A woman stood, surrounded by clouds brushed around her thin features. Her skin was fair and her eyes were brown. A beautiful woman, but underneath the woman struggled with mental illness. Oscar managed to survive the shouts and insanity by distracting his mother by talking about the chupacabra. His mother, Olivia, was fearful of the mythical beast. Whether that fear was warranted didn’t matter to Oscar because it deflected the symptoms for moments.
Those moments became shorter and shorter as Oscar became older but this dream drilled down to his younger years. His mother sat. The chupacabra sat at her side staring forward, uninterested.
“Oscar, sit,” she instructed. Olivia stretched out her hand and Oscar took it. She lead him over to the dog-like creature and it stared up at him. Oscar backed away and sat at his mother’s feet.
“This is Diablo, do you like him?” Olivia said with a smile.
“Mother,” Oscar said quietly as the creature studied him. “This is the monster that frightens you so much. Why do you call it your pet?”
Olivia laughed and Diablo seemed to smile. The chupacabra’s nose was long. It’s head was stretched and thin and it’s skin looked like it had been baked and prepared by a taxidermist. Oscar turned his head to the right and tried to measure the danger of this strange mid-sized animal. Diablo mirrored Oscar and growled just enough to reveal a thin pointed tooth, longer than the others. The remainder of it’s teeth were stained with blood.
“Please mother,” Oscar pleaded but she only laughed.
“My boy, there is nothing to worry about…”
A flash of light overwhelmed the dream and Oscar gasp. Oxygen seared the inside of his throat. The world filled with noise as Gabriel Van Cleese revived the officer and stared at the creature growling back at him from where his partner stood.
The long face, pointed teeth, and brown tanned hide grumbled as it walked slowly to the right.
“NOW stop!” Gabriel ordered, but the animal continued to search for a clear path to the medic.
“Jeremy!” He screamed to the driver as the ambulance jerked, forcing him to brace himself.
“We are almost there Gabriel hold on.”
“How the hell are we going to kill a sharp-toothed dog that used to be a paramedic. You need to tell me this?”
“I don’t know Gabriel but we have to do something.”
Gabriel tried to comprehend the scene. Terrence Stone had stood on the other side of the gurney till he collapsed. Within moments replaced by a terrifying, leather-skinned, chupacabra that fought with the uniform of the former EMT.
Officer Reyes stared at the ceiling of the ambulance. His eyelids were heavy and his head throbbed. The pain in his leg reminded him of the events with the blob and he growled. He turned his head and stared at the frightening face of Diablo.
“What the hell is this?” Oscar shouted recalling the dream seconds ago.
The chupacabra slipped from the EMT’s uniform sat and looked at Oscar. Gabriel moved right along the side of the gurney and looked over Oscar’s blood drenched leg. The frightful thing turned it’s head. The leathery lip curled revealing long, sharp teeth. The growl terrified Gabriel and his legs began to shake. The chupacabra walked toward him. Oscar yelled at the beast but it ignored him. Diablo squared up near the corner of the gurney. Oscar swallowed hard. “Diablo!” Oscar shouted. The chupacabra, from his dream, stopped and stared at Oscar.
“Come here!”
Gabriel watched as the leathery, dog-like beast turned and walked to the head of the gurney. It leapt up and placed it’s thin, brown paws on the gurney and pushed it’s nose into Oscar’s arm. Oscar recoiled away from the chupacabra and the stone fell from between his arm and side. Gabriel jumped to protect Oscar but Diablo growled. The black stone bounced over the floor and settled by the back doors. Gabriel noticed the stone. He moved toward the stone it displayed a small white scene within the onyx darkness. Before Gabriel could interrupt the scene Diablo dropped to the floor and growled. The stone, as curious as it was, would go no where at the moment. Gabriel backed away watching as Diablo began to squeeze through the space between the gurney and the back door.
“The hospital is coming up,” Jeremy, the driver, shouted. He looked back. Gabriel turned quickly to see the lights of the hospital.
“What are we going to do? This creature is coming,” Gabriel shouted.
“I don’t know man. You think the thing will attack the reciever staff?”
Gabriel shrugged and then replied. “I’m more worried about it attacking me. It’s slightly bigger then the space between the gurney and the door.”
“Diablo, stop,” Oscar inserted. He let his left hand fall off the gurney. “He a chupacabra.”
The ambulance bounced as it approached the hospital ramp. It stopped then began to back up. Diablo became spooked and backed up. He paced.
“Not sure how it appeared here. I dream’t about it.”
“You dream’t about it. What are you? Some genie,” Gabriel asked.
“I don’t know. I found that black stone. I have a feeling that did something but hell if I know what is going on in this screwed up new world we have.”
“Got that right,” Jeremy snapped.
“Did you tell them about the dog.. I.. Diablo?”
The backdoors opened. The driver of the ambulance disappeared from the front seat and shouted at the others to close the door.
“Apparently not,” Gabriel whispered. The back doors opened and the receiving crew was clearly surprised. They stepped back from the ambulance.
Gabriel watched the dark leather folds around Diablo’s dog-like shoulders twitch as it shifted. Diablo bared long front canines and walked slowly toward the hospital receiving crew.
“What is this! Gabriel!” Shouted a smaller woman dressed in a long doctor’s coat.
“A chupa… what. I don’t know. It just showed up… All I know is you all need to back away.” The creature leap forward. Gabriel shouted but the beast ignored him. Outside the ambulance several nurses stood staring at the starved, leather creature. A large, male nurse approached.
“Dude, that is not a good idea,” Gabriel warned. He swung his arms and taunted the creature. Anything to distract him. “Hey! You! Leatherface! Oscar, do something. It listens to you.”
Oscar yelled at the chupacabra and it paused. It looked back at the officer lying in the gurney then at Gabriel. It’s lip curled up revealing a long, curved, sharp tooth followed by dozens of smaller pointed teeth. Diablo crept toward Gabriel. The male nurse stepped forward and Diablo leapt from the back of the ambulance. The nurse fell to the ground and screamed.
“Get this thing off me.” The animal cleared it’s head. Stepped off the nurse and began to walk away. The others in the hospital receiving crew left and hid within the doors of the hospital. They were joined by an audience of patients and panic.
The chupacabra turned. It walked slowly back toward the nurse, measuring his victim, accessing the soft tissues, and then clamped down on his neck. The nurse let out a garbled scream as the audience behind the hospital doors gasp. Diablo held the man’s neck in a vise grip till the man stopped moving then released. The chupacabra sniffed at the blood falling from the nurse’s neck then began to lick up the crimson mess. Gabriel watched from the ambulance. He then noticed the black onyx sitting in a small recess next to the door. Light from the floods above the hospital awning reflected of the stone and Gabriel could see movement within the stone. He approached the stone carefully, watching and trying to interrupt the opera playing out within it.
It was difficult to make out but as Gabriel got closer he could see a couple dancing then the light washed away the scene. The next scene displayed an animal but it was too difficult to make out the shapes. Gabriel stood above the stone, the world outside of the scenes were washing away when he was snapped back to reality.
Diablo stood a foot from him. His teeth exposed and growl angry. The chupacabra barked. The percussion filled Gabriel’s ears with pain. Gabriel looked at the stone. It’s mystery overwhelming then the beast protecting it. The last thing he remembered was reaching and then the world went black.