Chapter 31

Much like a foreseen tragedy that no one had the power to prevent, evening fell hard and cruel upon
Cypress. The severe, five degree winter wind lashed through just about every living soul like the steel
tip of a slave drivers whip. With only a few lampposts that shined their dim, orange hue down onto the
ground, Isaac stumbled his way through the alley, making only frequent stops to vomit into any trash
can that he could rush to first.

He was sleepy, hungry, thirsty and angry all at once, and judging by his wide open coat, the oppressive
cold was apparently the last thing on his haywire brain. Inside his body raged a hellacious war of good
vs. evil; one man's divine struggle to fight off the demonic presence that dwelt within; an ongoing battle
against the dark force that longed to inflict limitless devastation.

Back and forth his regrets wandered: Karyn had a sad story of being lonely in a new country, while
Lynnette was always on his back for working at Larry's Garage. Karyn hung on to his every word, while
Lynnette went on and on about how Isaiah needed new clothes. He screwed Karyn, but made love to
Lynnette.

With each and every maddening ramble, Isaac found himself wanting to just end it all right there in the
alley, beside all the other garbage.

"You look like you're lost, friend."

A medium-sized man with a shabby looking German shepherd by his side warmly stated from behind
Isaac.

Surprised, Isaac spun around and tried to see into the man's face, but not only was it dark outside, but
the dirty looking individual was wearing a filthy hood that was concealing his facial features.

All Isaac could make out was the smoke that would exit the man's mouth whenever he spoke.



"Get the fuck outta here, man." Isaac slurred, trying not to fall against the trash cans that he was
standing in front of.

"I apologize for troubling you, sir." The man's kindly, raspy voice continued on. "It just seemed like you
were ailing."

"Man, I said get outta here!" Isaac barked back. "I ain't feelin' good!"

The ragtag man only remained in place. The chain in which he was holding his dog was rusted beyond
recognition and looked as though it were ready to snap in half at any moment.

"Are you sure you want me to go, sir?"

Frustrated, Isaac began to advance towards the man, only to have the dog growl the instant the young
man's feet moved.

Just then, two red eyes appeared from inside the man's dirty hood. Startled, Isaac staggered
backwards into the garbage cans and held his hands up in a helpless defense from the man's sudden
awful appearance.

The filthy one looked up into the pinkish sky as light flurries began to rain down. "Look at you, boy." He
said in a more malevolent, hissing voice. "Sniveling like a mere rodent. You have a job to do."

Isaac's body was wracked in pain, but not to the point where he couldn't get up and run away.
Immediately, he got to his feet and started for the opposite direction.

"Don't you dare move." The ragged hobo warned, pointing his trusty dog at the young man.

Out of fear Isaac ceased every movement in his body before turning and shuddering at the sight of the
two evil eyes that stared him down like a feast.



"I...I gotta go." Isaac whimpered while violently shaking in place.

"I have waited for this moment for quite a while, and so far, you have not disappointed me. Now, I want
that bitch and her child dead."

"Who," Isaac asked with a whine.

"Do not trifle with me, boy." The man impatiently remarked. "You know you want to kill her."

"No I don't, man." Isaac stammered.

"Don't you remember when you thought that Isaiah wasn't yours? You believed it to be Larry's at first.
Then...then you changed your mind and accepted the bastard seed as your own."

"He is mine!" Isaac furiously stomped on the snowy pavement.

"You killed those girls; those sweet little bitches. Now, go on and kill that black trash and her child. You
don't want her to get away with that, do you? Get away with having another man's baby? Go on, it's not
like anyone could pin it on you. Just like the other night."

As if he were being dragged down, Isaac dropped to his knees in agony and moaned all over the
ground. He beat his fists into the snow while gritting his teeth.

"Get away from me! Who are you anyways?"

"I am Unknown to you, but every man, woman, boy and girl comes to know me eventually."

"I didn't mean to do any of this!"

The insidious individual chuckled and said, "Your mother cried the day she went to the hospital. She
cried for you, boy. But you were busy running the streets. How does that make you feel?"



Isaac looked up into the sky and held out his hands to the heavens, pleading for mercy to fall upon him.

"Either you kill that bitch, or I will." The man lurched towards Isaac.

"I can't kill her! I fucking love her!"

The dirty man reached out with a clawed right hand, lifted Isaac's face to his and asked, "Did you love
her when you were inside another woman?"

Enraged, Isaac snatched his face away from the man's claw before spitting at his face. The dog stared
up at its master with the most bewildered look on its face.

"I am not your enemy, child." The man reassured Isaac before taking his claw and using it to scratch
Isaac's right hand. "Kill her, or I will, boy."

Isaac grabbed his hand and held it to alleviate the pain. When he looked back up, he discovered that
both man and dog were gone.

"I am Unknown to you, child." Isaac heard the man's ominous voice echo softly in the air around him.

Blood incessantly dripped down from his hand and onto the ground as Isaac got to his feet. He then
looked around the alley to see nothing but a stray cat passing by. Right behind him was Lynnette's
house. Unbeknownst to him, he had already arrived there just moments before the ghastly fiend
appeared from out of nowhere.

He leaned up against two trash cans and took notice of the kitchen light which was shining brightly into
the backyard; it let him know that Lynnette hadn't gone to bed yet for the evening.

As both wrong and ugly as it felt, Isaac couldn't shake the aching stir of how blood tasted. He realized
that it wasn't him that longed for the substance, which was exactly why it turned his stomach each and
every time the raw taste belched up into his throat.



Feeling a sense of impatient urgency, Isaac rapidly marched through the backyard and onto the steps
that led to the house. Before his hand could reach the doorknob, he stood and watched as the
supposed broken lock on the backdoor unloosened itself.

***

Lynnette searched all over the bedroom. When she was done skulking about in there, she hysterically
scampered into the living room where the television was playing the opening theme to The Six Million
Dollar Man. But no matter how much and hard she kept looking, she couldn't locate the source of the
little screaming girls that was apparently coming from within the small house she and her son were
inside of.

The sounds surrounded Lynnette to the point where all she could do was stand in the middle of the
living room floor and spin around like a dog chasing after its own tail. It was such madness that the
young lady began to cry, believing that she was losing her mind.

Just as soon as she was about to head back into the bathroom along with Isaiah, Lynnette began
hearing something rattle from within the kitchen.

She quickly pulled out the loaded revolver from her pants pocket and skittishly headed for the kitchen
with the weapon pointed ahead of her. However, before she could even clear the kitchen's threshold,
the backdoor swung open revealing Isaac on the other end.

"Isaac!" Lynnette abruptly screamed. "How did you get that door open?"

At first, Isaac had no words to express. He just shut the door behind him and bashfully frowned.

"Uh...I just came by to see you and Isaiah."



"Isaac, how were you able to get that damn door open?" Lynnette continued to question while gripping
her gun as tight as she could in her right hand.

Rather than answer her, Isaac boldly stepped past Lynnette on his way into the living room. Lynnette
followed the man until she came face to face with him directly in front of the television.

"Isaac, you need to go!"

"Where's Isaiah at?" He asked bug-eyed. "He's in the tub." Lynnette's heart skipped a beat. "I'm giving
him a bath."

Isaac stood for a few moments before looking down the dimly lit hallway that led to the bathroom.

"Uh...I gotta go away for a while."

Lynnette's entire body began to quiver at that instant. All of the sudden, the only thing that she could
see in front of her were her three sisters laughing hysterically at her.

"Go away, huh?" The young woman stammered, trying not to appear upset by the news. "And just
where are you going to?"

"Someone told me to stay away from people, and that person was right. I got no business being around
anyone right now, at least not until I get myself straight."

Lynnette rubbed her throbbing forehead and closed her eyes. "Get what straight, Isaac? What the fuck
are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about no one will listen to what I have to say, and all that does is make things worse."

"Isaac, I've been trying to listen to you for the past few months, and all you do is just push me away!"
She screamed in frustration. "What the fuck is the matter with you? And don't stand there and tell me



that it's too hard to explain!"

"I can't even explain it to myself." Isaac shrugged.

Lynnette stared at Isaac before saying, "I bet you got hooked onto some of Larry's shit, didn't you?
You've done gone and got all fucked up on that heroin, and now you're all strung out!"

Isaac slipped his hands into his coat pockets and started to pace the floor until he eventually stopped at
the mantle. He stood and fondly gazed upon a Polaroid picture of Isaiah as a newborn.

With his head still pointed at the child's picture, Isaac explained, "I got something inside of me, and it
doesn't have anything to do with drugs." His voice began to break. "I thought my father could fix it, but
all he could do was spit bible verses at me."

"What is this, Isaac?" Lynnette wearily moaned as if she were completely drained of energy. "What is
going on? I mean, you're losing your mind. I'm hearing these little girls screaming all over the house
like the place is haunted or something. Why now are things falling apart, dammit?" She yelled.

Isaac turned back to Lynnette with tears of his own streaming down his face. "I'm so sorry, baby girl!"
He wailed out loud. "I never meant to hurt you!"

Lynnette dropped her gun to her side while tears fell from her tired face. "What were you doing with
Isaiah this morning, Isaac?" Her voice faltered.

"Nothing that you think I was doing." He wiped his eyes. "It's not about that."

"What is it about then?" Lynnette stomped her foot on the floor. "Because when I walk into my house
and see my man holding our son, completely naked in the middle of the floor, then it's about something,
and I want answers!"

With his arms wide open, Isaac advanced towards Lynnette saying, "Lynn, you gotta listen to me!"



Lynnette raised her firearm and pointed it straight at Isaac's mortified face. It stunned even her to think
that she could do such a heinous thing as point a deadly weapon at the only man she ever loved, or
that even the notion of pulling the trigger would even enter her mind to begin with, but she was terrified
of Isaac, more so at that moment than months earlier.

Immediately, the tears that Isaac was allowing to flow from his eyes dried up. He stood perfectly still in
front of the playing television and calmly uttered, "You know what I told you a long time ago when I
bought that thing for you. Never hesitate. When you get the chance, you pull the trigger...and never
look back."

Lynnette covered her mouth with her left hand as she began to sob uncontrollably. Unable to hold the
weapon any longer, she dropped the gun to the floor.

"I don't understand why you're doing this to me, Isaac!" She caught her breath. "All I ever wanted was
for you to love me! And now, you're leaving us?" She relentlessly cried into her sweaty palms.

Lynnette removed her hands from her face and looked up to notice blood oozing from Isaac's right
hand.

Wiping her face dry, she stepped forward and asked, "Why...why is your hand bleeding, Isaac? What
did you do to yourself?"

But Isaac wouldn't respond. Instead, he dropped his head to where Lynnette could not see his face.

"Isaac, answer me!" She screamed into Isaac's ear while placing her thumb over the open gushing
wound. "How did you do this? Don't tell me that you've been bleeding like this all the way over here!"

Still, Isaac would not react. The man just stood with his head pointed to the carpet. Lynnette was in
such a distressful state that paying attention to one thing at a time was virtually impossible. Isaac's
hands, along with the rest of his body began to tremble all of the sudden.



Out of the corner of her eye Lynnette could see the bathroom light flicker off and on as the baby began
to whine; all the while the television was playing a commercial for Palmolive soap.

"You've lost a lot of blood, Isaac!" Lynnette anxiously pleaded while trying to remember just where she
placed the bandages within the house. "Wait here while I go get—

But before she could finish her sentence or even take one step, Isaac abruptly raised his head and
shined a pair of white eyes at her while hissing like a snake.

Shocked at the sight, the young woman jumped back, nearly falling to the floor in the process. That
was when Isaac began to gnaw away at his own right hand with the sharp fangs that were steadily
growing from out of his growling mouth.

Lynnette was horrified, so much so that she couldn't even budge while watching Isaac rip and tear at
his own flesh right down to the bone.

At the blink of an eye the woman reached down and snatched up the gun that was lying on the floor.

"Isaac!" She desperately yelled with all her might while pointing the weapon at his head.

But Isaac was gone; all that remained was a beastly existence within the home, a former lover.
Lynnette stood and watched in stunned horror as Isaac stopped biting away at his hand before
collapsing to his knees in a heap. His clothes began to shred right off of his body as his muscles
expanded.

"llik eht tnuc!" (Kill the cunt) He snarled before thick, black fur started to sprout from out of his face.

Without waiting a second more, Lynnette pulled the trigger and fired three shots into Isaac's head,
exposing parts of flesh that dropped to the floor. But it was those same loud, painful shots that only



seemed to anger the creature all the more as its growling grew more animalistic. Soon, bones started
to stretch, snap and break, forming both claws and hind legs in the process.

With her gun in hand, Lynnette raced like a madwoman straight for the bathroom. But before she could
even reach the door, it suddenly slammed right in her face. The lights in the hallway flickered off and on
while the shrieks of the little girls that she had been hearing for hours reverberated throughout the
house, louder in its intensity.

Lynnette's crying eyes couldn't contain or believe all that was taking place, and as frightening as it was
to hear a God awful brute in the living room, she was even more petrified that she was completely
closed off from her child.

With every fiber of energy in her shaking body, Lynnette pushed, kicked and hollered at the bathroom
door while watching the hallway lights continue to flash on and off.

From the bathroom door and back to the edge of the living room she ran to watch the growing beast
stretch out a snout. That was all the motivation Lynnette required to sprint back to the bathroom door
and scream at the top of her lungs, "God, please fucking help me!"

She could hear Isaiah on the other side of the door yell for his mommy, while behind her, what
resembled a stampeding buffalo trampling across the floor, could be heard rounding the corner that led
to the hallway.

Lynnette raised her gun, pointed it at the doorknob and fired. She used her right leg to kick open the
door. She could feel the bones in her foot break, but that was perfectly meaningless at that point.

Lynnette opened the door and slammed it shut behind her before snatching a naked Isaiah from out of
the half empty tub that he was sitting in.



"Shh, baby!" Lynnette hysterically hollered before pointing her gun directly at the door. There were no
windows in the bathroom, which only meant that the young mother would have to make her final stand
in the tiny room. She was determined to die before she let anything destroy her child.

To muffle the angry crying, Lynnette forced Isaiah's head into her sweat drenched blue blouse and
waited for the creature to make some kind of appearance if any.

From the closed door to the flickering bulb above her head she gawked, back and forth. It was a
maddening experience to be trapped in. Her teeth chattered while her knees knocked together. She
tried to stop crying, but the tears would not relent as the sweat that was saturating her face was also
causing her to go blind momentarily. All Lynnette could see was Isaac's face stretch out and listen as
he snarled at her like a mad dog. She wanted more than anything to die right then and there.

Then, just like that, the light stopped flashing, while the growling noises apparently ceased. Lynnette
made sure to keep the baby's head stuffed into her chest while her own head bobbed up and down.
The bathroom door stood still. With her breathing erratic and out of sync, the young woman caught
herself uttering a prayer, asking God to please take the beast away and allow her child to live.
Unbeknownst to her, she had popped a blood vessel in her left eye, which in turn caused blood to well
up inside.

Just then, there was a bump at the door. Lynnette held what was left of her breath. Thanks to the
busted lock, the door would never again close tight; instead it would only swing back and forth. A
sniffing racket could be heard on the other end. Lynnette attached to her prayer that Isaac would be
there, back to normal again.

After so many gripping moments, ever so gradually, the door creaked open. The amber eyes of the
beast appeared, along with the rest of its enormous, hairy body. Lynnette screamed as she fired two



more shots at the thing before it stood to its feet and hovered over both her and Isaiah like a towering
giant.

With only its right paw, the beast swiped the gun from out of the woman's hand, along with her right
index finger which ended up landing in the sink behind her.

Lynnette shrieked out in brutal agony before accidentally dropping the child to the floor. With its left
paw, the beast tossed Lynnette into the medicine cabinet, breaking the mirror and sending every item
inside crashing to the floor. Like something from out of a jungle, the beast growled and roared before
picking Lynnette up and tossing her to the other end of the bathroom as though she were a doll baby.

She wanted to scream for help, but her throat was completely dry as she crawled about on the floor,
trying with all her remaining might to reach Isaiah who himself was crawling towards his mother, crying
a storm.

The beast then knelt down on all fours and used only its right paw to send Lynnette hurtling into the
wall.

By then, her entire body was a bloody wreck. Her right eye was swollen shut and her right arm was
broken, and yet, rather than wallow in the anguish of her own insufferable pain, she remained obstante
in retrieving her screaming child.

The beast, noticing that the woman was still alive, simply snatched her up by her neck, opened wide its
slobbering jaws and proceeded to devour her.

Lynnette used her feeble hands to grab a hold of the thing's hairy snout long enough to where she
could hopefully buy Isaiah some more time. The beast, however, only shook her hands loose and
roared with all its might while using its left paw to crack a hole in the floor.



But within the midst of the enormous hell that she was engulfed inside, Lynnette could sense
something very odd. It was a beast that in all honesty could have wiped her out within the first few
seconds of its rampage, but instead, it was toying with her.

She crawled backwards until her backside met up with the tub. From where she was positioned, she
could see tiny blood droplets trickle down from out of the beast's strange eyes and onto its snout. She
wanted to move, but just sitting on the floor watching such an atrocity before her only caused her soul
to stiffen.

The beast drew close to Lynnette. It appeared aggravated, possibly by the baby's incessant crying. The
thing grabbed Lynnette's limp body and carelessly threw it into the tub before turning around to face
Isaiah.

Almost immediately, the boy stopped crying as he held up his tiny hands in defense.

***

Linus pulled his squad car up in front of Lynnette's house and got out. As the man nonchalantly
approached the porch, right next door he took notice of an elderly black man and woman who were
standing at their doorway, fearfully ogling the house that he himself was nearing.

Linus thought nothing of it, just nosey neighbors doing what they apparently do best, that is until he
heard the beast's roar echo straight past the closed door. Without giving much thought or
consideration, Linus instantly recalled the Cummins' tape recording.

"Call the police!" Linus breathlessly yelled at the neighbors while reaching into his holster to pull out his
piece. "There's a unit in the vicinity!"

But before he could even touch the butt of his gun, Linus heard yet another unearthly growl shoot out
into the night. The man right away ran back to the car, unlocked the trunk and snatched out



Fitzpatrick's twelve gage shotgun before taking off for the house.

"Isaac...stop!" Linus heard Lynnette feebly shout.

The detective kicked in the front door, and like a bolt of lightning rounded the corner to where the
commotion was emanating. The very second he reached the bathroom Linus saw the beast reach out
for the Isaiah. Without a single hint of reluctance, the man pulled the trigger. The loud shot ricocheted
off the walls of the bathroom like an explosion.

The beast, however, only stood back up to its feet, and with one swift blow, knocked Linus to the side.
Linus could feel his left arm snap like a twig, but it wasn't painful enough for him to relinquish his own
attack and pull the trigger once again while marveling at the beast's incredible size.

A third heavy slug ripped right through the creature's thick stomach before sending it crashing to its
knees. A fourth round through its chest caused the brute to wail out a pitiful howl that resembled an
ailing wolf rather than an unstoppable killing machine. The thing laid on the floor, bleeding like a
slaughtered pig and shaking violently.

Horrified at what he was seeing, Linus managed to scoot himself from one end of the bathroom to the
other, all the while keeping his distance from the beast and picking up Isaiah from off the floor.

Linus then caught sight of Lynnette's badly wounded body lying motionless in the tub. Her clothes were
torn to shreds and she was coughing up blood onto her own face. Linus lunged over and anxiously
tried to revive her while keeping a vigilant and frightened eye on the steadily dying beast behind him.

"Honey...honey, can you hear me?" Linus hysterically wept as his hands uncontrollably trembled.

"Isaac." Lynnette faintly whispered.

"Where's Isaac?" Linus looked from side to side. "Is he still in the house?"



But Lynnette could no longer answer, she could barely even move at that point. Linus held her hands in
his while keeping his eyes tuned to the beast on the floor that was suddenly taking on a brand new
form right before his very eyes.

"Just hold on, honey, the police are on their way." The man stammered.

The sounds of sirens could be heard blaring in the distant background, but something was beginning to
take shape within the bathroom. Fur, claws, muscles and even wolf-like facial features were slowly
vanishing.

Every bone inside of Linus' body stood perfectly immobile. The beast's body quaked with such an
aggressive fervor that one would believe that it was in the midst of a seizure. It's so called growls were
becoming more and more recognizable, like a person squirming in pain. Its snout was deflating back to
a nose. Bones and joints could be heard snapping back into place until what looked like clear liquid
jostled from out of its mouth.

Isaac's face, along with his eyes, had all reverted back to normal. There was no visible sign of swelling
to be seen; it was as though the young man had never been cursed at all.

Soon, the shaking ceased. Isaac Mercer's bullet riddled body laid on the blood drenched bathroom
floor. His eyes remained open until the right side of his face amazingly began to melt as though it were
hot clay. The entire bathroom was completely quiet and still as Linus, Lynnette and Isaiah all gazed
upon the dead man in jolted silence. Linus and Lynnette's jaws hung wide open.

Their words, if there were any to utter, were snatched right out of their throats. From out of the corner of
his eye, Linus could see two young officers rush into the bathroom with guns drawn. Both men carefully
ventured into the bathroom looking as if they had just crossed another dimension.

"Holy Jesus," one of the officers choked at the sight of the naked man lying on the floor.



Slowly approaching Linus, the other officer steadily asked, "Detective Bruin, is that you?"

But Linus could say absolutely nothing. He held both Lynnette and Isaiah in his strong, right arm and
would not let go.

"I'm...I'm gonna go call the meds." One officer stuttered before gladly exiting the bathroom.

Smoke from both Linus' shotgun and Isaac's mutilated body billowed into the air while the other officer
knelt down to examine the dead man closer.

Suddenly, Mr. Mercer, from out of nowhere, stumbled into the bathroom, huffing and puffing as though
he had been running a grueling marathon.

"Sir, I'm gonna ask that you step outside and—

But before the officer could get another word out, his hand was shoved aside by Mercer's sturdy
shoulder.

Then, with a pitiable expression upon his face, the man collapsed to his knees, took his son's
malformed face into his hands and gently kissed him on the forehead.

Linus watched, and that was the extent of his actions for the time being. The man saw something that
night.

The snow fell peacefully upon Cypress that cold, harsh evening.


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