MonsterVille
Three

It was darker and colder than before, if that was even possible. Probably the wind coming in over one of the many lakes in the area and bringing that extra refreshing gust of ice wind to chill the two of them to the bone.

River and Derrick alternated between jogging and walking for the first ten miles or so, but it was just too damn cold. River couldn’t catch his breath and while Derrick could probably have covered the miles faster on his own he had slowed to a brisk walk to keep pace with River.

Derrick hadn’t said anything when River caught up to him, but his expression of relief had been damn obvious. He had fallen into the role of leader by default, as such he had been trying to maintain the appearance of being calm, collected and totally in control of the situation. But whatever instincts were screaming at River he could see the same thoughts flitting through Derrick.

“Do you hear that?” Derrick asked quietly, he was a little out of breath.

River stopped walking. He strained to listen and unbidden a smile broke out.

“That Derrick,” River said proudly, “is the dulcet sounds of Ella Fitzgerald.” He couldn’t contain his excitement.

“Uh, who?”

“Jazz singer,” River said. “My parents listened to her all the time when I was a kid. Come on,” he added excitedly, “it can’t be too far away!”

With renewed vigour River burst into a sprint, well he called it a sprint for the sake of his ego but it was more of a brisk jog given he was chilled to the bone and exhausted.

They covered the next mile in a ground eating stride and the sounds of Ella Fitzgerald were joined by the beep of a car, the honk of a horn, the light sounds of other music playing into the night joined by the hustle and bustle of small town life. It had to be close to four am, if not later, but it sounded as if the town was in full swing. Not that that they could replace a town. They had to be close, there was too much noise for them not to be close but they couldn’t seem to replace it… that was right up until they did.

The road crested a small rise and the sprawling lights of a town appeared as if by magic. The town was set in the midst of a series of rising and falling hills that completely obscured it from view until they were right on top of it.

River stopped on the crest and sighed in relief. Derrick gave him a hearty slap on the back and the two men jogged down into the town with the largest cheesiest grins on their faces. River could already imagine telling the story at the campus pub later, ‘from the jaws of certain death… we were stranded in the middle of nowhere, all hope was lost while the woods closed in and we were the only hope for our poor dear friends…’

What was a good story without at least a little embellishment after all?

With the lights of the town enveloping them all thoughts of the woods and fears of being watched were pushed back into the recesses of his mind and forgotten. Given their miraculous salvation from the bitter cold River didn’t think too much about the fact the town was in full swing in the wee hours of the morning as if it was a Friday night. All he could think was Thank God.

From the crest of the hill as they descended into the town River saw a park in the centre of a mass of buildings with dozens of people gathered, listening to a woman who had taken the place of the Fitzgerald music that had been playing, her voice was mesmerising as she sang and her audience was certainly entranced.

A vendor was selling fresh organic fruits on a corner while a few women gathered around. There was a diner on one side of the street filled with men and women eating, drinking and being generally merry. There was also a bar a few buildings down with a drunken man stumbling out the front doors. They sure seemed to have a late last drinks. River supposed in a small, remotish, town they could pretty much do what they liked, no real issue of regulations except what the populace was willing to accept.

More than a few eyes turned towards River and Derrick and the two men sheepishly glanced away.

“Uh hi?” River offered hesitantly as they drew level with a couple of teenagers in letterman’s jackets. They looked all of seventeen but they had the attitude down pat, one of them gave a dismissive disparaging look while the other cracked a smile as his eyes raked over River’s ensemble.

“I don’t suppose you could direct us to a Sheriff’s station, or a hospital, someone who could give us a hand?” The boy didn’t respond. Instead his eyes narrowed, he leant forward and he sniffed. He took a deep drag of air, held it and breathed out like it was smoke.

The teenager that had smiled quirked his head to one side and River gulped nervously.

“Ah, don’t worry about it.” River said, “We’ll try the diner.” He nudged Derrick who happily skipped a step towards the diner. River noted the two teens pushed off the wall they had been supporting and started to follow them. That sense of unease, of dread, that had abated at the sight of the town was back in full swing and River stepped just a little faster. He pushed open the door to the diner and for one blissful moment he forgot all his worries as the warm air buffeted him, soaked into his icy skin, he sighed softly and Derrick pushed him further into the diner.

Once again they drew some fairly odd looks; apparently the locals weren’t used to seeing a guy dressed like a cheerleader walking around town. Fair enough. Still the rapt attention of everyone in that diner turned to them with deathly silence. All conversations instantly halted. Nobody moved. Nobody spoke. They just watched.

“Hey,” Derrick said with a wave for the room. “So ah, our car broke down up the road a bit. We’re just looking for a little help?”

There was something off about the people in that diner, their expressions were wrong; crooked smiles, strange tilts to their heads as if they were animals studying their strange new prey.

“I don’t mean to sound pushy,” Derrick added, “but we left our friends back there and—”

Their interest piqued and River wished Derrick hadn’t said anything about their friends. It was hard to say what it was exactly but everyone was just off. One of them cracked. Literally. He was a man in his late forties with a bulging belly and a shady patch of whiskers, he stood up, looked at River and smiled. Only when he smiled it didn’t stop with a curve of his lips or a flash of teeth, the edge of his mouth cracked like broken dirt. Flakes of skin crumbled away and his smile stretched till it reached his ears, the entire lower half of his face fell off like dried flaking mud and he offered a broken smile filled with pointed teeth.

River’s jaw dropped. “What the hell…”

The waitress behind the diner blinked and when she opened her eyes there was nothing but black, no pupil, no white, just solid black as dark as night and as fathomless as the depths of the ocean. A snap drew his attention and the man at the table closest startled cackling, a sort of cackle anyway; it was a burst of twisted sound as his skin turned mottled grey and started to slide off his face in a pile of ooze.

Derrick grabbed River’s arm and yanked him around only to replace a young woman standing between them and the door. She was a dainty looking girl in her early twenties, stunningly attractive with golden spun hair and lilac eyes. Eyes that swirled like molten metal, burnished, shining, impossible and unreal but entirely transfixing.

Her voice was worthy of Calliope herself, a muse of music and inspiration, her choice of words on the other hand….

She smiled sweetly as she said, “Welcome to MonsterVille.”