Apocalypstick (7 page)

Before Lanni could react, nauseating pain hammered her head, and
washed over her body.  She saw stars through blurred vision, and ringing filled
her ears. Her sense of balance abandoned her. Somehow, she caught herself on
the desk; leaning heavily against it with both hands. Confused, she wondered if
the house had been struck by lightning.

Alex was little more than a blur of motion as he stepped over
his whimpering friend, and brushed purposefully past her into the hall.

With virtually no reprieve, the pain struck again. It felt like
her head was being crushed and trying to explode at the same time. Her nausea
became an inexplicable and almost overpowering hunger.

As her sight returned, she found herself staring at Jacob’s
flushed throat, with an insane urge to sink her teeth into it. If she hadn’t
been immobilized by shocking jolts of pain, she might have done so.

Still not recovered from the previous assault, her vision
blurred and her ears rang again, as yet another wave hit. Her muscles twitched
and jumped, treading the thin boundary between agony and numbness. Even
clutching the edge of Alex’s desk, she barely kept her feet.

She gasped for air, but couldn’t draw a full breath. Her heart
quivered in her chest. Even with the overload of sensations wracking her body,
in a moment of shocking clarity, she knew she was dying.

She wanted to resist it, to fight, to scream, but with the
strange energy pulsing through her, her body didn’t seem to get any of her mind’s
signals.

NO!

A low, primal growl of rage clawed its way into her
consciousness, but she couldn’t draw enough breath to give it voice.

Panic!

This isn’t happening!
I won’t
let this happen!

With every ounce of will she could muster, she forced her body
to respond, and was rewarded with a tiny, convulsive gasp of air. It felt like
a great victory, but it was fleeting. She couldn’t hold out against the current
of power trying to wash her out of her body. The world went utterly dark.

#

And then it all came back. With no warning, the aches, the
sounds, the smells, and the inexplicable terror came crashing back. She could
see again. Her brother was beside her, watching her with a hopeful expression.

The energy that nearly killed her was still there, inside her.
But now, it felt no different than her arm, or leg. It had become just another
part of her.

Alex breathed a relieved sigh as she started to act normally
again. “Come on,” he said. “We have to get out of here.”

Then she remembered her mother, and the screams, and the pain.
But where had they gone? The house was still silent. Even the moaning and
whimpering had stopped. The waves of energy still rolled through the house, but
they didn’t hurt her anymore. They broke against her like water on a stone.

Alex must have understood what she was thinking, because he
shook his head. “No. Stay beside me,” he said. “We have to leave.”

“Leave? We have to help Mom! Find a phone,” she said. “Call 911.
We need that ambulance here, now!” She ran to her mother’s room without waiting
for him to answer.

“Lanni, wait! Don’t go in there,” Alex said. “You can’t help
her.”

“Alex! Mom is dying! Get the damned phone!”

“You don’t understand, Lanni. It’s her. This is all coming from
Mom. I don’t know how or why, but she’s been doing it for weeks. It’s never
been this bad, but I’ve felt it, and I know it’s her.”

“What are you talking about? Please don’t go crazy right now. I
really need you.” She started crying. Why was everything going so wrong?

“I thought I was going crazy, too. I keep hearing voices in my
head. They sound like you, and Mom, and Dad, and other people, too. It’s mostly
just bits and pieces, but now I know they’re real. One of them makes me want to
do things… terrible things, but I think I’m stronger. I get these urges, and…”

“GET THE PHONE!” she yelled. He was raving. It was ridiculous to
blame their mother, or anyone. It had to be a freak power surge, or a solar
flare, or something, but that didn’t matter, to her. Nothing mattered except
getting to her mother. She pushed the door open, and her heart sank.

“Oh, no. Please, no!” she sobbed.

“Lisa Ann! It’s not safe, yet. Stay with me!”

Lisa Ann
. She hated her name. He always
called her that when he wanted to sound important, or if he was nervous about
something. It was an odd thing to notice, given the scene she had just stepped
into.

Blood covered everything. It dripped from the ceiling and down
the walls, and soaked the bed. Her mother’s contorted, blood-splattered face
gazed vaguely in Lanni’s direction, frozen into a rictus of horror. Her legs
were both twisted to one side at an unnaturally sharp angle, and her belly
looked like it had been scooped away with a giant grapefruit spoon, leaving
only an empty red cavity.

Her father’s feet stuck out beyond the footboard on the other
side of the bed, toes down.

“Dad?”

Silence.

Lanni took small steps around the foot of the bed, not wanting
to see what awaited her.

“Daddy?”

One of his feet rocked gently from side to side. As his body
came into full view, she knew that she was losing her mind, just like her
brother. An impossible creature stood on her father’s back. It looked like a
wrinkled, black football with four bowed bulldog legs and yellow clawed feet.

Glistening with blood and gore, it made wet, slurping sounds as
it rocked back and forth, clinging to her father like a demonic tick.

I must have died. This is Hell.

Blood poured down her father’s side from beneath the little
monster, and his body jerked as it tugged him from side to side. It pulled away
from him, and sat back on two legs.

The center of its chest was split open from top to bottom, and
filled with several concentric rows of pointy, shark-like teeth. Each row
opened and closed in turns as they shredded an apple-sized chunk of her
father’s flesh, working it deeper into its body. If it had a head or any
sensory organs, they were very well camouflaged.

Ignoring her, it dropped back down on all four feet, and bit
into her father’s back. It must have hit a big vein or artery, because blood
sprayed from the new wound. He was still alive!

In a blind rage, she screamed and charged at it. She wanted to
hurl it against the wall and stomp it to death. It didn’t even try to move as
she reached for it. She was vaguely aware of her brother saying something from
the hall. It sounded urgent, but his words didn’t register with her.

The strip of floor between the bed and wall was barely wide
enough to accommodate her father, so she fell to her knees, straddling his
legs, and tried to pries the thing off of him. It was hot and slippery, though,
like it was covered in oil, and it slipped right through her hands.

A bluish substance dripped from her hands, leaving no residue
behind. It flowed like liquid, but felt as dry as powder. She scarcely noticed
these details before lunging forward to try again.

This time, as she reached for it, the monster quivered slightly,
and another wave of energy slammed into her. It definitely came from the little
toothy football beast. She felt most of the energy flow around her as it had
done in the hall a few moments ago, but the tiny bit that managed to affect her
felt like a bare knuckled punched from a professional boxer.

Completely dazed by the attack, she fell face-down on her
father’s back, while the impossible little beast easily hopped aside.

It sat up on two legs again, right in front of her face, giving
her a very clear, up-close view. She noticed that two of its legs were longer
and thinner, and the conical section of its body between the shorter limbs was
covered in twisty raised ridges, very reminiscent of a human brain.

It moved towards her tentatively, taking small, searching steps
with all four limbs, but it pulled back when a yellow claw grazed her chin.
Aside from the momentary burning feeling, it didn’t hurt, though she knew it
had given her a pretty good cut. She could feel what must have been blood
flowing from the spot.

Her eyes drifted shut, but she fought to stay awake, and forced
them back open. Instead of the little monster, she saw her old pet rabbit,
Carver, sitting in its place.

I must be in shock. I’m hallucinating
.

Her eyes closed again, and when she opened them, Carver was gone
and the monster was back. The slightly raised ridge on its underside split
open, and the shark-like maw chewed the air in anticipation. It smelled like
burning plastic and rancid meat.

It jumped at her, and landed on her head, digging its thick
claws through her scalp. More warm, sticky fluid flowed down over her face as
it lowered its jaws to her head, just above her left ear. The last thing she noticed
was the horrible crunching sound of its teeth digging into her skull. Unable to
fight back, or even move, she hoped that Alex, at least, would escape from the
surreal, chaotic nightmare that had descended upon their waking world.