Tainted: A Horror Novel, page 7
“Are you sure you’re all right?” Sara asked after realizing Alex was no longer following her.
Her words seemed distant, an echo from another place and time. She could feel Sara’s eyes upon her, but that was all that seemed real. She stood out among the dark grass, hazy and unfocused; a blur of reality.
“Yeah... I just can’t shake this feeling,” Alex replied, her words trailed off into the air and floated away. She stared at the gap between their tent and Rob and Jennifer’s small hiking tent, mesmerized by the dark blades of grass as they silently danced in the soft evening breeze. “Something about this place seems... familiar.”
“Familiar?” Sara gently asked, her words were so subtle and distant Alex barely heard her.
“Yeah, like I’ve been here before. It’s weird... like déja-vu,” she answered slowly, finally turning to look at Sara. The haze faded away. “I swear, I’ve seen this place before. It all seems so damned familiar! Everything, down to the placement of the tents, the fire pit... hell, even down to the damn grass! I swear to God, I’ve seen this place before, somewhere.”
“Are you sure you’ve never come up here with Rob’s family before? Maybe when you were kids and just forgot?” Sara asked with a shrug.
“I know for a fact I’ve never been here before,” Alex replied, looking back around the camp. Lamps lit the tents like colored bulbs against the darkness of the forest, shadows moved within as everyone hurried to finish setting up, talking amongst themselves in hushed tones, except for Splint; he was singing to himself. It sounded like it might have been a Metallica song, but he was so bad it was hard to tell.
“I’m absolutely positive I’ve never been here before, I’m sure of it.”
“That’s weird. I hate déja-vu, it always gives me the willies,” Sara said, shaking her hands free of the dreaded feeling. “Just thinking about it gives me the creeps.”
“Weird is definitely one way to describe it,” Alex sighed.
Her stomach churned again, the nagging sense of familiarity was quickly replaced by a painful twist in her guts. The pain was getting worse, but at least she wasn’t nauseous anymore.
After the pain subsided, Alex decided it was best to keep the twisting in her gut, and the developing itch beneath her bandage, to herself. Sara was already worrying too much, and Alex knew what she would do if she found out. The trip would be over before it had ever really begun.
With an enthusiastic hop in her step, faked and probably completely obvious, Alex helped Sara raise their tent and quickly set their bedding. Her stomach twisted a couple of times, mostly when she bent over, but for the most part, she hid it well. By the time they had finished, the others had struck up a nice fire and were lounging around the ring of stones, quietly talking about nothing in particular.
Alex dragged over their folding chairs and found an opening beside her friends while Sara joined Nichole and James on the other side of the pit. She didn’t find herself in much the mood for talking, so instead she sat quietly, listening to them argue about their favorite movie monsters and who would win against the elder god, Cthulhu. It was an ongoing debate that none of them seemed to ever gain any ground on. But for some reason, they still loved discussing all the same.
A little over an hour later, Alex found her stomach writhing in agony once again. It wasn’t nausea this time around, but hunger. Although hunger wasn’t quite right; this was starvation. She couldn’t remember the last time she had been as hungry as she was now.
Jennifer must have noticed because she leaned over and asked, “Are you alright?”
“I wish everyone would stop asking me that,” Alex whined through the pain, clenching her fist against her stomach. “I’m so hungry, I’m starving! If I don’t eat something soon... I... It feels like my guts will eat themselves.”
“Rob, why don’tcha go grab the hot dogs,” Jennifer asked sweetly, nudging Rob from his deep conversation that had something to do with the mating habits of Vulcans. “We probably should have eaten hours ago. I’m famished.”
“I’m on it!” he replied, hopping from his seat. He returned with an arm full of long metal skewers and a couple packs of hot dogs. “Tonight, we feast like kings!”
Everyone greedily grabbed a skewer, shoved a dog on the end, and placed them over the fire.
“Hot dogs? Don’t you know these things are made from lips and assholes?” Nichole sneered in disgust. She had handed her stick to James to cook for her.
“Where did you hear that?” Sara asked, giving her own hot dog a doubtful glance.
“I saw it in a movie,”
“Are you talking about The Great Outdoors?“ Splint asked, his first hot dog already half eaten, bits of it falling from his lips as he spoke.
“I don’t know,” she replied snidely.
“Were there talking raccoons?”
Nichole paused and stared at the sky, a blank look crossing her face. With a slight twitch, like the ignition switch had been turned back on, she answered excitedly, “Yeah, I think there was!”
Splint laughed, spewing little pieces of lips and assholes all over himself.
“That’s The Great Outdoors! It’s a great flick, one of John Candy’s best.”
“Who’s John Candy?” Nichole asked, nibbling her hot dog.
“Who’s John Candy?” Splint gasped, choking a bit. “Who’s John Candy? Sara, what kind of friend are you?”
Sara only sneered and rolled her eyes.
Over the next half hour everyone ate their fill as Splint sloppily described the movie in great detail, followed by a history of the man, the myth, the legend… John Candy. It turned out that other than the raccoons and the line about the hot dogs she didn’t seem to remember anything else about the film nor the famous comedian.
Alex, on the other hand, couldn’t seem to satisfy her hunger. While Splint was gasping in horror at Nichole’s lack of knowledge of John Candy, Alex ate her first two hot dogs. She did so without thought, barely chewing them at all, but rather mushing them into her mouth and swallowing them whole. It felt good to have food in her gullet, but it didn’t seem to satisfy.
While Splint began his retelling of the movie, Alex cooked two more hot dogs and crammed them down her throat.
She was still hungry.
As Splint excitedly described John Candy’s character shooting a bald-headed bear in the ass with a shotgun lamp, its ass now as bald as its head, Alex sifted through the opened packs and found the last three dogs. She ate them uncooked. She was still hungry, but the pain in her guts had been subdued and was now at least bearable.
“Damn, I’ve never seen you eat so much,” Splint jested with a hearty laugh as Alex slurped down the last of the dogs, licking her fingers clean one by one. “Keep it up and you’ll look like me!”
“I was absolutely starving!” Alex replied as she pulled her thumb from her mouth with a pop. “I don’t think I’ve ever been that hungry in my life, but...”
She paused. Alex contemplated telling him the truth, to explain how she was still famished, but decided against it. Not even Splint could understand how she could still be hungry after eating seven hot dogs.
Alex cringed at the thought.
Seven sets of lips and assholes.
“But thanks for giving me a reason to stop,” she jeered, winking at her chubby friend.
Splint roared heartily with laughter and Alex soon joined in. After wiping tears from his eyes Splint continued with his lesson on John Candy, which oddly enough seemed very well rehearsed.
The night wore on uneventfully, and as the fire died down, a single yawn from Jennifer spawned a chain reaction. The day had finally caught up with them. A wave of exhaustion washed over the camp, and soon after the initial outbreak, they said their goodnights and retired to their tents.
Alex nestled into her sleeping bag and pulled it up to her neck. The night had brought a briskness to the air, easily erasing the warmth of the summer sun.
“Are you sure you’re alright,” Sara asked again, for the fifteenth time that night, as she slid into her own bag next to hers.
“Yes, I’m sure I’m fine,” Alex sighed, the question had lost its sincerity hours before and had become an incessant nagging.
“If you say so,” she quietly responded, half snide, half genuine in her frustration. She rolled close and kissed Alex tenderly, then rolled away with her back towards her.
Alex closed her eyes to the world. Sleep found her quickly.
Sleep did not come quickly to Sara that evening. She tossed and turned for what seemed liked hours, unable to let go of all that had happened that day. All the while Alex slept peacefully beside her as if she had no care in the world, or like she hadn’t been attacked by some giant stray dog. She had begun to snore almost as soon as her head hit the pillow. Sara couldn’t decide if she was furious or grateful.
Sara rolled onto her back and stared into the darkness. She found the soft sounds of the night soothing, the flapping of fabric of the tent in a soft breeze, the rustling of leaves in the distance, the serenade of crickets. But still her mind continued to race.
She had been uneasy all night. Alex had looked terrible since the incident at the store, and only looked worse as the evening continued. By the time they had reached the camp Sara thought Alex would collapse. Yet somehow, she had managed to keep going. Weak and flighty, yes, but she kept up the facade. But Sara knew better. Alex was distant and preoccupied, constantly staring off at nothing most of the night. Alex was not okay.
Sara had cursed at herself since arriving for not demanding Alex be taken to a hospital. She needed to see a doctor, if only to make sure the damn dog didn’t have a disease. God forbid she got rabies. And if anything happened to her now, it was a long way back to their cars, and civilization. Rob made damned sure they were as far off the beaten path as possible with this spot.
And then there was dinner. Alex had eaten like she hadn’t seen food in a year, stuffing hot dogs down her throat and licking her fingers clean like an animal. Up until that point she had seemed on the verge of falling over. Then she gorged herself and color suddenly flushed back into her pallid face and she we went on acting like nothing had ever happened. The change was unsettling. It didn’t seem right, didn’t seem natural.
Something had happened. A drastic change had taken place, and no one else seemed to notice.
Sara didn’t like the nagging feeling of uncertainty. It was never in her nature to second guess herself, but the day had been filled with doubt. She questioned every decision she’d made and was certain she was doing everything wrong.
As she stared into the abyss of darkness above her, replaying the day’s events in her mind, a soft grunt, followed by an even softer moan caught her attention. The sounds faded in and out at first, quietly mingling with the chorus of nature, but soon the passionate thralls of lovemaking filled the air, dwarfing one type of nature with another. Even after such an exhausting day, Nichole had to get hers.
She listened for a moment, then flushed with embarrassment. Voyeurism was not her thing. She rolled to her side and pulled her pillow atop her head to drown out the lust-filled squeals.
Alex shifted beside her.
The cries of lovemaking intensified, and Sara’s pillow did little to help with the noise.
Suddenly, Alex slid from her bedroll, grabbed the pillow from Sara’s face and began to kiss her passionately. Fingering the zipper, Alex opened her bag wide, rolling herself atop her. She groped her body, sliding her good hand up and under her shirt, taking hold of her breast, rolling her nipple between her fingers.
Excitement pulsed through Sara’s body in waves, sending a tingle throughout that radiated from Alex’s exploring fingertips. Her touch ignited Sara’s skin. She quivered as her hand and mouth, ran their course across her body.
Alex never initiated their sexual escapades, ever. The sudden change would have registered as unusual and would have added to the suspicions of the day, but Sara had lost herself in the overwhelming passion, accepting it wholly and wantonly.
Her head was swimming. She swooned as Alex forcefully removed her clothing. Alex then kicked herself free of her own garments and was upon her, sliding her fingers into her eagerly. Her thrusts started slowly at first, but soon built into an all-out frenzy. The lust-filled rhythm opened Sara to a yearning that she didn’t realize dwelled within her. Sara wanted Alex to dominate her.
Throughout her life, Sara had never been very fond of sex. It wasn’t that it didn’t feel good, quite the opposite actually, but it never seemed to be convenient. Nichole, on the other hand, found it convenient to act upon her urges whenever and wherever she wanted. Though she thought about it from time to time, Sara could never bring herself to engage in such lewd acts, so she settled on what she considered typical sexual experiences when she thought the time was right. Alex suited that ideal nicely, even though she pined over her, Alex never overstepped her boundaries.
This was neither a convenient time nor a proper place for sex. Not with so many people around, separated by nothing but thin fabric, but Sara didn’t care. She let her passion cloud her judgment, and moaned loudly against Alex’s thrusting fingers, rivaling her shameless friend’s cries. Sara had let her modesty slip, and unabashedly continued to wail well after Nichole had subsided. She wailed in exuberance for the world to hear.
Sara wasn’t sure how long the two of them were entwined together, easily an hour or more, but in the end, she didn’t want it to stop. They laid together, their naked bodies glistening with sweat, sprawled out across their tent. Her body felt electrified, every muscle hummed with fulfillment and ached with pleasure, yearning for more.
Sleep found her easily this time as they laid there entangled together. A hush fell over the camp once again. All was quiet as the forest’s song lulled her to sleep, accompanied by Splint giggling softly in his tent.
A familiar darkness embraced her. A darkness so dense it seemed to weigh heavy on her shoulders. And though her eyes were open, the blackness of the void was impenetrable. She looked to her bandaged hand, the filthy gauze was speckled in dark dots, but within the black and white realm she found herself, she couldn’t make out what it was. There was something oddly unique to this place, a tingle of remembrance made its way down the back of her neck and into the pit of her stomach. There, the tingle twisted, cramping her guts into a knot.
Alex stared ahead, into the nothingness, pressing her fist into her stomach trying in vain to ease the pain. Stumbling over the unseen, she slowly shambled through the darkness, searching for something, hell, anything at all.
Tall blades of black grass sprouted around her feet, silently dancing in a breeze that did not touch her skin. In the distance, lines of dark grey streaked vertically from the black field that had formed around her, thrusting high above her head. A tangle of dark branches slithered from the roots, sprouting blackened leaves that completed a canopy of twisted blackness high above her.
The pain pulsed through her body, radiating from a hunger that gnawed at her insides. She hunched forward clutching her stomach as she shambled away from the ominous trees that had miraculously appeared. Behind her, she felt something move, or rather, she felt something change in her surroundings.
Alex spun, the blacks and greys of the world swirling in a vortex around her. When the world settled, she stood before a dark tent. It was closed and the light within diminished. She jerked forward, unable to stop herself, and reached for the zipper. Slowly, ever so slowly, she slid the zipper open.
The world was silent.
Unnaturally silent.
She drew back the flap and peered inside. Nichole laid sprawled out before her, naked and perfect. Her complexion appeared as a darkened marble, perfectly chiseled from stone. Her breasts lightly rose with every shallow breath of sleep.
Pain shot through her muscles, her body twisting and contorting with every painful convulsion.
Unable to control herself, Alex reached down and twisted her fingers into Nichole’s hair. Her eyes shot open as Alex did so, staring in terror. A silent scream escaped her lips as she was dragged from the tent into the black grass.
The hunger grew, rippling through her with unceasing demands.
Alex hoisted the poor girl off her feet and dangled her from her hair. She weighed next to nothing, she was no more than a flimsy piece of cloth flailing in the breeze. Her hands clawed at Alex’s grip, tangling her fingers in with hers among the rat’s nest of hair. Her legs kicking out wildly behind her. Alex felt nothing but pain and hunger.
The muscles along her back swelled, her biceps twitched and bulged to the point where it felt like they would tear free of the thin skin that bound them. Her entire body burned with searing heat; each pulsing wave more excruciating than the last. It felt like she was being split apart at the seams.
Beyond Nichole, James emerged from the darkness, charging forward in slow, clumsy strides. His furled brow and curled lips brought a staunchness to his cartoonlike movements. He swung his huge fist in a wide arc to his right, aiming for Alex’s cheek, a favored target from when they were younger. But unlike their childhood scraps, Alex grabbed the big man’s hand in mid-swing, twisted it easily backwards and forced the bully to his knees.
With a grin, Alex did something she had always wanted to do. She kicked James square in the chest and sent him flying backwards. Satisfaction shuttered through her bones, easing the pain that erupted from within her.
The searing pain faded away as a sense of euphoria overtook her senses. Her body twitched and writhed, but she did not care. The world around her became a distant place then, seen but uncared for. She placed Nichole onto her feet, hand still tangled in her hair, but it felt like someone else’s doing. Alex felt like she was watching a movie, taking a backseat as someone, or something else took control.
She lifted Nichole into the air again, gripping her head tightly in one hand, her warm groin in the other. In a burst of what could only be described as pure, all-consuming compulsion, she lifted the girl above her head and began to pull...
