Chapter 18
The creature observed the fair crowd from a distance, its eyes traveling from one figure to another in search of the source of the smell permeating the air. Such a strong aroma… the creature could practically feel its mouth salivating, imagining the taste of the fear as it carried on the wind.
Watching from the outskirts was taking too long; it would have to get in closer. With much practiced ease the creature shifted its form into that of a common man, adorned in a light gray jacket over a plain white tee and a dark pair of pants. Moving within its new form, the newly formed man brushed a few loose strands of brown hair off his forehead and moved towards the flocks of people littering the fairgrounds.
Blended in, he navigated around the people with little effort – though not without exuding some amount of manipulation to ward off the attention of anyone who might have looked at him for too long. The will was always weaker at certain times like this, when one was more likely to be occupied seeking merriment than standing alert and on-edge – hence the reason the fear he detected was all the more acerbic. The air was filled with screams of joy and laughter, but a smell of fear cut through it all.
He was near the center of the fair when he finally saw her, weaving her way around groups of people like a mouse, the look on her face one of discomfort and distress. The man slowed his approach, like a hunter stalking its prey, keeping at a notable distance yet not removing its eyes from its target in case it should suddenly disappear.
For a few moments he watched from afar as she navigated around the maze of people and stalls until she began heading in his direction. The man pulled his gaze from her and gave a sniff as she moved closer, acting as though his attention was occupied elsewhere. He allowed the young woman to pass him by without incident, but his eyes immediately returned to her form as soon as she moved swiftly past him, watching intently. She was afraid, but there was something else about the scent she gave off.
Turning around to face in the direction she had gone, he took a couple steps after her before something knocked into him from behind on his left. The contact was unexpected, but not enough to throw him off balance as his eyes shifted from the woman in the distance to the young man who had just run into him. The young man stumbled slightly as if he hadn't seen the creature in his way, but like anyone else he merely brushed it off without even a glance back, quickly heading in the direction the girl had just run.
Left alone again, the man sniffed the air around him once more, detecting the faint smell of the girl lingering ever so slightly on her pursuer. Given that he could distinguish her smell on him, the man could identify that her pursuer was the physical source of her present fear – but not all of it.
Eyelids narrowed briefly. He knew why he had followed her smell out of all the others. It was the strongest, yes, but it was also familiar; he had smelled this fear before. It was… the man inhaled once more through his nose, slowly and deeply, tilting his head back as he took in as much of the lingering scent as he could, his eyes rolling back to milky white and eyelids flickering closed as he sought to identify it. It only took a moment. Opening his mouth with an easy exhale, smoky gray irises rolled down into place that turned to look back towards where the young woman and man had run.
It was the one he had come across days earlier at the stream. The one who had attempted to steal his sustenance. It was her. The smell of her fear had been different then – a result of a different cause, but all humans had some underlying scent to their fear that remained constant regardless of the source. She was disheveled and soaked through with filthy water previously, but the scent of her fear had still been there, just as it was now.
The young woman's scent was weakening as she moved farther away from him, but he knew the smell of her fear now, and he would hold onto it. He wasn't entirely sure of the full source of her distress, but it was enough to appeal to his ever-present appetite. She wasn't quite as young as most of his food tended to be, he observed of her again, but that didn't disqualify her from the hunt. Adults could be just as delicious as children if prepared properly, and the man could only smile at the limitless possibilities the young woman offered.
Find her fear, exploit it, take her, and repeat.
Run! Run faster! Don't stop to catch your breath or look behind you, just keep running – anywhere! Vera's head screamed as she wound her way among the flocks of people traversing every few spaces. While the crowd was advantageous to her escaping, it simultaneously proved a hindrance to her speed as she struggled to maneuver around all the people and rides without knocking into anyone or anything.
She hadn't been thinking when she decided to flee from the fight between her friends and their tormentors, and the more she thought about it now, even as she continued her escape, the more she hated herself for it. What were such actions meant to accomplish? Running away from a problem didn't make it go away. If anything, it prolonged its existence, gave it more time to fester in her mind. But if she had stood her ground, faced the problem head-on, there was no doubt she would meet with someone's – most likely Jack's – fist. That was something she didn't want either; it was one of the main reasons she was running away.
So why did she still feel so bad about doing so? Because you left your friends behind to fight your battles for you. The thought rang out loud and painful in Vera's head, nearly causing her to stop in her tracks.
Her friends were back where she left them, fighting, on her behalf. They were standing up for her, and this was how she repaid them? By running away like a dog with its tail tucked between its legs. Even Ana Marie, who had been harassed far worse – in her own opinion – had stayed behind to try and do something, unlike herself. It was like she was throwing her friends away, leaving them behind like discarded trash that no longer served a purpose.
She was going to lose all meaningful relations she had been building up to this point in Derry. Sure, they were just a few people, but they had been everything to her outside of her family. She couldn't imagine where she would be if they hadn't been there for her – especially with everything that had happened most recently.
Vera felt a quick but firm tug at the back of her shirt: a failed attempt at reaching her. Her speed must have faltered the longer she obsessed over her actions. Jack was catching up.
This thought alone gave her incentive to move faster, run harder, try and lose her pursuer amongst the fairgoers. Each of them passed by her in a blur, oblivious to her situation. She must have looked like any other crazy young girl messing around with friends at the arrival of summer. The fair wasn't some place people usually went to to find trouble, even if it had found her in this particular instance.
Rounding a corner, Vera slipped between the narrow passage separating the backing of several food stalls, hoping to slow Jack down. If he was following after her as closely as she assumed he was, he wouldn't hesitate to come down the space after her, but his larger frame should keep him from reaching her. He might have been bigger and stronger than her, but her smaller size would make it easier to move around tighter spaces such as this. If she managed to put enough distance between them, she might be able to run back around to where she had left her friends without him noticing.
Vera had been preoccupied with getting away from the fight and Jack, but now she just wanted to get back to her friends. With any luck Jack would think her priority was still the former. Sparing a glance behind her, Jack came charging blindly down the passage after her, though it quickly became apparent to them both that doing so was a greater hindrance to him than it was to her. Whereas Vera could move straight down the space for the most part, Jack had to assume a sideways sort of shuffle so as not to hit or knock against any of the stands' supports or equipment.
The distance between them grew, and Vera let out a harsh breath when she emerged from the narrow space. She couldn't keep running around forever and she had to get back to her friends. Hopefully they were all still back where she left them, though she hoped the damage wasn't too bad. It was just getting Jack off her tail that was the most pressing matter at the moment.
She thought of getting on a ride to cover her tracks, but realistically, with lines as they were, that wasn't going to happen. And there was no way she was running into some enclosed space with only one way out that could easily be cut off. Her next option…
Was there law enforcement or anything of the sort at the fair? This was a public place, and with as many kids running around, even under parental supervision, something could surely happen that would warrant some sort of security or emergency aid staff around, right? But then where were they? Was there a special booth somewhere on the fairgrounds? During the entire time she had been running from Jack – and come to think of it, even when she had just been hanging out with her friends – Vera couldn't recall seeing one person in uniform or any sign indicating some such place existed. Is there seriously no one out here? The thought frustrated Vera and she shook her head, not understanding the reasoning behind it.
The only other option this left her with was continuing to run and hide out along the way. It would likely mean being on her own longer, but Vera needed a minute to catch her breath, and if it meant she reached her friends safely, then she was okay with that.
Mind made up, Vera made a sharp turn towards some of the fair's outlying stalls, confident now that there was greater space between herself and Jack. If she stuck to the perimeter of the fairgrounds, it would be easier to make her way towards her final destination by the Zipper. This, and it would be easier to watch out for Jack if she didn't have people and attractions on all sides to distract her.
Wasting no time, Vera dove under the plastic curtain lining the bottom of a game stall, not caring about the odd look one couple gave her before she disappeared from view. Crawling on hands and knees, she made her way along the ground around the stall, keeping hidden behind its curtain from both the staff working within and the public walking without. Every few yards she would pause in her movements and look about her, listening and watching for any signs that Jack was on to her. When all appeared safe, she would move on, stopping to peek under the curtain flap when she reached the edge of the stall before crossing the open space to the next one. The stalls without a space to crawl under she was forced to make a dash behind, bent over at the waist in an effort to keep low and out of sight as much as possible.
She moved about like this with success several times, each one bringing her closer – she hoped – to her friends. Vera hadn't seen any sign of Jack at any point since she had begun slinking along the perimeter stalls until the curtain next to her was suddenly lifted up with exaggerated force and the young man was grabbing one of her legs around the ankle in a vice-like grip.
"There you are," he huffed, and with a single tug nearly pulled her out fully from underneath the stall's coverings on her stomach. A light sheen of sweat covered his forehead, and Vera wasn't sure if his face was tinted red from exertion or in anger. Then again, she didn't really want to find out.
Digging her fingers into the earth beneath her and leveraging her free foot at an angle by her side as a foothold, Vera half-pushed half-heaved herself forward in an attempt to get herself back under the stall's cover. The effort did little to help, and she only succeeded in scooting herself a few inches. When she moved her arms and leg to try again, she felt a passing brush against her free leg. Realizing Jack was attempting to grab hold of her other leg, immediately she began kicking and thrashing about.
For a few moments they struggled, Vera hearing several grunts and feeling a slight resistance a few times when she managed to kick his hand away. Eventually, however, she felt the unfortunate tug of her leg and a firmness around her ankle that informed her she was caught. Vera heard him inhale, a signal that he was about to pull, and she frantically reached out for something – anything – to grab hold of that might deter him or aid her. There was nothing substantially heavy to ground herself with, and the only other thing within reach was a stack of tin cans Vera assumed were used by the booth as game pieces. They would have to do.
With no time for delicacy, Vera shot her arm out, knocking over the balanced pile and scrambling to grab what she could. Luckily for her, each was empty and without a lid, allowing her to hook her fingers around the openings of two of them before she felt the anticipated pull on her legs. Vera braced herself and pulled the cans to her chest then, one in each hand, her fight-or-flight response at full power. She couldn't run now, so her fear set her to fight with everything she had.
Jack pulled her out fully from her hiding place with one solid heave. As soon as she was out in the open, Vera threw her hips to get herself onto her back. The motion caused Jack's grip on her to loosen ever so slightly as he was made to lean forward a bit and forced to cross his arms, one over the other, if he was to keep his hold. Sensing her realization that his grip wasn't as firm in this position, Jack dropped Vera's legs to jump down on top of her so as to better contain her, straddling her hips to keep her lower half weighed down as he bent over.
As he concerned himself with her lower half, Vera used the opening to strike back. Before he could get his hands on her as he wanted, Vera simultaneously brought up the cans in both hands and smashed them as hard as she could into the orbital areas of his face. There was a sudden flash of pain against the palm of her right hand, but nothing as bad as what Jack probably felt. The young man cried out and shot up and away to clutch at the area, a string of curses flying from his mouth.
Vera didn't hesitate and took another swing at him with her right, only managing to knock against his jaw this time. It was enough, but the pain in her right hand was more notable with the second hit and she forced herself to drop both cans. Without sparing a glance, she knew her hand was bleeding, cut open by the pressure of the can's fine circular opening against her skin. Balling her right hand into a fist so as not to make it worse, she pushed at Jack with all her strength, forcing him off her enough to squirm her way out from under him.
One of his hands still clutched at the right side of his face – where Vera had hit him with what she guessed was the opened side of the can, a dark smear of blood visible beneath his fingertips. The other side of his face was seemingly better off, though Vera suspected he would have a mark of some sort judging by the dark bruising already becoming apparent around his cheek.
There was fury in his eyes, but in the dim lighting, Vera could tell he was shaken. "Fucking bitch! I'll kill you for that, you little bitch!" Jack hissed between clenched teeth and gingerly removed his right other hand from his face.
As Vera had surmised, there was a bloody circular cut that bordered his right orbital area – no doubt the worst of the three hits he had taken from her. His heavy breathing mirrored hers, hair tousled and clothes unkempt, and for a moment he just watched her with limitless rage where she crouched opposite him. She too, watched, skittish, as he beheld her for a minute before his gaze flickered down to her right hand which she now held cradled to her chest. Vera was waiting for Jack to throw himself back at her when the young man suddenly gave a sharp intake of breath and looked down at his own hands, his eyes growing wide. His body gave a spasm that nearly made Vera jolt backwards in surprise as she watched him suddenly rub his right hand furiously against the ground, his pants, his shirt, anything solid. His breathing was fast now, his lips quickly mumbling something Vera couldn't make out as she watched him with a mix of confusion and trepidation.
What just happened? One minute he was all anger and ready to beat the living daylights out of her and now he seemed… panicked? Shaking slightly herself, Vera had no idea what to do. She was afraid, and in pain, and now was the time for her to run away again. But beneath it all there was concern. She had hurt Jack, and a part of Vera's mind told her he deserved it. He clearly wanted to hurt her too – still wanted to, as far as she knew. But her actions were out of self-defense; not hate, as his had been. And yet Vera couldn't shake the sick feeling of unease in her stomach.
She had never intentionally hurt someone before – not like this, and even then, witnessing someone else in pain and discomfort was not something she liked seeing. She should have felt relief at Jack's feverish response – whatever it meant – but all it left her with was displeasure and more anxiety, as if she herself had received the damage she had dealt. What the hell are you doing?!
"U-um…Jack?" Her voice came out trembling and thin as she extended her hand in the hopes of getting the attention of the young man across from her who still appeared to be in some kind of frenzy. His head shot up at the mention of his name, but in opposition to her expectations, he nearly threw himself backwards when he looked at her.
No, Vera noticed, not her. Her hand. Despite the dim lighting around them, if she concentrated on it for a couple seconds, she was able to make out the darkness painting the edges of some of her fingers. Slowly, she turned her hand upwards and winced at she beheld around her palm a roughly circular cut from the tin can she had hit him with. I knew it… The blood must have spread out to the rest of her hand when she had clenched her fist or something. Oh God, she hoped she wouldn't need stitches…
Vera threw a quick glace at her other hand, relieved when it didn't seem to have suffered anything, and looked back to Jack, whose eyes remained focused on her bloodied hand, his face contorted between a grimace and look of panic. Did he… was he afraid of the blood? Of his own? Was that why he had been rubbing his hands furiously – to get the blood off? Maybe, due to the surprise of it, he hadn't realized when Vera hit him that it had caused him to bleed. Perhaps he had only thought of the pain as bruising on his skin. If this had been a movie, Vera might have laughed at the absurdity of it all – a bully, afraid of blood but not of starting a fight. Reality, however, carried a more somber quality.
"Jack?" Vera tried again, her voice hesitant as she called out to him while her hand wavered forwards and back towards him, unsure. His flinch at her motion was evident, and Vera quickly lowered her hand, almost wanting to hide it behind her back as if she were ashamed of it.
"Don't! Don't touch me!" she heard his voice, quiet as it was, warn her. Yes, he was afraid, but the threat was still present in his tone, daring Vera to try something. She wasn't going to; not after this.
With legs weak from the adrenaline rush that had just peaked, Vera pushed herself cautiously off the ground, her hips pressed back against the edge of the stall she had hidden under. With careful steps she walked along the stall, using her hands for guidance but never taking her eyes off Jack in case he decided to come after her.
When at last she felt the space behind her open up, she took a couple hurried steps backwards before hitting something firm, causing her to startle and whirl around. Almost reflexively her hand shot out as she turned, ready to strike at whoever was there for fear that one of Jack's friends had found them. But it wasn't Carson, or Maya, or even Ian.
Tall, semi-casual dress, brown hair neatly pushed back from his face; it was a man she didn't recognize. The hand she had brought up for defense was caught rather firmly at the wrist before it could make contact, and Vera gave a small inward sigh of relief that she hadn't just hit some innocent fairgoer by mistake. She hadn't heard him approach, but then again, she had been rather preoccupied up until the present moment.
"Umm…" the short, timid noise was all Vera was able to get out as she looked at the man before her. His eyes scanned her face before they met her own, staring, as if searching for something, but in the next moment slowly wandered past her face to look behind her.
Vera was trembling slightly as she followed the man's line of sight behind her to Jack who was still on the ground, realizing how bad things must have looked. Oh God, why all this? Why her? The longer she looked at Jack the more she began to seize with panic, the desire to flee again overwhelming all her thoughts once more. She had to get away.
A sharp pain ripping through her hand and down her arm had Vera immediately focusing back on the man standing in front of her. Her attention torn away from Jack, she let out a cry at the sensation as she twisted back around to the man in front of her, a pained expression on her face. Looking downwards, the hand that had once enclosed her wrist was now clasping her hand tightly, the man's thumb pressing harshly into her palm where her skin had been sliced open. Did this man want to hurt her too? Did he see her as the villain and Jack as the victim?
"Stop it!" Vera managed to yell at the man, whether in anger and frustration or pain and fear she didn't know. Maybe it was a bit of everything. Her eyes snapped upwards to the man as the words left her lips and for the briefest of moments she met his gaze once more, unwavering. Her bravery – if that was even the right term to use – was quick to falter, however, as in the next instant the familiar sensation of tears prickling her eyes forced Vera to look down and away. Despite what had just happened, despite her injured hand, despite everything, she didn't want to cry in front of someone, even if that someone happened to be a total stranger. The earth could have swallowed her whole right then and there and she would be perfectly okay with that, she told herself.
Doing her best to keep everything in and without another word, Vera wrenched her hand away from the man, not caring anymore that he might be someone who could help. Right now, she just wanted to leave everything behind. She didn't give herself any time to consider things and propelled herself away from the two men and back into the fair with as much strength and speed as she could muster. She didn't look back.
