Corrupted Love

Jessie Amare’s alarm started blaring at her. Her hand fumbled across her cluttered nightstand, knocking several empty liquor bottles down before she found her phone and shut it off. Her head pounded inside her skull, and her stomach churned nauseatingly. There was an uncertain moment when she thought she would throw up, but it passed, and the floor beside her bed remained vomit-free.

“Damn, my head hurts,” a weird voice suddenly said.

There was a flash of fear when she didn’t recognize it. She tried to remember the night before, but only hazy images of some random guy appeared. There was drinking, some laughing, and a lot of naked time. After some internal debate, she turned over and found herself face-to-face with someone not even remotely familiar. It was a man with a hideous mustache, greasy black hair, and caterpillar eyebrows.

“Uh...no offense, but…get out,” she told him. Then she rolled away, got out of bed, and went to the bathroom.

“You sure you want me to leave?” the guy asked.

“Just go!” she yelled back, immediately regretting it when her head felt like it was about to split open. She got to the bathroom, went inside, and slammed the door behind her.

“Happy Valentine’s Day, bitch!” the guy yelled at her. A few moments later, she heard her front door open and bang shut.

“Yeah, yeah,” Jessie said, then abruptly threw up into the sink while she used the toilet.

After the bathroom visit, she vegged out on TV, trying not to think about anything. She knew what would happen if she let her mind wander. She knew exactly what road it would go down and didn’t think she could handle that. So instead, she focused on the stupid show. She was in the middle of watching an epic reality show catfight when her front door got kicked in, and some guy she’d never seen before stumbled into her apartment.

“Ah!” she screamed. “What...who...wha?”

The guy wore an old western duster and a cowboy hat with two revolvers strapped to his waist. He staggered forward a few steps and promptly collapsed, blood pooling underneath him. The left side of his torso was a shredded, bloody ruin.

“Oh my god!” Jessie yelled, going to him even though it was against her judgment. “Are you okay?”

She was about to get towels, but the man’s hand grabbed her forearm and yanked her back down again. A squeak of fear escaped her. His eyes were open and focused on her.

“J-Jessie…” he spat. Specks of blood flew out of his mouth and landed on the stubble of his chin. “I-i’m s-so sorry I…”

He took in a ragged breath.

“Don’t try to talk,” she told him.

“It’s al-all my fa-u…” A fit of coughing gripped him, and more blood gushed out of his torn left side.

“Ew! This is really gross. I’m going to call 911.” Again, she tried to leave him, but he stopped her. “Dude! Quit. I’m trying to help you. You’re dying.”

“C-can’t help now. All my f-fault.” He seemed to know his time was running out. He locked eyes with her as his free hand went to the belt holding his revolvers. He undid the clasp, and it fell to the floor. With a little more struggling, he was able to get them out from underneath him so he could push them at her. “I w-wish I coul…” He coughed harshly again. When he finished, he continued. “You. Take them. It’s up to you to st-stop the m-monster.”

She stared at the guns. Then she stared at the man on the floor. Her mind felt like it wanted to seize up again.

“What? Did you say monster?” she asked.

“Ch-choose l-love.”

Those were the last words he said, and after he did, all hell broke loose. Everything around her suddenly dimmed. It wasn’t total darkness, but it did feel like all the light got sucked out of the world. An instinct screamed a warning, and her head jerked toward her door.

It was still open, giving her a great view of the most hideous and terrifying creature she’d ever seen. Its very nature was abhorrent, and her mind almost broke just looking at it. Most of it was pitch black, but its body split open in numerous spots by cracks and fissures that oozed purple blood. It had an oblong head with a broad, crooked mouth full of fangs covered in clear slime. Two eyes glowing with eerie, purple light stared straight at her. Its long, spindly arms ended in ridiculously big hands with foot-long fingers topped with hooked claws. The creature uttered a long, moaning yell and ran for the door. It came for her in these jerky, weirdly stutter-like movements.

Jessie screamed, ran to the door, and then slammed it shut. Her heart was jackhammering inside her chest as she slid down it, and her mind was going a hundred miles an hour. A few seconds later, there was a loud crash, and her door actually pushed her forward a bit before settling back. Two other impacts followed the first, each one more powerful than the last. She thought for a horrible second that the monster would break it down with her sitting in front of it, but miraculously, it held. After the third hit, there was an odd moment of silence. For some reason, the monster stopped trying to bust her door down.

She looked at the dead man on her floor and wanted to cry. His pale skin had turned even paler and took on a grey tint. His eyes were open and staring up at nothing. It was bringing up painful memories. Memories she had spent the last three years trying to bury. Images of…her. Images of her dead body. Her open, staring eyes that looked right at her but didn’t see her. Jessie remembered those eyes and when she saw the life inside them wink out like it had never been there.

Three years. That’s how long it’s been since her girlfriend, Brit, died. And now, here was more death. It felt like it was following her.

She hated it.

There was another powerful wail from the monster, but this time, it came from the back of her apartment. A horrifying crash and glass hitting the floor immediately followed that yell.

“Oh shit,” Jessie whispered.

Her eyes went to the dead man’s revolvers, and she scrambled to them without hesitation, inspecting each one. She cracked them open and checked their chambers. They were fully loaded, but the bullets were strange. A weird pink metal she’d never seen before jacketed each one, and a bizarre heart stamp was on their butt ends. She ignored all that strangeness (mostly because she had no other choice), closed the guns, spun their cylinders, and held them up. Each barrel pointed at the doorway to her kitchen/dining room. She got to her feet and readied herself, her heart still pounding.

“Let’s go!” Jessie shrieked. “I’m right fucking here!”

The monster let out another wailing scream. Jessie heard it, but something else lurked in its yell this time. Something that sounded like…pain. It was hurting? That confused her, but since the thing was trying to kill her, she felt little sympathy for it. A few seconds later, she watched it stutter into view like the image on a bad VHS tape. Its over-large, saber-like fingers scratched at her walls, ceiling, and floors. The fissures on its black skin seemed wider and oozed more neon-purple blood. Its eyes blazed and started flickering like candle flames. Its vast, grotesque mouth hung open and clear saliva dripped to the ground.

Jessie fired the guns, taking careful aim. The bullets coming out did not act like ordinary bullets, however. Each time she pulled the trigger, there was a flash of red light and (swear to God) hints of sexy, romantic music that was so faint, she almost thought it was her imagination. But it happened every time she fired, and after the first three or four shots, she realized the music was real.

As weird as the bullets were, they still seemed to do the job well enough. They smacked into the creature, and its body jerked and twitched. It wailed again, and a long, ropy tongue thing whipped out. It slithered through the air and smacked Jessie’s wrist. Pain flared there, and she yelped, dropping one of the guns. The tongue thing whipped again, but she dodged it in a fluid motion that carried her to the middle of the room. She fired her remaining gun twice, aiming it right at the thing’s gut. The flashes of light were even brighter, the music even louder, and the damage more severe. Large, gory wounds appeared in its torso, and its blood and worse stuff dribbled out. A foul, rotten smell in the air made Jessie’s eyes water.

“J-jess…ss....s,” the thing growled out.

The creature lashed out with one of its arms. Jessie crossed her own in front of her at the last minute, doing what she could to block the blow, but it was strong. It broke one of her forearms and sent her flying across her living room. She landed with a harsh thud on her coffee table, rolled off it, and fell to the floor, trying hard to get her breath back into her battered body.

“J-je...sss...ss... i,” the creature moaned again.

Jessie coughed, and blood came out. She crawled across the ground, each inch she gained taking way more effort than it should have. Eventually, she got to the other gun, the one she dropped earlier. The creature’s tongue-thing whipped through the air again. It darted forward, but she dodged it. The hand of her unbroken arm wrapped around the worn grip of a revolver, and she lifted it. At the same time, the creature lunged at her.

She timed her shot, waiting for the right moment.

Not yet, she thought, focusing all her attention on the creature.

Its arms lashed around viciously like a whip, and the seconds ticked by insanely slowly. Then, with a breath of relief, she got her opening. She pulled the trigger, and the bullet flew out, smacking into it right beneath its chin. It howled in pain and rage.

Jessie thought that would end it. She was wrong. Instead of the monster dying, the inky darkness covering its head peeled away, leaving a roughly human-looking image underneath it. It was hazy at first. Ghost-like. Then its features clarified like a pixelated image being sharpened.

Her hammering heart abruptly stopped inside her chest.

“Brit?” she asked.

“J-je...sss...s..ie,” Brit moaned.

With all the weird, crazy shit going on, seeing Brit again had never even entered her mind. As the ghost-like face of her dead girlfriend stared at her, Jessie remembered how in love with her she’d been. She also remembered how after she was gone, love felt…useless. That feeling of uselessness turned into anger which eventually turned to rage.

Rage at love in general.

Choose love.