World of Darkness: Attrition - Watching Horror

[Adrian Moss]

{11p.m. May 12th 2009}

They sat back watching Three Rings of Death on the DVD player. It was horror. It was bad. It was bad horror. In reality, it was really bad horror. The acting was for the most part horrible and the special effects … well, there was nothing special about it. The Lady with the Whip was good, if sometimes a bit shell-shocked by the campy acting of her fellow so-called actors. Only the Lion seemed to shine through all the schlock. Had a partner (or had he won) the movie would have been twice as good. Instead, all you could do was applaud when the Lion ate somebody with his bloody maw and his racking claws.

It was fun to see Lady with the Whip, who turned out to be August Turner, and if talk was to be believed on the CalNet – Midnight Twist, survive again and again while the idiot who was the hero was so clearly afraid of the few scenes he had with Lion, he couldn’t be believable. Finally, our heroine’s plight spurred our hero to action (against a stuffed lion’s head), machetes were hacked with and flung, blood was spattered, and the lucky couple walked off into the sunrise … before … the phone rang.

Gwen didn’t want to untangle herself from Adrian and Adrian wasn’t trying too hard. They had an hour to go and it would be his time anyway. Now was ‘their’ time, he and Gwen, and he felt obliged to not struggle to hard. He got to the phone as the voice mail finished and he called it up so he could get his mind into the game.

“Adrian? Sarah. I need your help taking care of a mess. Holmby Park, east parking lot. Bring a garbage bag. Or two."

He stood stock still for a few seconds then dialed the number. She didn’t call unless she needed something and if she needed something from him, he had best deliver. Not thinking about Gwen, Adrian spoke.

“Adrian. I’m on my way.”

When he looked up, Gwen was worrying her lover lip and gripping the sofa tightly.

“Can’t it wait?” she half whispered, half whined.

“You’re coming with me,” he blurted out, not sure as to why. It just was there, on his lips and out of his mouth before his brain could intervene. He followed that by,

“Shut down the computer and come on.”

Gwen looked pole-axed then her mind kicked in. This was part of his life beyond the walls of her house. A part she had never seen before now, only read about. He … trusted her once more. She leapt off the sofa.

“Let me get dressed.”

Adrian didn’t want to waste time, but agreed that black silk panties and a sleeveless shirt weren’t proper body-burying attire. He waited impatiently and then she came out in jeans, sneakers, and an old t-shirt and a blue Dodgers windbreaker. He even wore a ball cap that said LADA on it. How funny was that?

As they closed in on the east side of Holmby Park, Adrian told Gwen without looking at her.

“Don’t eyeball this girl. Her name is Sarah. She can kill you before you blink twice. She’s like me, but not in her head. In her head, she’s like a wolf. Now this is her territory, so don’t fuck around and comment about it. It’s hers. When we get to her, I’ll introduce you and you say hello then go back to the trunk and start moving things into the back seat. Lay out the tarp. I’ll get the bags for moving the body.’

“Body?” she gasped.

“Yes, she needs a body to dispose of. This is one of the things I do for people – bury bodies. Less than glamorous, but it needs to be done. We kill people from time to time. Anything else comes up, stay close to the car. If I say run, run.”

“Oh, okay,” she said quietly. Suddenly the specter of death was very real and it had a name – Sarah.