Chapter 2
Two
W aking dazed, a bit confused, and semi-conscious, she came around to see a twisted branch about six inches in diameter jutting sideways through the car from what used to be the passenger window. It was not more than a few inches in front of her face, the wood wet and peppered with shattered glass.
An image of terror at what it would have done had she been in the path as it thrust its way in, sent a wave of panicked nausea coursing through her.
She vomited and was shocked as it arced upward in front of her eyes– some making its way up her nose caused her to sneeze and sputter in disgust. That’s when she realized part of the unusual sensation she was feeling was that she was upside down in the car.
“Oh, thank God. I’m alive.” She laughed hysterically at the absurdity of it all.
She unfastened her seatbelt and fell into the puddle of vomit, knocking her head against the roof as she fell.
“Ow, Fuck!”
After leaning back and slamming her whole body weight against her driver’s side door as she pulled on the handle, Ren managed to force the door open so she could crawl from the wreckage of the car. The tree branch traced a line from the passenger side extending through the car to the driver’s side and made it difficult to open the door more than a fraction.
As she wriggled her way out onto the ground, a sharp piece of metal gouged deep into her thigh and she screamed as the blood poured from the open wound.
Her quickened pulse and spiking adrenaline only served to pump the crimson liquid faster from her torn flesh. The warmth left her body rapidly causing her to shiver. The deluge of rainwater was relentless adding to the cold with every second it pelted her. The towering storm reached higher into the sky, cooling the moist air into chilling droplets as it rose.
Then in the eerie glow of her car's one working headlight, she could see what looked like a human figure, hunched over something that looked hurt.
The alternating amber light with the dim off-white of the headlight was a stark contrast to the blue-white flashes from the ever present lighting.
Maybe a bystander who witnessed the crash was attempting to aid whatever it was she had clipped on the road.
“Hello?” she called out meekly.
Her leg screamed at her with her first step forward. The rain washed the wound of blood, masking it hideously pale and revealing the jagged edge of her roughly hewn skin.“Hey!” she said a bit louder than previously.
“Can you please help me?” She stumbled forward another step and slipped in the mud, her shoe was already caked with debris from the wreck and the thick clay filled soil.
Her warm tears rolled down her cheeks, mingling and cooling with the chill of the rain.
“I need help! Do you have a phone…I seemed to have lost mine in the accident!” She yelled louder. It hurt, straining her voice to achieve its max volume, forcing her to cough.
She pressed herself up, and winced in pain at the effort. The adrenaline was wearing off at this point and her aches in her body were more prevalent.
What she saw when she got closer was a nightmare in the torrential downpour.
Whoever this… “man” was, was dressed all in black, but his exposed hands and face were covered in red, and he was not helping. Not helping at all…but… feeding? He looked like a grizzly bear gorging on the carcass of a fresh kill trying to fatten up before hibernation.
It seemed he was unaware of her presence. The meal in front of him seemed to have all of his attention.
The ripping sounds of flesh being torn at by bare hands, mixed with the din of the storm masked the sound of her calls. The ever present rumbles of thunder and gusting winds also masked the sounds of her sloshing through the mud and underbrush.
She gasped, barely above a whisper, but the bloodied man’s head perked up and he began to sniff the air. Alerted now by a seemingly less apparent, but more provoking signal that he wasn't alone.
“Oh god, what are you?” She clenched her fists and hugged herself. Her squeeze pressed the underwire of her bra into one of her breasts which made her wince once more in pain. Pain that radiated from everywhere now in the presence of a growing terror that gripped her chest.
He moved from the kill with chunks of stringy bloody meat in his teeth and what looked like maybe a heart or some internal organ in his gnarled fingers.
Just then there was an explosion. The car she had just escaped burst into flames.
Ren was thrown to the ground by the force of the blast wave as gasoline ignited. Her aching body barely managed to brace for the impact before the ground welcomed her like a lost lover.
The man, the beast, jerked its head in her direction and shrieked, its solid black eyes, reflecting the light of the fire.
The eyes seemed to bore into Ren's very soul. She felt an inexplicable pull towards them, a strange compulsion she couldn't shake off even in her panic.
The bright light of the fire was dimmed in short order with the dowsing rain that fell relentlessly. Darkness took over now that the lights and fire from the car had both been extinguished. Panicking, Ren did her best to push up from the ground and move away from the nightmare, the impossible reality that was unfolding.
With blinding speed, the creature ran at Ren. A gust of wind formed in his wake forcing the rain to shear sideways around her as he moved. The atmosphere surrounding her seemed devoid of oxygen, his speed pulled all the air out of her lungs and she crumpled to the ground.
She tried to scream but all she managed was a muffled, near mute moan. There was not enough breath in her lungs to lend any force to the sound. The taste of blood filled her mouth as she bit her lip, a sharp burst of pain cutting through her fear.
A growl not unlike that of a dog guarding its favorite toy or food bowl rented the space between them. The metallic tang of blood lingered as the world faded into black.