MonsterVille
Ten

The first hour after Mellie left was uneventful. River made a few notes in the notebook, but for the most part he just lazed about and stared at the putrid state of his arm.

Right up until he heard the creak of wooden panels. Someone was in the house. He was going to be all manly and run to the nearest room with a lock on the door but that dream was shattered right about the time the sliding glass door was. Glass exploded inwards as a nasty looking rat man came crashing into the room, the glass cut all along its fur and left globs of blackened goop—that must have passed for blood—on the walls and floor. The monster snickered and turned its twitching face towards River.

“Shit.” Was the most he could manage to get out.

He contemplated trying to flee but a second rat was coming down the stairs, it’s pincers sniping at the air with sharp clicks as it cut off his exit. He didn’t need to look to know there was a third one coming in from the other corridor. He didn’t know how it had gotten into the house but that was really a moot point given it was there.

Three rats. River hadn’t been able to fend off one.

“Ah hey guys,” he started. “Maybe you missed the signs but this is Mellie’s place, I uh don’t think you’re supposed to be here, but hey if you leave now I won’t tell her you broke her door? I mean I’ll tell her I did it, an accident you know.” The rat at the door snicked and drew himself up to his full height, which was an impressive six foot of bipedal rat.

Hell River didn’t even like normal rats, the appearance of three six foot two hundred pound versions of the rodents with pincers and raging infections… well that was the thing of nightmares. Monster Ville. What a lovely place to visit, but he wouldn’t want to live there. Actually he didn’t really want to visit either but he didn’t have much of a say in the matter.

He edged towards the fire place and the rats hesitated, snickering back and forth at each other. It appeared they weren’t all that fond of fire, something else he would note if he survived the experience. Fire and decapitation. Without taking his eyes off the rats he reached behind and snagged the poker from next to the fireplace. It wasn’t much but at least it was something and while the rats snickered and twitched he casually leant back with the end of the poker sticking in the fire. Maybe he could give them a few burns before they ripped him open and ate his guts. He wondered if that was stereotyping, maybe rat monsters didn’t eat people’s guts, maybe they just enjoyed nibbling on fingers and toes, or maybe they were like those rats they used to torture people in medieval days.

River had read about men who had committed crimes being slathered in honey in their more personal areas before they would be locked in a hot steel box with a bucket full of rats. The rats would eventually kill the man, if dehydration didn’t get them, but first they’d nibble away one bite at a time. Castration by rat, what a lovely thought to be flitting through his mind right then.

“So I’m just throwing this out there but if you’re upset about your friend…” Whose body was still lying in the back yard as far as River knew, “I didn’t kill him.”

Could the rats even speak in a human tongue? Mellie had explained all about skins, masks and shifting, but she hadn’t specified which if any the rats used. Maybe they were the kind of monster that just perpetually hid in the dark places out of sight of the rest of the world.

Stairwell Rat shuffled forward and River sighed before taking an experimental swing with the poker. It didn’t seem to bother the rat in the slightest. Corridor Rat moved forward and River took another swing.

“Come on guys, can’t you even play fair? Just a little? Maybe come at me one at a time.”

“Maybe if you stopped calling them guys?” A woman suggested.

River glanced up to the top of the stairs where the delightfully amused and very pretty Katie-Cam was idly standing, or rather, lounging. She had her arms spread across the banister as she stared down at the unfolding scene with an expression of uncontained delight.

He never saw her move, she was just miraculously beside him. “They’re women,” she elaborated just in case River hadn’t gotten the idea. “And if it makes you feel better I don’t think these three are here to kill you.”

“No?” River said, he wasn’t sure he would enjoy the alternative all that much either, “You know what,” he continued, “I think I’m blissfully ignorant on this one.”

She shrugged as if it made no difference to her. The delicate roll of her shoulder was sensual, enticing and River felt his libido beginning to race. What was wrong with him? He was in the middle of a life or death situation and all he could think about was sex? With a monster?!

“I just got back to town today,” Katie-Cam remarked as if the rats weren’t still moving towards them, “turns out my old haunt has rotted, do you think Mellie will mind if I stay here for a few days?”

“Ah,”

“I would of course provide all courtesy as a guest in her home, I would protect what was hers.”

“In that case I’m sure she wouldn’t have a problem with that at all,” River said quickly.

Katie-Cam pursed her lips in contemplation, her soft pouty lips that River’s gaze lingered on.

“Of course to be sure I’d have to ask her, and it would be rude of me to intrude without her permission… however I suppose since you are her property you could give me leave to remain here and wait for her.”

“Yep, leave to stay, totally.” River blurted out, the rats were almost on them and while Katie-Cam obviously had the luxury of drawing things out to amuse herself that wasn’t going to turn out all that well for River.

“But that still doesn’t provide me guest rights in her home, merely a guarantee of neutrality.” She tapped a lacquered nail against her bottom lip before she snapped her fingers together, “Perhaps in the interim you and I could come to our own arrangement?

“I could rid the house of these little pests,” she fluttered her fingers disparaging at the rats, “but I would need something in exchange.”

“Name it.”

“Oh honey you should never make such an open ended deal with a monster,” her lacquered fingers grasped his chin and turned him to look at her as she rose on tip toe and gently pressed her warm sensuous lips into his.

River went weak at the kiss, it was like molten metal, it burnt with a chaser of electricity sparking through his being. He had never experienced anything like it in his life.

“But a deal is struck.”

She moved in a wisp of air, a twist of shadows, her feet were soundless on the hardwood floors. She materialised by the rat monster in the stairwell and in one swift motion she plucked its heart from its chest and twisted the monster’s head from its shoulder. The body fell and the other two rat monsters started snickering in panic. Again there was no sign of Katie-Cam moving, she appeared by the rat in the corridor, she bunched her fist up in its fur and casually flung it into the fire place.

Turns out the reason rat monsters weren’t all that fond of fire was that they were extremely flammable. It went up in a whoosh of flame, its death screams rattling through the house. Katie-Cam didn’t even bothering heading for the one by the doors, it was already beating a hasty retreat. Still she scooped up a particularly long shard of glass, gave River a wink and flung it backhanded. It decapitated the fleeing monster.

“Well that was dull,” she remarked as she sat herself on the couch and patted the space beside her.

“Thanks,” River said as he slid into place beside her, “I thought I was a dead man.”

“Oh I’m sure you would have acquitted yourself well with that little poker of yours,” Katie-Cam soothed his ego, “and no thanks are necessary. We struck a deal you and I. Those three rats in exchange for an undefined payment on your part, now I can think of a number of ways you could repay me. Some of them you’d even enjoy.”

She moved with that surreal motion and was straddling him before he was even aware of it, her arms resting on his shoulders and her hips gently grinding him. His body didn’t require the encouragement to stand to attention but she certainly seemed to be enjoying the motion herself. She threw her head back and laughed.

“Would you enjoy this my little human? Do you think such action would be suitable repayment for services rendered?”

She ground into him harder and he hissed, not entirely in pain. Her hot lips pressed into his throat and that molten surge of heat churned through him again. It was like being born anew, infused with pure lightning as her mouth raked along his throat and found his lips again. A strong probing tongue opened his mouth and every stroke of her body was a titillating tease. Her nails raked along his back and River cried out, he could feel the blood seeping down his body.

She leant back, her knees keeping him locked in place, as she licked the blood from her fingers one by one. With his blood still on her lips she darted forward and kissed him again. The metallic taste of his own blood was less pleasant but there was something about her, something that reached down inside of him and stirred him up. River wrapped his arms around Katie-Cam and turned her into the couch so it was his turn to lean down over her.

“Mmm,” she murmured, “I do enjoy a man who knows what he wants.”

“What are you?” he breathed out.

“Does it matter?” she retorted. “Is there anything I could say right now that would stop you from fucking me on this couch?” he said nothing. “I didn’t think so.”

Her hand squeezed down on his bandage and he cried out in pain. The sadistic expression edging her face said she knew exactly how much that hurt and she had enjoyed every second of it. River still didn’t care.

She slid one razor sharp nail through the thick leather of her own vest and it split like slit paper, her small pert breasts exposed to the world. For a moment he hesitated, for a moment the reality of the situation tried to edge in. The moment past. She took hold of his head and dragged him down into her breasts were he gently bit down, his teeth scraping along skin.

“Harder.” She demanded, and he bit down more forcefully, “Harder!” His teeth broke skin and he tasted blood. What was he doing? It was insane but he couldn’t stop. “Again.” She demanded. His teeth grazed her nipple and he bit down till he left a perfect bloody imprint of his teeth in her skin. “My turn.”

Katie-Cam moved him with such a swift motion he should have had whiplash, he went from on top to being straddled again. He wasn’t even aware that she had cut through his jeans the same way she had removed her vest until she thrust herself down and he felt himself hard and inside of her, her body constricting around him as she writhed with furious desire. She rose and fell with inhuman speed, he couldn’t watch, the motion was too dizzying. He closed his eyes and leant back, letting his hands do his part. Resting on her waist before they slid up and played with the tender parts of her body.

She began to moan before she began to scream. River felt like she was going to ride his body raw, every time she came close she slowed her pace and raked her nails down his chest, his blood was flowing down his skin in rivulets and in those moments when she slowed her inhuman pace she licked along his chest and swallowed down his blood with soft groans of desire. She nibbled along his throat, dragged her teeth through his skin and then let her body begin to rise and fall again.

She threw her head back and with a piercing scream that could have shattered glass she came to a fierce shuddering climax, the writhing of her body brought him to release in the same instant and he gasped out as he spilled inside of her. Their bodies were slick with blood, sweat and other fluids and even she was breathing hard from her exertions. She also seemed perfectly content to remain situated atop of him, with him still inside of her while she caught her breath.

“Not bad,” she patted him on the chest, “not bad at all.”

The front door clicked open and Katie-Cam’s attention snapped to the hallway, she flicked her hair to one side before she planted a bloody sweaty kiss on River’s lips and vanished in a wisp of the breeze, which left a naked and still erect River sitting on the ruined white couch, his blood all over the place and the bodies of rat monsters strewn about the house when Mellie walked into the room.

She froze at the sight of him, at the sight of all of him exposed, her eyes wandered over the chaos and then she bent over laughing, a raucous uncontrollable laughter that filled the house and made River blush the deepest crimson.

“Oh Katie,” Mellie exclaimed before she promptly ignored River and headed towards the basement stairs.