Late night sip

With the bar closing and its customers heading back to their cars and rigs in the pouring rain, the clap of thunder echoed out overhead after the flash of lighting struck out in the distance. Kathy had guided everyone who couldn’t stay out of the building for closing time. Everyone else who rented a room upstairs to wait out the storm and sleep for the night had gone up to do so. With the lights out, the doors locked, and the bar closed, there was very little activity save for the lights in the windows and the heavy rainfall outside.

At 3 in the morning, the rear door to the building opened where Madam Judy stepped out into the pouring rain to toss out the contents of her trash bin under the bar to call it a night. Opening the bin behind the bar and motel to empty its contents with her free hand while still holding her masque in the other to cover her true face, she ignored the patter of raindrops soaking over her. Strangely she did not LOOK wet as the droplets of rain simply beaded off her body and dress.

“A good night if I may say myself.” She said to herself, her masque giving off a satisfied smile until she turned around and the mask gave the look of disappointed boredom. “Oh, its YOU…”

“Hey you’z bitch, gimme a drink!” Slurred the burly trucker who wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and pointed an accusing finger back at her.

Tilting her hip for her free hand to rest on, her mask made a facial expression like it was rolling its eyes.

“Honestly bucko, I’d have figured you would have sobered up by now after Kathy tossed you out. Just go back to your truck and sleep it off, the bar is closed, has been for a couple of hours.”

Reaching into his rain-soaked jacket, the man flicked out a jackknife, brandishing the blade up for her to see in the heavy rain.

“Bunch’er wierdos keepin me from getting a beer, you’z gonna give me a drink NOW, er I’ll cut’ya.”

At that moment the masque went straight faced, expressionless, then sighed.

“And the night was going so well too… Well, at least I finally get a chance to eat.”

The man blinked in confusion when she finally took the masque off and set it aside, revealing her true face underneath. Glossy, bulbous eyes the size of apples stared back unblinking save for the pitch-black pin pricks that glared back at him, her mouth unfolding to free mandibles and mouth parts better compared to razor sharp scissors than teeth that snipped at the air. Raising her hands up, two-foot-long scythe blades extended from her wrists, serrated and jagged while her dress unfolded and came apart. Two sets of diaphanous wings that used to be her dress and gown pulled back to buzz behind her, the rest of her body lithe and insectoid as her legs, all four of them repositioned their footing and her abdomen curved back behind her.

The Judas bug buzzed her wings and hissed from her mandibles, her head tilting back and forth as if to eye the terrified drunk at different angles. By then the knife had slipped from his numb fingers, too shocked to even register the blade or why he had it in his hand. Taking another step back, the giant praying mantis took one forward to match, snipping with her mandibles. He didn’t know what to do, his mind caught between staying still and running for his life. It wasn’t until he heard a voice clearing behind the giant insect that he eyed the masque sitting on top of the dumpster, and propped up to lean against the wall, still facing the two of them.

“If you want to run, go ahead, I could use some cardio to work off gnawing on your bones.”

Screaming into a panic, the man tried to run for his rig, stumbling in the rain just as he felt a pair of blades hoist him up from under his arms and lift him up into the sky, screaming as Judy flew deep into the tree line and disappeared. The man’s screams muffled by the sound of the downpour and occasional thunderclap.

The Masque however continued to sit on its perch for almost half an hour, making facial expressions like it was chewing, then making a face of satisfaction when the rest of her exited the trees and picked it up to cover Judy’s face again. Her wings taking on the form of her dress again as she brought a finger to wipe her masque’s lip.

“Beer battered truckers; they always make a delightful treat.”