The shop they were about to break into looked a lot like the last, except it was tucked away at the end of dusty dirt road in the middle of goddammed nowhere. “The fuck is this Tom?” Theo couldn’t hold the edge from his voice. Coming off of heroin was like injecting adrenaline straight into your veins. The body hated being slowed down like that, so it tried to counteract those toxins with feel good juices of its own. Only those juices sped up your heart, made your hands shake. Theo hated feeling on edge.

“’S’where Jack said ta go man.” Tom was looking at the brick building straight ahead. Save where the road made an entrance, the place was surrounded by evergreens and red oak.

Theo’s alarm bells went off. “Wait, you jes said where Jack said ta go? I thought you worked for the Addison’s? That’s how you knew what was goin on.”

Tom sighed, looked down at the ground and then played with his hat on his head. “I ain’t never worked for ‘em man. Jack pointed the finger and we scored, ain’t that good enough?”

Theo shook his head and muttered under his breath, “Dude, shit.” The only thing racing faster than his heart were his thoughts. It didn’t make any sense. They were just stealing tools. Tools that a guy like Jack could clearly buy. Why in the hell would he tell Tom where to go klepto on?

His brain told him to get the fuck out of there, but his increasingly shaky hands and thumping heart told him he needed more sweet dreams. “Aight,” Theo said, breaking the silence, “we do this, but this is the last time we score for Jack. Ain’t nobody need no tools like this an’ they sure as hell don’t need boys like us getting’ it.” Theo did something then he never did, he walked up on Tom. Tom was less than five and a half feet tall and Theo was at least a foot taller than that. He towered over his friend and Tom backed away while Theo thrust a finger on his chest. “We’re gonna get out of whatever fuckin’ business that creep ass cider freak has got goin’ on. Got that?”

Tom’s eyes were glassy and Theo could see he was starting to struggle coming off the drugs too. “Man, I kinda like the cider,” he said quietly. There was something else in his statement, but Theo couldn’t tell what.

“What was that?” Theo glared.

“Yeh, man, yeh, we done after this.” Tom wouldn’t meet Theo’s eyes, but that would have to do. With a sigh Theo heaved his backpack over his shoulder and gripped the crowbar in his hand a bit tighter.

“Aight, dude, les do this shit. “ It only took a minute for the two men to walk over to the isolated garage. There were no tracks in the autumn mud and Theo didn’t see a truck or a car or anything else like that. He decided that Jack knew what he was talking about, even if the dude skeeved Theo out.

The crowbar busted open the latch on the backdoor just like it did the last place they were at. Easier, even. The door swung open and Theo felt his breath catch. “The fuck.” He muttered to himself before turning to glare at Tom. The garage might as well have been a clone of the last one, right down to the fucking Coors sign, only the place was trashed.

Tom’s mouth was agape, he saw it too. “Man these people are fuckin’ weird,” he said, shrugging.

Theo wasn’t so sure. The eerie forest quiet ensconced the building and he took another moment to look inside. The shadows cast by the Coors light sign stretched to the left side of the shop. They contorted and stuttered over dusty toolboxes and a broken down car lift. He could tell it was broken because the hydraulic hoses were ruptured and must have just been spraying everywhere. Grease stains littered the black and grey floor, and some of the toolboxes were flipped on their sides, scattering their contents.

Everything in the back of Theo’s brain told him to run. To run and never look back and maybe even move the fuck out of Vermont. His instincts tensed his shoulders and primed his legs to move. His heart roared in his ears. His hands began to shake. Tom touched his shoulder. “Hey, man, I think we need this. Les jes do it and get the fuck out.”

Something about Tom’s touch soothed the rushing panic and forced Theo to examine his situation. He’d never used so much before. He’d played with dark depths of his need for catatonic existence, but he’d never let the wavering light of life disappear before. He’d always been functional. Normal. But the moment Jack’s sweet resin hit his veins he lost all concept of ambition, of life. And now he really needed what Jack had. He’d have to come down slowly, make the stuff last. So now he had to do this.

Theo was about to step in when Tom moved first, “Lemme go in first man, see if… whoever did this is still here.” Theo could only nod, unsure if the smaller of the two men should really be going first.

Tom’s movements were careful in the way a rat’s movements were. He twitched here and there, but when he stopped, he froze. His head swiveled and he hunched over a bit trying to squint into the darkness. “Tom, there’s a door.” Theo said, pointing to the back of the shop. They could see most of the building, but Theo thought it looked bigger from the outside. There must be another room.

Tom nodded and did his rodent skitter over to the door. He tested the handle and looked back at Theo and said, “Locked,” louder than he should have. Theo wanted to get this shit over with and moved quickly to the downed toolbox on his left. “Jack wants power tools this time.” Tom said from his side of the shop.

“Of fucking course he does.” Theo shook his head but gritted his teeth and began to fill his backpack. Mostly it was the same stuff, wrenches, drivers, sockets, that sort of thing. But he did find a new impact driver with three batteries and a charger.

AAAAaahahhhhhhaaaaaaaai. The scream sent chills down Theo’s neck. He’d heard men scream like that before.

Tom dropped his pack in a clatter of clanging tools. “What the fuck?”

Theo heard the panic in Tom’s voice and he had to stifle his own. He made eye contact with his friend and brought a single finger up to his lips. The scream had come from behind the door. The locked door.

The thin, guttural, screech echoed three more times. It reminded Theo of the movies and the war calls of men trying to scare other men just before bloodshed. Theo decided then it was time to get the fuck out. He hefted his pack over his shoulder and pointed to the exit. Tom nodded, though he was pale and shaking.

Just as he began to move, the locked door at the back of the shop began to open. In the cold twilight of a windowless building Theo could just barely see the doorknob moving. The tender light spilling from the outside was just enough to cast a faint glint over the brass knob, just enough to alert the two men.

When it opened, there was no light from the other side. But Theo could see the man standing in it, his legs spread apart and his arms at his side as he was readying claws. Well, it looked like a man with its sagging man boobs and generous beer belly. Thick tufts of raven black hair covered its chest and its arms and the only thing it wore was a torn pair of blue jeans. In the dim light, Theo couldn’t tell, but he thought those jeans were stained with blood. But it was its head that sent Theo’s heart rate out of control. A thick, bushy beard sprouted from its chin and yellow gnarled teeth gnashed out from its grimace. But there was something erupting from its head.

It was like another skull had decided to emerge from within a man’s brain. Something animal. Something alien. The skull was thin and long, like a deer’s or a bear’s. It hung just over its upper lip, and the eye sockets glowed in their blackness. Skin was peeling away in bloodied sheets, like someone had tried to stitch its face back on. Theo might have called it a mask. He might have called it a disguise. He might have called it fake. But the stench convinced him otherwise. It smelled of a pig pit filled with skunk viscera.

Neither Theo nor Tom moved first. The creature lurched forward, swinging its arms like a drunken dog pawing at the ground.

Tom’s screech made Theo’s ears ring, but it was the quiet rush of adrenaline that silenced the world around him. He watched Tom be hefted into the air with a single hand. His friend was kicking and screaming and saying something, pointing at Theo. For a second, Theo could see the spittle flying from Tom’s mouth, the madness in his eyes. So Theo decided to move.

He’d left the crow bar on the floor, but he felt it in his hands. He must have grabbed it as he scrambled his feet on the greasy floor. The creature roared again, if you could call its caterwauling a roar. It only took a moment for Theo to reach the alien. It took less time for his crowbar to slap against the back of its head, a wretched picture of ruptured skull and bits of tenuously hanging skin. The thunk hurt his hand and jarred his arm, but it didn’t drop Tom.

He swung again. And again. And again. He swung until it dropped Tom and dropped to the floor. Even on the floor he swung until he couldn’t lift his arm. Blood splattered and caked his face. He felt the flecks of flying liquid splash across his jeans and his hoodie.

It was only when he registered that Tom was screaming at him that he stopped. “What’d you do?” Tom cried, his voice strained and cracking, “what’d you do? Wuddya do? Wuddya do? Wuddya do?” He was sitting on the ground, wrapping his arms around his legs.

“I fucking saved you.” Theo breathed as he tilted his head up and closed his eyes. The air was cool and crisp, even if tinged with the thick oil slick scent of a garage. His adrenaline was soothing. The high was amazing.

“Well gottdam, I’m unna lose some money on this one.” Theo froze. That was Jack’s voice. He only got to turn his head to see the man standing in the only doorway that led outside. Before his world went black, he saw the sky. He saw little dots of light shimmering and hugging the full moon. He saw the moon’s reflection and he saw himself standing next to the lake. At first he only put a toe into the frigid black waters of the lake, but the reflected moon began to crawl up his leg, yanking him in. He let it.