บท 2: Chapter 2: Utiseta, Part 2
His vision was blurred, his ears rang, and he had one hell of a headache. For a moment, he assumed he was at home, tucked up in his bed, about to nurse a typical Saturday morning hangover. Except there wasn't anything typical about his current situation. The blurred vision, the ringing ears: those weren't normal. Not to mention the rapidly expanding lump forming on the back of his head, a lump that currently felt about the size of a baby's fist.
And then there were his surroundings: he was lying on something that was vaguely soft but lacked the foamed Sealy comfort of his mattress at home. He wiped his hand across his forehead and felt tiny specks of something tickle his skin. When he was finally able to focus his eyes, he discovered that his palm was dark with dirt.
"What...?" he whispered aloud.
He was lying on a pile of dirt, he thought, then corrected himself. No, not a pile of dirt. A grave.
As his eyes adjusted, he caught sight of something flashing in the dark. Two eyes peered at him out of the gloom, barely a foot in front of where he lay. Gasping, Griffin scrambled backward in an awkward tangle of limbs, his head screaming in protest. He didn't get very far before his back slammed into something hard, halting his retreat.
"Oh, you're alive," a soft voice said with a feminine giggle. "Sorry. Didn't mean to startle you."
"What were you doing?"
"Watching you." Another giggle followed the guilty admission. "My name's Kiera. Kiera Montgomery."
She seemed harmless enough with her long dark hair and eyes that seemed almost too large for her slender face. But there was something about her that wasn't quite right. Maybe it was the fact that his eyes were still adjusting, but the young woman in front of him seemed almost like a dream - a little hazy around the edges.
Then again, maybe the ethereal quality of their exchange stemmed from the fact that his midnight companion was surrounded by tombstones.
"Remember me?"
His brain still felt foggy, his temples pounding out a staccato rhythm. Kiera Montgomery. The name didn't sound familiar.
As his mind cleared, it finally hit him. The woman from the bar.
"Are you okay?" he asked quickly, leaning in toward her. "That guy you left with...I was worried. He didn't seem..."
She smiled sadly but didn't answer.
"What else do you remember?"
In a rush, it all came back to him: the bachelor party, the shortcut through the cemetery, the robbery.
"Jason!" he yelled, climbing to his feet with all the grace of a newborn giraffe.
He turned back toward the woman who was still crouching, glancing up at him through half-closed lids.
"Have you seen another man around? He's about 5'9, dark hair, wearing a jean jacket."
She shook her head. "What's your name?"
"Griffin," he answered distractedly, squinting into the dark in search of his friend.
He saw her smile out of the corner of his eye, a slow Cheshire Cat grin that seemed to stretch her mouth beyond the normal range of human physiology.
"Griffin," she repeated, emphasizing the 'n' in a way that made him distinctly uncomfortable.
"I can help you find him if you like."
"No," he answered quickly, even more convinced that something was not right with this young woman. She seemed so different than she had when they spoke at the bar. "I'm sure he's nearby. I'll just...call him," he finished lamely as the woman rose to her feet and took a few steps in his direction.
Truth be told, Griffin felt a little silly being scared of this small, physically unassuming woman. But there was something about the way she held his gaze, unblinking, watching him the way a cat watches a mouse. Hell, she gave him the creeps.
"Thanks anyway," he said after several moments of hesitation.
Hoping she'd take the hint, he reached into his pocket for his cell phone - and came up empty-handed. Shit. Right, he'd been robbed.
"They got your phone, huh?"˙
He nodded.
"You're not having the best of luck lately, are you?"
"No, I guess not..." He paused. "Wait. What do you mean?"
"It wasn't your fault, you know." She was right in front of him now; he hadn't even seen her move.
"I'm sorry," He tried to take a step back, then remembered there was a slab of stone behind him. "I don't know what you mean."
"It was my time. I made a deal and..." her voice trailed off as she shrugged. "I appreciate you trying to help though. Most would have looked the other way."
"I don't understand - "
He stopped mid-breath as something just behind Kiera caught his eye. It was a tombstone, just like all the rest, except for one small detail. The lamplight from overhead illuminated the surface of the stone as though Griffin were destined to see it. The name that was etched there sent shivers down his spine.
'Kiera Montgomery
1991-2020
Dearest Daughter. Beloved Friend'
"A long time ago," she whispered while Griffin couldn't bear to meet her gaze. "When someone made a deal with the Devil - do you know what they would put on the tombstone?"
He shook his head numbly. No, this didn't make sense. He must have heard her name wrong. He shook his head again.
"Victim of the Beast."
Like a puppet on a string, he turned to face her. She was paler now, her large eyes sunken in. Her grin was wider still, impossibly so, and filled with too many teeth.
Griffin's knees gave out and he tumbled backward, falling over the tombstone. He landed hard and skittered backward, not taking his eyes off the creature that was standing too-still before him. He wanted to scream, and he would have had a distant portion of his brain not realized just how futile the action would be.
"I don't have much time. I'm almost there."
Again, she moved without motion. Griffin blinked and she was right in front of him, her face seeming to rot right before his eyes. Slowly, she ran one cold, grey hand across his cheek.
"Find J.J.," she instructed. "He'll help you. Trust me, you're going to need it."
Kiera leaned back and glanced skyward. All at once, her smile vanished and she was engulfed in flame.
This time, Griffin did scream. He screamed and fainted, gliding backward into an unconsciousness so silent it was almost blissful.
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