MonsterVille
Thirty Six

Separation anxiety. River wasn’t sure how it happened, but after the Apex left the crowd of monsters surged back into place—filling that void—and carrying him along with them. One moment he was beside Mellie the next second he lost her… which left him keenly aware of being surrounded by hundreds of revelling monsters. Most wore their human masks, or at least a semblance of a mask, while a few had shucked the trappings of humanity and were partying uninhibited by flesh.

“Mellie?” he asked quietly. She was gone.

It was reminiscent of that disquieting sense of being a lost child calling for his ‘mummy’. Alone in a strange scary word, the partiers watched him. He was sure it was just his imagination—not every monster was instinctively thinking they would eat him. He hoped. He didn’t think he had ever felt so alone in his entire life.

“Are you ok?” the cadence of the voice was low; close.

River started as he turned and stumbled, bouncing off the back of a gigantic man that didn’t even notice him. The woman that had spoken was right behind him, her head was quirked to one side leaving her long messy black hair hanging down one side of her body. She was tiny, maybe five foot one, with a petite build. Not that appearance meant anything.

“Um, ah, I uh,”

“It’s ok,” she said, “I know it must be frightening being here.”

“Ah yeah,” River said slowly.

“Where’s your Master?” It was an innocent question. So why did every instinct scream at him to make something up, to run, to hide, to get the hell away from her as fast as he could.

“She’s,” he gulped, “getting some drinks?” he offered weakly.

The woman smiled, revealing pearly white teeth. She didn’t buy it for a second.

“You’ve lost her haven’t you? Somewhere in this,” she gestured around her, “this den of indulgent mayhem.”

“No, no, I mean, she’s um, she’s just over by the table.” His excuses were as transparent as glass. She stepped closer, into his personal space. Her body was hot, smoking hot physically, but she was literally radiating heat like she was running a few degrees hotter than a human.

She arched a brow in a teasing manner, “Which table?”

River’s mouth opened and closed, “Ah…”

She tapped a finger against his chest, it was the lightest touch but he winced as the tap of her nail struck flesh and drew blood. It had sliced through his shirt like it wasn’t there. She tapped him again, another pin prick of pain and spot of blood.

“Not going to shout or scream?” she leant in, “Do you enjoy a little pain?”

“Pain’s not really my thing,” River said quietly.

“So why don’t you shout?”

He deflated. “What would be the point? It’s not a coincidence you’re here when Mellie’s not, is it?”

“I don’t believe in coincidences.” She whispered.

“What do you want from me?”

Her fingers slowly drummed against his chest, one prick at a time. Her black beady little eyes narrowed.

“I want to hear you scream.”

“No.”

She smiled, those pearly white teeth glistened and sharpened to points. “Trust me, you are going to scream for me. One way or another.”

“Did I do something?” River asked, “I mean specifically something to piss you off? Narrow it down for me, because if this is personal I’d like to know, but if it’s just you being a crazy whack job bitch then go to hell.” Her finger jutted into his chest. Deeper. He couldn’t believe he had just said that, what was wrong with him? Was he actively courting his own violent and bloody demise? For the love of God, what was wrong with him?

She leant in close, till her eyes were a bare inch from his and her lips brushed his skin. “Yes.”

River grimaced. He grabbed her hand as she pushed that finger deeper. He gasped, breathing hard, as he tried to push her away and she just smiled. Her finger worming deeper into his chest.

“Scream.”

“Fuck. You.” He squeezed her hand as hard as he could, his fingers turning white while she laughed at him.

“Yo bitch!” Words accompanied by a fist slamming into that woman’s face. She was thrown from her feet, crashing into the compact earth as Danny casually stepped in to fill the space she had previously occupied. River’s jaw dropped. Danny. He was still alive. River thought Brannaugh had killed him, but he was alive… he wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about that given the massacre Danny had been part of, but at the same time some part of him leapt for joy.

Danny was wearing his rakishly handsome human visage. It was queer to look into human eyes knowing what lurked beneath the mask.

“Can you even see out of those eyes?” River asked absently. “I mean your actual eyes are here.” River poked him in the chest. A chest that felt like compact muscle and flesh, not like it was the resting place of gelatinous eyes and a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth. “So can you see out of the ones in your head, or do you somehow see out of your chest? But then wouldn’t your clothes be in the way?”

“Man, I think you might be in shock.”

“I thought Brannaugh killed you.” River admitted, “Wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I mean you’re a monster, and you killed those people… but, you’ve been my friend for so damn long. I think I’m glad you’re alive.”

“Oh but I don’t think he will be.”

The she-monster was back on her feet, and she looked excited. She licked her lips and rolled her neck to a loud creak. She was so small, so petite, she looked nearly harmless but Danny took a half step back as he got a good look at her.

“Oh fuck me…”

“You didn’t know who I was.” She surmised. “Ignorance isn’t a saving grace headless, I will rip you to pieces and eat you alive.” She snickered. River closed his eyes as he took a deep breath. That snicker. He knew that sound, he had heard it in nightmares and waking, it was a sound that was going to haunt him for the rest of his life. The sound of being hunted through the woods, the sound of rats looking to him as their prey.

She was a rat. So why did Danny look so pale? The rats were disgusting little monsters but on the scale of bad-assery they weren’t exactly hitting a ten—not compared to other monsters. River turned his full attention back to her, tried to figure out the missing piece of the puzzle.

“I didn’t mean to offend you,” Danny said cautiously. His hands held forward passively.

“A punch in the face isn’t an offense. It’s a declaration of intent.” She shrugged flippantly, “What you intended however, that is debatable. Stand aside headless and we might come to an arrangement once I am done with this one.”

Danny tensed. But he didn’t move.

“I rarely ask twice. A human life isn’t worth it.” She warned.

“Oh fuck me,” Danny rubbed his eyes wearily. “Please don’t do this.”

“Like the arrow released, I am committed to my course. Intractable. But you needn’t die for his sake. He looks at you with such disdain, such horror, why spend your life for one such as him?”

Danny looked back at River, he could see the decision being weighed. The conflict within him.

“Man, you don’t owe me anything.” River offered him an out, “I don’t know why she thinks she’s such hot stuff but I’ve killed a rat before. So just walk away.”

She laughed, a raucous laughter and Danny sighed.

“She’s not just a rat.” Danny said, “She’s the Rat-Queen, and she’s a fucking Apex.”

River closed his eyes and laughed, it was hysterical laugher. An Apex. Not just a monster but an Apex. He couldn’t stop laughing.

“Still want me to walk away?”

River was doubled over, tears of laughter running down his cheeks. “Well yeah, I mean I’m going to die. She’s going to kill me. Why should you come along for the ride?” He wiped the tears away, “Walk away man, hell run, don’t die on my account. It wouldn’t change anything anyway.”

She snickered. Danny was caught half turned between them.

“Danny. Run.”

River saw the exact moment Danny made his choice. It answered River’s question of whether he could see out of those human eyes, because they reflected his pain, his struggle. They showed Danny’s choice.

He turned. A wild fist swinging through the faint mist, hurtling towards the Rat-Queen in a brutal frenzy. The impact of flesh on flesh was momentous.

She caught his hand, and she squeezed. The audible sounds of bone crunching filled the air and Danny twisted to his knees, falling beneath the casual display of her strength.

“Oh headless,” she crouched over him, “that was the wrong choice. What could have possibly compelled you to such foolishness? Throwing your life away for a human that isn’t even yours?”

Danny ignored her. He looked back up at River and tried to smile, “I really was trying to save you. At the mer’s place. Probably went about it all wrong, but I wanted you to know that.”

For the second time that night a monster uttered the eloquent cry of, “Yo bitch!” As a double set of hands latched onto the Rat-Queen and wrenched her around in an inhuman motion, flinging her into the crowd of onlooking monsters with a startled cry. The sound of flesh colliding with that wall of monsters resulted in piercing screams, shrieks, grunts and even a few laughs.

Madelina stood towering above Danny. She looked resplendent in a glacial blue dress, her hair whipping about in the wind as she crossed her arms and stared the Rat down.

The Rat-Queen pushed back to her feet, accompanied by the disconcerting sound of shredding cloth. The monsters to either side gasped as she pushed off them and released their innards across the dirt. Her beady black eyes narrowed, her bloody hands rested on her hips and she stared between Madelina and Danny like she was solving the most complex puzzle in the history of mankind.

She snickered. A click of tongue on teeth that resounded through the sunken field.

“What is wrong with you?” she wasn’t shouting, or ranting, she spoke quietly, her tone one of curiosity rather than rage, “You would lay hands on me, for the sake of a human life?”

“We’re ah, not from around here.” Danny offered as he clambered back to his feet.

“I am Apex.” Rat-Queen stated. “Apex is Apex.”

“Eh,” Danny muttered, “Guess we’ve got a death wish.”

She turned her attention to Madelina, “And you frost-creature, do you also wish to die this Eve? Is that why you would lay your hands on me?”

“Well you know, that and your atrocious fashion choices. Anyone might be provoked to violence.” Madelina retorted.

“Do not mock me as you would a human,” Rat-Queen cautioned. “Answer my question.”

“You want something you can understand?” Madelina retorted, “Prior claim. He was mine before any others dared touch him, and I am taking him back.”

Rat-Queen tweaked her head to the side, a motion that looked all too human until the moment her head was resting at an angle that would have resulted in a broken neck for anyone else.

“You were his master?”

“In a sense.”

“Ah.” Rat-Queen smirked, “You were his lover. Strange things happens beyond our Sanctuaries. Monsters that bed humans for pleasure, for emotion, rather than amusement or dinner. It is a pestilence, a plague of humanity rife in the tamed. It should be excised.”

“Tamed?” Madelina echoed, “Watch who you’re calling tam—”

Madelina was cut off by the abrupt appearance of fingers in her throat. “Hush little monster,” the Rat-Queen murmured, touching bloodied fingers to Madelina’s lips, “Don’t say a word.”

“Maddy!”

The Rat-Queen glanced back at River as she casually discarded Madelina, a bare flick of her wrist that sent her spinning into the crowd. A crowd of monsters that flowed back into place around her—she disappeared from sight and River had a gut wrenching feeling that he was never going to see her again. A few days ago that would have made him happy as a clam, now? God he was so confused.

“Blemmyes.” She said, “Choose your next words with care. Why do you seek to protect this human?”

“Ah,” Danny cleared his throat and met River’s eyes, “Momentary lapse of sanity?”

“Then be on your way, I do so hate waste.”

“Sorry man.” Danny offered, he half leapt, half stumbled back to his feet, and vanished in the crowd. Which left River with the Apex Rat-Queen.

“A poor diversion,” she mused, “now shall we be off?”

“Off?” River asked faintly.

“Given the activities I have in mind for this evening a change of venue will be required.” She offered her hand, her bloody elongated rat-like hand. River stared at it in dismay.