In the Belly of the Beast

42

The room was beginning to spin. His eyes. His eyes held her in a trance.

He reached for the gun. As his fingers brushed the tip of the barrel, the cat squalled and sprang from a dark corner of the room. Its claws ripped at the man's face, and he grabbed at the animal to fling it away.

A sharp fang drove home into his eye, and the man dropped to his knees and wailed in pain.

From behind, a square stubby hand grabbed Abby's and spun her into its soft, rubbery skin. Overbalanced, she sank into the mound. The strong claw wrestled her arm.

She was no match for it. The fat, stubby fingers closed over her small hand and turned the barrel of the Glock toward its forehead.

The massive fingers squeezed, pressing Abby's finger tighter and tighter against the trigger.

"Noooooo," she screamed.

Too late.

There was no safety. The Glock fired, and the muzzle flare exploded in a blinding burst of light.

The smell of gunpowder and burnt flesh filled the room. Abby struggled to untangle herself from the spongy corpulence.

Ruby came running back into the room. Her eyes were wide ,and her mouth was contorted into a horrible sneer. She screamed and lurched toward the bed.

She grabbed a fatty leg, sinking her nails into the spongy meat, and clawed deep wounds its skin.

Abby searched left, then right, but her male suspect was no where in the room.

Where had he disappeared to? Was he hiding under the bed, outside the room?

Abby watched as Ruby sprawled over the monstrous corpse. Sobs shook her body, and heap of fat she was draped over moved beneath her in a macabre dance of jiggling, wiggling flesh.

Ruby's face was stained with tears as she turned to Abby.

"What have you done to me! What have you done! I'm gonna kill you, you. . ."

Ruby moved toward Abby. She was like a watch winding down. Each step, each movement was slower, painfully slower, and Ruby's body moved thickly, like molasses.

Abby raised her gun, but could only watch, horrified as the beauty before her transformed into a withered hag.

Ruby's graceful hands became gnarled and her fingers knotted and bent. Her mouth sunk deeply inside her cheeks, forming a grotesque, toothless grin. Her back bowed, and a huge hump emerged from her shoulders, splitting the seams of her dress and bowing her at the waist.

The skin on the mound was bruised, thin as parchment, and mottled and peeling off in great sheets. Large patches of dry, crusted scales appeared all over her. 

The silken hair became mat of gray, twisted steel wool with portions of red, raw, and angry pieces of scalp showing through. Her legs sagged beneath the weight of her body, and her legs bowed. Her ankles swelled and spilled over her shoes.

She slid a step closer to Abby.

Exhausted by the effort, her rough voice tried to speak. Her lung sounds were wet, and her sour breath fell hotly upon Abby's face.

Abby edged backward.

"I'm gonna k. . . .ki. . .kill you," the wet voice croaked.

The old woman fell forward in a heap onto the floor. It twitched once, then twice, then became absolutely still.

Abby stepped toward the body to check for a pulse, but the cat jumped in her path. She smelled smoke. This house was on fire, too, she thought. She looked around once more for the man, but seeing no one, stepped toward the door.

Scooping up the cat, she ran down the hall toward the kitchen. She had to find the boy.

He was cowering beside the stove. As she grabbed him with her free hand, orange and yellow flames licked at the ceiling over their heads.

The roof was burning now, she thought.

She pulled the boy along with her and stumbled toward the open kitchen doorway.

Outside, the block was ablaze. Several houses were on fire. The chaos of fire trucks, ambulances, and police mixed in the darkness.

The power grid was still down.

She made her way toward the lighted ambulance.

"Check this kid out," she instructed, flashing her badge. "I'm going back inside for survivors."

"No, you ain't, Lady," a tall fireman said.

"Keep her here with the kid. We're up to our eyeballs in horror, and I gonna let no civilian wander 'round playin'hero fireman."

"Police," she said, flashing her badge.

"I don't care if you're the Queen, Lady. You stay right here!"