Bleed On Me by Shane McKenzie Read Free Book Online

dangling her upside down as the rest of his viscera flailed like unmanned firehoses. He slammed her into the ground again and again, and as he pulled her toward his chest-jaws, bit into her torso, Chris turned his attention back to Spade, who continued to struggle and bleed.
    “Will you fucking help me!”
    Chris didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t just grab Paul and pull him off with all the mouths clicking their teeth, and for a second, he nearly just ran away. It’s all this fucking guy’s fault, he thought . And it wasn’t but maybe an hour ago that this son of a bitch had a gun to my head.
    The gun. The handle of the pistol stuck out from the waist of Spade’s jeans, and Chris made a dash for it, yanked his hand away when one of the tongues darted toward him, then quickly reached out and grabbed the gun.
    Paul’s head turned toward Chris, eyes glowing, mouths hissing.
    “Fucking shoot it!”
    Chris aimed and pulled the trigger, tossing Paul backward off of Spade. The shoulder mouth opened wide enough for Spade to pull free of the teeth, and he crawled away, cradling his bleeding hand.
    The bullet hole on Paul’s chest leaked black, but the demon was still on its feet, attention now fully on Chris.
    Chris pulled the trigger again, but the gun clicked empty. Without knowing what to do, Chris just kept pulling the trigger, and as Paul snickered, Chris threw the gun, turned and tried to run, but Paul tackled him from behind. Chris’s face smashed into the ground and his mouth filled with the taste of motor oil and concrete.
    Hot pain erupted in his arm when a mouth clamped down on his flesh, but then Paul’s weight was off him in an instant, and Chris wasted no time crawling away, then turning to see where his attacker had gone.
    Paul lay on his back, limbs flapping, mouths choking and flailing their tongues. A high-pitched squeal squeezed out from his throat, and he arched his back, roared as the jaws fell away from his body, chattered on the pavement like novelty teeth. The severed tongues whipped around like eels out of water.
    And then Paul went quiet. The chaos around them was constant as the other monsters continued their assault on the apartment complex’s residents.
    Chris stood, the pain in his shoulder ten times as bad as the one on his side. He stared at Paul’s body for a second, unable to comprehend what was happening, what any of this meant.
    Spade appeared at his side, still cradling his hand that looked like he’d stuck it into a meat grinder, his other hand clutching the duffel bag again. “It’s you, dawg. These motherfucker’s can’t touch you. What the…what the fuck are you, man?”
    “What am I?” Chris shook his head, grabbed at his shoulder. “I’m nothing! It…it doesn’t make any sense.”
    “I know exactly who you are.”
    Chris turned toward the voice, squinted as the figure stepped out of the shadows.
    “Todd?” But even as he saw his stepfather’s face, he knew something was off. It was the look in his eyes as he glared at Chris, the way he smiled. Even his walk was different.
    “No, not Todd. Not anymore. You can’t stop us. We’ll kill you before you have the chance.”
    “Who the fuck is this?” Spade said.
    “My stepdad. Or at least it was.”
    “Well go over there and bleed on his ass, like you did this nigga,” Spade said as he kicked Paul’s body.
    “Oh, Spade. It’s good to see you again. Last time I saw you, your friend put three bullets into my face.”
    “W-what? Hold up, you…?”
    “Those my drugs, Spade? You be a good little bitch and toss that bag over here. Either that or I get one of my brothers to pull you inside-out through your asshole.”
    Chris’s brow furrowed as he looked from Todd to Spade and back again.
    “R-Red? But how…ah shit, man, this is some bullshit…”
    Todd took a step toward Spade, then sniffed the air, stopped in his tracks. His attention turned back to Chris and he looked scared to move.
    “Get his ass,