Shadow Guardians: The Beast

“You know you could really take some time off, Kathy.” Chloe said, toying with a lock of golden, curled hair that dangled in her round, concerned face. Her gentle hazel eyes studied Katherine. She was known for her soft manner and her patience at the Happy Philosophy Shelter.

“I’m fine, Chloe. Truly.” Katherine said, putting a hand to her feverish skin. Yeah, like hell she was fine.

She turned twenty-seven a week ago, and as far as she was concerned, her life was already over. She took out her compact mirror to check her face and make-up, not that she wore much of the latter. Mostly, she wanted to see if her eyes seemed bloodshot.

Not that she needed that to know the Leukemia was back. Or whatever it was. They didn’t technically say it was Leukemia. They said it was like Leukemia. The truth was, they didn’t know what the hell went on with her. But she was almost certain it was just a matter of time. One of these days, she was going to hear that word being said with certainty. Hell, what else could it be? The symptoms were strikingly similar.

She went on with her life, living with her boyfr - with Kyle – knowing she might not live another three months. That’s what they said six months ago. However long she had, she was sick for most of it.

She smoothed her black hair and checked her eyes. Nope, no bloody redness. Just their usual gun-metal gray color. She ran a thin hand with long, pale fingers and red nails over her flushed cheek, then put the mirror back in her purse.

She fanned herself. “Are you hot at all?” she asked Chloe, getting up from her chair to lean out through the window. Fever. It was a fever. And damn, her joints ached something fierce. She just wanted to go home and sleep. But there was little chance of that with Kyle.

Chloe didn’t answer. Mr. Robinson had made an appearance at her desk in his long brown trench coat. He wore a fourteen-day gray stubble; the face was scuffed and wrinkly and near leather from too much sun exposure. Their team took him off the streets two nights ago. He was still finding his way around the shelter. He asked her for directions to the canteen.

“All right, see you later, Mr. Robinson.” She waved enthusiastically at the old man.

“You should really go see the doctor, Kathy.” While there’s still a chance to kill the cancer, she wanted to add, but thought better of it.

Chloe had never known someone like Katherine. She was tough as nails with her disease. She’d just kind of accepted it. It had been with her ever since she was eighteen years old—always there, some times worse than others. And that’s about as long as anyone has spent trying to figure out what’s wrong. She’d even had a round of chemo, but that didn’t make much of a dent in the disease.

Katherine watched Mr. Robinson stagger down the hallway. Her life was just as hopeless as his. No matter how many people they picked up off the streets, most of them ended up right back in the shelter three months later after all the programs.

She shrugged. “The doctor wouldn’t be able to do a thing.”

“But-”

“No!” She yelled out of nowhere, “I’m not going there, alright? I’m not...” Losing all my hair again, “Just, drop it.”

Chloe turned back to her desk slowly. “Okay.”

The doors swung open, and a lady with thin lips, pudgy cheeks, and wearing - pajamas? - came in with a bunch of pamphlets in her hand.

She handed Chloe a pamphlet. “Hi, I’m Shelby. Come to our sermon on Sunday; make all your dreams come true.” Her voice was monotone with a strange edge to it, like she was faking the intonation. Chloe frowned but took the pamphlet. She seemed a little confused there.

Then she dragged her feet over to Katherine and held out the pamphlet. “Hi, I’m Shelby. Come to our sermon on Sunday, make all your-”

“I heard you the first time, Shelby.” Katherine said. She flinched. Okay, maybe that was unnecessary. But Chloe was right there! Of course she heard her.

Shelby tilted her head in an almost creepy way, like she didn’t expect her to answer.

“I’ll, ah, see about it. I’m not really a church-going person.” Because I equate Priests with the dead... and ultimately... with hospitals.

Shelby faced her with a hypnotic stare. Gooseflesh popped out all over her body. She tried taking a breath to calm down her racing heart and frowned when she caught a fiery, smoky scent. Couldn’t be from their building, but it was so close.

“I ah,”

"Neron," Shelby almost growled, and that scared the shit out of Katherine.

“Uhm, is that an insult?” She asked meekly.

Shelby’s upper lip peeled back in a snarl, and then she hastily left the reception area.

Katherine brought a hand over her drumming chest. When she turned to Chloe, her friend sat there with her lips parted, staring at the wall in front of her, holding the paper in a limp hand.

“Chloe?” Katherine asked.

She turned her head slowly, mechanically. Then smiled brightly. “I’m fine,”

Okay...

They worked in awkward silence for the rest of the day until it was time to leave.

Kathy walked back to her - Kyle’s - apartment building. She wished she had the money to just disappear, but it was difficult for her to find work with her set of skills and her illness. Nobody wanted to hire someone who was more sick than at work and who might expire in the next couple of months. Except for a charity...

Her feet dragged, and her bones and joints ached. At least her fever had broken. She just wanted to sleep. But when she got there, she had to clean up Kyle’s mess and cook. They started out as boyfriend and girlfriend, and then he brought his friends along, and she just kind of became the housekeeper. She relied on him for living arrangements because, with her treatments, medicine, and doctor’s appointments, she couldn’t afford a place of her own. Not with what she made at the shelter. And she was a foster child. Nobody knew her parents. So there was no one else to rely on.

She thought for a moment that she noticed someone staring at her from across the street—someone pale and bald—but when she looked again, there was no one. That was creepy.

She went through the foyer of the apartment building, then took the elevator up to the fourth floor. When the doors hissed open, she could feel the vibration of rock music beneath her feet and hear its pounding bass in her ears. She sighed heavily. That could only be coming from Kyle’s apartment.

She considered just sleeping in the hallway. But since that would be weird...

Kathy opened the door, and in the crummy, cluttered living room, she found Kyle with his skinny, bone white body, having a gangbang with a blonde, a brunette, and another guy. The blonde guy was at his behind, and the brunette was bent before him; he was taking her from behind. And the blonde was on her back in front of the brunette getting an oral treatment, and not on her teeth.

Kathy gaped. The music was so loud that she couldn’t hear the moans. The blonde guy pulled out of Kyle’s ass and came over to her, looking all husky. She sidestepped him and went to the kitchen.

She saw him speak but couldn’t hear what he was saying over the loud music. This, she thought, this is why I’m not afraid of death.

Kyle was rolling his black head of hair in perfect circles, kind of like the way he was rolling his hips while he was inside the brunette.

Kathy bent down, opened a lower cabinet, and took out a container of Ensure. It was all she could stomach these days without getting sick or experiencing horrible stomach cramps. Salad worked too. And this was why she had lost weight. Thank you, mysterious illness.

She scooped the powder into her shaker and winced when she heard the rising moans.

Well, at least she was off kitchen duty tonight, seeing as there were takeout boxes everywhere. And, gag, stains all over the carpet that she’d have to clean up tomorrow. At least she wasn’t in the brunette’s place this time. She kind of liked that her illness made her unattractive to Kyle.

She took her Ensure to her bedroom and locked herself in. The thin walls did nothing to drown out the loud music. Her room had brown carpet and eggshell walls. Her bed was a single and had white linen with blue flowers. She had her own bathroom, thank God, and a minifridge. She switched on her lamp on the end table; it was a flea market buy, and the stand was in the form of an Hawaiian dancing girl with a grass skirt.

She sank heavily into the brown armchair and sipped the strawberry-flavored stuff. And tomorrow morning, Kyle was going to be just chipper when he woke up with a hangover. She could already hear the insults spewing out of him. A heavy weakness overcame her after just a few sips of the Ensure. She placed it in the minifridge and decided she’d just shower and then get into bed.

When she undressed in the bathroom, she saw all the blooming bruises on her skin. Wonderful. Next up, the nosebleeds will start. And she’ll be too nauseous to eat at all. She showered, then dressed in a fluffy, dark purple robe. When she came back into the bedroom while combing out her wet hair, she caught something moving in the street below through the window.

Kathy focused her tired eyes, and her breath caught. There was a bald man staring right at her from across the street. He seemed - soulless. A sneer nearly split his face in two. He was dressed in black clothing with a white collar, almost like a priest. Freaked out, she yanked the curtains closed and sank down below the window.

She was being ridiculous, except he was looking right at her, and every nerve in her body literally screamed danger. It was almost like she could feel him coming closer.

She scrambled towards her purse on the bed and rummaged with trembling hands for the phone. Police, she needed to call the police. But she hesitated. What if she was just being a loon? Small things strung her out when she was ill. Did she even see the guy, or were her tired eyes playing tricks on her?

Kathy gathered her courage. One more look... She just had to be certain. With a monumental effort of willpower, she went to the window and created a small opening in the curtains with her fingers. She gulped loudly before bringing her eyes to the gap.

Her shoulders sagged. Nothing. She was just being silly. The day was just too stressful with that weird lady at the shelter and with all the stuff Kyle was doing in the living room.

She went to bed, slipped robe and all between the sheets because now she was cold. Sleep took her exhausted body swiftly.