“I’ll make you a deal.”
“Meadow.”
My eyes snap open and air rushes back into my lungs. I wasn’t breathing. I don’t know if it was only a second or an hour. However long it was, I didn’t move a muscle, not even to breathe. I get to my feet and look around the foggy toy store for whatever is out there yapping at me. I don’t feel the same butthat’s because I’m not. Anger burns bright in my veins when I hear my name again.
“Meadow.”
It’s not Jaak calling to me, it’s the garbled voices, the hundred voices that sound like they can’t decide if they’re screaming or speaking. Definitely the tentacle monster. I stalk through the aisle and towards where I last saw the tentacles.
“Get out here and show yourself,” I demand and wave a hand in front of my face to get rid of some of the fog. “Also, can you go easy on the fog machine? It’s really giving middle school dance if I’m being honest.”
I’m a liar. I’ve never been to a middle school dance with fog, but I saw it once on TV so it has to be true.
There’s a growl and a rumble as a tentacle goes flying in the air towards me. “Silence! Run while you can!”
I don’t bother listening to the tentacle. When the tentacle gets close enough to me I grab hold of it and pull. The voices let loose an inhuman roar, so I pull more. I pull so hard that I feel the exact moment the tentacle rips and comes clean off in my hands.
I fall back on my ass and toss the tentacle away. “Gross.”
“You dare harm me! I am centuries old, the servant of-”
“Of Toys ‘n Things? So does that make you like an assistant?”
“You insolent girl!”
A tentacle comes whipping out of an aisle and right behind it I see the shadowy forms of what I think is an army of toys. There’s all kinds of toys on the move, action figures, dolls, a remote control car, if it’s stocked in the store it’s on the move.
Behind me there’s a few thuds. I slowly start to spin in a circle to see each aisle has come to life. Lights flash in some and electronic beeps come from others. A basketball goes flying at my head. I have half a second to dodge it, which I go to do but it turns out I don’t have to move at all because a hand comes outto catch the basketball. It’s a very big hand, so big that it makes the basketball look small. It’s not just any hand, it’s covered in a dusting of hair, and attached to a muscular arm that’s also hairy but…no, it’s not hair.
It’s fur.
It has to be because when I look up at the person’s face it’s not a person, it’s not jus a person. It’s a bull. I blink and try to process the fact that I’m now looking at a big man with the head of a bull, or at least I think it’s a bull? Ivory horns curve up towards the ceiling, brown and black fur move when he turns to look at the tentacles still writhing and moving through the store. His head is big but so is the rest of him. He’s at least two feet taller than me, I’ve never seen anyone this big before. Broad shoulders and a sculpted torso lead down to a trim waist and thick thighs. I take a step closer to get a look at him. The tentacle monster could throw a dozen basketballs at my head and I wouldn’t notice. He has a maw like a bull, broad flat nose curving down to meet their mouth and a sharp jawline and muscular neck.
I don’t know what this being is but I know he’s beautiful. There’s a severity to him, a kind of gravitas that I used to feel when the cult leaders made us pray to our god. The one they swore kept the world spinning. It’s a heady thing to think you’ve cracked the code, that you’ve been chosen by a god,thegod, and it’s your words and prayers that fill their ears. It’s exhilarating, overwhelming and electrifying.
I’m awestruck.
In those moments, I felt the way I do looking at this mix of man and beast. I never thought I would feel that way again but here in this demonic possessed toy store it’s found me once again. He turns his head to me and all it takes is one look at his eyes flashing silver and I smile at him.
“Jaak?”
He squeezes the basketball and the basketball pops, the air coming out in a long, sad whistle. Jaak drops the ball and takes a step closer to me. “Yes, it’s me.” He ducks his head, almost like he’s trying to shrink into himself and I don’t understand it.
“You didn’t tell me you would become this,” I tell him.
The tentacle monster screams at us and launches a decently sized children’s car at us. An army of action figures catapults itself at me with a puppet coming in to give them backup. Jaak hits the flying toy car and it explodes into plastic shrapnel that takes out half a wave of the action figures.
“This is my true form.”
“You’re beautiful.”
He tilts his head to the side, dark brown hair slides to the side and his horns catch the still blinking lanterns above us. “I am terrifying. Hideous.”
I shake my head and go to him. “I’m awestruck.” His eyes widen slightly when I say that. I reach up and touch his face, sliding my fingers along the short-cropped hair there. It slides against my fingers and I smile. It’s not fur at all. I rise up on my tiptoes and kiss the place that I just touched.
“What are you doing?!” The discordant voices shriek and I sigh.
“Trying to have a tender moment with my husband!” I kick the closest action figure and send it into a puppet.
