With the sounds of EMF’s “Unbelievable” music video playing in the background. Gina set down two plates of spaghetti on the table. Not only had she cooked them dinner that was filling the dingy apartment with a wonderful smell, but she also managed to clean the piled-up dishes as well. Nate smiled and was about to dig in when both he and Gina stopped cold, their jaws dropping open.
Deacon did not go for the utensils she had placed next to the plate. Instead, he picked up the entire plate and began devouring it like a wild animal. He cleared the entire plate faster than any human being had any right to do, then turned back to ask for more.
Gina took the plate and loaded it up again before handing it over.
“When was the last time you ate?” She asked again skeptically.
Deacon shrugged his shoulders and then ate the second plate with exactly the same urgency in which he had devoured the first. He then looked up and noticed the other two staring at him.
“What?”
“I’ve just never seen someone eat like that before. Gawd I think even my parents’ dawg has more class.” Gina was the first to answer.
After Nate had finished eating his plate of food, Gina and Nate insisted on taking Deacon to the hospital. Gina frowned when she saw his closet and clothes drawers. She paused to draw her big curly mass of hair into a white scrunchy on the top of her head before she began digging in to find something for him to wear.
It seemed as though the young man did not own anything that wasn’t black or that didn’t have a heavy metal band’s name embossed upon it. Still feeling sick, Deacon grumbled the whole time that she helped him to get dressed, but once she did, they made their way out to the parking lot and got inside Deacon’s old blue Cadillac. He grumbled and complained even more at the cold, Nate’s driving, and just about anything else that he could. It was a fight to even let Nate drive, but in his current state, the other two did not trust him.
They arrived at the emergency room and checked in. For once the waiting room was not packed with injured people, and the trio of twenty-somethings did not have to wait long for a nurse to bring them back into a room. Once inside a room, there was another brief waiting period before another nurse came in to check Deacon’s vitals and draw some blood. After this, a doctor came in to check him out while the nurse prepared the shots he would need.
“So, I hear you got bit by a wild animal?” The doctor, a kindly looking elderly white man asked. There was something slightly condescending about his voice, as though he were used to dealing with children.
Deacon nodded and stared at the ground; it was obvious that he was embarrassed by the situation.
“Have you had any fever, constipation or diarrhea, vomiting, nausea?”
Deacon looked up and squinted his eyes as if to think about this at length but then simply nodded.
“Yeah. Most of those.”
“Anxiety, mood swings, confusion, hyperactivity, excessive salivating,” The Doctor then leaned forward, looked over the top of his glasses and cast his last word out like an accusation. “Hallucinations?”
“Hallucinations? Like I’m going crazy? Why would you ask that?” Deacon became instantly defensive. The doctor started laughing like a mad scientist and Deacon grew horrified. He blinked once and the vision stopped. The doctor was not actually laughing at him, he was seated calmly watching his reaction.
Deacon quickly turned around and watched the reactions of Nate and Gina. Gina raised a shaped eyebrow at him. Deacon turned back to the doctor.
“A little bit maybe.” He brought his thumb and forefinger about an inch away from each other.
“If you are already exhibiting advanced symptoms that’s not a good sign. Usually when you start taking on symptoms the disease is already at an advanced stage. But you said this was only a few days ago?”
“Yeah, maybe three or four days?”
“You shouldn’t have any symptoms yet. I’ll send in the nurse to start the inoculation. You’ll need a series of 4 shots over the course of the next four weeks.”
A nurse came in a few minutes later. She looked young and new, and Deacon groaned when he saw her. He was maybe known to his family and friends for being fearless to a fault, but that did not mean that he was particularly enamored with needles. And the thought of someone unskilled…
“So…who’s the lucky guy? Deacon Crawford?” She did not look up from the paperwork.
“Him.” Deacon pointed back to Nate.
She then looked up and tore the cap off an intimidatingly large needle.
“He’s just kidding nurse.” Nate returned while standing to lean against the wall. “Which one of us looks like they’ve been recently bitten by a wild animal?”
The nurse looked them both over. Nate was a handsome young man with a roguish smile and shining eyes filled with boyish devilry dancing just underneath the surface. Deacon on the other hand was pale white as a corpse, clammy with dark rings around his eyes like a raccoon. She walked over and stood in front of Deacon, who rolled his eyes and groaned.
“You trickster. You got me there. You ready?”
He nodded and closed his eyes, waiting for the prick of a needle. The prick came shortly after in his shoulder, but it only started as a prick. Soon after it began feeling like a stab, that sent electric shocks up his entire arm. The needle felt like it was stabbing all the way through his muscle, and right down to the bone.
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A deep growl escaped his lips involuntarily and it took everyone by surprise. Even the nurse seemed shocked. It wasn’t only the fact that this young man growled as a response to the shot, but that everyone in the room heard it and it did not sound like it came from human lips.
“So, you got bitten by a wild animal in Chicago? What was it that bit you?” The nurse asked, trying to distract from what she’d just heard.
“I dunno exactly. It wasn’t like a cat or dog or something. I know that much. It was like a giant dog sized rat with a giant mouth.”
“A giant rat?” The nurse laughed, but quickly saw from the look in the young man’s eyes it was no joke. “Like the giant killer rats they talk about in New York?”
“Maybe. I dunno. I’m not a zoo person or whatever. I know what I saw latched on to my arm. And that’s all I know.”
The nurse finished up the shot and bid the little group a good night. Now that they were free to go, Deacon acted like he couldn’t escape the place fast enough.
* * * *
March and the promise of warmer temperatures was just around the corner, but for now, the last few icy, slushy days of February were desperately hanging on like a man dangling from a cliff. Deacon decided to do the unthinkable and risk the danger of going out into the sun for a little while. Working nights for so long now had given him a certain aversion to the world of sun and happiness, not that he was any sort of “shiny happy people” before that. Perhaps it had simply turned up the dial on some deep seeded anti-socialist behavior that had always been inside of him. It was easier though just to blame his sleep schedule than do any deep soul searching and self-inflection. He lit up a cigarette and cracked open a beer and stood with the late winter sun upon his face.
It was in the forties, temperature wise, and felt warmer in the sun, certainly better than the temperatures he had been used to at night recently. He stood on the stoop of his apartment for about half a cigarette before his restless nature overcame him and he decided to make his way to the parking lot and to his baby blue ’73 Cadillac Coup De Ville.
By the time he made it to his car he had finished his beer, and he tossed it into the dumpster before getting in his car. Deacon drove alongside the dumpster and began cleaning out his car. He had a habit of accumulating garbage during the cold winter months when it was easier to just let it pile up instead of cleaning it out. He slid his “Use Your Illusion” CD into the CD player and jammed out while he went about cleaning, He went about his business for a while, making good progress and in fact could see the floorboards once again when he noticed someone approaching from the apartment building next to his. It was Gina, and she immediately drew his gaze.
Gina was all dolled up, obviously looking for attention. She was wearing her teased and slightly curled bangs up in a huge topknot while the rest fell across her shoulders, a tight black tube-top under a short leather half jacket, a black miniskirt with sexy fishnets and black velvet boots that went above her knees. She had more studs and buckles in her outfit than the entire lineup of Judas Priest. She pulled down a small pair of oval sunglasses down her button nose and peered at him over the top of the rims. She looked like someone desperate to look like a tough metal chick, and though she did look amazing, he had to admit, Deacon knew better. She had been labeled a poser years ago, and her new look would not change that in the young rocker’s eyes.
“What’s up Deacon?”
“Yo.” He answered rather noncommittally. He felt a little like Danny Zuko at the end of Grease but tried to keep his cool.
“What’cha over here doing?” She sauntered over and stood over him while he sat in the passenger seat. He looked up at her and could not help getting an eyeful of her lithe body and frame in the tight black and short outfit.
“You got a date or something?” He raised an eyebrow at her new biker look. It was certainly attention grabbing and flattering to her frame.
“Nah, I was uh…supposed to go out with my uncle on his bike but he couldn’t show. I just haven’t had time to change yet.” It sounded like a fishy story, but more than that, and Deacon could not quite explain it, her statement smelled like a lie. Was it even possible to smell lies?
“Well, y’know…” Deacon began suggestively, but almost immediately thought better of it. Gina was a good-looking girl and all but there was something just not right about her. He couldn’t exactly put his finger on it, it was not something he could see or point to one thing directly, it was more of a feeling. There was something…clingy about her. Something easy about her. She had self-esteem issues and was wanting to be validated by Deacon. Deacon knew relationships with girls like that were hard. If they didn’t get their validation from within, then no one on the outside would ever be good enough long term.
“Y’know what?” She prodded with a smile creeping across her face.
“Those big hoop earrings would just get in the way on the back of a bike.” He pointed at the giant gold hoops. “They’d blow all over the place.”
Gina seemed deflated a little by this, obviously her expectation was for him to compliment her appearance but was not deterred.
“So what’cha doin’ out here? Need some company?” She moved up a little closer, sat down in the back seat boldly and crossed those long, fish-netted legs of hers.
“I dunno Gina I’m…”
“Still down about that bitch Sarah? I heard what she did. Y’know, you deserve a girl that would never dream of doing something like that. A girl who appreciates you for you.” She leaned closer to the back of the front seat, closer to his face. Deacon’s blood flowed through him like firewater in his veins, and an animal lust began raging inside of him.
But then Gina reached inside her jacket and pulled out a small squarish half-pint of Wild Turkey. The numbers 101 on the front made Deacon freeze in place. He looked at the perfect amber liquid gleaming inside the bottle, and his mouth began salivating.
“Isn’t this the kind you like to drink?” She asked breathlessly. “I couldn’t remember so I took a guess.” She added teasingly.
Now she was hitting below the belt. Deacon’s wide glassy eyes followed the bottle, his mouth not quite closed.
“It’s been getting in my way in my inside pocket here. It’s been slapping against my tit.” She laughed and opened the jacket, grabbing her chest to accentuate her point. Deacon’s eyes followed the motion and became fixated against his will.
Gina then opened the bottle, and the paper at the top tearing the seal, indicating that it was fresh and untouched made his mouth water again. She raised it to her ruby red lips and let a small swig fall over them and her tongue, making them shine. The proof got the better of her and she coughed violently, but by then Deacon was a bull seeing red.
“Care for a drink?” She offered the bottle in a raspy voice, still touched by the high alcohol content.
Deacon grabbed the bottle, put it to his lips and tilted it back, but the entire time his eyes stayed locked on hers. A shift came over him that she could see and feel. He had the eyes of a dangerous predator now, and he was looking at her like prey. It made her more excited, like she was dancing on the edge of danger. She ran her hand across her chin and sighed suggestively.
Deacon continued without a breath until half of the bottle was emptied into his stomach, warming his body like a fire burning inside out. He then walked over to the back seat, where she was smiling and laughing, and now leaning back to lay down. Like a wild animal, he pounced on her, not bothering to close the door behind him.