The Sickness
By Keith Kareem Williams
BOOK 1: Dead Leaves of the Fall
PROLOGUE
Ash's hand brushed against the soft, plump, beautifully round rear of the naked woman in the bed next to him. He gently traced his fingers across the vine of flowers tattooed across the pale flesh of her lower back but she didn't wake or stir at his touch. His head was pounding furiously and his stomach churned as he fought the urge to vomit. He assumed that it was the side-effect of over-drinking as he could still taste the liquor in his mouth. The sensation was totally alien to him because as much as he liked to get absolutely wasted, he'd never experienced the unpleasant symptoms of a hangover in his life. He shuddered to think about how much he must have consumed to leave him in the state he was in. His head pounded like a million drums as his vision slowly cleared up in the darkness. He was somewhat relieved when he realized that he was in his own apartment. At least that saved him the trouble of searching for his clothes in the dark and sneaking off. However, there still remained the awkward task of somehow getting the naked woman next to him out of his place. He was no stranger to the art and etiquette of the one-night-stand but that didn't make the morning after he had one any less uncomfortable. The parting of ways between random lovers was always awkward and clumsy. As carefully as he could he climbed out of bed, not quite ready to wake her. He had to use the bathroom desperately. With the way he was feeling, he would probably climb right back into bed beside her until either she woke up on her own or until his headache eased up.
Ash didn't bother to flick the light switch in the bathroom. He had made this trip in the dark hundreds of times and he knew exactly where the toilet was. The sound of his urine splashing into the water in bowl assured him that his aim was on point. As he yawned he felt a tight, stickiness around his mouth and chin. He could only imagine the places that his mouth had been. At least she's got an awesome body, he thought to himself. He would take a look at her face before he climbed back in bed and if she was cute enough, he decided that he would take her to breakfast if she was willing. If she was ugly, he'd politely part ways but probably save her number. From what he'd seen, her curves were definitely "late-night love" worthy but that didn't mean that her face was going to be "daytime date" material. As soon as he flushed, he clicked on the bathroom lights and went over to the face basin.
"What the fuck!" he said out loud, stumbling back from the bathroom mirror at the sight of his own reflection. His mouth, chin and chest were caked in dried blood. Wide-eyed, he stared at himself for a few moments, trying to remember what happened the night before. Terrified, he turned on the faucet and frantically washed the gore from his face. He searched for a wound but couldn't find one. What the hell did I get into last night he asked himself. Whether or not he wanted to, he had to wake the naked woman to find out if she knew how he had ended up covered in blood. With water still dripping from his face he rushed out of the bathroom and prayed that she wasn't as drunk as he was.
"Wake up!" he shouted, panic thick in his voice as he rudely clicked on the bedroom lights. He had no time to be polite. When his guest didn't stir, he climbed onto his side of the bed and pulled her by the shoulder to turn her over.
Ash didn't recognize the shrill, high-pitched sound that escaped him. Once he stopped screaming, vomit erupted from the depths of his sickened stomach, all over the bed and all over her body. He couldn't believe what he was looking at. The room seemed to spin as he fought to keep from passing out at the gruesome sight of her. The side of the bed where she lay was completely drenched in blood and the woman's face was completely mangled. Her eyes were open wide, obviously frozen in terror but he couldn't tell if she had been screaming or not. Her entire lower jaw had been savagely torn away. All of the color drained from his face as he stood there, stiff as a board and thought about how his own mouth had been covered in blood. His heart felt as if it pounded in his throat instead of his chest as he stood there, suddenly feverish and covered with perspiration. Ash almost hacked up a lung as he began to cough uncontrollably on the scent of rotting death. He couldn't believe that he hadn't noticed it before that moment. Then there were the black flies that made his skin crawl as they circled in small swarms around the body. He covered his nose and mouth so he wouldn't vomit again. It was like he had fallen from a dream and crashed into a nightmare as he continued to choke.
"Finally awake are we?" said a feminine voice as the glass doors that led out to the balcony slowly slid open. Startled, Ash tripped over his own feet as he frantically backed away from the half naked woman walking into his apartment. She was a sharp contrast to the horror that lay in his bed. Her bare, supple breasts bounced gracefully in rhythm with the sway in her hips as she came closer to him and stretched out her hand to help him up.
"Who the fuck are you and what the fuck is going on?" he stuttered, recoiling from her touch. She seemed slighted when he clumsily crawled backwards on the floor to put more distance between them. She cocked her head sideways and grinned with a perfect smile as she studied him. He was already naked but her gaze seemed to strip away his flesh as well. He could feel her eyes roaming beneath his flesh.
"You play rough," she answered calmly and turned her eyes to the ruined woman on his mattress.
"I didn't do that!" he protested, pointing a trembling finger towards the bed.
"You did and furthermore, I think you enjoyed it. You didn't even stop plowing her after you tore her jaw off for screaming," she told him before she licked her lips and pinched her own stiff nipple. She wet two of her fingers in her mouth and slipped them into her pink, lace panties. She swayed as if she would swoon as she played with herself.
"I couldn't have. How?" he meekly protested. He had never so much as raised his voice to a woman his whole life. He didn't see how he could have suddenly become savage enough to mutilate one. A single tear streamed down his cheek as he prayed for some alarm clock to wake him. She seemed high, hypnotized and mentally far away but the sound of his voice snapped her out of her sexual trance. Her face became hard as she opened her beautiful grey eyes and pierced him with a harsh glare.
"You don't remember? Ok, let me remind you," she said and walked around to the side of the bed where the dead woman's body lay. The flies scattered and buzzed away frantically as she grabbed a handful of hair and raised the corpse one-handed off the mattress. She carried it like a rag doll on a meat hook over to where he sat in a pool of piss on the floor and dangled it in front of him, inches from his face.
"No!" Ash yelled.
"Don't look away. Open your eyes and remember," she commanded. His eyes popped open against his will and now tears streamed steadily from them. He thought his lungs would explode as he hacked and gagged from the stench…and then his body started to tremble and burn with fever. Ash struggled to remain conscious.
"What's happening to me?" he asked as he watched the color drain from his own hand until he could see green and purple veins beneath the flesh. His chest heaved as he breathed heavily as if all the air in the room was not enough to fill his lungs. He felt heavier, almost as if he had eaten too much food at a feast. Then, along with a crippling wave of pain came the horrible sound of his own bones cracking and shifting beneath the strain of his expanding muscles. His skin stretched until it felt taut enough to tear. He raised his hands in front of his face and the delicate fingers that had charmed so many whenever he gracefully plucked the strings of his guitar had become grotesque and brutishly large. Then he looked at the destroyed face that the woman still dangled in front of him and he remembered everything. All the feelings of disgust subsided and he smiled in spite of the voice that had grown tiny inside him that said it was wrong to. He could feel his own manhood rise against his naked thigh. He felt the beautiful woman's eyes rest on what lay between his legs as well.
"Good, I see you remember now," she said as she tossed the body clear across the room where it slammed against the wall with a sickening thud. She slid her panties off and tossed them aside as she straddled him. "Come and play with me. You'll find that I don't break so easily," she said before she forcefully buried her tongue in his mouth. He kissed her back passionately as he shoved himself deep inside her until there was no more room to go. Still, there was a miniscule piece of Ash that was lost inside his own body, chained, muted and oppressed but praying for someone to save him from these terrors.
***I hope you enjoyed my post for Friday the 13th. This is something I started working on last fall. The market is so flooded with vampires, werewolves and zombies that I wanted to give my readers something new and uniquely terrifying. What is the mysterious sultry woman and what exactly has she turned Ash into? You'll have to look for the release of the full-length novel in
October 2012 find out. Never fear though, I'm sure I'll leak more samples here and there along the way.***
As usual, I welcome all comments and if you're curious about my writing, you can check out my books here:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0063K6JJC Thanks for stopping by.
