Pus Junkies

—14—

Kip led Jade straight up the attic stairs into his bedroom. She kept trying to get to Kip’s skin, and every time Kip would push her away and refuse her, she would pout, bare her teeth, squeal in frustration.

“Just be patient. You’ll get more. You’ll get more than you’ll ever need.”

“Oh, Toad, baby. Fuck… I love you so much. I just fucking love you so much…”

Lies. All fucking lies! You don’t love me. Nobody fucking loves me!

But Kip just smiled, kissed her.

He felt different now. Strong. Venomous. Like there was acid pumping through his veins. He couldn’t feel his body anymore. No more orgasmic pulsating. Everything was just numb now, yet he could feel the heat, could feel the new juices flowing through him.

He knew what he had to do. And they deserved it. Every fucking one of them.

And Zak too. He knew I loved her. He fucking knew… but he has to have everything for himself. He just couldn’t stand that I was the popular one now… couldn’t stand that Kip was getting his time in the sun. No. And he can die with the rest of them.

“Come here, Jade.”

She obeyed.

Kip sat on his bed. He realized for the first time since waking back up again, since becoming this new being, a new entity all together, that he was completely nude. His cock was limp, covered in purple and blue boils that swirled with fresh pus. But not like the pus from before. He could tell, deep inside, that something had changed. His body was done making others feel good. They had abused it, forced his body to transform, to go into defensive mode. Self-preservation.

The pus was liquid hate. It was all the years Kip had been made fun of, all the years he had been ridiculed and embarrassed. No friends, no girls. Years of feeling worthless and grotesque. All of those feelings had become a physical thing, a poisonous liquid, and it continued to swell his flesh all over his body.

“You want me to suck your cock, baby? I’ll suck it so good. Please let me… please.” Jade said the words as she ogled the bumps on the head and shaft of his still-flaccid penis. Her hand darted out and she rubbed it, her tight grip bursting some of the bumps there.

Purple and blue and green fluid oozed out, as thick and viscous as maple syrup.

And she leaned over and took it into her mouth, sucked and sucked, bobbing her head.

Kip could feel nothing, but he stared down at the top of her head and smiled, his phlegmy laugh rattling at the back of his throat.

Jade moaned deep, her fingernails digging into Kip’s thighs as she slurped up the juices, letting his puffy, soft shaft slide across her lips.

It started at the top of her head. At least that was Kip’s point of view.

Her scalp turned hot pink, the hair falling out in clumps. The flesh bubbled, liquefied, spilled from her head onto Kip’s lap.

She choked, started to hyperventilate, tried to push away from him, but Kip reached out, grabbed her head with both hands, and continued to fuck her mouth with his loose cock.

The flesh on either side of her head, where Kip held her, started to slide off in sloppy chunks, and he finally released her, tossed her to the floor where he could watch.

Purples and blues and greens and yellows. Her liquefied innards spilled from her melting skin in rainbow colors, bubbled on the ground like hot grease. Steam swirled off the soupy mess, filled the air with the smell of hate and vengeance.

Even her bones melted, like sticks of butter, but she still moved slightly, still clung to some shred of life. Her mouth worked up and down as if she were trying to speak, even though her mouth was filled with the liquefied meat of her tongue and gums. Her face was little more than a pink and purple skull that was already beginning to collapse in on itself.

Kip stood, clapped as he watched the rest of her dissolve into a pile of brilliant color.

Yes, it was time for a party. And Kip couldn’t wait for the festivities to begin.

He strolled down the attic steps, whistling as he went, walked back outside, and stood in his front yard.

His body called to them.

And when they arrived, he would give them what they wanted. He would give each and every one of them what they deserved.

Chuck sat Indian-style in the woods. It was a spot that Jade had showed him a few months ago. They had skipped school and she directed him to drive his Mustang through the trees into a clearing where they fucked liked rabbits again and again. Chuck remembered how sore his dick was the next day.

But now Jade was with Kip. And Chuck was glad. Whatever made Kip happy made Chuck happy.

But he’s dead now. He’s dead and this is all that’s left of him.

Chuck held up the torn underwear, let the moonlight illuminate the chunky smear. Again, as the light danced over the shit’s surface, it dazzled with color, as if Kip’s last meal had been a bowl of multi-colored glitter.

Chuck licked his lips, his hands shaking now because of how bad he needed the Toad. Every cell in his body begged him to stuff that shit into his mouth and swallow it, make all the pain melt away.

What am I doing? I can’t eat shit… what the fuck is wrong with me?

Chuck didn’t know where that thought came from, but he laughed it off, ran his teeth over the fabric and scraped the feces into his mouth. The taste wasn’t what he had expected. There was some spiciness to it, with a hint of sweetness. He chewed it, let it soak into his palette and tongue, and then finally swallowed.

He ran his tongue over the boxer shorts, making sure he got every bit, didn’t want to waste a single morsel.

It started in his gut. At first, it was the same feeling he had been craving, and he jumped to his feet and tittered as the soothing vibrations snaked through his entrails. But that only lasted a few seconds. The smile on his face twisted into a knot of confusion and agony as it felt like a barbed balloon was blowing up in his belly, getting bigger and bigger, the needles growing longer and sharper.

He clutched his stomach and fell to his knees, black liquid bubbling from his throat and streaming from his mouth, turning the dirt below him into mud.

What’s happening to me? What… what the fuck?

He tried to clench his teeth, but they mushed into his gums and began to fall out one by one. Another gout of black ink roared from his mouth, followed by a scream that felt encrusted in broken glass.

The searing pain traveled from his gut up into his throat, building speed as it went, leaving a trail of fire behind. Once it reached his head, Chuck was flopping around in the dirt, no longer capable of screaming, no longer capable of thinking.

It was as if the shit had crawled itself into his skull, ate his brain, and was now doing his thinking for him.

Chuck rolled over onto his back, stared up at the sky. The black of the night had been transformed into streaks of vibrating and pulsating color, like an orgy of rainbows.

Chuck smiled. At least he thought he smiled. Something hot and chunky kept spilling from his mouth, running from his nostrils. It wasn’t until he stood that he realized his stomach had blown out and that his innards hung from the gaping cave like giant squid tentacles.

He laughed, poked and prodded at the fleshy tubes. Pain erupted there, but it was a different kind of pain, an almost ticklish, silly pain.

The ground moved, looked like a sea of rotting flesh, and every time he took a step, his foot plunged into the rancid meat and maggots wiggled out and danced over his feet.

The trees looked like giant corpses, hanging over him, promising him death and torture, so he climbed one of them, his intestines snagging and ripping open on branches as he went. He found the thickest limb he could, wrapped both hands around it, then hung from it, bouncing his body weight until it snapped free and he went tumbling back to the sea of rot beneath him.

The limb bled in his hands, and he gave it a few test swings.

“Killkillkillkillkill. Blood and pus and shit and everyone will fucking die!”

He didn’t mean to say anything, the words just sort of spilled out of his mouth, hot and salty. But in his mind, it made perfect sense. He knew what he had to do. It’s what Toad would have wanted him to do. Make them suffer.

Everyone must suffer.

And then he felt it. As if the sky had opened up and was raining cactus needles.

Toad is alive. And he’s calling for me.

Chuck bounded through the woods, following the directions that echoed through his shattered mind.

“Ho. Lee. Shit.” Gwen blew air from her tight lips as she ran both hands through her hair. She shot Zak a look, slightly smirking, as if she were waiting for him to tell her he was joking.

But Zak kept a straight face, was doing everything he could not to cry in front of her.

“That’s just… that’s more fucked up than anything should be allowed to be. I mean… fuck, man.”

“Yeah. Exactly. I still don’t believe it’s happening, but there’s no denying it now. The shit is real, and it’s my fucking cousin it’s happening to.” Zak slammed his palms against the steering wheel, honking the horn. “Why him? Why Kip? There are so many more fucking assholes in this world, in this fucking town, that deserves it more than him. He’s been nothing but good his whole life… and now this?”

“I always thought he had the worst case of acne I’ve ever seen. But… wow. Just wow.”

Zak didn’t know how he expected Gwen to react, but her tone was pissing him off.

“So what now? Are you really going to tell that story to the police?”

“No, of course not. I’ll just tell them… fuck, I don’t know. I’ll tell them Kip might be dangerous, you know? Like Columbine dangerous. They’ll sure as fuck listen then.”

She scrunched her brow, and for a minute, Zak thought she was going to protest, but she just nodded. “Yeah. That’s pretty smart actually. Then when they get to the house, we won’t have to tell them anything, they’ll see it for themselves, right?”

“Exactly.”

They were silent for a few minutes, both seeming to marinate in their own deep thoughts. Then Gwen wrinkled her nose, stuck out her tongue, and wiggled like she had a tingle in her spine.

“They actually ate his pus? Jesus that’s so fucked up. But you know what?” She smiled, raised an eyebrow, glared out the windshield with blank eyes. “They all deserved it. For treating him like shit for so long.”

“They deserved to have their asses kicked, yes. But this? I don’t think anyone deserves this. And you know what’s fucked up? I wasn’t gonna tell you this…”

“What? What is it?”

“I felt it too. I wanted to suck his pus down just like everyone else. I think his body releases something into the air, makes the people around him crave it. Or maybe it’s just fucked up people like me and all those other fucking kids.”

“Did you… did you eat—”

“No! Hell no. I could feel the craving, but I fought it off. It woke up some feelings that I’ve been working really hard to bury, though. Even now I can kind of feel it. And it pisses me off.”

“There!” Gwen pointed out the window with one hand, slapped Zak on the shoulder with the other.

“What?”

“There, right fucking there.”

The police car was parked at a Seven Eleven, the officer sipping coffee and leaning against the vehicle, absently fiddling with his cell phone.

Zak nearly zoomed right past the gas station, but swung the wheel to the left, cutting across traffic and nearly getting t-boned by a minivan. He pulled the car into the parking lot, the officer already approaching the car, one hand resting on his sidearm.

“Don’t start screaming at him, Zak. Be calm.”

“Yeah… okay.” Zak rolled the window down.

“Get out of the car, son.” The officer squinted at him, then knelt down so he could get a look at Gwen.

Zak didn’t resist, got out, hands up. “I’m sorry, sir. We saw you standing here and we really need to talk with you. I didn’t mean to—”

“You could have killed somebody with a stunt like that. Are you crazy?”

“I know, and I’m sorry, sir. But there’s something way more serious going on. And it’s time sensitive. People could be in danger. Kids.”

“How much you had to drink today, son? And be honest with me.” Still squinting.

“Drink? Nothing. I panicked, that’s all.”

“Step over here, please. Arms out.”

Zak shot a quick look at Gwen and she widened her eyes, nodded toward the officer. Zak sighed, went along with the entire sobriety test. When he passed, he was about ready to scream. He had no idea how much time had passed, but it felt like a lifetime.

“Be more careful, you hear me? Now go on.”

“Go on? Did you not hear what I said? People are in trouble, high school kids could be dead before tonight is over.”

“Dead?”

Zak laid out the whole lie. Just sort of made it up as he went, making sure to make it sound serious so the officer would listen.

“And I don’t know how to make bombs, but it sure looks like he’s stockpiling a whole lot of chemicals and serious-looking equipment. He’s been bullied his whole life, and I’m scared he’s finally had enough. I’m scared he’s going to do something bad tonight. I need you to come to the house. You can follow me there.”

The officer scratched his chin, face as red as diaper rash. When he nodded, Zak almost hugged him.

“Tell you what… let me call this in, get some backup just in case. If what you’re telling me is true, I don’t want to be there alone.” The officer smiled, placed a hard hand on Zak’s shoulder. “I know it’s hard to turn in your cousin like this, but you did—”

Something warm and wet splashed Zak in the face at the same moment Gwen shrieked.

Zak didn’t know what he was looking at at first. The officer’s hand dropped to his side, and he sort of blinked, mouth opening and closing. Something big had been smashed into the top of his head, and it wasn’t until the officer dropped to his knees that Zak saw Chuck standing there, the blood that had been covering his body earlier now a flaky red crust. It looked like his stomach had been blown out from the inside, flaps of skin hanging off in tattered ribbons, and his intestines dragged on the concrete in torn loops.

The officer was hurt, but still conscious. He tried to stand, tried to pull out his gun, but Chuck swung the thick tree branch over his head, smashed it back down onto the officer’s skull. Then again. And when he did it a fourth time, the officer’s head dented inward, blood bubbling out of the wound and trickling from his ears.

Chuck held his weapon above his head with both hands, looked like a caveman doing a victory dance after bagging a meal. His intestines bounced and splashed black liquid everywhere.

“Rotten. It’s all rotten and the rainbows will fuck you with their cock colors!”

“What?” Zak backed away from the crazed jock.

Chuck grinned, his eyes pointing in opposite directions like a chameleon. His teeth were black, lips caked in a crusty dark gray substance. Then he cocked back his branch and swung.

Zak ducked it just in time and the wood shattered the driver’s window of his Corolla. Gwen screamed again.

Chuck peered into the car, grabbed hold of his dick when he saw Gwen, and started stroking. He made a choking, gurgled sound, and a waterfall of inky black liquid rushed from his mouth poured all over his hand and cock, and he just kept pumping away, didn’t let the endless black vomit stream slow him.

Zak figured Chuck must have got a hold of more of Toad’s pus, either that or he was losing his mind from withdrawal. The guy looked like he had been self-mutilating since they last saw him jogging away from the house, and Zak figured Chuck would be dead from his wounds before long.

But he didn’t have time to wait for that to happen.

Chuck was leaning into the driver’s window, reaching for Gwen. She finally stopped screaming and ran out of her door and across the parking lot. Chuck pulled himself out, cackled, pointed at her with his tree limb.

“Can you feel it? Can you feel the Toad’s fingers on your cunt?” Chuck shoved a fist into his stomach cavity, pushed it in and out of the bramble of innards there. “I can feel him right in my cunt too. He’s calling us. He’s calling us!”

“What in the hell is going on out here?” The gas station attendant stood just in front of the double glass doors, the yellow and red light from the sign making him look orange. He pointed a shaking pistol at Chuck, eyes kept bouncing to the dead officer and the growing puddle of blood creeping from his head.

“Kill them all. Everyone must suffer. They all deserve it, they all deserve to fucking die!” As Chuck ran toward the man, another stream of black shot from his mouth and misted behind him as he went, tree limb held high.

“Stop! Don’t come any closer! I already called the police and they’re coming!”

“Fucking shoot him!” Gwen screamed.

And the man did. He fired the gun twice, both hitting Chuck in the guts as far as Zak could tell, but it didn’t even slow the rampaging jock down.

The wood slammed into the top of the man’s head, dropping him face-first into the pavement.

“Chuck! Stop it!” Zak held both hands in the air, approaching the kid slow and steady. “Kip doesn’t want this. Okay? Don’t do this.”

Chuck turned, his mouth, guts, and genitals all tattooed that black color. His eyes sort of circled in place, never once facing the same direction. A stupid chuckle sputtered from his lips, and he turned back to the attendant, raised his weapon high, and slammed it back down.

This man’s head gave quicker than the officer’s. His legs kicked, the toes of his shoes tapping against the concrete, hand slapping with the same chaotic motion.

Chuck hit him again until the back of his head was a mess of broken skull, hair, and brain matter. Chuck punched his fist into the opening, scooped out a handful of gray meat, then he shoved it into his own stomach cavity.

“I think I’m hungry,” Chuck said, then roared with laughter before sprinting toward Zak, nearly tripping over his viscera.

How is this motherfucker still standing?

The gun went off just beside him, and Zak fell to the ground and covered himself up. There were five more shots that rang out, and Chuck’s body hit the concrete, the exit wounds in the back of his head bubbling black liquid.

Zak looked up at Gwen, the officer’s pistol in her hands, smoke spiraling from the barrel.

“Fucking cocksucker,” she said. Her lips were tight and pinched shut, nostrils flaring, tears slowly falling from her slow blinking eyes.

Zak jumped to his feet, knees shaking. “Did you hear what he said?”

“Not a single fucking thing he said made a damn bit of sense. It was all gibberish, right? Like he went fucking coo-coo.”

“Most of it, yeah. But he said something about Toad calling him, calling everyone.”

“What does it mean?” Gwen still had the gun pointed at Chuck’s body, that black stuff still flowing from his wounds.

“Remember how I told you about that chemical? They’re like pheromones I think. If Chuck could sense them way the fuck out here…”

“Kip did say he was going to have a party. Right before we left.”

“Fuck me. Something’s changed, Gwen. Before… they were like addicts, right? Like they were all on ultra-potent ecstasy or something. Not like this though. And Kip had changed too… the color of his skin, the way he looked all bloated. Something’s changing, and if we don’t stop this shit now, I have a feeling Bowie High School’s gonna have one hell of a small graduating class.”

“What about the cops? Shouldn’t we call them?”

Zak wanted to, was terrified to face his cousin alone. “After all this shit? They’ll have questions, and we don’t have time for questions. Besides…”

“What?”

“I don’t want Kip to get hurt. Not if we don’t have to. I still love him… he’s still my cousin.”

Zak expected Gwen to call him crazy, but she just arched her mouth, nodded. “I understand.”

A pickup truck pulled into the parking lot then, an elderly man at the wheel. When he caught sight of all the violence, he immediately picked up his cell phone and started dialing. Then he saw Zak and Gwen, pointed an accusatory finger, and started shouting into his phone.

“Let’s get the fuck out of here. If we’re not already too late.”

Gwen kept the gun, and Zak still had his pistol in his glove compartment. He hoped to God they wouldn’t need them.