Dark Portal 1/Dark Portal 1.adf/TEXT/Grrr

Text File | 1992-09-02 | 6.0 KB | 117 lines

@"GRRR" By Andrew Campbell 1994


 "Bitch!" Harvey whispered and switched off the ignition. He caught
the wipers mid-way in their duties, cursed again, and corrected them
with an impatient flick-twist of his right hand.
 "Bitching bitch."
 Despite the condensation on the car windows, he could still see the
entrance to the hair salon. She was in there alright. No question
about it. He'd been sitting here listening to the rain tampering on
the roof for almost twenty five minutes now.
 And hell, that niggling cramp in his left foot was getting worse. He
needed to exercise it. He needed to get out of the car and do a bit of
on-the-spot jogging. Go for a stroll. A run, even.
 But no, he was trapped ; inside his vehicle there was merely the
smell of an ever-grinning "Snoopy" air-freshener. Outside there was a
a good, hard, bitching rainstorm.
 "Come on." he whispered, rubbing his forehead and leaning against the
wheel. He moaned like a man with a severe throat infection. The rain
kept on hitting the roof like an avalanche of pebbles.
 Snoopy's grin broadened.
 "Come on you bitch!" Harvey hissed, his eyes bulging. He slammed his
feet down on the pedals, gripped the wheel, hard. The car rocked
slightly. The rain just carried on pounding.
 Harvey eased down... slowly... very slowly...
 Something had happened.
# Something was wrong.
 He turned his head toward the passenger-side window. There was a
werewolf looking at him. Watching him. It's eyes sparkled. It's razor-
fanged jaws fell open. Hot breath splashed against the glass.
 "Shhhhhhhhhhit!" Harvey wheezed with complete and utter shock. He
jolted in his seat, cracked his head on the windscreen, fumbled with
the saftey belt until his hands were cut and bleeding. He grabbed the
handle of the door and-
 "Rrrrroooof!"
 He looked at the creature. As soon as there was eye contact between
the two, there was a reaction on both sides : Harvey released a small
whimper, much like that of a guinea pig, whereas the werewolf, which
was in fact a rather large and ugly doberman, let it's drenched ears
slap back against it's skull.
 The dog produced another low, muffled bark:
 "Rrrroooof!"
 Harvey swallowed three times as though shifting back down through the
gears of his heart. He looked at his hands. They were swamped with
blood. His workman shirt was plastered with coppery stains. The lethal
seat belt was swaying back and forth, daubing crimson streaks across
the side-window. The rain was pounding on the roof harder than ever.
 Snoopy's grin was now far, far too large.
 A spark of anger and impatience swept over Harvey. He clamped his
teeth together and whacked the roof, imprinting reddish-brown fist-
marks on the upholstery. With a gasp of sheer impatience, he grabbed
the Snoopy-refresher by it's fluffy neck and tore it from the dash-
board. The battered corpse ping-ponged around the car, then fell
dead somewhere in the back.
 "Rrrrrooooof!" exclaimed the doberman and scratched at the window
with one dirty, lifted paw. For the first time, Harvey gave the dog
his full attention.
 It was a pathetic sight, rather than a frightening one. The rain had
soaked it's fur to a rubbery black colour. It was stood up against the
car, runny nose pressed flat to the window. It's eyes were dark, sad
and innocent, and those paws scratched with nothing other than hungry
desperation.
 "I'm trapped inside..." Harvey whispered softly, clenching his sticky
fists. "And you, my ugly friend, are trapped out there."
 For a single moment he wanted to swap : he wanted to trade places
with the animal, exchange his life with it, become a creature with
simple objectives, a no-nonsense attitude... a being that didn't have
to sit and suffer through endless hours whilst it's mate decided on a
new hairstyle.
# Yes, he wanted to be that dog.
 Only seconds later, he found himself reaching across for the handle
to let the canine inside. His fingers took hold of the lever... then
spidered away, slowly, reluctantly.
 "I can't." he whispered. "Fiona would kill me."
 The dog scratched at the window some more.
 "Rrrrooof!"
 That same energetic bark. That same determined call.
 "You will let me in," that bark said. "You will let me in, Mister. I
know you will. You'll let me in and you'll take me home and you'll dry
me up..."
 "I can't." whispered Harvey again. His fists were hurting now. There
was blood all over the vinyl seats. Through the misty windows, the
door of the hair salon was still closed and the street was empty. The
rain, as always, was crackling above the car roof.
 Harvey spoke to the dog:
 "If I let you in... if I let you sit down... you promise you'll keep
still and be quiet?"
 The dog's eyes seemed to adjust, become wider, more hopeful.
 "You'd better not bark. You'll be straight out if you bark."
 His hand reached for the door again.
 "I mean it. And I haven't got anything to for you to eat."
 Fingers encircled the lever again.
 "You want to come in, don't you? Poor doggy."
 Pressure on the lever.
 "Poor doggy."
 The door unclipped. The dog whined and sniffed at the little opening.
 "Slowly... slowly..." Harvey demanded. "Don't rush..."
 The dog managed to force itself up and into the car, nose first. With
a snort and a growl, it shot onto the passenger seat, scrambled across
the hand-break, and opened it's jaws, wide.
 With a stifled cry, Harvey realised what the dog actually wanted. He
lifted his arm in the air, ready to accept the oncoming bite.
 A split-second later, the predicted vice of inhuman teeth tore into
his left bicep. Red hot bolts of agony flashed to his brain, confusing
it, terrifying it. He thumped, kicked and gargled, his body moved in
delayed motion. The dog's jaws worked up and down, chewing the flesh
from Harvey's arm.
 Pinkish rain-water exploded across the windscreen, amidst it's waves
rode splintered boats of human skin. The car rocked violently as the
two inhabitants fought for shelter from the rain.
 In the backseat, face mangled and twisted, the Snoopy-creature roared
and roared with laughter. Outside in the street, the door of the hair
salon opened.
 A wife stepped out.
 A wife with an amazing new hairstyle.