Page 71
Story: Kissing Carrion
Sherri shrieks. Adage matches her, high and harsh, like a carrion bird sighting a hearse.
She lunges.
“Adage—no!”
And as she turns again, Sherri slips under her arms, disappearing around the corner.
Mike and Adage are left, face to face, with only a gun and ten feet left between them.
Hesitant: “Adage?”
Slouched like a praying mantis, the thing wearing Susan’s skin gives a dust-dry laugh.
“See—for—your—self,” she says.
And steps into the light.
Mike’s hand—wavers.
Partially stripped, her bloodied skull nods moronically, face a crossfire of nerves. Her nose hangs flat, the torn half-mouth slack. She jerks her head aside, and both flap open, revealing the craters at their roots. A lipless grin chatters from chin to ear.
The nude moon of her left eye bulges and slits, blankly, as its lid smears itself shut.
“I—guess—this—means—you—heard—the—tape.”
Mike gulps.
Adage seems to smile. Then the change grips again.
Mike staggers back, gun at knee-level, as blood sprays.
Adage’s borrowed skin snaps at its seams, rucking up like a pair of old tights. She peels herself free. Beneath, the bulge of raw, red flesh. Muscles and mucous, thrust center-stage, spurt and writhe and glisten. Gristle follows, flashing taunting little hints of bone. A spine, vertebrae cracking like a whip as she moves closer. Hands, busy with tendons. Nails, still growing.
Slick, and pale, and sharp.
“Oh, Adage,” Mike whispers.
“What’s the matter, baby?”
Almost hear enough to touch, now.
“You’re like this too, underneath,” she says. “Know that? You all are.”
Half-blind with tears, Mike brings the gun up.
“Stay away, Adage.”
“Oh, but I can’t. Don’t you see I’m naked?”
Her hand, reaching. Claws ruffle his hair.
“Adage, please.”
“You who have so much,” says Adage Beck, no longer even faintly human. “Old pal, old buddy, old friend of mine. You who have so much, I pray—lend me a yard or two of hide to clothe my awful shame.”
And Mike—
—fires.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71 (Reading here)
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102