We'll Make the Pain Go Away

The mayor said it was a freak explosion--some underground gas line. It was all over the news. The police went to investigate, so did the fire department, EMS, and these guys in black suits from the U.S. Department of the Interior or something but by then word had spread through town. It seemed off. Everything seemed off. But life--sadly--was meant to go on.

At school, everyone seemed off. Like, they were all paying attention, no one was joking or talking or passing notes and every few minutes someone was asking to get some water. When Jakob tried to drag me into the boys bathroom, I knew there was a problem.

"You've got to help me!" He'd never pulled me into a stall before but here we were--Jakob looking like he'd seen a ghost and recently thrown up.

"You okay?" I tried to keep my own confusion in check, but it had taken root already. "What happened?"

"C-coach Vickers h-held me down and…" just asking had made him relive it. "He tried to put this THING on me."

"Thing? Eww," I grabbed the stall latch and made to leave but he slammed the door shut with enough force to shake the flimsy stall walls.

"You can't!"

"Dude, if Coach Vickers tried to touch you with his thing you should go to the guidance counselor or the cops…"

"No!" He was panicked and forced his way between me and the door and latched the door shut. The look in his eye made my blood run cold.

"Y-you're scaring me."

"Good! You should be scared!" I took a step back and tripped over the toilet--thankfully landing on the seat. "Remember that explosion?"

"Yeah, the mayor said it was…"

"Bullshit," Jakob snapped. "They got to the mayor; I don't know how but they're changing people. It's got to be those THINGS."

"What things?"

"They're like these tiny jellyfish things," he let the word vomit flow. "I don't know, didn't stick around to dissect it or anything. Just kicked him in the dick and ran but he had one of those things on his back. It was glowing green and…"

"What are you talking about?" It was nonsense, had to be. "Jellyfish? On his back?"

"Don't look at me like that!" It must've slipped out, but he had to be crazy, right? "I know what I saw!"

He started to pace, and I bolted for the door. He grabbed me and pushed me back against the wall.

"Adrienne, please," His bright, blue eyes begging. "You have to believe me…"

With my arms pressed back against the wall and my friend Jakob inches from me I was stuck. He was stronger and though I tested my own strength against his I knew he had me here. A chill ran down my spine and settled into the pit of my stomach. He looked desperate, crazed.

"Please…"

And that's when a green light began to seep into the room, not strong enough to drown out the buzzing fluorescents or the dim daylight filtering through the cramped windows, but bright enough to tinge everything with a sickly, green glow. Jakob must've noticed it because he clasped a hand over my mouth, gave me a very calm and fearful shush, then moved me back to the toilet.

"Get up on the toilet." His voice a barely audible whisper.

"What?"

"Please, just trust me…"

I climbed up and kept low, he joined me. And we stood in silence as our intruder dragged its feet through the bathroom--a strange, heartbeat like sound echoing off the dark blue and dingy tile floor and walls.

"The fuck is that?" I risked a whisper.

Jakob shushed me again.

Then the first stall door burst inward and sounded like it nearly came off the hinges. The metal walls it connected to shook violently and the bolts holding them to the wall looked ready to give after a single attack from whatever it was.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," Jakob was shaking and trying his best to keep his shaky words barely above his breath.

"Jaaaaaaaaaaakkkkkkoooooooob," Brett didn't sound right but it was definitely him. It was like he was sick or maybe dreaming but there was something strained in his voice--like a second voice was just underneath it. And his breathing… it was labored, almost a wheeze. "We know you're in heeeeerrrrrreeeeeeee."

The feeble metal walls shook again and nearly tore free from the wall when the stall door next to ours burst open and crashed to the floor with broken hinges. Brett was dragging a foot, shambling like some kind of zombie--or at least that's what it sounded like. I took a chance and unzipped the small pouch in the front of my backpack and drew out the knife I kept on me--a thin, twisted and mostly decorative kris. He stopped breathing.

Jakob locked eyes with me and shook his head in a panic. He was ready to cave in on himself and let them come or run for the door, but I drew the kris and got it ready. The steel rattled lightly, and Brett's eye appeared in the crack.

"Oh, Jakey," Brett tsked. "You bring a little friend into the stall with you? Is that it? Sneaking off for a little sucky-sucky?"

I leapt from the toiletand drove my kris through the gap and into his eye. He roared back, screaming an unearthly, glass shattering scream and pulled back from the door. I threw the door open and lunged at him while he was on his back foot. Brett was a big guy, a running back for the football team or something so I couldn't give him time to recover. I drove my shoulder into his sternum and forced him back against the wall.

He let out an audible gasp and that's when I saw it, the tendrils undulating across his neck in rhythm with his heartbeat. The green glow of the creature on his back reflected off the wall and gave the river of scarlet from his eye an unearthly sheen. He thrashed about, clawing at his eye, trying to catch his breath and keep the creature on his back protected--so I drove the kris into the top of it and watched as he hit the floor convulsing.

"What the fuck is that thing!?"

Brett began to foam at the mouth--his convulsions turning violent--and the green light faded to nothing. A hand dropped on my shoulder, and I spun, knife at the ready, but Jakob's crazed and panicked face calmed my nerves enough to focus.

"We can't be here," he was looking for some hope in my eyes.

"My place," I slipped the knife into my bag, grabbed his hand, and pulled him to the door. "We'll hide out in my room and figure something out. There's got to be someone we can…"

I pushed open the door and for a moment was blinded by the bright light of the midday sun… But slowly they came into focus--those familiar forms made wrong by the growing, pulsing creatures on their back.

"Join us," they said in unison and then Reagan stepped forward, a sweet smile twisted up on her pale and overly made-up face--a smile only familiar to me in the dark of night with no other witnesses.

"C'mon, Adri, we can make all that pain go away," The quivering thing on her back forced her to speak. "We can make all of you whole again."

And she held out the small, glowing green thing in her hand and took a step forward with the whole of the student body and faculty assembled. They had come in force and my knife wasn't going to be enough this time.