The Beast Read Free Page A

forward.
                  I started to breathe again when I was out of the mountains. I felt, too acutely, the soda and mud on my jeans and the cold blood across my ribs and stomach. The hardened blood down my back cracked when I moved and pulled at the hairs on the back of my neck. I didn’t know where I was going until I pulled up at the gas station and parked the car.
                  Shaking, I almost fell when I saw my reflection in the window of the closed mini mart. My hair was a mess of leaves and twigs, matted with drying blood. Dark stripes formed against the light blue of my torn sweater and my jeans were all leaves and filth. I didn't waste time staring as I hurried to my own car and jumped in.
                  I screamed when the stereo came to life with laughing radio hosts. I snapped it off and started driving, barely able to hear over my own pounding heart. A parking ticket rattled in the wind, plastered to my windshield by the spilled soda except for a corner that frantically beat at my window. A street lamp shone through the paper and I saw the cost of the ticket, in bold black ink. Thirty two dollars. It was a wonder that my car wasn't towed for being parked at the pump for so long.
                  By the time I reached my apartment building the whole encounter felt too impossible to have actually happened. The wind that slipped its cold fingers through the holes of my sweater to tickle my bleeding ribs convinced me otherwise. 
                  On the way up to my door some drunk teenager smoking a cigarette on the stairs tilted a bottle of vodka toward me, offering the neck. "Rough day lady?"
                  I passed him, ignoring the bottle and the question. I was shaking harder, nearly convulsing when I let myself into my apartment. I climbed into bed under the pile of abandoned mail on the comforter and curled up under the thick blankets until I felt like I was going to suffocate. Only then did I slowly uncover my head and look around.
                  The only beast around was a spider on the ceiling across the room. I silently thanked it for being the scariest thing that might have to be dealt with.
                  Twisted in the blanket and sheets, I watched the spider make shaky progress across the room. I don’t know how long it took before I started to feel normal again. It was all just a bad nightmare. By the time the spider reached the corner of the wall I felt safe again. I'd never known what danger felt like before the stinking blonde caught me and for what felt like the first time in my life I knew safety. With the sunrise filtering in through my closed blinds, I drifted off to sleep.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    chapter 2
     
     
    Things went downhill from the moment I woke up. When I tried to stretch, my body ached and my skin tore. My hair crunched when I turned my head. Stiff jeans cracked as they pulled away from my legs.
                  It wasn’t a bad dream.
                  Every muscle screamed in protest as I forced my legs to leave the bed and ordered the rest of my body to follow. My sheets and comforter were ruined. Spiky oak leaves and dried mud sprinkled the carpet. Dried blood clung to everything. I'd have to visit the laundromat, the floor would need to be vacuumed, and I’d have to wipe down the walls. 
                  Shaking legs carried me to the bathroom where a filthy hand reached out and turned on the water. I wondered if I should have gone to the police.
                  And say what? That I got into a stranger's car and was attacked by monsters? Best case scenario they’d say I was asking for it. Most realistic scenario they’d think I was having a psychotic break. Maybe I was.
                  I unzipped my sweater and let it fall to the floor. It did not escape my notice that the torn and bloody blouse