Pus Junkies

—11—

School was out.

Thank god.

Zak waited by his car for Kip, but it had already been fifteen minutes since the bell rang, and the kid wasn’t showing. Zak had just finished the last cigarette, so he opened the car to fish out the fresh pack, but nearly gagged at the scent that floated out and punched him in the face.

Smelled like pussy and bad meat.

That’s when he noticed the specks of red on his window. And the discarded clothing on the floor, the shirt—which was obviously female—stained with dark blood.

Kip. And probably Jade.

Zak breathed to calm his nerves, tried to tell himself that he was jumping to conclusions, that Kip would come walking up any second. He gave it another five minute before he couldn’t take it anymore, before he jumped in the car, all the windows down, and sped toward home.

If Zak found what he thought he would, he wasn’t really sure what he would do. Whatever was in Kip’s pus, it was strong shit. No telling how it was affecting the kids, what it would make them do. After only a taste last night, they had that meth head look, like if they didn’t get another hit they would die. Or kill. It was that last part that worried Zak.

I’ll point my gun at them again if I have to. Whatever it takes to get them away from Kip.

He had a vision of walking in to the home, finding blood splashed and smeared all over the walls. The kids would have Kip on the ground, surrounding him like feasting buzzards, his torso ripped open, the kids chewing his flesh, sucking out his juices.

If any of them hurt Kip, I’ll fucking kill them.

Zak tried to understand where Kip was coming from. Living an entire life shunned by everyone, laughed at, harassed. Girls weren’t just unattracted to him, they were disgusted by him, and they did nothing to hide the fact either. And then all of a sudden he’s the most desired boy in school. The most popular. Everyone wants him now.

Zak couldn’t blame the kid. If the circumstances were different, he’d even be happy for him. But this? Zak wondered if there was something to what Kip was saying. What if he really was some kind of… monster or something? There really wasn’t any other explanation. Kids don’t just spew drugs from their skin like that. No matter how dangerous some experimental medication is… the side effects can’t be this.

Zak tried to clear his mind as he made the final turn toward the house, preparing himself for what he might find.

He tried to ignore the tingling sensation in his chest as he continued to breathe in the odor in his car. Tried to pretend that he didn’t want a taste of the Toad just like everyone else.

Chuck didn’t have time to go back and get Chelsea. He hadn’t even thought of her until after he got his taste, and by then he didn’t give a shit. She could fend for herself. It was her fault for staying home and not getting her own taste of the Toad. Chuck lay on his back in Kip’s attic while the other kids swarmed around Kip, mouths pressed against him. Feeding, slurping, moaning. Like baby pigs fighting for their mother’s teats.

Chuck couldn’t help but giggle as the other kids fought for the fat zits, craving the pus, dying for another helping of warm cream.

But Chuck got himself a mouthful of blood this last time. There were too many others, and Chuck started to toss them away, muscle his way in, but Toad gave him a look, shook his head.

“Everyone gets their share,” Toad had said.

And Chuck didn’t want to upset him. There was an open spot on Toad’s right side, just under his armpit. Chuck had dove for it, licked the trickling blood away just to wipe the spot clean so he could search for more of the pimples. But in that particular spot, there was none. The skin was dry, flaky, but no acne. No flesh grapes.

Then it was like his mouth was on fire. Like he’d taken a spoonful of ghost chili salsa. But only at first. He panicked, flopped on the ground as he scraped his nails across his tongue. But the pain blossomed into waves of pleasure, and as each wave hit him, crashed over his body like liquid lightning, he couldn’t stop himself from giggling.

“Blood…” he managed to say before more giggles took over. “B-blood is good… his blood is good too…”

Then the ceiling started to move, like the surface of a pond after a rock had been thrown in. The rotating fan looked like a spinning octopus, and Chuck forced himself to his feet, climbed up onto Kip’s bed, and reached for it.

“Okay… okay that’s enough.”

Chuck thought he heard Toad say that, but couldn’t be sure. There was a whispery sensation in his ear, like a thousand ghosts telling him secrets at the same time. All Chuck could do in response was chuckle, bounce on the bed and reach for those tentacles.

He lost his footing, slammed the side of his face on the floor. A tooth rattled loose, slid across the floor on a slip-n-slide of blood. A crack splintered the enamel… no not a crack. A mouth. Then two more cracks—eyes. The tiny eyes were as bright as Maglites, and the mouth just kept saying the same phrase again and again.

“The Toad is yours. The Toad is yours.”

“Mine,” Chuck said as he peeled his face off the ground and rose to his feet. “The Toad is mine!”

The room swam. The air felt as thick as Jell-O. Chuck had to take each breath slow and easy, made more difficult by his constant giggles.

“Enough, you guys. Okay… please. It’s starting to hurt… please!”

Toad? Is that Toad… in trouble?

Chuck looked down at himself. When did I take my clothes off?

But that didn’t matter. Toad needed him. The other kids refused to stop feeding, and now Toad was screaming, throwing his arms and legs around like one of those inflatable wavy guys outside of the car dealership.

Chuck was going to help him. He wanted to help him.

“The Toad is mine…”

Once he got enough of the other kids out of the way, using his knuckles and elbows and head and teeth, he caught sight of Toad’s bare chest. Deep craters where zits used to be, now only scooped out potholes of flesh and blood. And there was so much blood. It bubbled out, ran down Toad’s body.

And Chuck pressed his tongue to Toad’s skin and licked. Lapped up as much as he could. The others were already pawing at him from behind, clawing and scraping, doing everything they could to get their share.

Toad’s body started to shake then. His eyes went white.

Chuck didn’t think that was good, but he couldn’t do anything but laugh. Some of the other kids sat on the ground and laughed too, and Chuck wondered if they had been drinking Toad’s blood like he had been. A boy and a girl fucked on Toad’s bed now, looked to Chuck like conjoined twins connected at the groin. When the boy reached up and squeezed the girls breasts, it looked like his hands plunged into her chest, his fingers starting to poke out through her back.

“Stop! What the fuck!”

Chuck turned to find Zak standing by the stairs, eyes wide, mouth hanging open.

“Zak!” Chuck said and cackled. “The Toad is mine!”

They love me. I am their entire universe.

The students could hardly wait to get their fix, and once Toad got them into his house, up into his room—his treehouse—he took a seat in his computer chair, pulled his shirt off, and held out both arms as if to hug them all at once.

“Go ahead,” he said. “Take all you need.”

Jade, of course, was head of the line. She straddled him first, swirled her tongue in his mouth and dry-humped him, moaning into his throat. Then she dismounted, circled around to his rear. She ran her nails down his back, slicing the zits open, then pressed her face there, simultaneously slurping and snorting. Kip wanted to watch her, but could only hear the wet, sloppy sounds of her smorgasbord.

The others attacked him then, punching and biting and kicking at each other to get the good spots. Kip tried to keep count of who got what, but after a couple of minutes, he couldn’t differentiate one person from the other. He saw Jezebel and Sasha, Cash and Jerrod, other cheerleaders and jocks and cool kids. All from the party. All known as the popular crowd. The same kids who have been making Kip’s life awful since the day he hit puberty and sprouted his acne. The same kids who would call him names and laugh at him and throw things at him. The same girls who would only look in his direction to wrinkle their nose or laugh or make jokes with their friends. They were all over him now, and he loved every second of it.

And then of course, there was Chuck.

Nothing filled Kip with more joy than seeing Chuck gorging himself on pus and blood. Crying for more. Begging for it. Kip contemplated refusing Chuck, shunning him. But he couldn’t do that. Chuck was his now, and though the kid was Kip’s worst enemy for years and years, it was different. He felt close to Chuck, to all of them. Like they were his children.

That’s right. I’m the popular one now. You’ll all die without me.

Kip closed his eyes and tilted his head back, enjoyed the infinite abyss of pleasure that he was now engulfed in. Every set of lips, every pinch of thumbnails or teeth, each one was like its own orgasm, and Kip shuddered as they all fed.

He didn’t know how long they had been at it… but then something happened. Something changed.

The pleasure sprouted needles.

Suddenly, every time one of them sucked, bit, squeezed, his flesh reacted with pain. Hot, agonizing pain that started at the point of impact and buried deep into his meat, digging and digging deeper until it found his marrow.

“Okay… okay, that’s enough.”

But they wouldn’t stop. He heard Chuck cackling like a mad man, bouncing on Kip’s bed, his face and hands painted with blood. Others fucked or fought, but most were still attached to Kip’s skin like ticks, never satisfied, never full.

Oh god… they’re killing me. It hurts… it fucking hurts!

“More, baby. I want more… please.”

That was Jade’s voice, coming from behind him. He tried to turn his head to get a look at her, but couldn’t manage it with all the bodies piled on top and around him.

“The Toad is mine!” Chuck screamed through a mouthful of laughter. He lay face-first on the floor, a splatter of blood painting the floor just beside his face like a crimson comic book text balloon.

Jade scraped her teeth across the back of Kip’s neck, but the pimples there had already been used up, and she got a mouthful of blood, but seemed just as happy to have it.

My blood works too? Am I just some kind of drug factory or something?

Then Chuck rushed forward, slamming his giant fists into the heads and faces of the others, boy or girl. He grabbed one girl by the hair as he smashed a boy’s nose sideways with his elbow. But the pain didn’t seem to bother them. It was being pulled away from Kip that drove them crazy, and as soon as they unlatched, they would scream, growl, fight to get their place back.

Chuck slapped his tongue to Kip’s chest, swirled it around and drank up the blood that poured down.

Jade had her mouth suctioned to the back of Kip’s neck now, groaning as she drank and drank, making loud gulping sounds.

And then Kip was somewhere else. He could still feel the pain, could still feel the mouths and hands all over him. But he couldn’t see the others anymore. Couldn’t even see his own body. Everything was blackness, abyssal nothingness.

It felt like he was rolling in a bed of broken glass and soaked in sulfuric acid. He tried to scream but could only gurgle and cough and everything tasted like blood and bile and shit and all he wanted to do was be left alone and make everyone get off of him but they wouldn’t because they needed him so bad and he wanted them to need him, wanted to give them all he could but it just hurt too bad like he didn’t have anything left to give, as if they had drained his flesh dry.

The air felt like lava, splashing across his face and body and burning him away layer by layer.

No more… no more.

And then something brought him back to the here and now. Something familiar. Something that he knew would save him and make all the pain go away.

“Stop! What the fuck!”

Zak?

When Kip woke up, he was on his back. He was sure it was Zak’s face he would see, Zak telling him that he would be okay, that he wouldn’t let anyone hurt him anymore.

But it was Jade’s face that materialized before his eyes. She wore a mask of blood, and it looked like she was trying to speak, but only wet sounds were coming out of her mouth as she giggled and clenched her teeth, eyes wide and insane.

Her tongue ran across her lips, and then she began to lower her face, long ribbons of crimson drool hanging from her mouth.

“No… no don’t…” His voice was barely a whisper now, each word popping from his mouth like weak, thin-skinned bubbles.

Just before her lips touched his face, a foot came flying out of nowhere, collided with the side of Jade’s head and made her disappear from Kip’s view.

Kip managed to sit up. He was completely naked, covered in blood and open wounds. Bite marks covered his torso, but it was the scooped-out holes that bled the worst. The places where zits once were, sucked completely empty of their filling. His skin pulsated, and though the pain was intense, there was something else he could feel. Anger. Poisonous anger crackling across his flesh. It took over his every thought, brought him to his feet.

Zak was on the ground now, covering himself as the others stomped on him, punched him. Chuck screamed with laughter as he rained down blows again and again, his entire body speckled or awash with blood.

“Enough,” Kip said.

A pair of hands took him from behind, and Kip seized them, flung Jade around so she faced him. Her eyes were alive with hunger, need, and she squealed as she tried to get back to him. Kip reached out, grabbed her by the throat, pulled her toward him so they were eye to eye. She fought at first, but then went slack, looked like a child who just realized she was in trouble.

“I said… enough.”

She nodded, lip quivering. When Kip let her go, she dropped, crawled away and whimpered like a kicked puppy.

A puddle of blood began to form at Kip’s feet as more and more of it dripped from his body. His chest heaved as he breathed in and out, now almost enjoying the pain, using it to find strength to face the kids. His people… his addicts.

“I said that’s enough!”

As he screamed, blood squirted from various wounds on his body, painted the walls, the floor, the ceiling.

All movement stopped. All eyes were on Kip.

“You’ve had enough. Leave.”

Zak crawled away from them, jumped to his feet. He grimaced, but was still in one piece. He spat a wad of blood onto the floor, his eyes jumping from the group of stunned kids to Kip.

They all just stared, almost all of them now devoid of any clothing. Their skin was covered in Kip’s fluids, and when he took a step toward them, they collectively flinched.

“I said leave!”

Jade was on her feet first, sprinting out of the room and charging down the stairs. The rest followed, thundering out of the house, leaving bloody footprints in their wake.

Kip strolled to his window, watched as the blood-drenched congregation ran down his street in all directions, tits and balls flapping.

“Kip,” Zak said from behind him. “You motherfucker. You fucking—”

As soon as the kids were gone from Kip’s view, the anger seemed to subside some, bringing his pain right back to the forefront. A strangled whimper burst from his lips as his knees turned to jelly beneath him, and he crumbled to the floor. The open wounds on his torso wept endless blood as his skin throbbed, constant throbbing.

“Kip?”

Kip could barely breathe as he rocked himself in a pool of his blood, praying for the pain to ease up, just a smidgeon, anything.

Then Zak was beside him, lifted him to his feet, draped Kip’s arm over his shoulder and walked him down the attic steps, into the bathroom. Then Kip was in the tub, the back of his head resting on the hard porcelain, his blood swirling down the drain. Kip didn’t know how much longer he could bleed like this before he bled completely out. Before the nothingness came back and ate him whole.

“Hold on, Kip. Just hold on.”

Water hit him then, and though it was ice cold, it felt like fiery needles burrowing into him. He screamed and his mouth filled with water.

“I’m calling an ambulance.”

Kip wanted to turn the water off, but he couldn’t make himself move. Then the water became warmer, soothing. He breathed a sigh of relief, and in that same instant, the pain began to slowly fade away, replaced again by the euphoric vibrations. As the water pelted against him, he had to grab the edge of the tub as a powerful orgasm began in his stomach, spreading to his groin and legs.

Pearly seed spurted from his penis, which he just now realized was hard, and it mixed with the blood and swirled down the drain. Kip laughed. He ran his fingertips across the crater-ridden flesh of his chest and face, shuddering at the sensation, and he laughed and laughed.

“Yes! My cousin… something’s wrong with him. I’m not sure! Just please… shit I don’t even know. Hold on.” Zak lowered the phone. “Kip… your address. What’s your address!”

Kip spun his attention to his cousin who had his cell phone pressed against his ear, his eyes perfect circles, brow beginning to furrow as he studied Kip’s face.

“No,” Kip said through his laughter. “No ambulance. I feel great.”

“What? Are you fucking… I’m trying, ma’am. I’m trying…” Zak dropped the phone at his side, stepped closer to Kip. “Kip, please. You need help. You need to be checked out, seriously. Look how much blood you lost already.”

Kip only smiled and shook his head. “I promise, Zak. I’ve never felt better than I do right now. My body… it’s regenerating. I can feel it. I’m better than ever, Zak. Hang up the phone.”

“No. I won’t. You’re getting some help—”

“Hang up the fucking phone!”

Kip was on his feet before he knew it, and just that quickly, the anger was back, pumping through his bloodstream, making him want to cause pain, making him want to kill.

But not Zak. Never Zak. Right?

Zak backed away, the woman’s voice barely audible through the phone as she shouted, asking, begging for the address. It looked at first like Zak had been hurt by Kip’s outburst, but that look quickly twisted into a countenance of terror as he stared at Kip’s chest, then finally rose a shaking finger, dropped the phone.

Kip already knew before he looked. He could feel it, could taste it with every breath he took.

“Y-your skin. What the fuck…” Zak stared at Kip the way people had been staring at him his whole adolescent life. Face full of disgust, revulsion.

Kip ran his hand over the new bumps there, each one almost full again. The blood had slowed, nearly stopped completely now.

Kip stepped out of the tub, the water still hissing behind him as it sprayed from the showerhead. Zak took an equal step away from him.

“Zak… don’t look at me like that. It’s me… it’s still me. It’s Kip. Your cousin, remember?” Kip spun so he was facing the mirror, watched as the craters inflated like red bubbles over his face and chest, the skin thin and glistening as it pulsated. He could feel the flesh of his neck, back, and ass thrashing as well, could feel each new pimple filling back up with pus.

“Kip… what’s going on? This… this can’t be… We have to get you some help, man.”

Kip wanted to laugh again, but he held it in. His cousin was scared, looked ready to run away screaming at any second. So Kip hid his glee, put on a scowl, leaned his forehead against the bathroom wall.

“Help me, Zak. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

Zak glanced at the phone, was tempted to scoop it up and ask for help regardless of what Kip had said. He didn’t know if the police would be able to trace a cell phone call to that address, but he hoped they could.

“Help me, Zak. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

Kip sounded like himself again. A moment ago, he sounded like someone completely different, the same person that had roared at all the students in the attic, scared them so bad that they scattered like alley cats.

He sounded like a monster. A demon. His voice had been deeper, gruff, full of rage and venom.

But now, his dorky, frail cousin seemed to be back. Resting his head against the wall and weeping softly. As he did this, the flesh of his back boiled and bubbled, zits growing and bulging right before Zak’s eyes.

“Kip,” Zak said as he took a tentative step forward, placed a soft hand on Kip’s shoulder. “We have to take you to someone, get you looked at. Something’s fucked up here, man. Maybe a doctor can figure out what’s going on. Maybe we should call your mom and—”

“No!” It was still Kip’s voice, but with a hint of demon.

“Kip…”

“Please, Zak. She’s worked so hard for this. We shouldn’t bother her, okay? We can figure this out, me and you. And if it gets worse… okay. We’ll see a doctor. But right now… I mean it. I feel great.”

You feel great? Are you fucking serious! You almost bled to death! You look like a nightmare!

“I just don’t see how it could possibly get any worse. I thought you were gonna die, man. I really did. Ah, fuck… my ribs. Chuck got me good.” Zak grimaced as he massaged his side, then slid his tongue over the drying blood on his lower lip. Through all the excitement, all the worry for Kip’s life, he had been numb to his own injuries. But they were reminding him of their existence now.

“Whatever’s inside of me, they’re crazy for it.”

“Yeah, we’ve fucking figured that already. What did you think would be different this time, Kip? Don’t try and tell me you didn’t expect that shit.”

“Not like this. It… it feels good. When they… you know, when they suck it out of me. It feels good. But then it started to hurt… I thought they were killing me.”

“They almost did kill you.”

“It’s like I can’t help it. It feels so good, I lose track of what’s going on… lose track of my own existence. When they’re feeding off me, I feel like a god, Zak. I can’t explain it any better than that.”

Kip sort of smiled when he said this, eyes blank and staring through the wall. He seemed to snap out of it, blinked rapidly before turning back to Zak.

“But I’m scared. I don’t know what to do.”

“Fucking get help. Maybe a doctor can’t help, maybe a doctor will be just as confused as we are. But we won’t know until we get you checked out.” Zak wanted to grab Kip by the shoulders and shake him.

“I don’t want to see a doctor.”

“You can’t be fucking serious. You like this shit, don’t you? You don’t want to see a doctor because you’re scared they’ll make it all go away, right? You’re scared you’ll just be the same old Kip, scared you’ll be the Toad again.”

“I am the Toad! I’ll always be the fucking Toad!”

Zak backed up. Kip’s skin frenzied now like boiling water.

“I’m scared of what the doctor will say to me, Zak. What if I was right, huh? What if I’m not human or something.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“Is it? Why? Is it any more ridiculous than my acne spitting out addictive pus? Or my blood acting like some kind of fucking hallucinogen?”

Zak had no answer. Hallucinogen?

“And what if the doctors can’t figure it out? What then? They’ll call in specialists, other doctors, and I’ll turn into one big fucking science experiment. Well fuck that. I’m done with people treating me like I’m less than human. Because I’m not. I’m way more.”

Kip stepped out of the bathroom into the hallway, his skin beginning to calm to a slow, rhythmic pulse. The blood was caked there, drying and flaking off as he moved.

“But, Zak. What happened today… that won’t ever happen again. Okay? I promise.”

Zak had so much he wanted to say, but couldn’t make his mouth move. He just nodded and watched as Kip walked back down the hall toward the attic where he ascended the stairs. Kip didn’t pull the stairs back up behind him, and Zak wondered if Kip wanted him to follow, but there was no way in hell he was going back up there. The room had blood all over the place, discarded clothing, cum and sweat.

Zak had to concentrate to calm his breathing. There were stains on the bathroom wall spotted with Kip’s blood. The spot where his forehead had been resting.

Zak stepped forward, sniffed the blood, eyelids fluttering and chest tingling.

I gotta get the fuck outta here.

He was in his car and heading down the street. No destination in mind, just needed to get the hell away from Kip and that house before he became just like everyone else. He wanted a drink, wanted some pills, wanted a big fat line of coke. But most of all… he wanted Kip. He wanted to taste what everyone else was tasting, experience the high that was driving them all crazy.

No. I can’t… I can’t ever.

He lit a cigarette with shaking fingers and just drove.