The lights cut through the dark like a wet knife, soft and heavy all at once, the bushes and trees clawing at the beam as if trying to drag it back into the dark. The pickup’s engine hums low, each sudden rattle climbing from its depths like something trapped beneath the metal and desperate to escape. The early morning dew is suffocated under the truck’s foul, grimy exhaust as the engine breathes its stench across the earth. His empty, tired eyes stare outwards from the vehicle’s innards as if he’s afraid to blink. A gasp shudders out of him as a single tear drags its way down his face.

He tries to compose himself, chewing on his tongue as he runs it around the inside of his mouth, finding each gap left by the missing teeth, caressing the soft flesh of his cheeks. He draws back another stuttered breath, tears now rolling down his broken face. The pickup trembles as a shudder works its way through its body, the lights flickering while the oncoming morning closes around them until they finally die, leaving him sitting in silent darkness as the engine falls still.

“P-P-Please,” he whimpers as her piercing eyes cut into him from the passenger seat.

“Grow up!” she snaps. “What kind of monster are you?”

He clenches his jaw, draws a stuttered breath through his nose and snarls as his trembling lips curl. “I-I-I.”

“You’re no monster!” she shoots back. “You’re nothing but a big baby throwing a tantrum, and now mummy can’t kiss it better because she’s lying in a fucking hole. A hole you couldn’t even dig properly!” she spits as the lights snap back to life, illuminating the small mound of dirt. He gasps, desperately grabbing at breaths until one finally catches deep in his chest, just as a frozen hand closes around his arm. He turns to her, eyes wide and petrified, his heart pounding wildly.

He reaches desperately, tearing at the air as he screams for another breath, her smile widening with every frantic grasp as his panic feeds whatever is growing behind it. She climbs over him, the sharp tang of copper and fresh dirt filling his senses, dragging with it a memory he never wanted and the sickening promise of a chance he still has. She mounts him with unnatural ease and stares into his eyes, a wicked grin stretching across her bruised lips.

“What are you?” she purrs as she rubs her dead, dirty flesh against him, gently nibbling on his ear.

He gasps. She giggles, then bites down on his earlobe, tearing it from his head.

“What are you!” she screams as he forces her off him and tumbles through the open door, striking the earth with an awkward thud. The world spins for several moments before he scrambles to his feet, his eyes searching the pickup’s cab and the surrounding area, only to find her nowhere in sight. He clutches at his ear, then slowly pulls his hand away, staring at the crimson smeared across his palm as if the hand itself belongs to someone else.

His face twists as he looks towards the bushland, his eyes locking on the freshly turned mound of soil. They widen as ragged breaths tear from his lungs, and he reaches blindly into the truck’s tray, dragging out a dirty shovel before stumbling wearily towards the mound.

“I’ll show you what I am!” he grunts, driving the shovel deep into the soft earth. “I’ll show you I’m a fucking monster! I’ll show every last one of you!” he roars, his fevered eyes darting around the clearing as hundreds of eyes stare silently back at him from the dark.

He gasps, flinging the shovel aside as he drops to his knees and wipes the dirt from her dead face. “I’ll make your death worth something. It won’t be in vain. It’ll be the crescendo in my story. You’ll be my making, and I’ll be your monster,” he mutters, fumbling with his belt. Her smile widens as she watches him from the pickup’s cab, knowing from the moment he split her open that this was the last filthy step she’d been starving for, the one that would finally show the world what she’d always known was hiding beneath that twisted smile of his.