When We Were Still Human by Vaughn Foster (best ereader for textbooks .txt) 📕

[Hey, babe, you still coming over tonight?]

She looked at the clock. It was 5:00p.m. The next day.

Pulling back the closest curtain, sunlight surged in with vengeance. That much time couldn’t have passed. She’d only been in the park an hour. Yet…

She squinted against the sunlight. She was about to pull the curtain back when she remembered. She had stared into her own lifeless eyes. With the sun's rays came everything her mind was fighting so hard to forget.

The monster.

Turning her back against the window, the sight of the doorless cabinets in the kitchen slapped her with another defiant piece of reality. Bile rose to her mouth and she choked it down. She would heave the night back into its vault herself.

She hit call, then impatiently paced the apartment.

“Hey!” Jason practically yelled into her ear. “Are you okay? You never showed up last night, so I called, but you didn’t answer. I figured you just got held up at work, since you’ve been staying late the past few weeks, but—”

“I’m—” The mountainous trash bags sat spitefully in the corner of her eye. “I was out jogging, and I think I got bit by a stray dog or something.” Even as the words left her mouth she shivered. How had those piercing, crystal blue eyes belonged to the same creature with rows of fangs and talon-like claws?

“A dog? Are you okay? Did you get checked out? It could’ve had rabies! Know what? Stay right there, I’m grabbing my keys now—”

“Jason,” Val said firmly. “It’s fine.” If she wavered, even an inch, he’d know and would be at her door with five first aid kits, if not a whole ambulance. A sweet gesture, but not what she needed.

“I went and got checked out. It’s all good. It just ripped my shirt; didn’t even break skin.” She tried to sound as cheerful as possible, hoping that he would drop the whole thing. Not only was the truth too difficult to explain, it was too far fetched; more than that, it absolutely terrified her.

Wiping her brow, she remembered the incident in the E.R. She’d already slipped by saying that she got bit. If he found out about the hospital guy, then she’d never hear the end of it. Biting down on her lip, she closed her eyes and tried to sear the images from memory.

“You better be telling the truth. You know your mother,” he said, clearing his throat: “Jason, how could you let my daughter get killed by some savage canine!’ And I’d defend myself like ‘Sherry, it wasn’t my fault!’ And then she’d murder me.”

“Well, I think that’s a bit extreme.”

“Does your mother have any other setting?”

“True,” she laughed, thankful to hear keys falling back on his table. “But listen, I’m starving right now. Do you think you’d be able to break out the chef hat tonight?”

“Yeah, definitely. When you didn’t show, I just put everything in the fridge. Just have to heat it back up. Come by in like an hour-thirty?”

“Awesome, see you then.”

The next hour was excruciating. It had returned. It was just like those horror movies where the protagonist thinks she’s escaped, only for the poltergeist to cut off the last route and drive her into a corner. Only this time, in Val’s reality, it wasn’t a phantom flipping over furniture. It was a terrifying creature inside her chest, clawing to get out.

She tried TV to distract herself, but the pangs of hunger rang louder than the action on the screen. Music wasn’t helpful either. Her speakers had already cycled from rap, to pop, to metal, until she couldn’t take it anymore. She checked the clock and decided that she’d killed enough time for him to be ready. Grabbing her keys, Val headed out to the parking lot.

She pulled into the closest spot near Jason’s building. The hunger tore its way through her body, and it took everything she had to stay in control. Bypassing the wait for the elevator, Val ran up the ten flights of stairs and reached Jason’s floor in less than a minute. She half-stepped, half-fell into the hall, fighting to catch her breath. It took a moment, but she slowed her breathing and forced herself to knock calmly. She felt like an addict; her insides raged with withdrawal as desire dragged her to her dealer.

Val stood on the welcome mat, uncomfortably shifting her weight foot to foot until she heard the chain slide and Jason’s familiar smile greeted her. He wore a deep blue V-neck with a golden anchor pendant hanging from his neck. She loved that necklace; she had gotten it for his birthday two years ago.

The birthday festivities had been scheduled to commence at the bar, Scorpions. It wasn’t clear if it was named for the arachnid in and of itself, or in the possessive, after the owner: a big guy with a bright purple scorpion tattooed along the left side of his face. Regardless, the wrong date got sent in the group chat and no one else showed up.

Val was crushed, but Jason didn’t even seem to care. He had kissed her and said as long as she was there, his birthday was perfect. Later that night, the Scorpion, who turned out to just be a really sweet Jewish guy, would buy them a round. He would then proceed to invite them to his niece’s bat mitzvah, and later, tell them about the view from one of the hidden lakes.

Val looked up from the necklace and noted how his once wavy brown hair was now gelled up to allow a clear view of his face. Nothing had changed. He was still the Jason from that lake who said that he loved her more than anything.

Staring into his brown eyes almost made her forget the hunger.

“Hey, you,” Val