would be like Chuck, hoped he would still be alive regardless of the gunshot.
But when he reached Kip, lifted his head and laid it into his lap, he knew his cousin was dead.
He leaned over and touched his forehead to Kip’s.
“I’m sorry, cousin. I’m so sorry.”
Epilogue
Ernie snorted a line off the middle console, tilted his head back and enjoyed the drip. He checked the address one last time on Sarah’s phone, then tossed it into the back. This was the place all right.
“Here I come, you little motherfucker.”
He wouldn’t kill Zak. Not yet. He wanted to drag him back home first, show him his mama. All the pieces of her. Piled up in the bathtub.
You wanted to leave me? Now look at you, you stupid bitch.
He was just going to shoot her, nice and clean. But her little fuck ass son took his pistol with him. So he had to use the ax he kept in the garage. Never knew why he bought an ax. Didn’t have firewood to chop or anything. But the fucker sure came in handy last night.
He took one more line, then a long pull of his bottle of Jack before opening the driver’s door and heading toward the house. The lights were on inside, and the front door was wide open. The only car in the driveway was Zak’s POS, so he figured Sarah’s sister wasn’t home. Which was good. Not that he couldn’t use a little pussy before his long drive back to California.
But he wanted this to be quick. In and out. Get that little fucker, knock his ass out, and get the fuck gone. If the little pipsqueak cousin was here, if he tried to interfere, it would be easy to get rid of him. He wouldn’t kill him if he didn’t have to, but it wouldn’t make much of a difference either way.
Maybe I’ll bring both the little fuckers with me.
He peered into the home, covered his nose and wrinkled his brow as he stared at the mess on the floor. Looked like a sea of melted candy or something, smelled like pot roast. It turned his stomach, but he stepped into it anyway, cringing as the goo soaked into his tennis shoes.
It only took him a couple of minutes to check the first floor, but there was no sign of anyone. He almost called out, but bit his tongue, slowly and quietly made his way to the second floor. The first thing he saw was the attic, its foldout stairs lowered, a soft light glowing from inside.
And what is that noise? Crying?
He climbed the steps, peered into the small room. The floor was covered in the same liquid as downstairs, but something floated in it. He squinted, mouthed the words, “what the fuck?” without saying them.
A face floated by. It looked almost completely melted down, like it had been made of wax, but it still had eyeholes and a nose, though the nose was a messy stump of glistening flesh. The mouth was gone completely. Then he spotted a foot… and a hand, and as he stared at them, they dissolved, melted into the rest of the goop on the floor.