Blackteeth Read online

  “Keep away from me,” she said finding just a touch of calmness from deep inside her. “Don’t come back to Abracajava’s. Don’t talk to me. Don’t write me letters. Don’t call me. Don’t text me, email me, PM me, or leave messages on motherfucking Facebook. Do you get it? I can’t help you! I can’t help any of you stupid sons of bitches!” The anger abruptly bled away, and Hesper was left there shaking. She had an idea that she had surprised Moss, and his expression had changed from scorn to pity. Is that a dab of shame there? Maybe.

  “I can’t even help…” Hesper finished lamely.

  Moss’s mouth opened as she moved back from him. His hand dropped the bill and reached for her. She didn’t know what he intended, and she ruthlessly batted his hand away.

  “Don’t—” he said as she staggered, overbalancing in her intent to get away from him.

  Hesper snarled at him before her feet tripped over his kayak. She had been so angry she’d forgotten which way she was going. Her body went over with her full weight on one side. Her elbow came down hard on the dock, and she felt skin split just as there was a detonation of pain. Cloth ripped as she rolled to one side and then there was a feeling of airlessness. The unwieldly kayak had shifted under her and tipped her over the side of the dock. She screamed as she hit the water and got a mouthful of dark liquid for her effort.

  Hesper lost all ability to think rationally for a split second. Then she struck out immediately knowing that if she allowed herself to float down all would be lost. Fight, stupid! Fight or die!

  Something wrapped itself around her neck and jerked hard. Hesper would have screamed again if she had been able, but instead, she was summarily hauled out of the water and dropped on the dock.

  “Are you insane?” Moss yelled in her face, rolling her to her back. His chest heaved as he recovered from the effort of lifting her from the river and tossing her on the dock.

  June knelt beside Hesper. “Jesus, Hesper, your arm is bleeding.” She glared at Moss. “You’re the one who’s insane. Can’t you just leave it alone?”

  Moss stood up and impatiently swiped hair from his forehead. “Shit,” he said as if nothing better suited the situation.

  Hesper cradled her arm and felt the gaping tear in the hoodie’s sleeve with her fingers. She glanced down to see sodden material torn asunder. Blood trickled through dripping water and appeared pink. She watched as it dropped to the deck and then went through the cracks of the boards. Her eyes followed it down as it splashed into the black waters. There was enough sunlight slicing through the gap to show it splatter and the pink drop dissipate almost immediately in the undulating river.

  It took Hesper only an instant to understand what had happened, and it took another instant to understand that she was frozen in place.

  Moss had stepped back, but his eyes were on her arm where the sleeve was torn. He then stepped closer, bending his upper body slightly. For a second, she thought he was looking at the scrape caused by the weather-toughened wood of the dock, but she suddenly became aware that he was staring fixedly at the scars on her forearm.

  “What’s that?” he asked hoarsely.

  June saw too, and Hesper caught her grim expression as she covered the bare part of her arm with the hand of the other arm. Then she realized her foot was dangling over the edge of the dock. Several things passed through her mind at that moment. The two men were standing up now and had moved forward, probably trying to decide whether to help Moss or to help Hesper. June reached for Hesper’s arm, likely to see how bad the scrape was, disregarding the scars for the moment. Moss reached forward with his right hand in the direction of her arm, and she knew he was trying to get a better look at those scars.

  It was a moment of cascading information coming at Hesper from a thousand different directions. The sun was out, and she could hear the bells warning people that the Broadway Bridge was coming up. People were talking around her. A gentle breeze licked across her wet flesh and reminded her that she had just taken a dip in the river. The warmth of her blood trickled down her forearm.

  A thousand different directions became a thousand and one as the long, unnaturally skinny, dead white hand with long, unkempt, jet-black nails appeared. It shot out of the water lightning fast and wrapped itself around Hesper’s ankle. She could feel the nails digging into her flesh and piercing it. A second later, her ankle was immediately snatched with abnormal strength.

  Hesper was dragged just to the edge of the dock. Her ass hung half over the brink, and she looked directly downward into the dark water and the inhuman figure below her. She didn’t have time to yell or protest or pray. This was what she’d been afraid of for two years.

  The perverted openmouthed smile beneath eternally dark eyes greeted Hesper and was enough to cause nightmares for the rest of what was left of her probable short life.

  Oh, Hesper hadn’t missed those black teeth at all.

  Chapter Five

  He who runs away and escapes is clever.

  – African proverb

  And then one very significant thing happened.

  Moss grabbed Hesper with very strong arms and yanked her back into the middle of the dock. At the same time, June gasped so loudly it was almost a scream. The hand abruptly let go of her ankle and disappeared back into the water below them without so much as a splash.

  It was gone, but Hesper knew it was never really gone.

  A long interminable moment later, one of the other men asked, “What in the absolute fuck was that?”

  Hesper didn’t hesitate any longer. She was abruptly unfrozen. In a mad rush, she brushed off Moss and June as she scrambled to her feet and ran. She swept through a group of people at the end of the dock and almost sighed as her feet hit the hard concrete of the walking path.

  She ran until she was two blocks away from the river. Breast heaving with effort, she finally stopped and realized that other things were happening. She stood in the middle of an intersection with both a Honda Accord and a Subaru Forester honking at her.

  A middle-aged woman with wire-rimmed glasses gawked at her from behind the windshield of the Forester. Her mouth was moving frantically, but Hesper couldn’t hear the words. There was a roaring in her ears that overrode everything else, and after a moment, she realized it was the blood pounding in her head.

  Hesper moved jerkily to the sidewalk and watched as the Honda and the Subaru moved past. The woman in the Forester only paused to extend her middle finger in Hesper’s direction, shaking it emphatically at her as she drove away.

  Hesper stood on the corner next to a street sign and stared blankly at the building across the street with its colorful mural on all the visible walls. It was an abstract design of waves and curls on a whitewashed brick, and she didn’t have a clue what it meant. Behind her was a Subaru dealer, which was probably why the woman in the Forester was about. On another corner was a five-story building that looked like it should house lawyers and architects. However, the corner ground-floor office was a boutique with windows displaying sleek mannequins dressed in fashionable clothes.

  The mannequins were alternately black, red, and purple fleshed, and Hesper stared at the black one. Long, skinny arms could reach for her. Those fingernails could burst through the glass and touch her skin. They would catch her and…

  Hesper became aware that she was standing there in wet clothing. One arm was bleeding, and she looked down to see a small pool of blood on the sidewalk. She brought her arm up and moved the torn fabric aside to see the scrape. This also made her aware that her ankle was throbbing in time with her head. She lifted her leg and bent her knee so she could see her ankle. She tugged at her jeans and exposed the skin. One side had four crescent-shaped punctures that each oozed crimson. The other side of her ankle had one. A hand wrapped around her ankle as if it wouldn’t let go. She touched one of the cuts and felt it all the way up her leg. There were also bruises. Appearing quickly, finger-shaped ones emphasized the outline of what had grabbed her.

  Hesper
put her foot down. There it was. Proof that she was right and that every other person she’d told was wrong. All she’d had to do was bleed in the water.

  The man with Moss had asked, “What in the absolute fuck was that?” What in the absolute fuck that was, was something out of the Brothers Grimm’s nightmares. Not a who, like a single individual, but a what, and it knew where she was. It had been waiting for an opportunity, and when it had presented itself, it had taken it, but Moss had been just a little quicker, and there were witnesses. Too many witnesses in the bright light of the afternoon.

  Hesper put her arms around her body and shivered, staring at the pattern of bloody droplets leading to where she was standing. In the sky above her, the sun started to duck behind the buildings of Downtown Portland, and long shadows crept forward seeking to conceal all the remaining patches of light.

  Night wasn’t going to be Hesper’s friend.

  She looked up, and Moss stood about ten feet away, his chest heaving with the effort of having chased her. The front of his shirt was soaked, but then he’d just been kayaking in the Willamette, however, most probably it was from rescuing her. Not once but twice.

  His face was a study in confusion tinged with fear. “What was that? What the holy hell was that?” he asked. “Why did it grab you?”

  “This is your fault,” Hesper said. She glanced around. Her bicycle was at Abracajava’s and that was probably a mile away. Her pack was inside the coffee shop, and it contained her keys both to her bicycle lock and her house. Furthermore, June had the keys to Abracajava’s and June was probably following them at a much slower pace. She looked down again. Dark was going to fall and the lack of nearby water wasn’t going to dissuade the thing that was coming after her relentlessly. It would follow the trail of her blood like an ant following a path of breadcrumbs to a yummy sandwich dropped on a kitchen floor.

  Stop the bleeding, Hesper said to herself. Stop the bleeding because they have very, very good scenting abilities, and they know your blood all too well. “I need your shirt, Mr. Ten-Dollar Bill.”

  “What?” Moss asked.

  “To stop the bleeding,” Hesper explained, although she didn’t feel like explaining.

  Moss hesitated then pulled his t-shirt off. He stepped forward and handed it to her. She tried not to stare at the tattoo that decorated half of his pectoral muscles. It was an elaborate one of a girl’s head. A portrait tattoo, it was so detailed it could have been a photo that had been glued to his chest. Hesper didn’t need to ask if it was Olivia. It was almost certainly his sister. Had she even asked if it was his sister? No, she could Google it, but her cellphone was in her jeans pocket, and since it had gone for the same dip she had, it was probably deader than the Passenger Pigeon.

  Hesper wrapped his shirt around her arm, effectively stanching the blood flow and looked around. It was time to run again. She would have to move quickly. Back to Abracajava’s, keys, bike, home, airport. In that order and before the sun set fully, which was in about an hour. Once she got to the airport, she could find a way of looking at some map where running water was absent in an area of no less than a hundred miles. The Gobi Desert? The Sahara? Kalahari?

  “What did you do with June?” Hesper asked.

  “Uh,” Moss said glancing over his shoulder, “you mean the older woman, right? She was right behind me. You took three turns that she probably didn’t see. Plus, she was on putter mode, and you’re on hyper speed.”

  “Right,” Hesper said. She could go back toward the river, or she could go wait for June at Abracajava’s. Or she could go to Abracajava’s and bash in the back window. Sure, June had set the alarm, but Hesper would be in and out before the police showed, and she could owe June for the cost of the glass. June might even be understanding since Hesper was only going to take her backpack. Skipping the whole waiting for June part would be the time saver. She turned away from Olivia’s brother and immediately began to run.

  Hesper wasn’t out of shape. She wasn’t really fragile. She made certain she exercised daily. She did wind sprints every other day. She took every class she could in various martial arts and defensive classes, although none of that had helped when you’re frozen up right next to the water. She didn’t have a watch on, but she had a good idea that it took her no more than seven or eight minutes before she made it to Abracajava’s.

  She came to a stop and tried to catch her breath while she looked at the funky, fun storefront that was the coffee shop. People were still coming and going on the street, visiting some of the restaurants and the various shops. They looked at her, but she didn’t really stand out. She looked like a 90s grunge reject/emo girl on the lookout for her next manga/anime fix. She wouldn’t have been surprised if someone had tossed a few coins at her feet and whispered, “Sailor Moon rulz.”

  Hesper started around the storefront when she realized that Moss was still with her and stopped. “Don’t you give up?” she snarled at him. She didn’t need him to witness her larceny and tell the police who had done what to the glass at the back of the coffee shop.

  Moss was definitely getting more attention than she was. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, and he had a pretty good six pack. Passing girls and women alike were staring at his chest like they wanted to fondle it. Hesper wanted to yell at them, “Go ahead! It’ll get him off my ass.”

  “Where are you going?” Moss asked, only slightly out of breath. Plainly, he didn’t merely kayak for exercise. He probably ran six miles every day before breakfast and had a great paleo diet while he was hunting answers for what had happened to his sister. “Are you running from me? Or are you running from that thing?”

  “I didn’t want to tell you, but you’ve got bad breath,” Hesper snapped. “You need some breath mints or Scope. Mini-Mart is down that way.” She pointed helpfully.

  Moss frowned at her.

  “What kind of stupid name is Moss anyway?” she asked. “I hope you were named for a grandfather because it’s much better than being named after a small flowerless plant that lacks roots.”

  “Great-grandfather,” Moss said. “I think he was named after a small flowerless plant that lacks roots.” His lips twitched, and Hesper knew he was trying to flirt.

  “Oh, darling,” she simpered, fluttering her eyelashes unashamedly, “now I’ll roll over and tell you everything.” Hesper sneered at him. “Not.”

  Moss frowned again.

  Hesper ignored him and went around the back. She had a key to Abracajava’s because sometimes she opened or closed the café, but the key was attached to her key ring which was inside the locked coffee shop. Damn June and that bottle of scotch in her drawer.

  “I can give you a ride to wherever you’re going,” Moss offered. “I have a Jeep back at my condo. It isn’t far away, and we can talk on the way.”

  “I know where your stupid condo is. Where do you think we came from on our way to the river, and fuck you very much for making me go down there, by the way,” Hesper called over her shoulder. So Moss was going to see her doing a little breaking and entering. Oh well, the cops can try to extradite me. If they can find me, that is. “I need my stuff. June isn’t here. I need my stuff right now, and well, I’m going to have to get it the hard way.”

  Hesper trudged around the building, excruciatingly aware that she was damp, and the wind was beginning to pick up. Her arm and ankle throbbed painfully. She had gotten to like the area. She liked her job. She liked June. The room she rented was nice and comfortable. She even liked Dove. Last of all, she liked Kisho, and she probably would have made some progress with him. Hell, I have made progress. Two goals met today, buckos. Two! But there was a little niggling feeling of one step forward and two steps backward.

  The back door should have been solid metal, but June had been holding out on spending money on it. Various break-ins in the past meant Abracajava’s had an alarm system. Hesper had nearly forgotten she knew the code, so she could save herself a little stress knowing the police wouldn’t be alerted. Besides, she
wasn’t stealing anything from June; she wanted her keys so she could get her bicycle and get home, so she could get ahead of the inevitable curve.

  Hesper eyed the glass part at the top of the door and swiftly drew back her arm. She adjusted Moss’s t-shirt so that it was on her elbow and struck. The glass cracked and fell inward. Hesper said, “Oh snap, that hurt.”

  “Use a rock next time,” Moss advised. “Won’t hurt your elbow.”

  “Speaking from personal experience?”

  “Yeah. I did a little juvie time for personal exploration. I preferred abandoned buildings, however.”

  “That’s just wonderful,” Hesper said as she reached through the door and unlocked the deadbolt. Since the business had once been someone’s house, some of the adjustments to its security were out of date. The windows obviously needed to be re-caulked because part of the glass had just fallen away from its frame instead of breaking. “I love when you share those scintillating details of your life with me.”

  “Christ, you’re sarcastic. Why are you breaking into the place you work?”

  “I said I need my stuff, and June is probably a mile away right now.” Hesper sighed. “Do you not listen?”

  “Why not just wait for her?”

  “Oh, that opportunity has now passed,” Hesper said as she opened the door. The alarm immediately began to beep loudly. There was supposed to be a mechanism that would catch the sound of glass breaking but that hadn’t worked. She could mention it to June when she sent her a money order later. By the way, June, while I was losing my mind, I happened to notice that your alarm system isn’t working properly. Also, here’s fifty dollars for the glass I broke. I hope that’s enough. Do I need to mention I won’t be back because something wants to kill me, and I’m pretty sure it’s no longer safe in Portland?

  “Oh yeah, that’s good,” Hesper muttered. She stepped inside and went around a corner to disable the alarm. She punched in digits in a wall-mounted keypad, and the alarm went silent. The lights on the keypad went from red to green. She’d managed to enter the correct code on the first try.