Marty stumbled out of his car, swearing up a storm that could put the one currently raging above his head to shame.
What're the odds?
he thought.
What're the
fucking
odds?
The bobcat had come out of nowhere. One minute, he'd been cruising through darkness, watching signpost shadows zoom over him like minnows in a current. His lights hadn't been on—of
course
they hadn't—but he'd still been watching closely.
Then the big cat had been there, on the edge of the gravel road, looking right at him.
And then it was in front of the car.
He hurried over to the site of impact. The signpost had been almost completely ripped from the ground, but not before crunching the car's metal around it. His car might as well have been tinfoil. He stopped swearing.
Marty looked back at the car's trunk. He didn't know why he'd swerved. He wasn't a super nice person. He'd run over human beings and only slowed down to make sure they didn't get back up. The stakes were just as high now as they were then.
It was the way the creature had looked at him.
"Sarah was right," he muttered. "Never should've become a cat owner."
He missed Whiskers. Hopefully the landlord would get her to a nice shelter. Out of his hands now.
He went back to the driver's seat and grabbed a pistol on the floor beside it. If he was gonna have to walk from here, he wasn't going unarmed in the dark. For all he knew, Gangra and her goons were on their way right now. Or watching the road ahead.
Maybe, he reflected, the crash was a good thing. A chance to get off the grid. Or maybe that was just his inner Andy talking.
He missed Andy, too.
Marty pulled out of the car, checking out of habit to make sure the pistol was loaded. No flashlight, of course. That would have required foresight. Instead he was working in nearly pitch-black—
Wait. That wasn't right.
There
was
light here. He could see his hand clearly. It was lit by a reddish, rusty glow.
He looked up. It was a cloudy dusk, and the only light from above was coming from a single star close to the horizon. That sure as hell wasn't making the glow. The glow seemed to hail from the trees to the left of the road.
Marty was not alone.
He ducked behind the car, cocking his gun. Trouble. Big, bad trouble. He'd screwed up. He crept around the side of the vehicle, peering off between the trees. He didn't remember the trees looking quite so densely packed when he'd been driving.
He watched the glow as it slowly brightened. It flickered just slightly, making him blink. The glow didn't look too harsh, actually. He frowned.
It was a soft, pleasant light. He lowered the gun slightly. He wondered why he'd done so, but that train of thought was derailed as he stood and started walking around the car, towards it.
The light was getting closer. The pistol dropped to his side. He was feeling slightly warm. And...was that music he heard? He rapped his head once. It was gone. Pity. It had been a pretty tune. Like one of those folk songs his uncle loved.
His uncle. Marty blinked. His uncle, who he had to reach if he was going to survive the night. Uncle Shep had people. And he'd always liked Marty. If Marty could get there before Gangra's people got to him—
He raised the gun again. What was wrong with him? The song didn't matter. The strange warmth didn't matter. He just had to let it settle over him, let it calm his nerves, let it...
Marty shook himself slightly, but otherwise stayed very still and waited. The light was getting brighter, but it never hurt to look at. It reminded him of nights spent under the stars. Better times. With Andy.
"Hi."
Marty whirled on the voice. The glow was all around him now. He was surrounded!
There was a single silheouette against the brightness. He squinted. A feminine form. Gangra? That psychotic knifer of hers? He raised the gun.
"Oh." The form giggled, raising a hand to her mouth. The light levels rapidly dropped, and Marty could see...something that explained absolutely nothing.
She was definitely female. That was all that made sense to him. Her skin was dusky red—sort of like how Native Americans were always drawn in Gangra's "vintage" comic books, but with a slightly orangeish tint that matched her brilliant crimson hair well. It had him thinking of sunsets.
Her eyes were balls of fire. He tried not to look at them. They were just a little too large. Not quite alien, but large enough to make her look a little unsettling. And they were
filled
with flame. Actual, glowing white fire, filling what were otherwise empty pits. Her mouth was slightly large and brought up in a tremendous grin. She seemed rather amused.
The woman's body was slender and lithe. She was totally naked, though it was actually a little bit hard to look right at her unmentionables. Her body glowed brightly, and those were brightest of all. She had round, pert breasts, but damned if he could make out even a nipple. Not that that was exactly first and foremost on his mind right now.
She sauntered forward, wide hips swaying with each step. She was quite short—about a foot and a half under him—but she seemed totally unimpressed by both him and the gun. She giggled. "Sorry! Didn't mean to sneak up on you."
His fingers relaxed slightly. This clearly wasn't an agent of Gangra. Actually, he wasn't really sure who this was. Or what this was. He glanced at his fingers confusedly.
"Oh." The woman licked her lips. "You might find you don't want to hurt me." Her voice was vibrant and melodic, trickling through his ears with ease and genuine warmth.
Of course not. Marty smiled slightly, amused at the notion. "Of course not."
"Of
course
not." She laughed. He found himself laughing slightly as well. "You aren't here to hurt me. You couldn't imagine hurting one such as me."
"No, no," he agreed, laughing louder. She had the sweetest, most pleasant laughter he'd ever heard. And what a sense of humor! To think he'd want to hurt
her
, of all people.
"Mm-hm." The woman took a step forward. "You're clearly a very nice, lovely person. Why would you do a thing like that?"
"Y...no." Marty frowned. Why was he agreeing with that? Why would he lie to this wonderful being? And...why wouldn't he lie? He wasn't a nice person. No. What? There was something. Something.
The woman took a step forward, also frowning.
"N-now hold up!" Marty said angrily. His fingers tightened around the trigger. "Don't say another fucking word, whatever you are. I swear, I'll shoot your brains out if you try
any
more of that."
"Oh, my." The woman put a finger to her lips, sucking it slightly and giving her voice a slight lisp as she went on. "Are we thinking that—"
BANG.
Marty was shaking, but he knew he'd fired straight. Something about this. He hadn't really wanted to kill her, but she was doing something—something to his...his...
He stared blankly. She wasn't falling.
Marty realized that no hole had appeared in her forehead. She looked completely unharmed, in fact. But he knew he'd fired straight.
The woman snorted. She covered her mouth daintily, giving a toothy grin. "Oh, my. That was
adorable
." Her voice reverberated on the last word as if she was speaking through a fan. She stepped forward, hips swaying again.
He'd missed. Surely he'd missed. Marty fired again.
BANG.
Again.
BANG.
The bullets sailed right through her. Literally. He saw them pass through her reddish form like she wasn't even there.
And then he realized she was just a foot away from him. She was in reach of the gun!
She giggled as his arms dropped to his sides. "Oh, don't worry." Her eyelids lowered demurely, and her voice turned throaty and seductive. "I'm...solid...in
other
ways."