Little Secrets

         Gretta pulled her 1986 Ford Fiesta into the gas station. It wasn’t a lot to look at, but at least it was hers. It had been a long struggle for her to get this far. She’d fallen in with the wrong crowd, dropped out of school at 15, run away from home soon after that, and had moved city to city, not really caring where she was as long as she could get her next fix there. She’d fallen so far from the feisty, robust cheerleader she’d once been. She really had thought she was going to end up another overdose statistic at the last house she’d been at. Then, inexplicably, her parents had found her. She remembered her father’s silhouette in the doorway, feeling his strong arms around her as he lifted her out of the filthy bed she was sharing with god knows who, her mother waiting in the car, crying and hugging her as her father set her down, and the car squealing tires as they raced away.



                   When she regained consciousness enough to register what was going on she was already in the rehab center, her parents with a room right next door. The ensuing conversation was painful, embarrassing, and enlightening all at once.  She hated admitting that she’d lost control of her life and that the drugs had taken over, she was ashamed of how she’d acted and treated the people that she loved and loved her in return, and she was amazed to hear the raw emotion in her parent’s voices as they told her how much they loved her and how they were there for her and that together they would beat this terrible addiction.



         Now, she was 19, going to night school to get her GED and hoping that she would be able to attend the local community college before transferring to a university to study sociology and psychology. She had a burning drive to help people in the same situation she’d been in.



         She walked into the gas station, pulled a crumpled twenty dollar bill from her purse and dropped it on the counter.



         “I need twenty on pump three, please.” She said to the clerk behind the counter. She was barely taller than the counter. She was all of 5’1”, weighed 95 pounds soaking wet, but somehow still managed to have some curves and not look like an adolescent boy.



         “No problem.” The clerk said, barely looking up from his book he was reading. He did a bit of a double take as he saw Gretta.



         “Oh, hi Gretta. How are you doing tonight? Did you like class tonight? I thought it was pretty good, but got kinda boring at the end.” He said.



         “Hi Ian.” She said. She flashed him a smile even though he gave her the creeps. He was thin as a rail and at least 6’2” tall with thick oval glasses that went out of style in the 70’s. He always wore knit pants that were at least two inches to short for him. He had short dark brown hair that appeared like he never combed or washed it and it hung limply around his head looking to her like a squirrel had climbed on top of his head and died there. He was always nice enough to her, but in a way that made her skin crawl.



         “Class was ok, I guess. I know I have lots of studying to do tonight.”



         “You know, if you need help with your homework, I could help you. I get off work at midnight, but I could help you then?” He asked, leaning over the counter, looking down at her.



         “Thanks Ian, but I’m hoping to be asleep by then. See you tomorrow in class, ok?”



         “Sure.” He said, letting his chin drop onto his chest, looking sad and defeated.



         Gretta quickly walked to her car and started putting the gas in. What a creepy guy. Like I would ever want to be alone with him, she thought and an unconscious shiver ran down her spine. She put the gas nozzle back on the pump and realized that she really needed some caffeine or she wasn’t going to be able to stay awake long enough to get any studying done.



         Sighing she walked back into the gas station. She walked to the back refrigerator case and began trying to choose a couple of energy drinks, she didn’t really want to be up all night, after all.



         “Can I help you find something specific?” Ian said softly in her ear.



         Gretta let out a little squeal of alarm and jumped away from him. “I didn’t even hear you move Ian! You scared the crap out of me!”



         “Sorry.” He said but the look on his face did not convey that feeling at all.



                   “I just need to get a couple of energy drinks for studying tonight, and then I’ll be out of your hair.” She tried to smile, but was still a little shaken from his sudden arrival.



                   “Those will keep you up all night. I thought you wanted to be in bed early. That was why you didn’t want to come and study with me you said.”



         “No, Ian, I said I wanted to be in bed before midnight. I still have to study some, and I’m really tired. I just need a little boost for a couple of hours.



         “It was my misunderstanding then. Any of those drinks will meet your needs. I would get one that was on sale, otherwise they are crazy expensive.”



         “Thanks, I’ll do that.” She turned back to the refrigerator as Ian turned and started back to the cash register.



         Creepy, creep, creepy, she thought to herself and opened the case and selected a couple of different flavors of energy drinks. When she turned around Ian was standing right in front of her again.



         “CRAP!” she yelled. “Ian! Stop doing that. God you’re going to give me a heart attack.”



         “I’m sorry Gretta. It’s just, well, I have to tell you I really like you. I would like to take you out tomorrow. Please say yes.”



         Gretta’s skin felt like it was going to crawl off of her body at the thought.



         “I really don’t think so, Ian. I have too much school work. Thanks for asking though.”



         She tried to push past him to get to the register and get the hell away from this guy.



         “I knew you would say no.” he said. His voice was hard and his eyes blazed with anger. “You think you’re too good for me? You with your perfect looks and so smart in class and showing off all the time.” He had spittle running out of the side of his mouth and he walked toward her, making her back up until her back was against the glass of the refrigerator.



         “Ian, stop it!” She yelled. “You are scaring me and I need to leave. Move out of my way.”



         “Oh you would like that, wouldn’t you? You want to get your way again? What about what other people want? What about what I want? Do you ever think about that? Well I’ll tell you something miss perfect. It’s time people paid attention to me, time you paid attention to me.”



         Gretta opened her mouth to say something but Ian lashed out and hit her across the cheek with a back hand blow. The power of the impact was astonishing. Her head rocked to the side and lights flashed in front of her eyes. Ian grabbed the top of her head by the hair and slammed her head into the glass. She felt the crushing power, the glass cracked behind her head; her vision swam for a moment before all went black.

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         Gretta woke with a terrible pain in the back of her head. She lay for a minute trying to remember what had happened. Her memories slowly swam back to her and she was confused and angry. Why would Ian do this to her? If this was his way of showing her he liked her, he had a long way to go! She tried to sit up and her shoulders flared with pain. Her hands were handcuffed to metal bars. She tried to move her legs and discovered her ankles were shackled as well. She opened her eyes and tried to focus in the dim light that was being cast off of a single, bare light bulb in the corner. She could just make out the silhouette of bars above her. She was in a cage!



         What the fuck is going on here, she wondered. She pulled against her restraints again and was rewarded with another shot of pain in her shoulders. The bars did not move.



         “Finally awake I see.” Ian said. He was sitting in an old recliner just outside the cage. He was slowly spinning what looked like a cane around with one hand.



         “Ian, what are you doing? Let me go and I will not tell anyone about this.” Gretta put as much force and strength into her voice as she could.



         “It’s much too late for that, I’m afraid. You had your chance to pay attention to me, but you wanted nothing to do with me. Just like all the others. You had your chance to love me, to love us! Alas, you have made your choice. I will have to keep looking for a new member of our family.”



         “Family? Ian, what are you talking about? Where are your parents? I’m pretty sure they won’t be too happy to find me like this!”



         Ian let out an oily, low chuckle. “Oh my dear, my parents would absolutely LOVE to find you here. No worries about that, however. They have left, long ago. They abandoned us as well.”



         “Us? I thought you were an only child! I thought you lived with your parents.”



         “I told you what you wanted to hear. No one wants to know how my parents abandoned us because they were not strong enough. I really do like you Gretta. I’m truly sorry that it has come to this, but you really left me no choice.”



         “Ian, please let me go. I’ll go out with you. I’ll study with you. I’ll do whatever you want me to. Just let me leave. My parents will be frantic.”



         “Sorry dear, but no. Your parents have found your car by now and the syringe half full of heroin that I left in the passenger seat. I’m sure they will contact the police and will be quite convinced that you are using again and have run away again.”



         “NO!” Gretta sobbed. She was terrified and now was starting to lose hope of a rescue



         Ian leaned close to the cage and grinned. “It’s just the three of us dear, just like it should be.” Gretta noticed that he appeared to have fangs in the weird light.



         “You keep saying that there is someone else, but it’s just us here, Ian.”



         “You’re wrong, Gretta. I have a sister. She is not well, so I have to take care of her. You see, something went wrong with the transformation process, terribly wrong. She can’t feed herself at all, so I have to do that for her. It can be quitter tiring sometimes. Lucy is all I have left, you see.”



         “That’s great Ian!” Gretta said. “You are very kind. It takes a special kind of person to sacrifice that much to care for a sister.”



         “She does require a lot of care, but I get as much love back from her. I just know she is going to love you.”



         “Is she here? I would love to meet your sister.” Gretta said, hoping that she could get Ian to calm down, see some reason, and let her go, or at least maybe his sister would help her.



         Ian stood, looked at Gretta through the top bars of the cage, and drew a sword from what she had thought had been a cane.



         “I’m afraid that your current wardrobe won’t do. There needs to be considerably  less of it.” Before Gretta could protest, Ian stepped around to her feet, slid the sword up on of her pant legs, and with a swift flick of his wrist he had slit her jeans up past her mid-thigh. He repeated the movement and her jeans came free on the one leg. He quickly moved to the other leg, did the same thing, and then pulled her destroyed pant legs down and she was free of her jeans.



         “What the hell, Ian!” She screamed.



         “I’m sorry, Gretta, but Lucy prefers bare skin. There’s nothing I can do about it.” He stepped to the top of the cage and with a couple of quick strokes of his sword, he had her shirt off as well.



         Between the cold of the room, lying in only her underwear, and her rising terror, it did not take her long to begin shivering.



         Ian walked to a part of the room that she could not see. She heard chains rattling and Ian making soft, comforting noises. Did he have his sister caged here as well? What a sick bastard, she thought.



         Ian returned to her, carrying something in his arms that she could not quite see. He was holding it close and talking softly to it.



         “Gretta, this is Lucy. She is my sister. As I said, something went wrong with the transformation process and she has suffered for it. She gets a tiny bit better with every feeding, but it is going to take a long time. I wish we could have been a family, but you made your decision, and now it is time.”



         He opened a side latch on her cage and set whatever he was carrying inside with her. He took his sword and made a quick sweeping motion that left a small cut in Gretta’s leg. The blood started flowing freely.



         “OW!” she screamed. “Ian, stop this. This is insane. Please let me go!”



         Ian just sat back in his chair, re-sheathed the sword, and watcher her.



         She heard a small shuffling sound followed by a strange mewling. It was a sound she had never heard before. The shuffling was getting closer and closer. She felt something cold and sharp press against her leg, and then a sound that sounded like licking?



         Suddenly, there was a weight on her stomach. She looked down and screamed a high, long scream. There on her stomach was the most repulsive thing she had ever seen. It was maybe three feet long, looking from the back like a flesh colored tadpole with a tail and all. However, there were two tiny human like legs sticking out of the tail. The flailed and kicked, but were too small to find any purchase. The thing turned to face her and she was unable to do anything but stare. There were two human arms coming off of the front, that ended in a three fingered hand with sharp claws at the end of the fingers.



         The worst part was the face. It vaguely resembled a human face but the mouth was to wide, and as it pulled itself up her body, she could see the mouth filled with pointed teeth. The nose was really only a couple of slits in the face above the mouth. It had ratty, patchy black hair scattered in small clumps about its head, and eyes that blazed red with malice and evil.



         Gretta could do nothing but watch as this terrible beast pulled its way up her body, its claws leaving scarlet trails in her soft skin. It got close to her face and she could smell only rancid terrible smells. The kind of smells she always associated with death and decay.



         The thing nuzzled into her neck, mewling and licking against her skin. Gretta was thrashing, trying desperately to toss it off of her, but it was heavy and the claws held onto her to well.



         “Goodbye, Gretta.” She heard Ian say softly.



         “Get this monster off of me, Ian. Oh God! Please help me.” She wailed.



         The thing on her chest reared back, let out a gurgling shout, slammed its face down onto her neck and began chewing. It was swallowing flesh and blood with relish.



         Gretta’s screams, mercifully, did not last very long.