The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!
Beastly
by Mary Ann Peden-Coviello
“Whaddya mean you ran outta gas? You think I was born yesterday?” I let my voice skitter up into the upper register.
“Look at the gauge yourself, Tammy. It’s dry. We ain’t goin’ nowhere till we get some gas.” The big blond lunk betrayed himself with his twitching, grinning lips.
“Then call someone and get ’em to bring a jerry can. I’m not sittin’ here at Ogburn Bridge, waitin’ for The Beast to come chomp my bones.”
He made a big show of checking his cell phone. “Oh, man. The battery’s dead, baby. Let’s just hang out here. Someone’ll come along soon and we’ll get a lift back to town.” He slid an arm around me and pulled me closer. “And, come on, you know The Beast of Ogden Bridge’s just some trick lowlife guys use to get into their girls’ panties.”
I allowed him his moment and snuggled against him. After all, he was a creative kisser, and I enjoyed him.
A few minutes later, we came up for air. He glanced out the steamed-up windshield and stiffened. “What’s that? Over there in the bushes.”
I gasped, clutching his arm. “Is it The Beast? Oh, honey, I’m scared!”
He leaned over me, ostentatiously protecting me from danger. “If it is, it’ll hafta come through me to getcha.”
I sighed and snuggled into his chest and neck, now helpfully naked, his sweater lying on the floorboard.
My face changed, shifting into the fanged Beast. My hands curved into talon-tipped claws. I bit deeply into the side of his tender throat. Poor baby, he didn’t even have time to scream. Of course, I’ve been doing this for centuries. I’m well-versed in my technique. I slipped down to the dark river, still in Beast form, and swam away.
Fiction © Copyright Mary Ann Peden-Coviello
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com
More from Mary Ann Peden-Coviello:
Fright Mare-Women Write Horror
Short Story: One Hour Before the Dark
Women write horror and have written it since before Mary Shelley wrote FRANKENSTEIN. This anthology is to highlight the fact women write great horror and to kill the fallacy that they aren’t in some way up to standard. They are. Read here stories by Elizabeth Massie, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Lucy Taylor, and a plethora of other great writers as they work on your nerves, get inside your head, and bang out some of the scariest tales written today. I’m proud to present these women for your consideration, as Rod Serling might say, as I ask you to step into FRIGHT MARE. Lock the door and windows, put on a light, and remember, it’s not real. It’s not real. Midnight awaits, monsters scheme to take you away, the strange and weird wait in the shadows, but it’s not real. Is it?
Edited by Billie Sue Mosiman, the author who brought you the SINISTER-TALES OF DREAD collections and her latest suspense novel, THE GREY MATTER.
A darkly delightful story.