Anaideia 33

The eyes of the man, our captor, widened in awe at the horrifying and unbridled majesty of Penelope. He was slow to raise arms, not that it would have mattered, and his comrades scrambled to figure a plan of attack. The captor on the right opened fire but the speed of a bullet was no match for Penelope’s supernatural and inhuman powers. She lashed out at her attacker, reaching for his ankles and smashed his body into a bloodied mess on the cavern wall. The captor on the left panicked and attempted to flee but was met with claws burrowing into his belly and bits of stomach and intestines spewed out.

The man was speechless and three of us in the cage were powerless with him. He was alone and Penelope towered over him then hissed and the man fell to his knees to beg forgiveness from a seeming beast that knew no mercy. “Penelope,” he pleaded with tears streaming down his face, “you’re the most beautiful creature I’ve ever witnessed! I never meant you no harm! Please! Can you find the humanity within yourself to let me go?! Your blood is my blood! You can have all this land! It’s been in my family for generations! It’s all yours! All I’ve ever wanted was a continuation of your kind!”

I looked deep into her glowing yellow eyes and for my sake and the sake of Dale and Old Jim, I prayed that there was a shred of humanity buried deep within her. But if there was, she wasn’t prepared to share it with the man on his knees. She raised her giant right hand and swatted it at the man’s head, knocking it clean off and it rolled towards the cage. When it stopped, it revealed to us that the last sensation that man ever knew was abject terror.

I looked at the head and then at Penelope. She approached the cage and glared at us intensely and it was the first time I had ever gotten a clean look at her face. She didn’t hiss or growl. She looked at me not with malice but with curiosity and while her alien features were apparent, I also saw the human. Though behind a cage and of no threat, I raised my hands in the air. “Penelope, I don’t know if you can understand me,” I said, “but I want to thank you for freeing us. I have a greater understanding of you now. I beg of you to let us be. We will not pursue you or harm you in any way.”

She studied us for what felt like eternity and then she placed her face close to the cage and I lower my hand. She sniffed at it for a bit before blinking then standing straight up and once again revealing her majesty. She blinked once more indicating her farewell then rushed out of the cavern like a fading dream.

I exhaled a sigh of relief and immediately crawled out from the bottom of the cage towards Vic. He was barely alive. His intestines were splayed out on the ground while his legs laid several feet away. I knelt down by his side to give him a sense of comfort before he died.

“Thank you for rescuing me,” I said as I laid my hand on his chest.

But in his dying daze he looked at me and with his last bit of strength, he reached up and grabbed me by my throat and blood spewed from his mouth he uttered his dying words. “I’m dead because of you!” he gurgled.

I struggled to pry his fingers from my neck and Dale rushed to my side to wrestle away his arm. But his strength slowly gave way and his eyes rolled back in his head and his hand fell flatly to the ground. And when he released me, I fell backwards and coughed uncontrollably to regain my breath.

“Christ!” I spat out.

Dale did a Hail Mary to mourn the passing of Vic then laid his hands on his eyes to close them. “Do we bury him?” he asked.

I look around to the cavern to the other bodies splayed about then I stand up to look at the carcass of the dead Scotsman once more. “Leave him,” I said. “This was what he wanted.”

I unlatched the cage to free Jim and the three of us traversed the narrow chambers of the cave and up to the opening where evening greeted us. On the outside we felt like three fallen angels that had escaped our hellish torment. Then each of us mounted one of the three horses deserted by our captors and proceeded down the trail.

We said nothing to each other.

As night fell and the moon hovered gloriously above the mountain tops, I saw Penelope silhouetted against the sky like a lone specter haunting the valley. She watched us trot away and then she disappeared into the darkness.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Anaideia 32

Vic wiped the blood of the knife on his faded pant leg. The body of the prisoner whitened as the darkened blood flowed from his body and mixed into the sand beneath our feet. Dale, usually calloused to these sights, growled and moaned. “You shouldn’t have done that,” he told Vic.

“I won’t say it again mate,” he warned, “I had little option.”

“You should’ve stabbed me instead,” said Old Jim.

Vic spat and knelt down in front of the bamboo which caged us in. He began sawing away at the hallowed wood and it didn’t take long to break it free. “You see this?” he asked. “This is all that stands in the way between Penelope and us once we unchain her. Do you want to be the next one in her belly?”

We said nothing as he finished the job. He began bending the sticks back to clear an opening then he placed the knife back in his boot. “Alright,” Vic instructed me, “once I’m out, drag the body through and place it as close as you can to Penelope. I’m gonna start pulling up those spikes. I don’t know how deep they go so I might need your help.”

I nodded reluctantly. “Vic, if we make it out of this,” I said, “you and me are through.”

“Just do as I say,” he spat.

Vic crawled through the opening and once on the other side, he stood up and quietly inched toward Penelope. I picked up the prisoner by the armpits and dragged his body towards the opening. I went through and reached back inside to pull him out. The prisoner, drained of all blood, was light. I finished dragging him as close as I felt comfortable and dropped him limply to the ground.

Meanwhile, Dale and Jim clutched the bamboo bars tightly as they watched the two of us on the outside. Vic was struggling with the spikes so I quietly move towards him and grabbed the top of the spike. While he pulled the chain, I lifted with all my strength. Despite the physical exertion, we tried not to grunt out of fear of disturbing Penelope who continued to rest soundly.

Finally the spike budged. Seconds later it was broken free. “One down, two more to go,” Vic whispered.

“We don’t want to loosen all four of the chains?” I asked.

“We might need a second of resistance,” he suggested.

We broke loose the second spike. Penelope was still undisturbed. But the third and final spike took some doing. With our strength nearly depleted, we started to loudly grunt. When it broke loose, the metal clanged against solid rock which echoed into the cavern. Penelope slightly shifted in her slumber which caused us to stop dead in our tracks. She rolled over and then grunted a loud snore.

“Fuck me, that was close,” Vic whispered.

“What do we do now?”

“We go back into the cage and we wait.”

With only Penelope’s hind leg chained, we tip toe back to Dale and Jim. When we reached the cage, Vic signaled for me to go in first. I bent back the bamboo and crawled inside. Then Vic got on his knees and did the same. When he was halfway through, the bamboo caught on the ass of his pants and broke.

It wasn’t a penetrating sound but it was enough to wake up Penelope. We froze as we watched her stand straight up and glare at us with glowing eyes. “Vic! Hurry the fuck up!” I yell.

But Penelope screamed that ungodly sound then effortlessly broke the last spike and charged toward the cage. Vic attempted to wiggle his way through to no avail. She went right past the prisoner’s body and latched onto Vic’s legs. She bit into his midsection and tossed him to the other side of the cave where he laid there with his torso separated from his lower half and bone and organs were exposed to all.

But Vic, still alive, begged her to eat the corpse of the prisoner. She responded with ear piercing screeches. But before she could finish him, our captors entered the cavern with guns ready.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Anaideia 31

The torches lit the tavern a burning red; this was literal hell. We were ordered to our feet and then rounded into the bamboo cage with the other prisoner. The captor locked the latch tight behind us and cackled. Then the leader placed his hands on the cage to give us one final warning. “Penelope’s got her belly full, so she’s fat and happy,” he said. “But in a few hours she’ll be up and at it again. So say your prayers and bid each other farewell. Cuz you ain’t got long.”

Penelope was balled up and sound asleep and the captors exited the cavern. Dale nudged the barely cognizant prisoner still shaken by his comrades death. “Hey buddy, are you hangin in there?” he asked.

The prisoner licked his lips and attempted to form words. “Water,” was all he said.

“Nah buddy. We ain’t got none of that.”

Vic was standing at the edge of the cage and looking at Penelope while out of earshot from the others. It wasn’t a mystery as to what he was thinking. “What’s the plan?” I ask.

“In my boot,” he said. “In my boot, I still have the knife. They didn’t think to check there.”

“So we cut ourselves free and then what?”

“All we have is the knife. They got the guns. We’re gonna need an extra set of hands. Specifically Penelope’s.”

“How do you plan to do that?”

“We’re gonna have to cut her free.”

“By pulling those spikes out of the ground?”

“You got it.”

I nodded. That seemed like the only sensible option. “How long do you reckon it’ll take to cut through the bamboo?” I asked.

“Shouldn’t take long.”

“It looks like it’ll take some doin to get those spikes loose. What if she wakes up before then?”

“She’ll need a distraction.”

“Like what?”

Vic rubbed his chin. He looked at the diminished prisoner and I knew right then I wouldn’t like what he had to say. “You’re gonna have to give her something else to eat,” he said.

“Vic, for Christ sake that man has gone through enough.”

He lowered his voice. “Look at the man! He ain’t gonna make it anyway.”

“So what do you expect me to do? Toss him at Penelope?!”

“Not if we put him out of his misery first.”

“You can’t be serious!”

“Look! We don’t have much time and there’s too many unpredictable variables. We can sacrifice him now so there’s no pushback when the time comes. The timing of this has to be perfect. There is no margin of error.”

“No. Absolutely not. I’m drawing the line here.”

Vic grabbed the back of my head and pulled me closer. “Listen mate,” he menacingly whispered, “I’m gonna do it if you like it or not. You can try to stop me but I’ll only end up using your body instead of his. So what’s it gonna be?”

Vic released me and I stepped back. “You’re a goddamn madman, you know that?” I say.

“Aye.”

Vic reached into his boot to pull out the knife. He sat calmly next to the battered prisoner and wrapped his arm around him. “You know, they used to tell us a story in the highlands when I was a boy. It’s about an old man visited by death. Do you know it?” he ask.

The prisoner did not.

“One day an old man overburdened by a bundle of wood on his back let the sticks fall to the ground. He cursed and called out to death to take him right then and there. To his astonishment, the prince of death appeared and asked the old man why he had called. Through fear and trembling, the old man asked the prince to load the sticks onto his back. But nay mate, it was too late. You see, the old man had unwittingly called for his final hour. So how will you respond when your time comes? By calm resolve or through fear and trembling?”

The prisoner shook his head in confusion.

“Aye mate,” Vic continued, “your prince has come.”

Vic plunged the dagger into the prisoner’s side and the prisoner gasped then fell to the ground. There were no cries; no final grasps for the last straws of life. He bled out and withered away.

The others were silent.

“Goddamn you Vic,” I said. “Goddamn you to hell.”

TO BE CONTINUED…

Anaideia 30

Old Jim lagged behind the group and screeched in agony with each passing hop. He’d stop frequently and begged his overseer to unshackle him. “Please,” he yelped, “I’m just an old sonuva bitch. My knees don’t work good!”

Out of pity, I looked to my captor for an act of clemency. “Untie his ankles!” I begged. “For fuck’s sake, he can’t run very far!”

But the man only jabbed the Uzi into my ribs. “Will you pipe down!” he said. “Just relax. We don’t have much further to go.”

Lo and behold minutes later we arrived at a clearing in the woods with old rusted machinery littering the forest floor and three tied up horses drinking from a troth. One of the men came forth to dust off old crusted leaves and pine needles to reveal a trap door leading underground. The door lifted and the man waved the Uzi to usher us inside. “Go on now,” he ordered.

With guns to our backs, we were pushed into an underground labyrinth. The cave walls were adorned with lighted torches leading the way. In the distance, the echoing screeches of Penelope could be heard. It was clear then that we were cattle driven to slaughter and the only response we could muster was petrified fear.

This dark labyrinth seemingly extended for miles down twisted paths and narrow passageways before we reached the final hellish cavern where the demon that was Penelope was chained on all fours to anchors burrowed into the earth. She screeched and gnashed to no avail while two unfamiliar men sweated and wept behind lines of bamboo that resembled a makeshift prison. We reached the bottom of the cavern where our captors ordered us to our knees.

“Well boys,” the man told us through ear piercing screams, “this is the end of the line. Those two fellers over there, well, they were looking for Penelope too. But we got to her first.”

One of the other captors opened the bamboo cage and threw a prisoner out. Like us, his hands and ankles were tied and he futilely begged for his life. But the man, our captor, continued to lecture us. “You see,” he continued, “city folk have been coming to these hills for years looking for the legend herself. And the crazy thing is the myth is true! She actually exists! But she’s not yours to claim. Yet a girl’s gotta eat.”

“Please, please! No!” the prisoner begged. But the man grabbed him by the collar and pushed him towards Penelope’s reach. He smacked up against her then fell to the ground. Penelope smelt the man while he quietly wept. Then she bit into his legs which was followed by ungodly screams from the prisoner. Blood gurgled from his mouth as she chewed him up and when she reached his torso he let out one final hair raising screech before his head was swallowed whole. When it was over, the other prisoner gave a panicked cry. The captors guffawed and the leader turned back to us. “What do you think about that?” he asked.

“Thank you for giving us a demonstration,” I said. “You can release us now and you’ll never see us again.”

With Penelope subdued, the other captor undid his suspenders and dropped his pants. He approached her from the rear while trying to stiffen his part and then he penetrated her. Penelope laid there seemingly defeated in a pitiful way. The man, the leader, lashed out. “Pull up your pants there mister!” he ordered. “Don’t do that in front of our guests!”

But the humping only increased in intensity before he climaxed. Penelope was unresponsive as her violator wiped sweat from his brow. “Sorry boss,” he said while he pulled up his pants. “I’ll control myself next time.”

“Goddamn,” the man said to the four of us. “They can’t control their little peckers when they see a naked woman.”

“Why are you doing this?” I asked. “Why don’t you kill her and be done with it?”

“Well,” the man began with a degree of sincerity as he spat a luggie, “do you boys ever recall hearing about a certain crash that happened in these hills on January 4th, 1952?”

No one responded.

“Well anyway,” he continued, “there were reports of UFO activity in the area following a fiery crash. We had the government investigating out here but they found nuthin. But there was somethin. You see, on January 5th of nineteen hundred and fifty two, my grandpappy was wondering these hills when he found a wounded creature. It was human-like as he described it, if not slightly larger, but he didn’t know what it was. Well, he dragged it home and it turned out that it was female alien. Being a mountain man with the ways of a mountain man, he had his way with her. Now this alien my pappy found wasn’t known to be violent. He described her as being extraordinarily intelligent and of peaceful ways. But a few months later, after continuous unholy and unsanctified copulation, an abomination was born. The child was violent, only satisfied with the flesh of men. That child is Penelope, who is laying right there.”

“So? What are you going to do with her?” I ask.

“Excellent question,” the man said then knelt in front of me. “This land has been in my family for generations. Everyone has tried to tread upon it: the government, corporations, the city folk. There’s only one way to keep y’all grimy hands off it. And that’s to raise a generation more of these monsters. If I must put the fear of god into fellers that wish to come here then by god that’s what I’ll do.”

TO BE CONTINUED…

Anaideia 24

I was the first to rush out of the van and I sprinted 80 or so yards past the dirt road and took position. Next up was Dale and he posted up slightly behind me to the right on the other side of the road. Vic soon followed and escorted Jim as quickly as possible to the far right flank.

“I’ll take point,” offered Old Jim.

“Don’t be stupid! I’m an experienced hunter! I’ll take point!” said Vic.

“I’m an old man,” said Jim. “I know Penelope better than anyone.”

With little time to argue, Vic reluctantly agreed and took his position on the far right. Jim proceeded to the front in the middle of the dirt road and we pushed forward. In actuality, we were all on point. Our diamond or rugged ‘S’ shaped formation was designed specifically so that if one of us was jeopardized then each position would have an open shot without having to adjust. This was our “net” to catch and kill Penelope.

At least that was the theory.

As we slowly pushed through the darkness and towards the pass, Dale shouted from the rear. “Hey Jim! How big of a bitch is Penelope?!” he asked.

Jim casually strolled forward and nonchalantly answered. “Oh, about seven to nine feet,” he said.

“That doesn’t sound too bad,” Dale responded. “I once banged a seven foot whore in Tajikistan. She had a big ol pair…”

“Keep your voice down Dale!” I ordered.

Vic shouted from the right flank “It doesn’t matter,” he said. “She knows we’re out here. She’s probably watching our every move.”

Despite this reasoning, we pushed forward silently. A few miles down the road we reached the pass. This was the pinch point. Our formation had little choice but to grow in tighter as the walls of a former river nearly engulfed us. It was as dark as dark could be. Not having laid eyes on the pass in daylight, I called out to Vic. “How high are the walls?” I shout.

“About 30 to 40 feet,” he said.

“Jim, how are your eyes?” I say.

“Good enough to see a gnats pecker,” he said.

“Keep your eyes open to the front,” I order. “Dale, you cover the rear. Vic and I will watch the top of the walls.”

In total darkness, all we could look out for was silhouettes against a night sky. As we penetrated deeper into the pass, it appeared our strategy was working. Despite the immense distance between the former Candyland tavern and the other side of the pass, the hours merely felt like minutes in a way that only the fear of death could provide. Sunup was nearing. The night skies were blueing and the opening of the pass was in sight.

“We made it!” Dale cheerfully declared.

This was the first time I had been on this side of the mountain range in over two months. The dirt road leading into the pass reappeared and gently sloped down into a small town in the faraway distance. We collectively breathed a sigh of relief as the morning sun illuminated the desert horizon.

“Unbelievable!” Vic shouted.

“I’ll be goddamned,” chimed in Dale. “Maybe there’s a god after all.”

Old Jim continued to lead the way forward to a small creek flowing down the slope. With the end in sight, the mood of the group shifted and we laid down our weapons. Vic knelt beside the creek to refill his canteen. When he topped it off, he stood up and did a panoramic view of his surroundings. “We should keep moving,” he said as he took a swig.

“I agree,” Dale said as he pissed a heavy stream into the creek.

“Don’t piss for too long,” Old Jim spoke. “Penelope might grab your pecker.”

“Nonsense,” said Vic. “Penelope is very territorial. She keeps a limited range. We almost certainly escaped her clutches. Besides she’s mostly nocturnal.” He then lifted his cattleman to wipe sweat from his brow. But without warning, a cool wind swept across the creek and a grayish blur latched itself onto Vic. The large creature pulled him to the ground and the two tussled with Penelope quickly gaining the upper hand. Painful grunting and piercing screeches filled the air as the rest of us scrambled to react. I emptied an entire Uzi clip into the ground as I struggled to gain aim and Dale pissed on himself then fell into the water. Only Jim maintained composure as he fired the Browning skillfully into Penelope’s hardened skin. But Vic seemingly fought futility as he was dwarfed by the enormous creature. Finally, blinded by a bloodied face, Vic resorted to his only proven method of defense against Penelope as he reached for his Bowie knife and plowed it into her neck and causing copious amount of yellowish blood to splatter on the ground. She loudly screeched before Dale climbed out of the water and fired his AK-47 indiscriminately into her direction. Penelope scampered away towards a nearby ridge as bullets flew.

“Welcome to earth WHORE!” Dale shouted thinking he saved the day.

But Vic was writhing on the ground and with Penelope well out of sight, I rush to his side. “Vic! Vic! Are you okay?” I screamed. I finally gained control of him and while he screamed in agony I noticed his right eyeball was pulled cleanly from its socket.

TO BE CONTINUED…