5
Rhiannon is leaning over a wooden rail, looking at the lights of the town below. She turns to see Jack lean on the rail beside her. She looks genuinely happy.
"Hey, Jack!" Rhiannon catches herself, and looks around to see if Johnny is watching.
"Don't worry. The lurker isn't around. I checked." Ianto said as he landed beside his husband as well, his grin wide.
"That's not funny."
"Sorry." Ianto said in a way that tells her he is not sorry at all.
"Whatcha' doin'?" Rhiannon asks the two men.
"Tryin' to get a buzz on. But I'm too buff. Too much muscle mass." Ianto moves into a bodybuilding pose.
Rhiannon laughs.
"What you up to?" Jack ignores his husband who is now trying to send a drunk text to someone. His pocket pings. Awww, he sent it to him… right beside him. Twat.
"Just checking out the lights." Jack and Rhiannon look out over the city together. "Pretty, ain't they?
"I don't know. I've seen them so many times before. I guess any spot gets boring after a while."
"Well, that's only if you're in the wrong spot." Ianto suddenly joins the conversation.
"There's a place over there on the bluffs. When the fog is just right, like tonight, the lights of Main look like a kaleidoscope." Ianto waves a hand in the general direction.
"Oh, yeah?" Rhiannon looks at him.
"Mm hm. But only a few folks know how to get there. Archie. Rollo Linkski coulda taken you, but 'course he got hit by that train." Ianto stops talking then adds "Oops."
"I'll get Archie to show me sometime then." Rhiannon laughs out loud. So does Jack.
"Oh, will you now?" Jack asks, turning to watch Ianto now struggling to remove a shoe.
"Or Rollo's ghost."
"Rhiannon." They turn to see Johnny approaching. He's a mess. His pants are streaked with mud.
"Johnny, where'd you go?"
"Hey, Johnny." Jack says.
Johnny eyes Jack with suspicion. He grabs Rhiannon. "You ready, sugarplum?"
Rhiannon nods. She looks at Jack and mouths "Bye."
Jack watches Johnny and Rhiannon head off, as he downs the rest of his beer. Archie walks up beside him.
"Hey, Archie. Glad you're here. There was something I wanted to tell you..." Jack SNAPS his fingers, trying to remember.
"What?"
"Oh yeah. Fuck you, fat ass."
They both laugh as Ianto curses and falls on his butt, the shoe he is shaking still not giving up the stone he is sure is still in it.
It never occurred to Jack that Johnny did not see Ianto and thought he was alone with Rhiannon.
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Rhiannon lies on her side, awake. She's staring at the dirt on Johnny's pants, which are hung over a chair.
Johnny holds her from behind, sleeping peacefully.
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The front door of the precinct opens, and a confused man walks inside. He is trying to keep from crying. Three half-naked children follow him, clutching onto his clothes. The man walks slowly through the office, looking around for help.
Gwen sees him from her desk. "Sir, may I help …?"
"My wife, Mary. I think something has happened to her!"
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Rhiannon, in her car with groceries, comes to a stop sign. She looks at the telephone pole beside it and sees that it's covered with flyers for missing pets.
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Rhiannon enters the house with a shopping bag. The lights are off. Creepy music plays.
"Johnny?
No answer.
Rhiannon tries to turn on the lights, but nothing happens.
"Damn fuse." She passes the door to the garage, noticing the lock. Rhiannon sets down the bags on the counter, looks around.
"Johnny?"
Again, no one's here. She sees a potted flower on the counter. A green inchworm is crawling up the stem, little by little. She stares at it, as if it's an alien. She hears a moan, coming from upstairs. Rhiannon moves slowly into this dark room, looking for her husband. It seems no one is here.
"Johnny, where are y… ?" Rhiannon turns, when Johnny pops beside her. Rhiannon, startled, SCREAMS. Johnny is sick and trembling. But, worse, he's been transforming. There are small pustules all over his face. "Johnny. Oh my God. What happened to your …?"
Heh. It ain't as bad as it looks, sugarplum. Dr. Carl was just here. I had a reaction to a bee sting. He gave me a prescription. Said I should be fine, in a couple days." He replies with a huge weird grin.
Rhiannon stares at him, mute and horrified.
"Don't look at me like that, baby. Please? I'm gonna go get my...prescription filled." Johnny grabs his keys off the dresser, puts them in his pocket, trying to pretend he doesn't hurt.
"I'll get if for you." She offers in a small voice.
"No! No. Heh. I'll be right back." He moves outside the door, leaving Rhiannon, shell-shocked.
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It's too dark to see much in the garage, but Johnny is putting meat into a garbage bag.
Johnny looks around to make sure no one's looking, as he places the garbage bag full of meat into his trunk, closes it.
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Johnny moves through the forest, in massive pain, dragging the garbage bag.
Johnny comes upon the old wooden barn.
Johnny enters. It is almost completely dark. He hears weeping.
Johnny peers over at Mary, mostly in silhouette, sitting on the nest he has made. She's chained up and MOANS through a mouth gag. Johnny walks to her. Her body is horribly pear-shaped and misshapen, like some tumorous pregnancy. Johnny pulls her gag away.
Johnny? Johnny, I'm hungry. I'm so fuckin' hungry I think I'm gonna die.
"Brought you munchies." Johnny pours the garbage bagful of rotting meat and dead animals out in front of her. "Been saving for a rainy day."
Mary's face, still mostly in darkness. She stares at the meat, simultaneously excited and repulsed. She looks up at Johnny. "Johnny, I'm sorry if I did something wrong! I think I gotta … I think I should go to a hospital!"
Johnny doesn't respond. Mary's eyes trail back down to the meat.
Mary's hand reaches out, and grabs a maggot—infested pork chop, pulling it toward her. Mary starts chowing down on the raw pork in the nearly pitch-black barn.
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Johnny gets into his pickup; he trembles and YELPS as his body is wracked with pain and his body starts to transform even more.
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There's a hard knocking on Rhiannon's door. She swings it open to see Jack and Archie standing there, worried.
Archie tries to see inside. "Johnny around?"
"No. He went to the pharmacy."
"Pharmacy?"
"He's got a... rash."
Jack and Archie exchange a glance - maybe this means something. Rhiannon can see Andy and Gwen, across the street, talking to another neighbour.
"Rhiannon, you know Mary Gutierrez?" Jack asks.
Rhiannon shakes her head.
"Maybe she's ever called the house, or …?"
"No. What…?"
"She disappeared Friday night. We got reason to believe foul play might be involved." Archie tells her "Some kids found her necklace near Tipper Creek, as well as what might be her blood on a rock."
"The problem, Rhiannon, is, the last person anyone saw her talking to was Johnny." Jack adds.
Rhiannon looks at him, surprised.
"The Deer Cheer. And Ianto and me, we also saw him that night, with mud all over his slacks." Jack hands her his card. "Have him call me right away, okay?"
Rhiannon nods, distraught. Jack tries to smile kindly before he and Archie move out and off to canvas other neighbours' homes.
Rhiannon closes the door behind her, distraught, panicked.
She looks at the foyer door, leading into the garage. Her eyes fall to the floor, where she sees what appears to be blood drop stains near the door. She gains courage, and Rhiannon throws open the closet door. She looks at old, unused sports equipment. She grabs an aluminium baseball bat. Rhiannon holds the aluminium bat, standing in front of the door to the garage. She hesitates a moment. But then she swings the bat at the lock on the door.
She swings it again, and again.
Finally, the lock is knocked off the wooden door.
Rhiannon pushes away the useless lock, letting it fall to the floor.
Rhiannon steels herself, and slowly pushes open the door into the dark garage. As she does, the horrendous stench hits her.
Terrified, she covers her face with her hand, and enters.