Brain Juice (A Collection Of Short Stories)

Maneater

The woman drifted in time with the music, her undisputed confidence evident in her swivelling hip movements and borderline crude gyrations. Music blared all around, but she had completely zoned into her routine, every manoeuvre easily choreographed to great extent - the attention of almost every male in the club was focused on her seductive dance. 

Her eyes locked onto her unwilling victim, a student out with his friends. He made no attempt to hide his erotic intentions towards her, neither did he flaunt them. Perfect. With an alluring swish of her sleek blonde hair, she glided towards him, her tongue slowly trailing across her upper lip.

As she spoke, her eyelashes fluttered in mock innocence.

"I'm thirsty. Fancy buying me a drink?"

"Nice to meet you too(!) You wish....I'm Adam by the way."

"Faye. Look, this place is pretty dull. I reckon you could show me a good time?"

Adam turned to his friends, and exchanged a knowing glance, which was rewarded with wolf whistles and several innuendos. Faye giggled enticingly, and grabbed Adam's wrist.

"Your place?"

After a brief drunken fumble by the bar, Adam and Faye hurried out of the sea of writhing bodies, and out onto the comparatively quieter streets. Adam glanced around for a moment, then thrust his arm into the bustling traffic.

"Taxi!"

********

Adam's door was thrust open, and a hurricane of wandering hands and frantically colliding tongues rushed up the stairs. Once in his bedroom, Faye began to undress, in between bouts of passionate kissing and caressing. A topless Adam slumped onto the bed, and beckoned for Faye to join him - she lay beside him willingly, and ran her hand affectionately across his chest, as her mouth moved upwards towards his neck.

And then she dug her teeth in.

Recoiling in horror, Adam traced his fingers along the two marks on his neck, stifling the flow of crimson blood. Faye shuddered in orgasmic pleasure, running her tongue along her teeth - as the metallic taste awakened her true inner form, her entire body began to strain and contort. Adam could only watch on in revulsion.

Instantaneously, Faye's skin began to split like the seams of some foreign material, to reveal vaporous grey skin beneath - the human skin fell away in one continuous strand, as the creature beneath readjusted itself. Muscular legs supported the deeply inset body, ribs and bone screaming to escape from beneath the moist skin. Carnivorous shapeless eyes bore deep into Adam, chilling him to the core, as serrated tusks and fangs gnashed aggressively. Its head snapped upwards with a deep grunt, as Adam lunged for the door.

The creature pounced, pinning the defenceless Adam down beneath it. He stuttered, trying to comprehend the creature and its origins, but its intentions were clear enough. It snarled in an unearthly demonic manner, and then tore into the soft flesh of Adam's stomach.

Adam suppressed the agonising pain for long enough to snatch a nearby lamp - wielding it as an amateur weapon, he shattered it on the rounded skull, and used the creature's temporary blindness as his cue to escape. Gripping the grisly wound on his abdomen, Adam moved with haste from the room. He managed to reach the stairs before he was subdued.

Landing with a sickening crunch on the ground floor, Adam was heavily winded and paralysed - the creature mounted his back, obtaining a primeval pleasure from its victim's suffering. Adam let out a strangled cry as the creature drew a claw down his back, tearing open his skin like a ripe fruit. Twitching momentarily, Adam died in severe agony as his spinal cord was torn from his limp form - the creature snarled triumphantly and sadistically, before lowering its head to devour the fresh carcass.

********

"Jesus Christ! What lunatic would do this?!"

The senior police officer and his less experienced colleague looked on in horror at the decapitated corpse that lay before them. The younger man retched; his eyes could not believe the scale of bloodshed, nor the amount of human entrails and bone shards that littered the floor.

"This isn't the first one either Gav. All the victims are young males. Some psychotic woman they reckon -  bedding men then killing them. How the hell the bodies get so....destroyed, I can't understand it. Jesus, let's get out of here. It's just so wrong. Animalistic"

Gavin was relieved when Stuart had led him out of the crime scene. He had dealt with petty criminals before, but cadavers were a huge reality check. He collapsed, choking at the bloodshed he had just witnessed.

"Oh god Stu, why would anyone do that? It's sick. Sick and twisted."

"I don't know, I can't understand sickos liked that.... Listen, you get yourself home, you've seen enough. I'll deal with forensics, no doubt we'll have a load of media to deal with tomorrow. I'll cover for you if the Guv starts kicking off. You need to forget about everything."

Stuart placed a comforting hand on Gavin's shoulder, before he lifted the crime scene tape and returned to the carnage. Gavin turned to leave, but couldn't help but notice a sobbing girl sat on the kerb.

"You're the one who found the.....erm......him aren't you?"

The girl nodded, removing a strand of blond hair from her flawless face. Her hands were stained with blood, and her face lined with fatigue and extreme disturbance.

"Look, do you want a lift home? I was just leaving."

"...Sorry, if you don't mind that would be great. I feel disgusted."

Gavin deactivated his police radio, removed the batteries and chucked it into the back seat. He exhaled deeply, rubbed his eyelids with a trembling hand, and then turned to the girl.

"So where am I taking you to?"

The girl fluttered her eyes, and smiled softly.

"112 Cedar Avenue.... I'm Faye by the way".

********