Irene, My dead best friend [Wattys 2015]

Chapter 30.2: James Bond

Chapter 30.2: James Bond

"Do you know when the centaurs will be here?"

"We have about an hour and a half or so. I'm not sure. I'm only vaguely able to sense them from so far away," she replied with her eyes closed. I looked at her beautiful face and for the first time since I'd met her, her oddities weren't freaking me out. I'd been through so much in the past few days that it seemed like nothing to baffle me anymore.

"Okay. Let's do it then,"

An hour later, I had managed to not pee my pants and gone back to the house grabbed some old, dusty beakers and metal trays from the basement and come limping back out, drenched in sweat. I had somehow convinced her to lure a rabbit our way and she had happily obliged. It was only when she realized what I was about to do with it when she completely flipped out. She had begun to scream and cry hysterically while I tried and not be an absolute wuss. I had pushed out the green contents of the syringe into a small beaker of water to check the consistency. It was absolute liquid, like mixing water with water. When I was satisfied with it, I had injected the rabbit with the contents of the syringe, just like we had in our biology lab back in school. The experience helped in not chickening out with the rabbit but Irene screaming and crying did not help the situation.

After I had injected it, I watched as the rabbit didn't immediately hop away from me, instead became lethargic and just went around in circles. I didn't know how long it would survive but I'd take my chances. I saved one syringe and kept it in my pocket, in case the rabbit plan didn't work and we'd still have a backup. I finally convinced Irene to get a couple more rabbit because no way would a whole herd of centaurs be satisfied with one rabbit, besides I had no idea what the potency of the solution might be. I was a mad scientist at work and I had had the audacity to judge Irene's father. Thoroughly disgusted with myself but still having no choice, I injected the rest of the rabbits with a lot less solution this time.

Putting the last one down on the ground twenty minutes later, Irene grabbed my hand, "They'll be here in a few minutes. We have to hide!" she squeaked in my ear and since yesterday, I finally felt the seriousness of the situation. I took Irene's hand in mine (we were doing that a lot, now that I could finally touch her) and ran towards thicker trees further enough into the forest that we could see the rabbits and far enough to not get caught easily. I had no idea about the mental awareness of these things, but I wasn't going to be taking any chances.

Irene and I stood in silence, and watched the rabbits. Sweat trickled down the sides of my face as I waited for the creatures. I would finally know if my plan would work, if I'd be able to get rid of the abominations walking this earth, if I'd finally be able to take Irene to the afterlife.

It was absolutely magical and I couldn't believe my eyes. From further out into the forest, the trees seemed to move and the ground vibrated. I couple of seconds later, out emerged thick, shiny, caramel colored flesh. Their heads were definitely human, their hair long and shaggy, and going way beyond their shoulders. Their torso was strongly built and just below the navel, where sexual organs should have been, they were animals. Their body easily and smoothly morphed into animals from the waist down. There were about nine of them and not one looked like the other. Their bottom halves varied, like that of horses or bulls or donkeys, I couldn't be sure. Their four legs were strong and hairy with hooves that reminded me of what I had almost run into the forest. I watched their faces and saw a hint of what might have been human but all it exuded now was absolute terror and vile power. Irene had been right; I would have never been able to fight those things all on my own. It was ironic because they now looked nothing like how I'd seen them sing near the forest. They weren't calm or beautiful anymore, they were wild and beastly.