“Don’t freak out if he hugs you,” Toby warned.
“I guarantee you I’ll freak out if that happens.”
With about ten feet separating them, she hesitated.
“It’s okay,” said Toby. “He’s totally calm, see?”
Melissa took several deep breaths, the cold air misting in front of her face, and then walked over to them.
“Melissa, this is Owen. Owen, this is Melissa.”
“Can he understand you?”
“Yeah, some of it.” He gave Owen the friend signal, and Owen did the same.
“Have you told anybody else?”
“No. You’re the first ever.”
“And when did you meet him?”
“It depends when you start keeping track. But talk to him instead of me-I think you’re confusing him.”
“Hello, Owen.” Her voice was quivering, but she didn’t look as if she were going to lose control.
Owen placed his hand on her shoulder.
“Oh, shit.”
“It’s okay. He won’t hurt you.”
“His claws are huge.”
“So are your fingernails. You’re kindred spirits.”
“We need to go now.”
Toby nodded. “That’s fine. Owen, let go.”
After a moment of apparent indecision, Owen removed his hand from Melissa’s shoulder, and then lowered his head.
“He wants you to pet him.”
“I can’t.”
“You don’t have to.”
Melissa clenched and unclenched her fists several times, and then removed one of her gloves and stroked the top of Owen’s head. He let out a soft, contented growl.
She slid her hand over his hairless cheek. “It feels weird.”
“Well, he’s a monster.”
“No, I mean it feels almost like a human. I didn’t think it would be this soft.”
“He’s cuddly.”
“Yeah.”
“He really likes you.”
“I can’t believe I’m doing this.”
“It’s cool, right?”
Owen smiled, showing off all of his teeth.
Melissa flinched in terror, scraping her fingernails across his cheek.
Owen grabbed her arm.
“Tell him to let me go,” she said, her voice rising in panic.
“Owen, let her go.”
“Let go!” She pulled her arm away before Owen had a chance to release her.
“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Toby insisted. “Everything’s fine, right, Owen?”
Owen signed: Hurt.
“I know, but she’s your friend. Tell her that she’s your friend. Friend, Owen. She’s my friend, and she’s your friend.”
Owen signed: Friend hurt.
“She didn’t mean it. She just got scared. Show her that you’re still friends.”
After a moment of hesitation, Owen reached out his enormous arms to give Melissa a hug. She shrieked and slashed her hand across his face. This time her fingernail scraped his eye.
Owen howled in pain as Melissa pulled away from him.
Toby screamed, “You hurt him!”
Owen lashed out, his claw smacking the side of Melissa’s head. She cried out and fell down into the snow.
“No! Owen, stop it!” Toby reached into his jacket pocket, fumbling around for the gun. “Just stop!”
Owen growled, the loudest, most ferocious growl Toby had ever heard from him.
“Get him away from me!” Melissa screamed.
Toby pulled out the gun and pointed it at Owen, who squealed in fright and covered his face with his hands.
“Get out of here,” Toby told Melissa. “Just go!”
Melissa got up and ran.
Owen moved his hands away from his face. Blood trickled down his cheek. He howled in misery, and then lunged forward and slashed Toby across the chest, his talons ripping through Toby’s jacket, exposing the cotton insulation.
Toby pulled the trigger.
Blood sprayed from Owen’s arm. The monster howled again and dropped to his knees.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!” What had he done? How could he shoot his best friend? What kind of horrible, heartless person was he?
Owen looked enraged. Animalistic.
Toby ran after Melissa, calling her name. He’d been so stupid. This could never have worked. What sort of lunatic brought his girlfriend out into the forest to meet a goddamn monster with jaws?
Movement behind him. Coming fast.
The impact knocked him to the ground, landing facefirst in the snow. Owen’s claws dug into his back. He cried out, barely feeling the pain but knowing that all ten talons pierced his skin. He deserved it, but didn’t want to die.
Owen withdrew his talons, then raced ahead.
“No! Owen! Don’t hurt her!”
Toby got up. His arms were numb and the gun dropped into the snow. Owen pounced on Melissa. She screamed as he let out a roar, opening his jaws wide. He thrust his head down at her.
Toby stumbled toward them.
Melissa put up her arm to defend herself, and Owen’s teeth sunk into her arm. He tore away, ripping off vinyl, cotton, and flesh. Blood rained onto the snow.
“Owen, please!”
Owen looked back at him.
“Don’t kill her. It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have brought her out here. But if you hurt her I’ll never come back and you’ll be alone forever.” They didn’t have a signal for I’ll never come back but he prayed that Owen understood him.
Melissa kept screaming. Toby knew that they were deep enough in the woods to be out of earshot, but he still worried that everybody in town could hear her.
Owen hesitated.
Then he tore another chunk out of her arm.
Toby spun back around. He needed the gun. He had to shoot Owen before he killed Melissa. Toby was feeling sick and dizzy but he needed to end this, and Owen was no longer listening to him. He couldn’t let Melissa die.
He picked up the gun and fired. The shot went wild, knocking some snow off a tree branch. Owen looked back at the source of the noise, and Melissa wriggled free and ran off, cradling her mangled arm.
Toby aimed the gun more carefully, but his fingers wouldn’t work.
Owen didn’t seem scared by the gun anymore.
Toby switched to his other hand. Fired another shot that didn’t even come close. If he kept this up he’d shoot Melissa by accident.
Owen looked back and forth between Toby and Melissa, as if trying to decide which one to attack. Good. If he came after Toby, he could get a better shot. “Here!” Toby said, gesturing toward himself. “Come get me!”
The monster rushed at him.
Toby squeezed off two more shots in rapid succession. Neither one hit. He didn’t think he was trying to miss on purpose, but maybe subconsciously he-
Owen leaped at him.
They both slammed onto the ground.
Toby hit him in the face with the gun. If he couldn’t shoot straight, he could at least use it as a bludgeoning weapon. Owen yipped like a hurt puppy. Toby struck him again, and the gun dropped out of his grasp once more.
“I hope she blinded you!” Toby screamed. He threw a punch at Owen’s face, thumb extended, trying to gouge out his uninjured eye-
– and then his hand was pinched between Owen’s jaws.
Toby stopped moving. Owen could bite off his hand with almost no effort, pop that thing right off and gulp it down.
They locked eyes. Owen’s eye had a small cut in the iris, and he kept blinking.
“Owen, please don’t,” Toby said, forcing himself to remain calm and soothing. “Don’t hurt me. You don’t hurt your friends.”
Within Owen’s mouth, Toby felt a warm tongue slide over his palm.
He desperately hoped that Melissa was running fast, putting plenty of distance between them, getting the hell out of this deadly forest.
Toby’s hand remained attached, so Owen hadn’t gone completely feral. He could still be reasoned with. They were still friends.
“Let me go,” said Toby, softly.
Owen continued to lick his palm. A sign of affection…or gauging the taste?
Then he opened his jaws, just enough for Toby to pull his hand free. Toby did so and then flexed his fingers, as if testing to make sure they were really still there and not inside Owen’s stomach.
Owen gave him a look that Toby couldn’t decipher, then sprung to his feet and raced in the direction that Melissa had gone. Toby got up and went after them.
Melissa hadn’t gotten far. The trail of red snow ended just around the corner, and she leaned against a tree, bracing herself as she tried to catch her breath. God, she’d lost so much blood.
“Toby, please, call him off!” she wailed. “You said-!”
Owen got her.
He bit into her shoulder, ripping off and devouring a chunk of flesh that went down to the bone. The next bite ended her screams.
Toby stood in place, watching. Now he just felt numb.
He should have tried to scare Owen away from Melissa’s corpse, but the idea of the monster defiling her body didn’t matter to him, now that his girlfriend was dead. It wasn’t Melissa anymore. It was food.
He just watched Owen eat.
Owen watched Toby as well, as if daring him to come closer.
“Why did you do it?” Toby finally asked, but not loud enough to be heard over the chewing sounds. “She didn’t hurt you that bad. It wasn’t on purpose.”
Owen’s meal went on, uninterrupted.
Toby wiped away tears and collapsed against the same tree he’d used to brace the shotgun all those years ago. “You shouldn’t have done it. I wish you hadn’t done it.”
He snapped back to reality, as if awakening from a trance. There was blood everywhere, staining the snow and the trees and the rocks. Melissa lay in a gory, half-skeletal mess. Owen remained hovered over her, his teeth stripping her right leg.
“Get away from her,” he whispered.
Owen didn’t acknowledge him.
“Geta way from her!” he shouted. He looked around and saw the gun lying on the ground. He picked it up and pointed it into the sky, firing off four or five shots before the clip was empty.
Owen ran, not looking back as he charged off into the depths of the forest.
Toby walked over to what remained of Melissa. He stared at her with an almost detached curiosity.
And then he let it all out, screaming in primal anguish, punching and kicking the trees, cursing the heavens, vowing to hunt down and kill the murderous beast, and sobbing over his loss.
This morning, he’d had two friends. Now he had none.