A monster emerges from the shadows. He is followed by another, and another, until the world is inhabited by new beasts of its own creation. This anthology incorporates stories from various genres and timelines, exploring what makes us who we are.
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Kate Nelson has a road sign's pole through her chest.
I gag.
The forest sways.
Hectic and grunting, she eyes the metal wedged among her ribs.
I vomit.
Her arms dangle when enough blood pours out of her.
My toes curl in my Nikes.
The signpost keeps her elevated where it was flung—entering just under her collarbone, then exiting her lower back like a tail—and hit the ground right side up at a slant and now tilts beneath her weight, the placard informing vehicles to move twenty-five miles per hour.
Yet the road is vacant.
An owl hoots.
I clap a mosquito flat between my palms.
Yesterday, Kate Nelson dunked my head in the toilet of the girl's bathroom at Jericho High.
While she and her pals were morons, I never wished death on her. She has a social circle, has a boyfriend, has an older sister, has dozens of track scholarships, has a road sign.
A road sign's pole through her chest.
I burst into an alley, hop a fence that rips my skirt, clatter through garbage, and jog across the soccer field, the night still and quiet apart from me panting and rustling through grass and weeds.
My ankle pops.
I tumble.
I roll.
"Sid?" A girl races to help me up. "Sidney Gimple?"
Taking her hand, I rise on my sprained foot and wince. "Kate Nel—"
"I'm Olivia." The girl's hair is orange as dawn, her body large and plump, and she wears a ballcap with two J's in the center, representing the Jericho Jaguars. "Olivia Cooper? You ain't heard of me, but—"
"Kate Nelson has . . ." Glancing around in the blackness, I wipe vomit from my chin. "Kate . . ." I tremble. ". . . has an issue . . . has a—"
"You cold?" Olivia slips off her jersey and wraps me in it. "You tired? Want me to drive you home? You drunk? Don't drive if you're drunk." She yanks me closer. "What's this about Kate?"
"Kate Nelson." I twiddle my nose ring. "Kate Nel—"
"You on drugs?"
"The beast put a road sign through Kate Nelson."
"Huh?"
"A road sign."
"You make sense? Ever?"
"We are in trouble."
"You mentioned a beast."
"Beast?" I nod, agreeing with myself. "My beast."
Olivia pats grass fragments off my skirt. "Where're you comin' from?"
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