34. The Dance of the Alterling (D1)

__ Doug had only wasted a few minutes trying to re-start the Datsun before giving it up. Abandoning the car as Chris McCandless had done, Doug noted the irony, and hoped he wouldn't be found dead in an abandoned bus.
__ Hugging himself against the cold, he looked into the darkness where Ardy vanished with her abductor, then he glanced toward the dark woods where the Alterling had vanished with its dry tinny laugh.
__ Without a car, he didn't stand a chance of catching up with the Pizza King kid. He could only hope Ardy was alive, okay, and strong enough to fight off whatever it was the kid was going to do. Doug knew he stood a better chance trying to run down the creature that appeared as suddenly and strangely as the night-for-day snowstorm in the middle of August.
__ Glancing once more down the road, he muttered a brief prayer of promise, "I'll find you Ardy. I swear," and jogged into the woods after the Alterling.


__ Legad almost wrecked the stolen car a half dozen times as he found it difficult to concentrate on the icy road. There she was, the gypsy girl, unconscious next to him. He kept pulling his eyes away from the road to watch her chest rise and fall with shallow breaths. He watched her hair toss in the harsh breeze from the ruined windshield. He rested his palm on her bare thigh, feeling the coldness of the skin, rubbing it to keep it warm. He wanted to touch her in other places too, but knew enough to remain patient until he found a place to have his fun. Legad needed a quiet place, a warm place, a place hidden from passersby.
__ He couldn't believe the absolute luck and power he was experiencing. And it was all thanks to her.
__ Another stolen glance, another rub on her thigh. He avoided touching the other thigh. It looked funny. In fact, that whole leg looked funny. Too many knees and it was turning colors.
__ It was this woman who scorned him like so many others, like all the girls in school who put out for guys like, like.... He couldn't remember his friends, the ones he killed and devoured.
__ "Huh. Funny."
__ It didn't matter anyway. He took his eyes off the road again and forced his hand, his poking fingers, between the passenger seat and the woman's bottom.
__ Withdrawing his hand when the car whirred on a sudden patch of black ice, Legad gripped the wheel tightly.
__ Her fault, he decided. She distracted me to make the car slide like that. I can't wait to tear her to pieces. He proclaimed silently then that he would dispose of her body by eating it -- raw.
__ When he was done doing other things that is. He smiled. His teeth felt sharp.
__ Legad gave the woman's leg a pinch and she moaned but didn't wake.
__ "Good. Brain still works."
__ Taking his eyes off the road again, he raised his hand to her chest and cupped his palm around a breast. The cold air was doing wonderful things to her--
__ The car slammed into a brick wall. Somebody screamed, short and shrill. What was left of the glass shattered in and rained down on Legad. His head cracked the steering wheel and the car's forward momentum turned into a shunting corkscrew. The woman's head thumped the passenger glass, but her seatbelt held firm. Blood sprayed Legad's face and bare chest and a giant fist with matted hair poked--master!?-- through the broken windshield and punched him square on the nose, sending shivers of color through his vision before everything went black.


__ "You're leaving your girlfriend behind." The voice was dry but coarse, like tearing sandpaper.
__ Doug stopped his run through Palley's Woods and rubbed his arms to generate some brief warmth. He glanced left and right, up, right again but couldn't figure out where the voice had come from. He knew the Alterling was close, but had lost the foot path some time ago.
__ It was dark. Doug could only make out dim tree-like shapes in front of him. He couldn't see the thickness of the forest beyond. It was just a black velvet curtain.
__ From the darkness, it came again. "The boy is going to murder her, you know."
__ "Where are you? Show yourself to me you coward."
__ "They are all going to be mine," the paper voice rasped. "Legad is going to bring them to me. All the souls. After he makes them turn away."
__ Doug wanted to ask from what, but was suddenly afraid the only reason the creature didn't move back inside him had something to do with the answer to that question. So he pretended he knew. "Why do you need him to turn them away. Do it yourself."
__ A shadow, darker than the dim around him, passed by. Doug tried to lock onto it with his straining vision, but he couldn't. Then the voice returned, even closer, from the opposite direction.
__ "Because I am tired of doing all the work. This is my springtime. This is my birthday."
__ "Happy birthday," Doug sneered, and whirled on what he thought was the source of the voice only to get poked in the cheek by a twig.
__ From a new location, higher in a tree: "He's going to rape her corpse, you know. Stupid boy. He can't get the order right on anything."
__ "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" Doug clamped his eyes shut and put his hands over his ears. He screamed until his throat burned, "Go away! Leave us alone! Shut up! Why are you doing this?"
__ When he finally stopped, Doug put his hands on his knees and slumped. He labored to catch his breath. It was too dark to see the plumes of breath billowing down from his mouth, but he figured that's what the shapes were.
__ Until one of the shapes reached out and grabbed his pant leg.