Chapter 10: A Taste of Freedom

Becky mounted the steps of the apartment complex, muttering angrily to herself, tapping at her phone as she rounded the corner and made her way past the numbered doors towards Ryan’s apartment. How dare he ignore her calls. She had wanted to teach him a lesson, that was all. He was supposed to realize what he had been doing wrong and man up, start giving her the attention that she deserved instead of taking her for granted. Instead, he had gone dark, dropping off the face of the earth and refusing to answer any of her calls or messages. She hadn’t seen head nor tail of him since they had met at the coffee shop that day. Worse, she had seen a new car in his parking spot the last time she had driven by, a nice one. Had he landed a better job since they’d split up?

She rapped on the door loudly, then stood back and waited with her hands planted on her hips, silently seething as she heard the door unlock from the other side. She was ready to tear into Ryan as soon as she saw his face, a thousand curses and insults swirling in her head, but the wind was taken out of her sails as the door opened.

There was a woman standing in his apartment, tall and willowy, with pale skin and platinum-blonde hair that bordered on silver. She was wearing a fluffy, white bathrobe as if she had just gotten out of the shower. She was beautiful, and Becky was taken aback for a moment, her face reddening as she realized that she had been supplanted.

“Where’s Ryan?” Becky demanded, the tall woman cocking her head curiously as she examined her with a pair of hazel eyes that were so light as to appear amber under the right conditions.

“He is working,” she replied in an accent that was hard to pin down. Damn it, even her voice was sexy, Becky fuming silently as she looked her new competition up and down in disdain.

“Well, I need to speak with him, and he hasn’t been answering his phone.”

“You must be Becky,” the strange woman mused, a smile curling her lips. “Ryan has told me all about you.”

“Oh?” Becky replied, blowing a strand of her dark hair out of her face. “I’m afraid he hasn’t told me anything about you. Who might you be?”

“My name is ... Natasha,” the stranger said with a smile. “Pleased to meet you.”

Becky simmered with quiet jealousy. Had Ryan done this just to get back at her for cheating? It had only been a couple of months, and she knew that he was no Casanova. To replace her so quickly, he must have been motivated by more than just loneliness. She had wanted him to work on himself, to realize the error of his ways, but maybe her plan had worked too well? Asking a total stranger if she was banging her ex wasn’t exactly the polite thing to do, but with no access to Ryan, it was the only way to satisfy her burning curiosity.

“Am I to assume that you two are...?” Becky trailed off, prompting the woman to finish her thought.

“I’m his wife,” the woman replied, raising her hand and brandishing a black ring so that Becky could see it. Becky’s brow furrowed as her anger got the better of her. In the few weeks that they had been apart, the bastard had gotten married? He’d been with Becky for three goddamned years, and he’d never tried to tie the knot.

She couldn’t believe that Ryan had bounced back so quickly. A new job, a new car, a new relationship. It was as if Becky had never existed at all, and she couldn’t abide being ignored. It was the one thing that drove her crazy.

“So, you won’t tell him to call me, then?”

“I could relay a message for you,” Natasha suggested in that infuriating, breathy voice. “What did you want to tell him?”

“Just tell him that he’s a real piece of work,” Becky snapped. “Where did he meet you, anyway? Vegas? He can’t have known you for more than a few weeks.”

“Don’t you believe in romance, Becky?” Natasha asked as she smirked at her. She was taunting her, unbelievable.

“I just wonder which one was cheaper,” Becky hissed. “You, or the car?”

She turned her back on the woman, storming off down the corridor.

“Wait,” Natasha said, and Becky stopped to look back at her.

“What?”

A cold filled the corridor, chilling her to the bone, a smell like rotten eggs stinging her nose. The tall woman was standing outside of the apartment now, just staring at her, those hazel eyes now glowing yellow like those of a cat. A shadow crept along the walls and ceiling to fill the hallway, crawling along the carpeted floor as if it was being cast by grasping fingers, reaching out to her. Becky wanted to scream, but the sound caught in her throat and petered out into a whimper, her feet refusing to move as though she was caught in a nightmare.

Natasha grew, the already tall woman stretching as Becky watched in horror. Her legs cracked and creaked as they snapped into a new shape, her bones appearing to break before Becky’s eyes. A crown of gnarled horns sprouted from her blonde hair as if they were growing out of her skull, rising to brush the ceiling. Her fingers grew claws, her arms elongating, her face stretching grotesquely as the previously beautiful woman opened her mouth and brayed like a goat.