Chapter 31 - Callahan

Protect your Final Ghoul at all costs.

" G ood night, Daddy. I'm just going to shower, rub some more cream on my bottom and rest. I'm still sore." She gave me a quick wave and looked at me expectantly. I nodded and went to my room. Was her bottom still sore? It couldn't be. I'd taken care of her a few times since the spanking incident. Something was off.She was lying.

I heard her walking in her room and eventually the shower started. Not being able to get the idea that she was hiding something out of my head, I went back to her room and looked around. Had she perhaps sent a message to someone using one of the many gadgets Young Ladies had at their disposal? Had I misread last night completely and she was upset about what I'd done? She'd came so hard, all over my hand. She'd liked it when it was happening. Did she now have regrets?

I searched fast, not knowing how much time I had before she turned the shower off. I reached for her pillow and lifted it, finding a yellow, frayed envelope. I opened the letter and read the contents. My stomach dropped. No. This couldn't be. This made no sense. How? The shower turned off, and I stuffed the letter back into its envelope and slid it under her pillow. I returned to my room and paced.

While I'd only had the chemically stained letter in my hand for a brief moment, I was able to memorize what was written.

Eleanor,

I'm alive and safe. I will be waiting every night, where we last saw each other. I'll be hiding in tram cart number 13. Climb up, meet me, and we can be each other's first time like you wanted. No one has to know.

Love,

Milton.

Love. Ha! Milton didn't love her. And he certainly wasn't a virgin. He'd been the one to take me to the Gen Pop bar in the first place. Initially, I doubted it was he who had written it, but the more I reread it in my mind, the more I was confident it really had been him. Somehow, he'd lasted a full month above ground.

How?

It was all coming together now. Eleanor thought she could pull one over on me but I was one step ahead of her. She'd played with my heart, making me believe that there was something between us last night - only to run away with the bastard who'd wanted to rape her to death. I started toward the door to confront her but then realized it would do no good. If she didn't go tonight, she'd try tomorrow or the next day. She thought Milton loved her, and she was too naive to know it was all a sham. No, I had to let her go and end this for good.

Milton had to be dealt with.

I went to the box in my closet and pulled out a pill bottle. I popped two of them and left my quarters. No one monitored who went in or out these days, so I put on a PARA suit and my gas mask and went above. There were plenty of rides to Risky Rush Park. I took one of the motorcycles, leaving Eleanor with a four-wheeler. I rushed to the tram to meet and confront Milton. What state would he be in? He wasn't taking the pills like I was. He couldn't survive without the PARA suit and gas mask. He had to be...

Despite hating the monster he'd become, I couldn't wish that ill of my old friend. He deserved to die, but not become a creepie. I took the stairs and found tram 13 was still at the gate and someone was resting against it, waiting.

Milton tilted his head. He looked just as I'd last seen him, except his gas mask had been blackened. I couldn't see his face, but I knew his mannerisms well. There was no doubt in my mind I was staring at my best friend I'd presumed dead.

I presumed that because I was the one who'd left him behind.

"Well, this is a surprise. How did you find out about this?"

"Eleanor was reassigned to me when her Daddy died. What are you doing, Milton?"

"I came to take what was rightfully mine. What would have been, had you left things alone."

When those gunshots had gone off, I ran to help them fight whatever was out there. However once I reached them, I didn't see a single creepie or crawlie in sight. What I found was much worse. Monsters in human skin. I'd shot the first one dead, Dale, Eleanor's Daddy. The second one I'd told to run. Now, he'd come back.

"You're a bastard for agreeing to it," I said.

"You think it was my idea?" Milton kicked off the tram, causing it to rock slightly. "No. They'd been planning this for years. Every generation has one. A Young Lady they turn into their whore. She was the one who was supposed to go missing. To not come home that night. Not me!" He screamed and ripped off his helmet.

I shrunk back at the sight of him. Milton's face was covered in purple boils and his hair had fallen out in large chunks, leaving him with bald spots. His eyes were bloodshot and some of the boils were leaking blood and white pus. He was turning into a creepie.

I knew it.

"I know you've been taking the pills. Give them to me," he demanded.

"I don't have them. Plus, they don't work like that. You can't fix what's already happened. It's too late."

"Bullshit!" He yelled. "They probably don't work and that's why you don't want me to have them."

"No," I said, hesitantly. "Given enough time, they do work."

"Prove it. Take your mask off and fight me like a real man."

Reluctantly, I tossed the mask next to his black one. I inhaled deeply. I'd never tested the pills out. I was either about to feel fire in my lungs and begin to change like Milton, or they were going to work. The air was... okay.

"I'm not going to let you do anything to her."

"Why, because you're her Daddy now?" He laughed. "What are you gonna do, tell on me? She won't believe you. She fucking hates you. I always made sure of that. Remember, when we were kids and you told me how pretty you thought she was? I was jealous. So I did everything I could in that first year to make sure you hated each other, and it worked. Eleanor won't touch you with a ten-foot pole."

"And you think she'll want you? Milton, you're turning." I reached for my gun. "The best thing that could happen to you is for someone to mercy kill you."

"Like hell," he snarled. "I'm going to rip you to pieces with my new-found creepie strength, and then I'm going to put this blackout mask back on and fuck her until I put a bullet in the back of her brain. I think I hear her now." He put his hand over his bleeding ear and grinned. "I do."

Growling, I hurled myself at his middle, dragging him across the platform. We hit the cement half-wall and he pushed me back. I reached for my gun but he was faster than me and managed to slap it out of my hand. I rushed him again and he flipped over the wall. A sickening slicing sound pierced my ears and I looked over the edge. There were sharp, metal rails strewn all over the park and Milton had been impaled on two of them. One in his chest, the other through his mouth. I looked away quickly and just then, I heard Eleanor's voice.

"Milton?" She was coming up the stairs. I panicked, looking around for something, anything to explain why I was here and Milton was not and then, when I couldn't think of anything, I picked up his blacked-out mask and slid it on, just as she turned the corner and stepped onto the platform.

Shit .