"Mary" by Edward Lange (Novelette)

Genre:  Horror, Urban Fantasy

Type of Short Story:  Novelette

Summary:   Old Mary Roberson has never hurt a fly. That is until she blows up her neighbor and gets arrested. But Mary’s reign of terror is just beginning.

Excerpt:

When he woke up, his head lay on the dead center of the steering wheel. The sound of the horn could be heard blaring all around him, as his skull pressed against it. He removed his head from wheel, and the horn stopped. His head throbbed, and he could feel warm blood trickling down his cheek.

“Michael, are you…” He turned to the passenger seat to see how his partner was doing, but trailed off when he saw it was empty. A large opening rimmed with jagged glass sat on the right side of the windshield. Through the broken windshield, Ellis could see the crumpled up hood of the squad car, and the bits of engine that stuck out the sides. They’d exited the thick canopy of branches, and the world around him was now illuminated by the dark blue moon light. The tip of the hood was partially wrapped around a tall tree. Its thick trunk had a large crack at the spot where the car collided with it. The tree sat in the middle of a bend in the road; a bend which Ellis had been unable to anticipate because he hadn’t been focusing on the road.

“Michael!” Ellis called through the broken windshield. He clutched at the bloody side of his head, while he listened for a response. He heard nothing but the sound of cold air whistling through the trees.

“Michael!” He called again, and still got no response. He scanned the area around the tree, and eventually spotted the pile of clothes and flesh that sat near the base of the trunk. The body of his partner appeared to be twisted in an unnatural, painful looking way. Ellis thought his partner could be seriously hurt, maybe even paralyzed.

Ellis opened his mouth to yell again, when he heard a soft growl behind him. He heard scaly feet crushing rocks on the unpaved road behind him. He turned to see the tiny glowing red eyes, which were getting bigger as the creature emerged from the darkness of the canopy.

It stood six feet tall, on four powerful legs that ended in lizard claws. Its black skin covered a muscular horse body. The hairy tail wagged in the cold night air. At the end of its horse head sat a mouth with fangs that overlapped the lower lip. And protruding from the center of its head, in-between the glowing red eyes, was a long white horn.

The beast neighed, and slowly walked around the squad car. Ellis watched the muscles move under the animal’s skin, as it made its way to the man that lay slumped on the ground. It walked up, and stood over him. With its fanged snout, it turned the man over on to his back. The unconscious face of Michael stared up at the beast, his eyes closed to the world. Ellis wanted to yell “RUN!” but the terror that gripped him stayed his tongue.

In the pale moonlight, the beast opened its mouth, revealing the white curved daggers that lined its jaws. It ripped off the front of the unconscious officer’s shirt, and tossed the black cloth to the ground. It lifted its front-right claws it the air, and brought it down on the exposed stomach. The unconscious body didn’t even flinch, as its warm guts began to spill out onto the ground.
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