Denn's Mobile Circus - 2. Chapter 1: The 400 Pound Woman

Someone opened the door.

I halted my chore and took a look over my shoulder to see who it was. What I saw fitting its way strategically through the door brought to mind something a comedian once said. There are five levels of fatness: big, healthy, husky, fluffy, and DAMN! For a long time it was just the five. Then, he added a sixth. As I looked at the customer I knew why. The newest level came to mind on sight: “Oh, hell no.” I mouthed.

I understood that every person’s body was different and with its own set of issues. What I did not understand was how a person could willingly allow themselves to get so big that it became hazardous to their health.

I put down my cleaning items and headed over to my register as the customer, a woman, finished her game of Tetris with the door. I noticed she had a cane. Watched as she had to use it for every step she took to get to my register.

“How’r you today, sweet tea?” she heaved, sounding like she’d just finished a marathon.

“Not too bad. Yourself?” I responded.

“Couldn’t be better.” She smiled with an almost unsettling brightness. “I’d like a number twenty, Sprite for the drink, an’ that’ll be all.”

The menu didn’t actually go up to twenty. Twenty was the start of a sort of secret menu. Anyone who ordered a number twenty was actually asking for a twenty piece nugget, instead of a ten piece, largest sized fry, and largest sized drink.

“Your order will be out shortly.” I concluded the transaction, giving the woman her change.

“Thank you. You have yourself a good day.” She smiled that smile at me again.

“Thanks. You too.”

She put the change into her coin bag, put that back into her purse, picked it up and made her way to the seats.

‘And please don’t die in our lobby’, I thought after her.

Ten minutes later, she was the last thought on my mind. Lunch rush was in full effect and my focus had changed to helping my line of customers. A line that suddenly got shoved aside as the last thought on my mind forced her way up to the front of it. Reaching me, she slammed her cup down on the counter in front of us.

“You tryin’ to be cute with me, son?” She fixed me with a nasty glare.

“Excuse me?” I had no idea what she was talking about.

“Coulda swore I ordered Sprite for my drink.”

“Yes.” I nodded. “You did.”

Reproachfulness smeared itself across her face.

“So you heard me when I said that?” It was also in her voice.

“Yes, I did.” I nodded. “That’s what I gave you.”

“Does this taste like Sprite to you?”

She picked up the cup, removed the top, and tossed the drink on me.

It splashed all over the front my shirt, the upper part of my pants, into my hair, and a little into my mouth. What I tasted did not taste like Sprite. It tasted like carbonated water.

The syrup for the Sprite had run out.

Bitch could’ve told me that without the dramatics. Instead, she’d left me drenched, embarrassed…and pissed.

‘No, this grown ass hippopotamus did not just throw her drink on me!’ I thought, as pissed suddenly became anger.

Then…there was confusion.

I was looking up at the face of one of my co-workers, who was straddling my stomach with all his two hundred plus pounds. His legs were successfully pinning my hands by my side.

“Uh…Travis? Why are you on me?” I inquired.

He let out a startled gasp and looked down at me.

“Micah?” His face lit up, before a slight shadow dulled it. “…That is you in there, isn’t it?”

“Who else would it be?” I found the question odd.

Also found it odd that I wasn’t at my register anymore. Somehow I was downstairs in the supply room.

The sound of footsteps on the stairs distracted me.

The only stairs that were in the building were the ones that led from the first floor, where the actual restaurant was at, and into the basement. The supply room and break room were in the basement. I looked over at the doorway to see who was coming.

“Travis? How’s he doing?” The voice of another co-worker told me who it was just before she appeared at the door. It was Suzette.

“He came to right before you walked in. Seems like he’s back to normal,” Travis answered her.

Suzette hurried over to us and got down on her knees next to me.

“Are you okay? How do you feel?” Concern was deep in her voice.

“Confused.” I was trying my best to comprehend the strangeness I’d suddenly waked up on. “How did I get down here and why are you on me, Travis?”

“We brought you down here after you passed out upstairs. We didn’t know how you would be once you woke up, so for what little help it was, I pinned you,” Travis answered.

I took a moment to reflect on what he’d just told me.

“…I passed out in the lobby?” The only thing that kept me from not believing it was my unexplained teleportation trick.

“Yeah.” Suzette nodded. “You don’t remember that?”

“No…” I shook my head. “All I remember is getting that drink thrown on me. Next thing I know, I’m down here.”

Travis looked over at Suzette. She looked back at him. I saw confusion in those exchanged looks.

“So…you don’t remember what happened after the drink was thrown on you?” Travis inquired.

“Isn’t that when I passed out?” I assumed.

Both of them shook their heads, doing nothing to help my rising blood pressure.

“Then when did I pass out? What happened?” It was clear to me something had.

Travis got up off me and extended his hand. I took it and allowed him to help me to my feet.

“When that woman threw her soda on you, it was…it was like…” Travis faltered.

“Something happened to you, Micah.” Suzette picked up his fumble.

“Like what?” I inquired.

“Like, you went over the counter and attacked that woman.”

I pulled back in disbelief.

Suzette closed her eyes and nodded.

“Suzette…don’t play.” She had to be.

“I’m not, Micah. I wish I was, but I’m not.”

Blood pressure increased.

“…What did I do to her?” I asked.

“You pinned her against the wall and tried to choke her to death.” Travis found his way back to a complete sentence.

A complete sentence that brought everything to a screeching halt.

“What?” I gave him a ‘not sure if serious’ look.

“You pinned her against the wall and tried to choke her to death,” he repeated.

I waited for Suzette to chuckle or crack up laughing. She was always horrible at keeping in character when she was part of jokes or pranks. When I didn’t hear that chuckle or laugh after a few seconds, I spoke up.

“So…you’re tellin’ me that my one hundred thirty pound ass pinned a four hundred plus pound woman against the wall and tried to choke her to death?” I repeated.

“Yeah.” Travis nodded.

I looked to Suzette. She was nodding as well. There wasn’t even a hint of a smile on her lips.

“You do realize how many levels of impossible that is, right?” I told them both.

Travis nodded.

“I’m still trying to figure out how you did it right now,” he said.

“I think it’s safe to say everybody is,” Suzette added.

I looked between the two of them.

“Okay, ya’ll can stop with the Punk’d routine –”

Footsteps sounded on the stairs, cutting me off. All three of us turned to see who was coming. Our manager on duty, Miranda appeared at the door a moment later. She halted suddenly, as if startled.

“Is he okay?” she asked my co-workers.

“I don’t think we’d be standing here with him if he wasn’t,” Suzette answered.

Miranda got ready to say something, paused, and then nodded her head.

“Yeah. True,” she said.

“He just doesn’t remember what he did to that woman. Says he just remembers her throwing the drink on him, and then he was down here.” Travis spilled that out there.

Miranda’s eyes fell on me. Her head cocked.

“Really?” she inquired.

“Really.” I shook my head. “And these two are down here trying to get me to believe that I attacked that woman.”

Coldness spread unexpectedly into Miranda’s eyes. “Oh. That’s funny,” it iced her voice in what sounded like sarcasm.

I’d seen that coldness in her eyes before. The first time was when she confronted two former co-workers who’d thought it was the thing to do to come in to work high one day. The next was when she confronted two more former co-workers who’d decided our one free meal a day wasn’t enough, and chose to have three. I knew what that coldness meant. In both of the previous cases, the employees had tried to lie their way out of the situation.

I’d known Miranda since I started working at the restaurant. We’d always been cool with each other. I’d been to her house on more than one occasion. I’d met her boyfriend. We’d all gone out to eat, to the movies with each other. Never would’ve imagined she’d turn that coldness on me.

I was hurt…and offended.

“What’s funny?” I couldn’t keep the two items from seeping into my voice.

“That it’s convenient you lose your memory right when you assault someone,” she replied.

“How could I assault someone who was five hundred times my size? I mean, do you know what they told me I did to that woman?” I pointed at Travis and Suzette.

“No. What?” She almost sounded disinterested.

“That I pinned that woman against the wall and tried to choke her to death. I mean, explain it to me like I’m five years old how I pulled that off.”

“Why don’t you explain it to us?” she shrugged, eyes still chilly. “You on drugs, Micah? Steroids?”

Looked at her with a ‘not sure if serious’ look. I knew the angle she was taking. It was how she’d found out her boyfriend was taking steroids when he ‘roid-raged’ on her one day.

“When’s the last time you heard of somebody weighing a hundred thirty pounds that was on steroids?” I countered.

“Knowing that you were only a hundred and twenty five pounds about a week ago.” The coldness in her eyes turned keen. “I heard you, Travis, and Carlos talking about it while I was in the supply room the other day. How you’d started going to the gym at the beginning of the month. How you’d already started putting on muscle –”

“Then drug test me.” I cut her off. “I’ll go to a testing facility right now if you wanna get that set straight.”

“But what if you know ways to get passed those tests?”

On that comment, I was officially done. It was clear what I’d been told I’d done wasn’t a joke. Shit had gotten far too serious for it to be a joke. But to be accused of not telling the truth in the face of being told I’d done something that was so far out in left field that they had to build more field just to accommodate it? I now wanted proof. Not words.

“I wanna see the receipts.” It was time to shit or quit. “Show me the tapes where I did all this stuff you’re accusing me of.”

Every employee knew there were four cameras that watched the lobby. They were one of a couple of reasons why it was a bad idea to steal from the restaurant.

“Oh, believe me, Whitney, we’d be on our way to look at them right now. But Manuel was changing the tapes when you did what you did. He didn’t finish because he went out to the lobby to help get you off that woman.” Miranda’s argument had just faltered.

In an unexpected turn, I moved in.

“You know I planned that, right?” I smiled. “Because if I can attack a 400 pound woman –”

“WE SAW YOU DO IT! NOTHING YOU CAN SAY WILL CHANGE THAT!” Her yell rang around the supply room.

It startled Travis and Suzette. It did not startle me.

“I’m not saying I didn’t do what you’ve all told me I did. Personally, I think it’s impossible. But when I tell you that I do not remember doing any of it, you need to believe and accept it. Because there’s nothing you can say to make it not the truth.” I didn’t say it nasty. I spoke matter-of-fact.

Silence rolled like a fat tumbleweed through the room. Miranda stared at me like she didn’t know what to say, what to think. Finally, she shook her head.

“Okay.” A crack formed in the ice.

“Okay, what?” I bit a little harder than I wanted to.

More cracks formed.

“…I believe you,” she answered.

The ice collapsed and melted completely. My rising anger subsided.

“Now, why’d we have to go through all that?” I asked her, glad to see I’d gotten my point across.

Before she answered she looked at Travis and Suzette. Those two hadn’t been nothing but mannequins since Miranda started in on me. They were excused upstairs. Before Travis could go, Miranda tasked him with grabbing two chairs from the break room, which was right across from the supply room, and bringing them to her. He’d done that and then taken his leave.

“Grab a seat.” Miranda offered one of the chairs to me.

I went to get the spare seat. We carried them a bit further into the supply room, sat them down across from each other, and had a seat. Then Miranda told me the full story.

Travis and Suzette hadn’t been lying to me. Not only had I gone at the woman, but nobody was able to pry me off once I was on her. Nobody on the staff. None of the customers that tried to lend a hand. I’d shoved them all off me without even looking in their direction when they tried. Size and muscle hadn’t mattered.

I was also unresponsive to anything but the woman. Like I had locked on to her and nothing else existed. I would not respond to my name. I would not respond to pleas for me to stop. I did not hold back in force when shoving people off me. Didn’t matter if it was a stranger, a friend

…or a good friend.

Miranda wouldn’t let me apologize. Said we were even.

Story continued.

The only thing that’d gotten me to let the woman go was when a customer walked up to me and whispered something into my ear. Because she’d been standing in back of the customer, Miranda hadn’t gotten a good look at the face. From the clothes they had on, she’d figured it was a male. From the size, she’d figured he was a kid, or someone in his teens. After the whisper, I’d let the woman go, stepped back from her, then passed out.

“Why didn’t anybody stop him?” I inquired.

Miranda gave me a ‘you should know this answer’ look.

“We were all more focused on you,” she said.

True.

“Right.” I nodded.

“And now you’ve got me wishing that somebody would’ve stopped him.” Miranda sighed. “Good job on that, by the way.”

The comment let me know that she was on my side again. Both of us had been avid players of the Portal games. Me, her, and one other, would toss out phrases inspired by the game between ourselves. If she wasn’t on my side she never would’ve tossed out the phrase.

“Sarcasm sphere self-test complete,” I replied.

It gave both of us an air clearing laugh.

Miranda let her concern show. When we were done, she was going to run upstairs and grab the card for her doctor’s office and give it to me. The place had good doctors and the price for a visit was based on income. They also had a billing option in case I couldn’t pay for my visit all at once. I’d nodded my okay to that.

Repercussions of my actions came next. Three things were stopping me from being written up and/or fired. The first was that the woman had been banned for life from coming to the restaurant the previous month. She used to be a dinner rush regular. Then one night she’d gotten into a very nasty altercation with an employee regarding hair in her food.

Disobeying a lifetime ban from a restaurant = trespassing.

This tied into the second thing. The woman had instigated the fight when she’d thrown her drink on me. That qualified as assault. My retaliation had definitely been over the top, but never would’ve happened if she hadn’t struck first.

The final thing was due to the incident’s level of bizarre. Nobody would believe a written or verbal statement of what had happened. Since the tapes were being changed when my situation took place, there was no visual proof to back anything up. So what happened in Vegas was going to stay in Vegas.

My job/crutch was still going to be mine. But the situation had caused fires that needed to be put out. Cue consequences. I was being excused for the rest of the day without pay. There’d only been fifteen minutes left on my shift. Since I had the next day off, there was no need to suspend me for an extra day without pay. When I came back, I’d have to work the grill for the next four weeks. A face out of sight was a face out of mind.

I was absolutely good with those consequences.

What I wasn’t good with was what had happened to cause the consequences. As I flipped the card Miranda had given me for the doctor’s office in my fingers seven minutes later, as I stood having a cigarette by my car, I drew to the conclusion that I needed a professional opinion.

My self-diagnosis hadn’t been able to come up with an answer for what had happened to me. As far as I knew, when a person lost time it was because they’d blacked out. But people who blacked out didn’t do the things I’d done. Their ass was usually out cold. For me, that part hadn’t happened until the mystery customer whispered whatever they had into my ear.

I was way too young for dementia, so that’d been ruled out. I didn’t have a history of seizures or epilepsy, so that’d been ruled out too. Then, a nasty thought crept its way into my mind. What if it was brain cancer?

I didn’t know what diseases ran on my mother’s or my father’s side of the family. I did know that my mother had died from cancer. It hadn’t been brain, but it had been cancer.

The thought sank my stomach. I knew brain cancer could do crazy things to a person. It could make a person blackout unexpectedly if it was in the right place. It could also make a person forget entire spaces of time if it was in the right place.

“God please don’t let me have brain cancer.” I remembered my mother had been eight years older than me when she’d been diagnosed with hers.

I’d be early. But there wasn’t the same amount of room in the brain as there was in a breast…

A squeaking sound halted my thoughts.

It was a sound I knew a little too well. Looking up ahead and toward the right, my eyes landed on the walled in structure where the trash bins were kept. The front of the structure had two metal gates that served as doors. That was where the squeaking had come from. The right gate was slightly ajar. Someone had forgotten to lock them up.

“And after we just got our meal privilege back for folks not locking up the gates.” I shook my head and sighed.

Had I been fired, I would’ve left the shit as it was, finished my cigarette, got in my car and left. Since I hadn’t been fired, I figured I’d better lock the gates before Miranda saw them. I liked having my free meal.

Putting out my cigarette, I proceeded to the trash bin structure. I pulled the gates open and stepped inside. It was a pretty good-sized area. Enough to fit two big metal trash cans.

“Better check the locks on those,” I thought, going to do so.

Fortunately, those were in place and secure.

I turned to walk out.

My steps halted.

Someone was standing at the gate.

“Me an’ you need to have a discussion about your customer service!” they spoke loudly.

It was the woman from the restaurant. The one who’d given me a free bath and blackout. The one I’d tried to choke to death.

“…Ma’am, I can’t begin to apologize for –”

She cut me off with a quick jab to my chest with her cane. It was strong enough to knock me back a couple of steps.

I blinked. Something that didn’t even take a second to do.

When my eyes opened from that blink, I saw that I wasn’t in the trash bin structure with the woman. I was in an empty kitchen. I was sitting with my back against something solid. My chest hurt. So did my left arm. My left ear was ringing a little.

I immediately tried to get to my feet.

“Hey, whoa, man! Slow down. Take it easy.” A voice spoke in a low tone to my forward left.

My eyes locked onto to the source. It stood at the doorway that led out of the kitchen and into, I assumed, the front part of the house. It was a boy. I pegged him in his teens by the voice. His face, unlike his voice, didn’t help with placing the age. It looked more boyish than mannish. No trace of a mustache or beard. His eyes were a cool shade of blue and his brown hair was done in a buzz cut.

The condition of his clothes left room for concern. His light-colored shorts had been stained with splotches of dark red in various places. The bottom left side of his T-shirt had been torn to shreds, allowing the skin beneath to be seen.

I continued with getting on my feet, until I was.

“Who are you? How did I get here?” I was beginning to wonder if I’d fallen asleep in the break room and had been dreaming for the past hour.

The sound of a car passing at the front of the house called the boy’s attention to the doorway. It held for a moment before he turned back to look at me.

“I know you don’t know what’s going on, but for right now we gotta put that aside and stay focused. I need you to help me keep an eye out for that…fat woman. Can you do that?” he requested.

“The one from the restaurant?” It was the only one I remembered.

The boy nodded.

“She might’ve followed us here,” he said.

I had to take a moment to evaluate the scene. I remembered how the fat woman couldn’t even take a step without her trusty cane. She even had it with her when she’d dropped in on me at the trash bins. So unless it took this boy seven minutes to run the hundred-yard dash, why would he be worried?

“We are talking about the same person, right?” I wanted to be sure.

“Chick so fat you wonder where the hell she shops at to find clothes in her size?” he responded, convincing me.

“Why would we be worried about her?”

“Because she –”

A snapping sound cut him off.

It sounded like it’d come from the front of the house.

I didn’t know why the fat woman would’ve followed us. I didn’t know where I was. I didn’t know who the hell I was with. But as soon as I heard the snap, something told me not to take any chances.

“Go.” I nodded to the boy.

He left the doorway to go check the front of the house.

I went to the task he’d asked if I could do earlier.

There were two windows in the kitchen. I looked out the one closest to me. It was draped with green curtains that sat on two rods arranged one on top of the other. There was a gap in between them large enough to see without disturbing the curtains.

Looking out, I saw a pathway that ran along the side of the house. A gate ended the right side of the path three or more feet past the window. The left side went the rest of the length of the house before it let out to the back yard. Didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.

I shifted my vision over to the left where the second window sat posted above the sink. I went to it and looked out. I could see the full back yard through it. It was fenced by tall wooden planks in a brick outfitting. The brick outfitting stood tall as the base for the wooden planks. If a person wanted to get over it from the opposite side, they would need to make a hell of a leap.

Didn’t see any sign of anyone in the backyard. No shadows behind, near, or in the gazebo, which was the only obstruction in the yard. There was no pool and no patio.

I glanced back at the kitchen doorway to the front of the house. The boy hadn’t returned. Taking one more look out at the backyard, I made my way to the doorway and stepped into it. It was at the front of a short hallway that led to the other rooms in the house. I rounded the slight corner and caught sight of the boy looking out the blinded front room window.

“Anything?” I asked.

“Nothing,” he replied, not turning from his watch. “You?”

“Same.”

I stepped into the good-sized front room and took a look through the blinds of the other window in the room. It ran on the same side of the house as the first window I’d looked out of in the kitchen. Directly in front of me was the side of the house next to us. To the right was the rest of the front yard of the current house we were in. To the left was where the fence started, via the gate. At this closer angle I noticed the gate was slightly open.

“Did we come in through the side gate?” I asked.

“No. We came in from the back yard and in through the back door. I had to bust the lock,” the boy answered, making me turn to him.

“Was the back gate open last time you looked out this window?” I asked.

He glanced over at me. His expression told the answer.

“No…” He shook his head.

“It’s open because I didn’t close it,” a familiar voice spoke up.

Turning to look at the source of the voice, I saw the fat woman from the restaurant standing at the hallway entrance. There was a smile on her face that put her other unsettling one to shame. This one screamed satisfaction.

“You’ll have to run further an’ faster than that if you wanna get away from me.” The fat woman’s voice came out gleefully triumphant.

“…what are you?” the boy asked her.

I didn’t think it was possible, but the fat woman’s features became even more hideously cheerful.

“Same thing as you are sweet tea…” she began, as the edges of her lips pulled her smile back even wider.

They continued to pull back toward her ears, forcing them into an impossible smile that revealed her teeth and gums. Her teeth were no longer the normal type. Each of them were sharp, jagged points that reminded me of shark’s teeth. They continued to show as the impossible smile fastened and locked into a permanent leer.

“Not human,” she concluded in a raspy, but still feminine voice, as the little blood vessels in the cornea of her eyes burst, flooding them with red.

Then, she came at me. She was so fast it stunned me. Her arm pulled back and launched forward. Her palm delivered a blow to my chest that felt like it had the power of a sledgehammer. My feet lifted out from under me. I was suddenly airborne, flying backward and slamming back first into the wall behind me.

“Ugh!!!” I expelled, before I met the ground a second later.

The air felt like I was inhaling fire. My chest, and less my back, screamed in agony. I opened my eyes. Didn’t even know I’d closed them. I was on the floor. Across from me, the fat woman was on the boy, pinning him down. I couldn’t see him around her oversized body, just his feet. I did not see movement in those feet. It could’ve been because of the fat woman’s weight.

Or…

Using my arms, I moved to get up. At least I tried. Arm muscles needed support from the muscles in my back to move. My back was out of service. The pain it protested in ripped up my arms and sent me collapsing back to the floor.

That was when I felt it.

Something was there with me. No. Not with me. In me. It was like another mind had come to life inside my own. A vibration of strange proportion began to radiate from what felt like inside my bones and out to the skin. The vibration changed its low hum into a louder buzz. The buzz became a rumble. Then a shout. Then a roar. A roar with so much power that it blew my entire mind apart.

Everything went dark. But I was still there. I could still feel. And what I felt was a sense I’d never felt in life before. How I knew what it was, I didn’t know. What I did know was that somehow I was no longer in control of myself. The other mind was.

The world faded back from dark and into focus before my eyes. Everything looked…different. So vibrant and detailed. This was not how I’d been seeing before. It was also not how I’d been feeling before. The pain that’d made me useless moments ago was like a phantom in my chest and back. There, but nowhere near critical. And my muscles, every single one of them was brimming with that energy, that power. Power that, according to the other mind, needed to be used to make that abomination of a woman hurt.

I got to my feet and went at the fat lady. Cracking the knuckles of my right hand, as I balled it into a fist, I struck out at her right side in hope of a kidney shot. My fist connected. The fat woman’s body gave completely to my punch, making it feel like the site of impact was sucking my fist in. I tried to pull away. The impact site rebounded suddenly and spat my fist out.

The fat woman lifted and spun to face me, slapping me across the face as she did so. The impact sent my head over to the side. Not far enough to keep me from seeing that her other hand was on its way, though. My own hand reacted immediately, catching the fat woman’s wrist before she could make the second slap.

I had her attention now. It was in her eyes. Just a hint. Surprise.

The boy’s body snapped upward into a sitting position. He pulled back and struck the fat woman in her throat.

“Aghaaaack!!!” Something between a gasp and a cough came out of her forced open mouth.

I wasn’t going to give her a chance to catch her breath, let alone retaliate. I let go of her wrist. And with everything I had, socked her in the lower jaw. Nothing cushioned the blow this time. She took it all. Her head jarred to the side. The force of my punch knocked her off the boy and sent her rolling sideways across the carpeted floor.

I got ready to help the boy, but he was already up and on his feet again. He gave me a quick glance and nodded his thanks. In that glance I saw that his eyes weren’t blue anymore. They were a bright, almost glowing, yellow.

No time to focus on that.

We still had ‘Jabba the Hut’ to deal with.

She’d already recovered and was back on her feet. Lips still stuck in that hideous grin.

“What else you boys got for Mama?” her raspy voice chuckled.

I was about to answer “Mama’s” question when –

“I lead. You follow,” the boy said.

His voice didn’t sound like it had before. It was throatier. Deeper…

No time to focus on that either.

Round two was about to begin.

The boy made his move. He took two quick steps and leapt forward, catapulting himself at the fat woman. He pulled back his fist, ready to strike her in the face. She moved to shield herself with her arms. It was exactly what the boy had wanted her to do. He pulled his right foot back and nailed her square in the stomach. His foot made contact and produced the same effect my punch had earlier.

The fat woman’s arms dropped from defense. Her hands went straight for the boy’s leg, which was still planted against her stomach, and grabbed it. Her move made the boy look like he’d tripped in mid-air. He let out a quick yelp as the fat woman swung his body around by the leg and slammed it across the wall. The dull sound echoed around the empty house as the back of his body made impact and dented in the wall.

Switching positions, so that she looked like a batter, the fat woman swung the boy off the wall and at me.

His body was coming at me in a downward arc. I leapt up. His body sailed under me and settled a foot away. I landed and moved in. That look of surprise flashed in the fat woman’s eyes again.

‘Good. She’ll be caught off guard,’ the other mind thought, as I shifted my weight and tried to shatter the bitch’s skull apart with an uppercut to her chin.

Her mouth crunched shut. Her entire head snapped back, denting the wall. I followed with a left cross to her lower jaw, jolting her head, and continued with a right cross to the untapped lower jaw. The fat woman’s head spun unexpectedly toward my oncoming punch. Her mouth opened and clamped down to catch my fist. Those shark-like teeth sank into my flesh.

“Aaahh!!!” I groaned as pain tore through my hand.

She bit deeper.

“AAAHHH!!!” I cried out.

Had to make a move before the bitch ate my hand. I pulled back my free hand to strike. She must’ve seen it coming. She unlatched her teeth from my fist and shifted around me out of sight. I got ready to turn. Before I could, something struck me in the back. Very hard. It sent me flying at the wall in front of me. I felt it give completely around my form. I smack-landed onto something soft.

My eyes opened. I was on the floor in a smaller room. Looking forward, I saw why. A large hole was through the wall, revealing the front room beyond. Insulation and other shit was all over the place.

The door to the room opened. The boy entered and shut the door behind him. I got to my feet.

“You okay?” he asked coming over to me.

“Yeah,” I answered.

I noticed my voice.

It wasn’t mine anymore.

Just like the boy’s, it was throatier and deeper.

The sound of pounding footsteps outside the door took my thoughts away from that.

“Back through the wall!” I said, starting for it.

The boy followed.

The door to the room flew open and “Mama” tore inside. We were already going through the wall. The crash that exploded a few seconds later forced me to look over my shoulder. The fat woman had come through the wall after us, shattering it apart to accommodate her huge form.

‘I can catch her,’ the other mind thought.

Putting basketball skills I hadn’t put to use in awhile, I shifted my weight to the right and jumped. I landed on my right leg three feet from where I’d previously been and stopped on a dime. The boy hauled ass forward. With him out of harm’s way I switched to my left foot, pivoted, and dropped down to the ground in an attempt to turn my body into a human speed bump.

The fat woman couldn’t stop in time. Her feet connected with my body and she went toppling forward over me, rolling two somersaults across the floor.

The boy was on her immediately. He rushed up and straddled her, preparing to throw his first punch to her face. Her two meaty arms reached up to grab him before he could swing and heaved him away.

‘And again,’ the other mind thought.

I got up and moved. I ran at the fat woman to build up momentum. I fell onto my knees and slid. Pulling back both fists, I prepared to strike at the fat woman’s elbows. The intent was to snap them upward in the wrong direction.

I struck out.

Loud cracking sounds signaled success.

The fat woman’s teeth parted and a hideous scream erupted from her mouth. My slide maneuver halted me at straddling her legs. I rolled off them, covering my ears, trying to shut out the screech.

The fat woman lifted up and stood somehow. She gaped at her useless, disjointed elbows. Then, her red eyes locked onto me. I could see hatred flaring in them. Unleashing another ear-shattering scream, she tore out of the living room and into the hallway. There was crashing and breaking. Wood and glass. I knew where she’d gone. The kitchen. She was trying to escape.

On my feet, I took off for the kitchen. A gaping archway stood where the back door had earlier. The other mind sent me in pursuit. I took survey as I moved. There was no sign of the fat woman in the yard or gazebo. I didn’t see a hole through the fence. That’d left only one other option. She’d gone over the fence. Had she tried for the gate on the side of the house, I figured I would’ve seen her through the window the moment I entered the kitchen.

Fence was imminent. I jumped up. I didn’t think I was going to be able to make it. The other mind thought otherwise. It was correct. My jump launched me higher in the air than I figured was possible. My left food landed on top of the fence’s fat wooden edge. My right foot followed just after. My hand slapped down between my feet to halt my forward momentum.

The boy landed just as accurately as I had on the fence to my left. Our maneuver had put us in hunched positions. From it I searched the alleyway for the fat woman. With the exception of common things found in an alley, it was empty.

“Where’d she go that fast?” I was shocked.

“Bitch can move for a woman her size,” the boy remarked, hopping down off the fence edge and onto the asphalt of the alley. “Found that out earlier.”

I followed suit, landing next to him.

“What was she?” The image of those blood-red eyes and that twisted grin was still clear in my head.

“…Dunno.” The boy shook his head. “Never seen anything like her before.”

From up the alley a black truck turned in at the entrance.

“And there’s our help arriving behind schedule,” the boy said.

On that sentence I realized –

“Your voice is normal again.” It hadn’t been the sentence before.

I also realized that I had spoken. Me. Not the other mind. It had slipped back into obscurity as fast and unexpectedly as it had stepped out.

“So is yours. We’re not wolfed out anymore,” the boy replied.

Hearing that sent every single thing there hadn’t been time to focus on before rushing back to the surface like a tsunami-powered tidal wave. My head felt light, my body suddenly felt colder, and the sun seemed brighter.

“Ugh,” I objected, starting to salivate like I was about to puke.

The lightheadedness picked up and my stomach started to churn.

“Startin’ to feel sick?” The boy looked over at me.

“In a major way,” I replied, hunching over with my hands on my knees and spitting out the access saliva near the fence we’d come over.

The black truck was to us now. It stopped. Doors opened. People got out. I didn’t see who they were. As soon as the vehicle stopped, my stomach let loose what it’d been holding back. The first torrent wasn’t even out good before another ripped up my throat and out my mouth. Another followed that, and another. Harsh purge-vomiting that made it come out with projectile force against the brick base of the fence.

The lightheadedness started to grow into dizziness. My body felt warm, almost hot. My eyes were shut and watering. I felt a hand plant itself gently on my shoulder.

“It’ll pass. Just go ahead and let it out,” a different male voice spoke to me. A man’s.

I didn’t object. Couldn’t if I wanted to. Whatever had stricken me made me dry heave a few times before my stomach began to settle. The dizziness, which was almost bad enough to make standing an issue, began to retreat as well. My body temperature quit menopausing out and slid back to normal.

I spat, trying to get the nasty taste of returned stomach contents out of my mouth.

“I was wondering why you said to bring a bottle of water,” a voice that could’ve been female or male spoke softly from nearby.

I was wondering how many people were there with me. I dried my eyes and opened them as I stood up from being hunched. Things looked a little hazy, but the excessive brightness was gone.

Five new people were with me and the boy. Two of them were standing at the front and rear of the truck. The one in front was staring directly forward, as if in deep concentration, with a set of stunning green eyes. He was a bit taller than me, white, and with a solid build that put it a few steps past slim. His face was clean-shaven, making it look young. But there was still a sort of ruggedness to it.

The one in the rear, a female, had her back to me, so I couldn’t see her face. I could tell she was Mexican from her skin tone. She also looked like she was shorter than me. Not by much, though.

In the front driver’s seat of the truck was another female, a black one. She had brown eyes and a pretty face that was made even prettier when she smiled as my searching eyes fell on her.

Another male was bringing a bottle of water to where I was standing with the person who had their hand on my shoulder.

No.

It wasn’t a male.

I could just see her breasts under the black shirt she was wearing. She was almost my height and was rounded out with a pair of hazel eyes, short cut black hair, and a cute face.

The owner of the hand on my shoulder was another black male. His body had more girth than the white dude, but stopped just before husky. His young, but not teenage young, looking face wasn’t quite square or quite round. It was nicely unique. He had a pair of brown eyes that were kind like the smile he gave as I looked to check him out.

“Rise out then drink the rest,” he told me, as the girl who looked like a boy handed the bottle of water to me.

“Thanks,” I said, taking the water and doing as suggested.

I was only able to rise once before my body decided it wanted the water in it. I guzzled the bottle down.

“All right, posse, time to go. Somebody a couple of houses down just walked out into their back yard.” The male with the green eyes who’d been standing in front of the truck alerted. He’d spoken with a mellow drawl that sounded southern.

“That includes you too,” the owner of the hand on my shoulder said, as the others began to get into the truck.

‘Oh no it does not’ is what I would’ve said normally.

I didn’t know any of the people with me and I would not have gotten into a truck with said people so I could wind up in a ditch with both my kidneys missing. Instead I said, “Why, exactly, am I going to go with you?”

“I’m sure you want answers to all the questions that’ve come up in the past hour or so,” he responded. “If you go with us, I promise we’ll give ‘em to you.”

He was right. I did have questions. I did want answers. So against my normal judgment, I got into the back seat of the truck – where the boy, and the girl who looked like a boy, were sitting – and shut the door.

*                      *                      *                      *                      *                      *