Christmas Trees & Monkeys by Dan Keohane, Kellianne Jones Read Free Book Online

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    “ Excuse me, ma’am...” the officer began.
    Stop . The command came not from the police officer but from every pore in her body. She stopped.
     
    * * *
     
    The demon was massive, much more than he expected from the images on the television. Nicholas felt a surge of joy. Yes, this was his mission. His life until now was only a vehicle carrying him to this moment. The monster was such only to him. To the rest it was a God. Deceiver. The vision in the apartment showed the truth. A message from the True Creator. The world was in peril, prostrating itself before the Beast.
    The woman was his unwitting shield, the first thing anyone would notice as the couple emerged from the woods. Now he sidled off three steps to her right. Swinging the rifle from his back, he raised its barrel towards the heads and backs of the human wall. Do not fire. Not until the path between your weapon and the enemy is clear. Someone grabbed his shoulder, released it just as quickly. The wall parted in screams as one then another saw the assault rifle and the blinded glow on the face of its owner.
    The path was clear. Nicholas squeezed the trigger.
     
    * * *
     
    Go.
    Kimberly stepped forward. The officer moved out of the way. He began shouting at someone behind her. Something popped and cracked. Her world filled with the ape. It no longer traveled the figure eight above the crowd, but swung its dark body by one arm and one foot around and around the tower before her. Now and then something buffeted against its body, an almost imperceptible reaction. Was someone throwing rocks?
    The monkey kept swinging, around and around, lower and lower. The free arm extended away from it like the whirling spindle of a carnival ride. She was ten feet away. Eight feet. The wrinkled palm was open, more inviting than the mental images drawing her here. It offered the quilted comfort of home. As she stepped across the final distance, she opened then let fall the white dress. She moved naked onto the grass where the massive hand had just passed. She watched it circle away, knowing it would come again. An arousal, more deep and wet than in her most lurid of dreams, floated within her. She took in a breath and did not exhale. The hand came around, raced towards her above the grass.
     
    * * *
     
    Sullivan moved in unison with a hundred other police officers toward the gunman. He couldn’t risk firing without hitting a screaming civilian. A man with a news camera stepped in front of him. Sullivan slammed into him, then walked over both man and camera without breaking stride. He shouted for everyone to get down, but the words only saturated the air with a hundred other voices. The madman continued shooting towards the ape. From a quick glance Sullivan saw some rounds hit their mark. Most passed over the target as the creature lowered itself to ground level. The stray bullets landed in the faces of police and spectators lining the highway.
    Less than two yards from the shooter Bennie Powers held his own weapon level with the man’s head, shouting as uselessly as Sullivan. Just then the absurd smile on the madman’s face twisted into a grimace of rage. Both Sullivan and Powers understood what was coming next and caution didn’t play into things anymore. The lunatic was about to fire into the crowd.
    “ Wake up!” The shooter yelled. “I’ll wake y-” One side of his head exploded with the impact of Powers’ bullet. The half-decapitated body squeezed the trigger for a moment, sending three rounds into the chest of a prostrate reporter.
    With the perfect timing of an hysterical crowd, everyone fell to the ground in time with the shooter’s body. Sullivan dropped to one knee, not wanting to lose his line of sight in case there was another madman waiting. It was then that he and a handful of others saw the naked woman standing at the base of the tower.
    From head to knees the beast’s hand closed around the woman’s pale figure. The momentum of such a