“I said no—!”
Seizing his opportunity, he smashed a cupcake into my open mouth. Panicking, I grabbed his hand and bit.
“Argh!” He ripped his hand back. “Frick!”
I’d gotten him good. Blood dribbled down his fingers and dripped onto the linoleum. The mirror showed a bit of it smeared across my lower lip.
I could taste it, mingled with the synthetic zing of the orange, the mallow sweetness of the cream filling, that bitter coppery tang like old pennies. Before I realized what I was doing, my tongue slid out and licked.
Hank backed out of the bathroom, his face shining with horror. “Monster.”
I relished his fear. I’d had my first taste, and I liked it.
Maybe I didn’t need a Pokémon to defend me. Maybe I was all the monster I needed.
Appendix I—Online News Article
Point Loma coyote sighting leads to grim discovery
October 8, 2023 / 9:22 AM PT
SAN DIEGO – Local police found a human arm after residents reported seeing a coyote walking down the street carrying the severed limb in its mouth, authorities said early Sunday morning.
The arm was found in the parking lot of the Presidio Apartments in the Point Loma neighborhood, assistant police chief of centralized investigations Darryl Bautista told theUnion-Tribune. The coyote was not present when police arrived on the scene. Coyotes are native to San Diego County but rarely spotted in the neighborhood.
Bautista said the arm appeared to show “numerous bite marks,” possibly from “more than one set of teeth.” However, he declined to comment on the nature of the marks.
“I leave that to the coroner to tell us,” he said.
Ace Selder, a resident of the Presidio Apartments who claimed to have scared the coyote off, said, “I got a good look [at the arm] before they took it. Those weren’t just coyote bites. There were human ones too.”
Bautista refused to comment but described the sight as “very disturbing.”
He said police were working to identify who the arm belonged to. He noted the presence of several distinguishing tattoos, including a tribal symbol, a cross with angel wings, and the words “Eat Me.”
Selder corroborated the description, calling the marking “ironic.”
Authorities are treating the case as a possible homicide.
“If anyone can help identify the victim or saw anything that could be useful to our investigation, please come forward,” Bautista said. “There’s a potential killer loose in our city. Man or beast, the sooner we find them, the safer we’ll all be.”
CHAPTER 16
The restaurant was dark and tony, its well-dressed patrons rendered beautiful by the light of the chandelier suspended over the sunken bar, twinkling like a spray of stars across the sky. Emmett paused just past the hostess podium and looked around. For a Wednesday in late May, the place was packed. He spotted his date reading a menu at a table for two, crammed into the middle of a row against the wall.
Aaron looked up as Emmett approached, grinning affectionately.
His text had been a welcome surprise.It was great seeing you at the museum last month. Been thinking about you. Would love to hook up soon for a proper catch-up. You free next week?
Emmett had considered pushing the meeting off. Now that he’d received his first dose of Obexity, he hoped it was just a matter of time before he started losing weight, but Lizette had threatened to take a pair of scissors to his Pokémon cards if he didn’t go.
“You made it.”
Aaron stood to greet Emmett, then hesitated. They settled on a handshake—but the good kind, thebestkind, the lingering, two-handed, smiling-into-each-other’s-eyes kind. Still Emmett refused to get his hopes up. Only in bad rom-coms did men like Aaron fall for people like him, and even in that context, he struggled to suspend his disbelief.
He’d always hated those stories. They were too easy, too emotionally one-dimensional.
“Oh nooo, you could never love me because I’m too fat and gross! Wahhh!”
