Ghoul Bait

© by Gary Morton 1991
(1,250 words)

   Plumes of fire brushed the night sky with smoke, and he muttered to himself as he moved like a bear on the prowl. "Sonny, I really meant it when I said I was going to carve a piece out of you."

   He gazed into the clearing, seeing the shining chrome of bikes on scorched, flattened grass. Leather, denim, tattoos and grease decorated the mingling figures. He read a dark future in the rolling bonfire smoke. 

   Faces shifted to waxen death masks in the firelight, then they came to life - scarred, unshaven, and ugly. Familiar faces, laughing faces. The wicked faces of brutal thugs, and they aroused anger, causing him to quietly mutter again. "Bandits, you thought you'd spit me into a gutter grave … especially you, Sonny. But now I'm back and the time is right."

   The bash reached full flight. Blaring metal music and mindless celebration tearing up the clearing. He thought the beer looked far too cool for the swill drinking it, and he remained in deep shadows with a dark river of revenge pouring through his soul.

   A new bike rumbled in and when the engine roar died it became apparent that some blond jailbait had hitched a ride on the back. He saw Sonny's acne-pocked face light up like the moon. A moment later he put his hand on the shoulders of his two burliest bandits. No doubt giving the word that he wanted some private time with her before tossing her to the rest of the wolves.

   The gang got chaotic and destructive like the flames, most of them getting crazy drunk and stoned. None of them noticed the eyes watching from the bushes, and slowly they got rowdier and out of Sonny's control. Which was okay by Sonny, because he moved in the young blond and in a short time was leading her off into the woods.
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   Moving through the pines like a cat, he came up behind them as the scene developed. Sonny hadn't wasted any time. She was gasping from the hand tightening on her throat, then she was thrown down as Sonny moved to drop his pants.

   Sonny reached down for her just as a chain came whipping like a bolt from the night sky. It bit into his buttocks. The teeth ripped flesh and muscle then a scream rose from Sonny's throat as the chain got yanked back. 

   Flying to her feet the choking blond girl ran off into the trees and Sonny managed to drop slowly to his knees before the iron came out and smashed into his skull
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   Another clearing, a graveyard this time, with rows of busted stones poking out of tall crabgrass and weeds. A strychnine glow of dew and moonlight brightened the scene. He held Sonny above the ankles and pressed forward, dragging him over the lumpy ground. His goal being a charnel house set in a hillock. 

   Warped, bleached wood and rusty iron bars and latches made up the heavy door. A breeze set it to creaking. He used a flashlight while he lit the lantern. Moments later shadows swirled like bats and half of the charnel house's interior became visible. It was a huge place, made for war or plagues. Even the cobwebs looked deformed. He checked his bike first. Untouched, it gleamed near the door. Some irons and chains were spiked into the wall a ways inside, and Sonny's body flopped around like a rubbery piece of shit as he dragged it over.
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   Raw pain rose as brilliance, bringing Sonny to consciousness, and when he tried to move he found himself manacled and chained to a wall.  Sonny had always looked close to death with sunken cheeks, a twisted nose, rough whiskers and long stringy hair, but he had never really been this close.

   Sonny saw an agonizing blur, then it became a huge angry bear of a man leaning out of flickering lantern light; it was his old enemy Danny. Vengeful madness glazed Danny's eyes and he held a mint shiny hunting knife.

   Before Sonny could even groan, Danny laid a few boots to him. Then he started screeching as Danny drove the knife into his wrist.
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   Things weren't turning out to be as much fun as Danny had expected. Sonny was certainly screaming, but blood was squirting everywhere and the hand just wouldn't come loose. It pissed him off and he started muttering and cursing. "Damn you, damn you! I'm gonna cut off your hand. Shit, I wish I would've went to butcher school."

   Victory at last, he grinned at the severed hand, and Sonny lay in shock as his blood pooled on the floor. Then a sudden scraping noise startled Danny. Something was moving farther down at the edge of the shadows. "Somebody's in here", he muttered. "Don't tell me that little blond followed us here."

   It stepped into the light and it wasn't blond, a girl or little. Danny gasped and dropped the gory hand. This ghoulish thing was big … powerful, with a face like machineguns had carved it out of rotten wood. Its eyes were fierce and filmed with red, and its body was thick and lumpy muscle that appeared to be formed of ashen clay and rot.

   It moaned hideously and walked straight for him. He scooped up the knife and with a swift thrust planted it directly in the thing's heart. Stopped dead, the ghoul growled as Danny broke the blade of the knife trying to pull it out to thrust again.

   Muscles like cold hard clay got a grip on Danny, upended him and threw him up against the wall. He slid to the floor dazed.

   Stupefied by the blow, and his thoughts reeling in disbelief, Danny watched as the thing kneeled on the floor, picked up a chunk of rusty metal and began to cut its hand off. The hand tore away slowly, red-and-green goo oozed out and stringy black-and-white flesh snapped elastically.

   It walked over to Sonny and ripped the chains out of the wall, then it went back to get its severed hand. It put it against Sonny's bloody stump and the stringy worm-like flesh squirmed as it attached itself. Sonny's face began to twitch, then it turned greenish and his eyes fluttered open.

   "Oh-oh, looks like I didn't exterminate Sonny good enough," Danny thought as Sonny got to his feet and began to step across the floor. His blood running cold, Danny froze. He was too terrified to move. He could only stare as Sonny's eyes became cruel slits. 

   Sonny reached down and took him by the throat with his new hand. Lifting him slowly he crushed the life out of him.

   As Danny fell to the floor dead, Sonny stumbled back, chains rattling on the stone floor as he flailed his arms. His head spun in a whirlpool of black visions, then his brain caught fire and he screamed and gagged as rusty metal tore across his throat.
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   The most loathsome of monsters hates even itself, and the new graveyard ghoul that had Sonny's head and Danny's body wished it could tear itself apart. Yet it could only sit there and moan for hours. When it finally was able to rise it turned to its larger master and it knew it would obey.   

---The End---