Page 61 of Skin Trade

Payton took a long swig of her drink. It was sweet, bubbly. The bubbles went up her nose as she drank, but the thing was refreshing. It had that comforting warmth to it as it slid down her throat. She placed the glass back down. The barman who had served her had his back to her. He was close by but leaning on the bar talking to another woman. The two barwomen were lost in preparing the orders they had taken.

Payton slipped off her stool and shimmied to the part of the bar close to her that opened to allow staff access to the bar and the bar area. None of the three staff members looked her way or noticed when she dashed across and slipped through the doorway Seth had just exited.

A damp chill clung to Payton’s skin. The smell of something musty wafted up. Seth’s jacket was on a hook at the bottom of the stairs. He must have taken it off when he had come down a moment ago. Left or right, though? Which way had he gone? Both looked equally the same, pipes running overhead, bare stone walls, racks of drinks and bar snacks and boxes of fresh glasses. His coat didn’t help either because the hook was on the opposite wall which was right in the middle. At least if it had been left or right, he probably would have put it the way he had gone, and signposted Payton which way to follow him.

Left. She picked left.

Both ways were shrouded in darkness. The pipes above her and the way the walls made everything enclosed didn’t help. Stacks of barrels lined the middle part. Her foot sloshed into a puddle. “Shit,” she said. One pipe was leaking. Not a lot, but enough and had been for a while. It had created a dark stain along the brickwork. She shook off her foot and carried on. But maybe Seth hadn’t gone this way. It looked more and more like that.

Something made a licking sound beside her. No, not beside her. Close to her. Payton froze, body going rigid as she listened. There was something on the other side of the barrel. It made grunting sounds, deep, slapping sounds, sounds that she couldn’t place. She lowered herself, crept along the edge. The putrid stench of something gone bad made her screw up her face and cover her nose and mouth with her hand. It was a good job she had her hand there, too, because the moment she saw him, saw it, she gasped, and that hand was the only thing keeping her quiet.

On the ground, crouched against a wall was a naked woman. Her paper-thin skin sagged, wrinkled like she was made of tissue. Her back was smeared in something deep and dark. It glistened. Payton backed away, one step, two … each one of them as light as she could manage to get them. But the sound of her heart was probably enough to alert the creature to her presence.

It turned before she had a chance to get back. One breast was missing, torn off, leaving only a rotten hole where it should have been. The other sagged, a loose flap of skin with a nipple hanging down at the end. Her skin sank in between her ribs and blood ran from the creature’s mouth, down its chest.

Payton bit her own lip to keep from screaming. She felt behind her, feeling for the wall, for something to guide her and get her out of there. The woman opened her mouth. Her teeth—jagged and sharp—a mouth full of oddly bent needles, flesh hanging from the bottom front teeth. She had what was left of some animal in her hand. Too large to be a rat, too small for a dog. Perhaps a cat, some poor stray that had found its way into the dark with this thing. Whatever it was, it was missing its head and most of its skin and fur.

Payton swallowed, kept her eyes on the woman, ready to bolt at the first sign of any sudden movements from her. Clawed hands slammed down on Payton’s shoulder. It spun her, bringing her face to face with another bold creature. He hissed at her, opened his mouth, sprayed her with foul smelling spittle. She pushed against him, slammed her hand into his chest. Her hand went through, cracked the bones and she screamed when her fingers brushed against slimy wet organs.

“No,” she called out. She tripped, gathered herself before she went down to the floor and ran backwards the way she had just come.

Blood oozed from the hole in the creature’s open chest cavity. Dark and viscous, not red and fresh like anything living. The female creature came beside him now. Still crouched, but she had dumped whatever it was she had been eating. Its blood dripped off her body onto the ground.

“Stay,” Payton said. She put her hand up as if that might somehow ward off any attack they would bring to her.

The female creature crinkled its nose, lifted one side of her top lip and opened her mouth as if she was talking. Then she charged, full on. She dropped down to her hands and knees; ran the way a dog would run when it wanted to get to something fast.

Payton turned, ran for it, her heart in her throat as she forced her legs to move. She’d walked so far … why? Why had she done this? Something grabbed her shoulder, spun her and she slammed backwards into something solid and hard; she screamed again.

“Get out of the way.” It was Seth. He fired at the creature the same way he had done when that big one had chased her to his building. The pellet hit the thing right in the face. The creature clutched at it, trying to claw it out with her own hands. She put her fingers into her eye sockets, popped an eye. It dribbled down her face. The thing screamed then, a loud screeching noise, enough to turn anyone’s blood cold.

Seth twisted so he was between the thing and Payton. He fired again. The male creature moved, taking the chance to charge while they were distracted. Seth fired at him too and the pellet landed right in the hole Payton had made but it didn’t stop him. Seth dropped his gun, and God knows where he had it, but he pulled out a small sword, lunged forward and swept his hand back, taking both heads of the creatures with it.

Blood shot into the air, coming out in a crimson spray. It hit Payton—a fine sheen of foul-smelling goo through her hair.

The place was alive with the echoes of heavy boots against the stone floor, and the shrieks and hisses of creatures. She had time to see two guards take down another creature before Seth ushered her towards the steps.

“Get back up the stairs, Payton,” Seth said. “Right now.”

“But you … you could.”

He grabbed her hard by the arm, marched her towards the stairs. Mathias came from the other direction. His jacket was off too. He held blades in both hands. His bald head was slick with perspiration. Three men stood with him. “You get up those stairs and lock the door. Tell them to not come back down here. Do you hear me?”

Payton nodded. Her entire body trembled to dizzying heights. “Seth …”

“Go. Right now.” He pushed her, pushed her hard enough that she tripped backwards up the stairs. Another sound, deeper to the right this time. A scream in reverse, as if whoever was doing it, was sucking it in. “Right now, Payton,” he said. They raced towards the sound.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Payton scrambled backwards up the steps, losing her footing twice. The second time, she slipped and smacked her back off the step, winding herself. But that was nothing compared to the sounds below. Screams, squeals, high-pitched noises that were so far removed from human she couldn’t even place them. Her heart throbbed in her chest, her ribs felt like they were compressing her lungs, and she gasped as she almost fell through the door at the top of the steps. She launched herself through and out into the bar area, straight into the solid wall that was the barman, Bobby.

“Woah, where’s the fire?” He caught her, his hand landing straight in the crap on her clothes. “Jesus, what have you been doing?”

“Shut the door,” she said. “Shut it now.” She reached for the lock at the top, but her hands were so slick with everything she had touched down there. “Get the door shut.”

“I’m shutting it. Okay? Calm down.” He pushed her back a little, and at the same time, pushed the deadbolt across the top of the door. “It’s closed. What’s going on?”

Patrons close by stared at her. The two serving behind the bar stopped what they were doing. The way one of the women looked at her, Payton might as well have rushed into the bar area and taken a shit on the floor. But Payton paid her no mind. Not right now.

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