Page 10 of Wild Life

I clutched the fabric to my body, finally noticing my surroundings.

Wood…everywhere.A cottage?

A simply constructed table with one chair sat directly across from me, and shelves stuffed with odds and ends hung on the wall behind them. A slab of wood sat underneath, and if I squinted hard enough with one eye and covered the other, I could be fooled into thinking it was a counter. Random objects, like rubber tubing and glass trinkets—basically the equipment that could be found in a home meth lab—were strewn messily about the slab.

And the apparatus I was huddled on top of? It was a bed with posts that certainly wouldn’t have passed a quality-control check at the local furniture store. The material under me wasn’t as soft as a mattress, but it was still cushioned enough to pad my ass…mybareass… resting on some strange bed where God knew what took place. I let out a squeak and quickly muffled it with my hand over my mouth.

This was how erotic horror books started. With some random chick waking up in the middle of nowhere, strapped to a bed, at the mercy of some reclusive freak who got his rocks off by rubbing his crotch on every part of her body while branding his initials into her skin with a hot iron. I swore I had read a book about it…and the idea had been sexy under the comfort of my own store-bought sheets, in my townhome in the suburbs at two in the morning. Here? Not so much.

I sank back against the wood headboard, lumpy pillows barely offering any lumbar support.

How the hell did I end up here?

At the foot of the bed, there was an ornate trunk fashioned from polished dark wood and metal locks and hinges, the kind that I’d imagine belonged at the bottom of the ocean with the Titanic or something.

My attention darted to the door to my left. It was the only one in this place, and judging by the intense light radiating through the window made of aged plastic next to the door, it led outside.

A tinge of green floated from behind the dirty window. Trees? Was I in the woods? The air was too heavy and thick to be temperate forest air. I was still in the South Pacific…I think.

Who had brought me here? Where were Eli and the rest of the team? I wasn’t much into religion, but for the briefest moment, my little black atheist heart offered up a silent prayer to the mythical dude who wore a toga and sat on clouds while stalking our every move.

Bro, hear my prayer. Pleeease!

My team needed to be alive, and I needed to find them.

I moved without thinking, body prepared to run, then I remembered that this sad blanket was the only cover I had for my naked body.

Maybe if I ran for it, I could escape whatever kind of fucked up cabin-in-the-woods holding cell this was—and whoever was keeping my clothes hostage.

A sound halted my movements. It was distant and hard to make out. Hoarse and grating. Like a chainsaw.

Oh God, this is it. A mad slasher man is about to mince my body into worm food, and no one will hear my screams.

Suddenly, the door flew open. A hairy mass of black and beige barreled toward me.

I screamed, and the creature screeched in response, its shrill tone puncturing my eardrums. I shuffled back as far as I could, until I hit the headboard.

Thethingstomped on the ground, its hooves tapping violently as it skittered to the side of the bed. I screamed again and clutched at the items scattered on the crude nightstand, grabbing the closest object I could find. I had no idea what it was. It was made of something smooth like rock and had a sharp tip, like an arrowhead.

The creature lurched at me, propping its fat head on the edge of the bed, its flat nose vibrating a snort at me.

A pig is my kidnapper? What in the Animal Farm bullshit is this?

Before I could process how I had become a character on fucking Animal Crossing, heavy footsteps clonked on the floor. The bright light that had been streaming in from outside was eclipsed by the mammoth creature blocking the doorway.

I gulped down the lump in my throat.

Cryptids really do exist…

All I could see was muscle on muscle. The ridges had no beginning or end.

Yup. This is how I’m going to die. At the whim of that green giant from the frozen vegetable packages.

Except this giant was neither green nor jolly. This beast was brown-skinned and…furious.

I let out a blood-curdling shriek that triggered the pig to join in.

The man stayed still. Wild dark hair and an overgrown beard obscured most of his face, except for his hard eyes that were focused on me. I dropped my gaze, and they landed on a flap of material between his legs. Based on the way it tented, the package underneath must have been considerably sized.

---