Hush

His finger landed on Shelby, and her flinch was immediate and violent.

“Looks liked you win, sweetheart,” he said, showing yellow, rotted teeth as he smiled. “I won’t lie. I wanted it to be you!”

He crept toward Shelby, his spindly fingers groping for her. He carried a glint in his eyes that Orion hated. She despised everything about the Things, but it was that look. The ownership in it. The possession, as if they were just inanimate objects for the taking. Like this was his right. Nothing more than instruments to him. Pets.

Orion was worried for a second that Shelby would chicken out. That she wouldn’t play her part. Ri knew that Shelby wasn’t the type of girl to stab a man, but she hoped somehow she would find a way. For them . . . for freedom.

“Please, no!” Shelby cried, scuttling backward toward the wall as Thing Two advanced.

“Hush, girl,” he snapped, grabbing a clump of her hair.

She cried out as Thing Two rifled in his pocket for the key to her cuff with his free hand. He was too distracted to notice Ri and Jaclyn standing up behind him, staring at him hungrily, watching his movements, waiting for the perfect moment. They readied their own weapons.

“Do it, Shelby!” Orion screamed.

Thing Two turned his head, an eyebrow arching. “What’d you say, bitch?” he snarled, eyes wild. “Sit the fuck back down!”

Orion ignored him, looking past him and focusing on Shelby, her heart in her throat. “Now, damnit!” she screamed.

Shelby didn’t move. She was still shaking, weeping. Frozen.

Orion was about to scream, about to try and reach him, to stab him herself if she could. But Shelby turned slowly toward Thing Two, and something in her changed, something took over, and in one quick motion, her hand just a blur, she drove the piece of metal down into Thing Two’s carotid artery, right where Orion told her to.

Orion couldn’t tell who was more surprised, Shelby or Thing Two.

Shelby shrieked at the blood that poured from the wide gash in his neck, and she pulled her hands back, leaving the metal right where she put it.

Thing Two’s eyes went wide, his face ashen. His hands met his neck, and he stumbled back. Neither Jaclyn or Orion hesitated. They rushed forward, stabbing their own shanks into him in quick succession. After carving up his throat and face, Orion embedded her bloody pen into his eye with a squelch, leaving it there. He fell back onto the floor liked a downed tree, his head making a sick thud when it hit the concrete. He groaned weakly.

Jaclyn chuckled, much the same way many monsters had laughed at her own pain. She lodged her toothbrush shank into his other eye, leaving it there, silencing him for good.

Orion didn’t laugh. She just stood there, watching him bleed out, feeling an exhilaration she hadn’t ever felt before. It wasn’t because she was one step closer. It was because killing someone who had caused her so much harm, so much pain, so much grief, felt like a drug. She felt invigorated, like a tiny little crack in her soul had been filled in.

As Shelby vomited beside Thing Two’s bleeding body, Orion snatched the keys from the floor beside him. She made sure to take one last good hard look at him. Her stained hands fastened around the keys, tight enough to cut through the skin on her palm. She cocked her head, analyzing the way the blood pooled around Thing Two’s skull.

And then she smiled.

It was the perfect summer day.

The sun was still shining.

Kids were still playing.

Fathers had stopped mowing their lawns; they were mostly positioned in front of the TV, third beer in hand, a sports game on TV. Others were in backyards, cleaning grills for parties. Some were playing catch with their children in the front yard.

That was what Henry Rollins was doing with his daughter. His son Andy, wasn’t interested in sports. He liked to read vampire books. His wife told him it was nothing to worry about, so he tried not to worry. Tried to support him and not show how weird he thought it was. He thought he did it well. He loved his kids, and only wanted the best for them. He didn’t want them to be bullied or turn out to be serial killers.

Hannah had a good arm and a passion for sports. His wife told him that did not make her gay. That disappointed him. He would much rather his little girl be gay. Men were pigs.

He heard the sound of the front door across the street burst open, and his eyes immediately lifted. Pig was a good description of the men who lived there. That was why he never let Hannah out there on her own. Why he made sure she was with a group of friends if she wanted to ride her bike. The guys across the street gave him the creeps. He didn’t like the look of them.