ALL NOVEL 3 – Dance Partners
3 - Dance Partners
A girl in a prom dress stood crying at the edge of a moonlit lake. Her date stood her up. She lied to her papa when she asked to borrow his pickup, saying she would go to the school on her own anyway.
*******
Eris runs through her warmup stretches in a red tracksuit on the edge of a moonlit lake. Her dance partner should be here any time now. She glances back at her van in consideration before deciding she has all she needs for tonight.
*******
The girl realized her makeup was running. Not that all the hours she’d spent over the past two years perfecting it had made a difference in the end. All the blush and mascara in the world wouldn’t change the fact that she was a tall freak with big arms and callused hands. The fact that she’d been asked out at all was probably a prank.
Still, the feeling of her work from earlier in the evening coming undone was enough to spur her into reining in her tears at least a little. She’d come out to the lake to make herself feel better, so that’s what she was going to do. She wiped away her tears, ignored the cleaning fees the smudged makeup on her dress was going to incur, and tried to take in the natural beauty she’d come here for. And then tried not to feel hurt all over again when she noticed the couple making out further down the shore.
But what was that shape in the water moving toward them?
*******
Eris looks out over the lake. Still no sign of her dance partner. Perhaps he’s hiding and waiting for her to find him. It wouldn’t be the first time he tried to surprise her like that.
But where if not right here at the edge of the water? The visitor center? No, the two of them had made a mess of that place just last year and he liked to change things up. The camp cabins? Maybe, but that’s further from the water than he usually prefers and she’d already verified that no one was booked to be staying there tonight, so it wasn’t likely he’d be there getting started early with someone else. Oh, maybe the boathouse. “Closed for renovations” signs have always been like invitations for him.
After making her way over to the boathouse she pauses in front of the smudged glass door and indulges a passing whimsy to strike a pose in the pool of yellow light beneath a flickering incandescent lamp. She likes to think she cuts an intimidating figure, standing taller than most men, muscles gained from a decade of vigorous training and demanding work bulging against the tracksuit as she flexes, and eagerly grinning teeth catching the light just so. Yes, dramatically posing like this is definitely cool and intimidating, and not silly in the slightest.
But enough of that, there’s a dance to be had.
*******
The girl walked down the shore to get a better look at the shape in the water, drawn by morbid curiosity and a vague sense of dread. It wasn’t the distraction from her woes she’d come to the lake looking for, but she’d take it all the same.
At first it was just an odd ripple in the otherwise placid dark water. Probably just a duck, or maybe a turtle. Hard to tell from the distance she was at, but something felt off about it. As she got closer to the couple and the thing in the water got closer to the shore it seemed to get bigger. Or had it just been mostly underwater and was starting to surface? A gator?
The girl was hardly fifty feet away from the couple who were too busy working their hands under each other's clothes to notice her approach when the thing in the water breached the surface. It was a man, or so she thought at first. A deathly pale man with a glistening bald head rising up from the lake. But, why did his skin have a greenish tinge to it? And his face! What man has lips that wrap around the full length of his jaw?
The girl froze as she saw the man - the creature - walk out of the lake. Once its gaunt and bare chest was above the water it raised an arm toward the couple on the shore and made a grasping motion with its too-long fingers. A too-long tongue stretched down past a too-sharp chin as it licked its too-wide lips before opening its maw to reveal its far, far too-numerous teeth.
*******
Eris tries the door and finds it locked. Disappointed but not surprised, she pulls harder on the handle until the old timber of the doorframe splinters and tears off in a chunk to allow the door to swing open. She figures it’s not a big deal since the place is getting renovated anyway.
Nothing happens when she tries the lightswitch just inside. She debates for a moment on whether to go looking for a circuit breaker before pulling a metal flashlight from a pocket and opting to just use that. Swinging the beam of light around the room, it looks like the renovations have just gotten started. The plastic kayaks stacked against the far wall haven’t been moved out yet and it’s the same old half-rotten safety railing around the water in the center, but the rental counter and the old containers of fishing equipment that used to line the near wall have been torn away leaving only sawdust and splinters.
An unexpected pang of nostalgia hits Eris as the memory of a childhood summer’s day out on the lake with her papa risen unbidden. She pushes it away.
Stepping further inside, it doesn’t look like the equipment the renovation crew left behind has been disturbed. Nor have the locks on the double doors leading out to the lake. Not that that means much. Eris looks up, scanning the rafters with the flashlight just in case her dance partner’s decided to really mix things up this year. Nothing but cobwebs. That just leaves the obvious hiding place.
Leaning over the safety rail to look into the water, Eris fails to make out anything beneath. The green-brown murk is too cloudy for the flashlight to pierce. Eris grins. It wouldn’t be cloudy like that if there wasn’t something down there stirring it up. She walks over to a pallet of un-rotted lumber and places the flashlight down on top of it before taking her place at the kayak-side boarding section of the dock without the railing.
A pale, scale-covered hand darts out of the water and grabs her ankle.
“Got you,” Eris says.
*******
The girl did not think about what she was doing when she called out. Not the first time to get the couple’s attention, and not the second time to warn them of the unnatural thing coming from the water. Nor did the ramifications on her own safety cross her mind when she picked up a stone and threw it at the creature that was coming faster now toward the couple who was too busy screaming to run.
Such thoughts came after the stone collided with the creature’s head, causing it to recoil momentarily before turning to set its sights on her. The moment between realizing what she’d just brought upon herself and turning to flee was the first time the girl ever swore aloud.
*******
Eris braces herself against the hand’s attempt to pull her into the water. Between tugs she bends down and snaps a makeshift stake from the dock’s planking. Grabbing the wrist of the thing grabbing her with one hand, she stabs and tears the fleshy webbing between the fingers around her ankle with the other. The moment the hand from the water lets go in pain Eris drops the splintered wood and takes hold of its wrist with both hands.
She gives a wordless shout of exertion and thrill as she hauls her dance partner out of the water. She adjusts her grip as she lifts until one hand finds purchase on a bony plate near its midsection, enabling her to transition the maneuver into a suplex as she leans back. They both hit the boathouse floor to the sound of cracking wood and tumbling kayaks. Eris rolls out of the way of the latter and to her feet. Sidestepping out of the flashlight’s beam, she lets her dance partner have the spotlight for a moment.
The creature’s thrashing soon gets it out from under the pile of neon pink and yellow boats and off of its turtle-shelled back. It leans forward on arms long enough to press its palms flat to the floor while still remaining mostly upright. A pale green slime drips from the parts of its body not covered in scale or shell. It locks its gaze on Eris, pupils contracting into slits from the light, and a deep low hiss escapes its elongated toothy snout.
“Damn,” Eris says as if in response, “you get uglier and dumber every year.”
*******
The girl glanced back over her shoulder as she ran. The pale man was fully out of the water now and chasing after her. She didn’t see the couple.
She put her eyes back forward and focused on not tripping over the stupid dress she never should have rented. Now she just needed to get back to the truck in the visitor center parking lot and drive away to safety. And then maybe call the police or something. But would they even believe her? She pushed the thought aside. She could worry about that after she got away.
“Why are you running?” said a voice from behind her. The words came out slurred and wet. “I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to talk.”
The girl chanced another look behind her. The pale man was closer now and hardly showing any effort. She tried to push herself to go faster despite her burning lungs, only to trip and fall. The gargling noise from behind her was barely recognizable as laughter.
“Okay, it might hurt a little, but I promise it won’t last long.”
*******
Eris readies herself for the beast’s expected charge. When it instead throws a kayak at her she recognizes the maneuver for the feint it is, catching the airborne boat and repurposing it from makeshift projectile to makeshift club as she swings at the momentary blind spot in her field of view. The creature, now right on top of her, slaps the kayak from her grapes, sending it into the water.
A roar and their dance finally begins in earnest. As her dance partner flails its long arms about in swipes that shatter safety railing and scatter construction equipment Eris darts in and out. Jab the soft spot, jump back out of reach. Kick the knee with a steel-toed boot, duck the bite. Uppercut the jaw, block the retaliatory punch. Repeat.
But the back and forth quickly becomes more back than forth for the monster hunter. There are fewer soft spots to hit this year, limiting her directions of attack. The scales are rougher this time around, tearing her sleeves and scraping her arms when she tries to block. Slowly but surely, Eris is being pushed backward around the U shape of the boathouse floor until the two of them pass the door she came in from.
With little space left to retreat to, Eris goes for a blow to the head that sends her dance partner stumbling into the wall and opens room for her to run back around to the other side. She’s between the creature and the water when it grabs her by the neck and lifts her off her feet.
Only slightly off-plan.
*******
The girl felt clammy hands grasp her shoulders and haul her to her feet. The hands spun her around until she was face to toothy face with the pale man.
“Didn’t your mother ever tell you not to throw rocks at people?” the man asked, making the girl gag from the smell of pondscum and rotten meat on his breath. “Naughty girls like you should be taught a lesson.” The grip on the girl’s shoulders tightened until the ragged nails drew blood. “Just hold still and it will all be over soon.”
The pale man opened his mouth wider than any human could and began inching toward the girl’s face. The long tongue extended from the maw to get a taste of what it was about to bite.
Just as the tongue was about to touch her, the girl’s uppercut to the pale man’s chin slammed his jaw shut on top of it. The man - no, the monster - howled in pain and surprise, letting go of the girl to grasp at his - its - injury.
The girl wasted no time in running, nor did she look back this time as the thing behind her hurled slurred curses. The light from the parking lot was just ahead. And there, in the middle of the empty expanse of asphalt and yellow street lamps was her papa’s truck.
*******
Eris struggles against the hand around her throat, grasping at the fingers and trying to prise them loose. She manages just enough to take a breath and whistle a single loud sustained note.
At her signal a blade of orange light erupts from the wall behind the creature. It notices and moves out of the way just in time to avoid the blade passing through its neck but its shoulder is still clipped. As the blade passes through flesh and then retracts back into the wall it leaves no mark on either and yet the arm holding Eris drops to the creature’s side, limp and useless. She takes the opportunity presented by her dance partner staring stupefied at its numb appendage to retreat out the door.
“Are you alright?” a resonant voice asks as Eris runs outside.
Eris looks over at the figure in purple and green armor standing next to the boathouse. Between the reflective faceplate and the glowing blade in hand the ensemble’s always struck Eris as more combat robot than medieval knight.
“I’m fine, but you missed its neck,” she pants as she rubs her own bruised neck. “Got the shoulder though, so thanks for the assist there, Road.”
“That’s the sneak attack plan out then,” he says. “Next best plan is likely-”
Road’s plan is cut off mid sentence by a hand bursting from the wall behind him, grabbing his helmet and pulling him through the wall, leaving a gaping dark hole in the side of the boathouse. From the outside Eris hears another roar, followed by the sound of metal being dragged along splintering wood, and then finally the shattering of glass as Road is hurled back out through the closed door. Eris sidesteps as he flies past, hits the ground, rolls, and comes to a stop in a dramatically posed crouch. He only wobbles slightly as he staggers to his feet.
“As I was saying,” Road continues, “Plan B is we draw it out here where we have room to move and then keep slicing and pummeling it until it stops moving.”
Eris slams fist and palm together and grins. “The best plan.”
*******
The girl was surprised at how steady her hands were as she punched in the keyless entry code for the pickup. She was the most scared she’d ever been in her life and yet there was something else. Relief at having gotten away? Excitement? Thrill? A feeling of power after having stared death in the eye then punched it in the face? She smirked as she opened the door and climbed inside. That last one had a nice ring to it.
Fish out the keys, start the engine, buckle her seatbelt, change the radio to something less sad, and she was off. Or so she thought until she felt a bump backing out of the parking spot. The girl looked in the rearview mirror and saw her pursuer once more, now holding onto the back of the truck. She changed gears and pressed the gas, speeding forward and bouncing over the parking blocks between the spaces.
After swerving back and forth across the parking lanes and back to the road out the girl checked the mirror again. Her stomach dropped to see the pale man had climbed into the bed of the pickup and was now slowly making its way toward the cab. She floored the acceleration, but it only made the inhuman thing wobble for a moment before regaining its balance and continuing to get closer.
How much longer did she have? Surely it wouldn’t stick with her if she got to a busy part of town with witnesses. Would it? The truck was getting hard to handle at this speed on the winding backwoods road in the dark. She was too busy just watching the pavement to pay attention to the speedometer, but she had to be at least double the speed limit by now.
And then she heard the thump on the roof as the creature climbed on top. And then the banging on the window from a pale fist she could just make out from her peripheral vision. And then she almost didn’t see the sharp turn in the road ahead.
The girl swore aloud for a second time that she hoped wouldn’t be her last.
She slammed the brakes and turned the wheel as hard as she could. The truck began fishtailing. Tires squealed. Inertia took over. Her seatbelt strained. The pale man was flung from the roof into the darkness. She felt the truck go offroad and then back on.
She was breathing hard when the truck finally came to a stop facing nearing the direction it had come from. And there, in the headlights was the crumpled body of the pale man where it had slammed into a tree. The girl's racing heart skipped a beat when the thing stood back up.
Once more, she did not stop to think as she hit the gas to ram the creature.
*******
Eris jumps back from yet another swipe of the creature’s arms. “How long did you say that toy of yours is supposed to stun for?” she shouts to Road.
He dodges a glob of noxious fluid being spat at him. “An hour or two, usually,” he replies.
“So why’s this guy recovering after a few seconds?”
“Undeath, regeneration, slime coating dispersing the beam. Could be any or all of that.”
They’ve been at this for minutes now, and they’re both starting to tire. Meanwhile, even contending with both of them at once, Eris’s annual dance partner is still going strong. Broken bones, cracked shell, paralyzed limbs, all of them heal before their eyes too quickly to make a difference. Not to mention the creature’s figured out the trick of twisting its torso hard enough to smack them around even with limp arms. Add in the complication of trying to keep it from escaping back into the lake and trying to bring it in alive for once starts to feel more trouble than it’s worth.
“Time to stab it in the head and be done with it then?” Eris suggests as she and Road begin circling the creature from out of reach.
“You told me this guy comes back stronger every year. Do you really want to see what’s worse than this?”
“The neck then. Stun it all at once.”
“Been trying, but I think he’s picked up on that and I haven’t been able to get a clear shot.” Road goes silent for a moment, considering. “Plan C, you try to pin him,” he shouts as he charges the creature to get its attention.
While Road attacks with a ferocity heedless of any pretense of self-preservation, Eris slowly moves in, careful to keep out of the creature’s peripheral vision, and waits for her opportunity. That opportunity soon arrives as Road disables one of the creature’s arms at the cost of several plates being torn from his armor. Taking a step back, he leaves himself open for the creature to strike at his exposed torso. The creature rears back and raises its good arm just as Eris slams into it from behind and knocks it to the ground with her on top of it. She takes hold of its arm before it can raise itself back off the ground and pulls it toward her with a satisfying snap.
The dance ends with the sound of once last roar as Road steps forward and plunges the blade of light into the creature’s neck.
*******
The girl left the engine running when she got out of the truck. She went around to the back and opened up the metal toolbox in the pickup bed. It didn’t take her long to find the hammer inside. Its weight felt good in her hands. She closed the toolbox and went back to the front where the monster was pinned between the truck’s hot grille and the tree. She ignored its screams that cursed her name and promised eternal vengeance ending in a watery grave.
She raised the hammer.
*******
Eris brushes the ooze off her hands and slams the rear doors of her van shut. Figuring out how to transport her old dance partner while keeping a sword with no solid blade lodged in its neck turned out to be nearly as much a challenge as the fight - and considerably less fun - but the two of them had managed in the end. She leans on the van and looks over to where Road is sitting on the curb and whispering to his armor as he reattaches the plates that were torn off in the battle. His face is visible now that the helmet’s retracted back into the rest of the suit.
“Thanks again for the assist,” she says, crossing her arms. “I was getting tired of coming up with new ways to kill that bastard every year.”
Road looks up at her. “You’re welcome,” he says with a calm smile and a voice no longer distorted from the helmet. “I’m always happy to help. That said, are you sure you’re alright? You took quite a beating tonight.”
“Eh, it’s just cuts and bruises. Nothing won’t heal up in a couple days. I didn’t even break any bones, so I’d call it a pretty smooth hunt. Might not be fast as our passenger here, but I heal quick.”
“I’d been meaning to ask about that. You don’t know what he is exactly do you?”
Eris shrugs. “Your guess is probably better than mine. Best I’ve been able to figure out, it’s the ghost or revenant or something of some serial killer who drowned in the lake trying to run from the cops. Seems like a dumb place to run to, but eh. I just know I’ve been killing it for a decade now and every year it comes back on the anniversary of its death stronger and less human, and if I try to kill it in the same way twice it just gets back up again. Hell if I know why.”
“Fascinating,” Road muses. “I might need to come back out here again sometime and do some diving. See what else is down there.”
The idea is enough to make Eris shiver. “You have fun with that. Tried fighting in the water once. Never again.” Eris pushes off the van and paces. “You sure this buddy of yours can keep it alive and contained so it doesn’t come back.”
Road fits the last plate back into place, whispers something to it that Eris can’t make out and then pats the plate like one would a pet. Hardly the weirdest interaction with their gear that Eris has seen out of a hunter.
“Sure as I can be, knowing as little as we do,” he says as he rises to his feet. “And if he can’t, then I know he’s got the connections to find someone who can.”
“Good enough for me,” Eris says and opens up the driver-side door of the van.
“Speaking of connections,” Road says a few moments later, climbing into the back to keep an eye on their passenger, “what would you say to working together like this more often?”
*******
The girl smiled as she wiped the blood off of her face. It turned out the trip to the lake really had been just what she needed. Although perhaps she’d wear red the next time she tried something like this. It would hide the stains better.