The Monster Apocalypse

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER THREE

Ash screamed. He closed his eyes. He smashed his hands in front of his face.

A few seconds later, he started to giggle.

The wolf was licking his face from top to bottom.

"Hey, stop! Stop it!" Ash pushed the wolf away. "Mr. Barker! Oh, that's so gross!"

"Sorry," he said, transforming back into a human in the blink of an eye. "It's a reflex. I can't help it."

Ash's mouth dropped open, and not because of the transformation. He thought the licking was weird, but now the relationship between teacher and student had become way too intimate.

Ash put his hands in front of his face. "Mr. Barker, can you please put some clothes on?"

"Oh," he said. "Sorry." He ran back into the cell and grabbed his thin pair of underwear, which he must have removed before becoming the carnivorous wolf.

"That better?" he asked, walking back up to Ash.

"Much. So what do you mean a reflex?"

"When I'm a wolf. I like to lick those who are my friends."

"The same way you like to maul a guy's face when he's your enemy? What's the matter with you!"

"What do you mean? That guy was going to kill you—"

"I know! But..." Ash and Mr. Barker strolled up to the man's now very-much-dead body. "You killed Jack the Ripper."

"Really? That's awesome."

"Not awesome! The man's a legend. You've rewritten history, and now when we get back to 2015, everything's going to be all messed up. Haven't you seen Back to the Future?"

"Of course I've seen Back to the Future. Who do you think I am? I'm your Film teacher for God's sake!"

Ash shrugged. "All right, all right, sorry. I thought maybe you only watched horror movies."

"Well, they're my specialty. And I'll admit there isn't a precedence for time travel stories in genre films."

"Sure there are, Mr. Barker. Did you ever see that remake of The Time Machine? With Guy Pearce? That was scary. For altogether different reasons."

"Look, the point is," Mr. Barker said, grabbing Ash and pulling him down the corridor, toward the closest exit. The teacher glanced to his left real quick to make sure the carnival showman he attacked was still unconscious. "Just because I kill off a legendary murderer doesn't mean the future of our society is going to be at all different. The only change will be that I just saved the lives of women who would have otherwise had their kidneys ripped out."

"Yeah, that, and you took a job away from Johnny Depp! What's he going to do in 2001 now that From Hell's never going to get made?"

Mr. Barker laughed out loud, then pushed Ash up against the curtain at the front exit. "Jeez, growing up I always thought I was the film geek. Turns out, I was completely normal, compared to you."

"Normal? I'm not the one who just turned into a wolf."

They blew through the curtain and found their way out into the dark, stormy night. Black clouds appeared overhead and started dumping rain down on the dirt. Most London dwellers ran for shelter, but a few of the mischievous boys were dancing wildly in the streets. It was Mr. Barker's instinct to run, but Ash liked walking, even though it was pouring. He had enough questions to last another week.