The Beast Read Free

and sections of long blonde hair stuck to his face.
                  I opened my mouth to scream, but before I could utter a sound, a huge shape shot itself at the stranger and knocked him over. I couldn't see them as they rolled down the embankment alongside the little creek.
                  I ran. My slow clumsy feet hardly carried me four steps before he caught my hair and my head jerked back. I let out a tiny cry of pain and almost fell when my feet moved out from under me, but a solid arm caught me like a metal pole across my midsection. My ribs ached and all of the air in my body left in a rush. Hot blood trickled down my scalp to my neck while I fought my own diaphragm to expand so I could breathe. My body reeled with pain but the steely grip in my hair kept me upright. Finally I coughed and inhaled. 
                  Before I sucked in enough air to scream, a hand clamped over my mouth. Blurred lights sparkled in my vision as tears welled up and fell down my panicked face. He leaned close, inhaled deeply and I couldn't help but smell him in return. The stench gagged me. I didn’t want to die. I'd only been tired and hungry and angry when I thought that I wouldn’t care if I did. Simon's keys bit into my palm when I tried to ball up my hands into determined fists.
                  I wriggled, fought, tried to survive, but the stranger threw me forward so that I spun around to face him, and the claws that tipped his fingers opened gashes in my sweater and my skin.
                  "Shh, sweet prize," he said, in a voice more reptile than human. "No more protector. You're mine now."
                  I followed the direction of his turned head to see a massive shape lying crumpled on the field. An arm, too long and thick to be entirely human lay limp in the grass. I opened my eyes wide to try to get a better look, to see what the thing was, but the reeking stranger got my attention with a rough shake.
                  "Mine," the stranger repeated in his loud whispery voice. I couldn't see him very well in the darkness. Clouds had moved in and even my friends the stars were hidden from me. I was completely alone.
                  He let out a quiet chuckle and dropped me. He stood still, poised, ready to attack again, playing with me. He wanted me to run so that he could chase me down. I froze in place, but he would wait until I broke. I heard a sob escape my throat.
                  In a flash, the crumpled beast- it was a beast- slammed the stranger onto his back. Massive claws rose up high and tore at the stranger, too quick to see. Smoke rose from the reeking blonde man's body. The creature rose on two legs and threw the stranger like a rag doll with all the stuffing torn out, over the edge of the cliff.
                  The shadow of the blurry dark thing turn its muzzled face toward me with smoke rising from the long fingers at the end of its long, not quite human arms. I shook, still frozen, until the beast jumped off the cliff to follow the body. The acrid stench of burning meat and hair assaulted my nostrils and my airways and pushed me toward the road.
                  I splashed clumsily through the little stream, barely as wide as my foot was long, and scrambled not to slip while I raced through the blanket of fallen leaves that clung to my muddy jeans.
                  After what felt like a nightmare hour of running in slow motion I reached the car and threw myself inside. The keys threatened to fall into blackness when I fumbled with them for an instant before I jammed the car key into the ignition and turned it. The headlights uselessly spilled dim yellow light onto the black road and I suddenly felt like a neon target- blind but very visible. I kicked the gas pedal and the tires kicked up gravel for a second before they found traction and the car lurched