Part 7 The Shadow Approaches
"Coralyn," came Joe's shout from outside the door as sounds of him trying to push the door open through the barred dresser followed.
"Shit," Coralyn whispered as she still lied on top of the creature.
"Trouble," the monster whispered back as he looked toward the door as it busted open, sending shards of splinters throughout the room as the broad-shouldered Joe tripped into the room.
He looked over with astonished eyes as he seen Coralyn lying on the creature and its dick draped over her ass and resting on the small of her back.
She sat up quickly and held her hands out to gesture for the man to stop, but he seemed to be in a rage.
"Joe, you must stop before you make a mistake," she pleaded but the man wasn't paying attention to her at all. He seemed to be focused on the creature who was unable to say his own name.
"What the hell have you done?!" Joe grabbed the creature by the arm and pulled him off the bed, causing it to fall to the floor with a meaty thud.
Coralyn managed to leap off of the thing or she too would have been pulled to the floor. She stood straight and defiant until she felt the breeze on her bottom and realized that she still wasn't wearing any pants or underwear. Embarrassed, she grabbed her clothes and began pulling her pants up around her hips quickly all while trying to talk sense into the enraged man.
"What kind of spell did you cast on her?!" He demanded as he kicked the poor groaning creature on the floor. "Was this your plan all along?!"
"No," the monster roared with one of its hands up to defend itself from another kick that was surely coming its way. "No plan!"
Joe stopped just before throwing his leg out for another kick. He eyed the creature in shock as he stepped back, leaning against the dresser that once stood in his way. He looked from the frightened and injured monster to her with questions in his eyes.
"As you can tell he can talk," Coralyn explained, gaining all composure that she had once lost. "It also seems to be driven by sex."
"I could tell that just by the last five seconds," Joe snorted angrily. "What else have you learned?"
Coralyn chewed on her lower lip as she thought about how to handle this situation. For one thing, she wanted to berate the man for acting like a baffoon, but on the other hand, she knew how dangerous a man could be when you hurt his ego.
Joe had taken on the role of the leader and she thought she'd play that angle first.
"I should have told you, but I wanted to document as many findings as I could do safely before reporting something that might lead to nothing." She explained as she forced an apologetic face to match the words.
"You let him free and then had sex with him," Joe more stated than questioned. "What part of that seemed at all safe to you? You could have put us all in jeopardy."
"But I didn't," she explained as she walked over to the creature, who still lied on the ground moaning. She bent down but didn't take her eyes off of the more dangerous creature in the room. Joe seemed to notice her thoughts, for he looked down in embarrassment.
"But you could have," he said, with much less conviction in his tone now.
She finally took her eyes off of Joe and looked the creature on the floor. It was looking back up at her with worry on his face. She grabbed him by his arm and pulled as hard as she could to attempt to aid the thing in standing, but it was far too heavy. The creature finally managed the strength and stood up just enough to fall back into a sitting position on the bed as it rested its arms on its knees.
"I'm sorry," Joe finally said and he looked like he meant it. "I shouldn't have reacted like that. You saved our lives this morning and I shouldn't have attacked you so quickly."
"It's okay," the creature said as it looked up at the man. "I understand."
Coralyn sat down next to the monster and placed her hand on his leg.
"He can't say his own name," she explained to Joe, causing the man's brows to lower in a doubtful expression. "If he was lying don't you think it would have been wiser for him to just make something up?"
"I guess so," Joe said slowly as he allowed her words to sink in. "What have you learned?"
"He comes from somewhere and was turned into what he is now. From what I can tell, he may have once been human."
Joe's eyes widened a bit from that. He leaned in to study the creature once more.
"He's just as frightened as we are Joe," she explained in a pleading manner. She couldn't stand by while Joe beat the poor thing more. It was more than capable of tearing any man, even one as strong as Joe, to shreds but it didn't. It only begged for mercy.
Joe's nod showed that he may be acknowledging that very same fact at the time as he bent down and rested his hands on his knees as he looked into the creature's eyes.
"I won't barge in again," he finally stated as he stood back up and walked back toward the now broken door. "And I won't attack you without cause again.'
He pulled the door shut, at least as much as he could.
"You can take this whole house as a research center from now on," he called from the closed door. "It's already boarded up so I'll not have to bother you anymore."
Finally a good decision by the new leader. Maybe he wouldn't be that bad of a replacement after all.
"That could have gone better," she finally said as she looked over at the creature next to her.
"It could have gone much worse too," he said back to her as his eyes met hers once more.
She smiled at him and he returned with a small and forced smile. She felt his long fingers wrap around her waist and pull her closer to him.
"Again?" he asked causing a spark of shock and excitement from her.
"It can talk?!" The shout came from Holly as Coralyn grimaced to the foreshadowing of her approach. The light footsteps from the tiny woman, who loved to try and make herself seem bigger, came closer just before the door swung open once more.
"Who are you?" She opened with the question that sounded more like a demand. "What do you want from us?" She was on him with her finger in his face. "What do we have to do to make you stop?"
"Holly," Coralyn called, but the tiny redhead ignored her.
"Well?" She continued as she lowered her face to square off with his. "Joe said you can talk so talk!"
"I am not them," the creature tried to explain. Coralyn could see something else in his face. Recognition?