Midnight Feeding

"Go on, do it!"

Kyle stared back at his friends, a hesitant smile dancing on his lips.  They stood in a tight group in front of him, leaning against each other and laughing.  They were all drunk.  Three sheets to the wind, as his grandfather would say.

  Kyle himself was feeling no pain.  The area around him was hazy, but he couldn't tell if it was from the creeping mist or his own inebriation.  Perhaps a bit of both.

Julie half fell, half leaned into him, her mouth inches from his.  "Come on, do it for me." He leaned in for a kiss but she pulled back.  "After you do it." She licked her lips and smiled.  "Promise."

"Don't wuss out on us now, bro.  A dare is a dare." Eric held a bottle out to him.  "Liquid courage."

Kyle accepted the mostly empty bottle of Jack and took a deep swallow.  It burned on the way down, momentarily clearing the fuzziness from his brain.

  On the surface, the dare didn't really amount to much. Just step over the railing and lean over the ledge.  No big deal.  A cautionary voice of reason tried to push to the front of his brain, warning of the potential danger, but it was drowned out by his pulsing libido.  The promise of being with Julie tonight was all he could think of.

He took another swig from the bottle before handing it back.  "Kids, don't try this at home." Turning quickly he swung his leg over the thick railing.  He sat that way for several moments, rocking back and forth as if he were straddling a horse.  With a flourish he swung his other leg over and stood facing them.

His grip on the railing was slick from sweat and the growing night mist.  He tightened his grip as he leaned backwards, his face turned up to the sky.  Everyone laughed and cheered him on.  Emboldened, he released his grip of one hand so he could lean back even further.

Pulling himself forward, he grasped the railing with both hands again.  He stared back at his friends triumphantly.

"My man," Eric said, raising the bottle of Jack in salute.  "You are one crazy mo-fo."

Basking in the adulation, Kyle lifted his foot to the railing so that he could spring over.  He was nearly vertical when his foot slipped.  He fought to maintain his balance but gravity was too strong.  The last thing he saw before falling out of sight were his friends oblivious laughter.

The fall from the railing didn't kill him.  He wished it had.  He wanted to scream in agony.  He wanted to scream for help.  But he didn't dare. He didn't know if he even could.  All of the wind was knocked out of him.  Breathing became monumental.

He regretted tonight.  It had started off well enough.  No different than any other Friday night.  But there had been too many bad decisions.  Too many drunken dares.  It was funny at the time.  So simple.  No thoughts of consequences, or failure.

Tears rolled down his cheeks.  He could feel them, but not much else.  The pain, explosive at first, had faded quickly.  A dark nothingness filled his body as all sensation slowly leached into the concrete beneath him.

It was a struggle to raise his head in order to view his surroundings.  He couldn't see much, but what he could see filled him with a desperate fear.  The effort was exhausting and painful.  The enclosure he was in was rocky, the ground hard and dusty.  Scraggly brush covered it in patches, half dead from the summer heat.  

He could barely make out the railing, impossibly high above him.  His friends were gone, scattering as soon as he slipped over the edge.  Anger and fear filled him, the only feeling left in his broken body.

The silence was heavy, but not complete.  Distantly he could hear the nocturnal animals in their respective enclosures.  He prayed for help to arrive before the inhabitants of this enclosure emerged for the night.

Breaking into the zoo hadn't been his decision, but climbing the railing had.  He was too cocky, too boastful, and they called him out on it.  What could possibly go wrong?  Too late he realized everything could.  He squeezed his eyes shut in frustration.

A scuff of stone behind him.  A furtive snuffling, testing the air.   More scuffs, the scraping of claws across stone.  Kyle was afraid to open his eyes to see what was emerging from the opening behind him.  But he couldn't not look.

He opened his eyes slowly.  A massive furred body stood above him, casting him in shadows.  A low throaty growl rumbled  from deep within it's chest.  It cut through the air like a chainsaw.  Approaching from either side, the growl was answered by nervous giggling.  The high pitched bark of a scavenger and predator.  So unique, so familiar.  Hyenas.

A canine snout came into view, sniffing at his hair and face.  A whimper escaped his tightly pressed lips as the snout nudged the side of his head.  Another deep growl, like the lowing of a cow, ending in a bark.  The muzzle pulled back from impossibly large teeth as it's powerful jaws opened slightly.

More high pitched giggles, closer now.  Much closer.  The faintest sensation of movement from below.  His foot perhaps?  Another sensation of movement, stronger.  He was certain his foot was being tugged on.  The thought filled him with terror.

A wetness landed on his face, hot and slimy, as the jaws above him opened wider.

Another tug, stronger, more confident, pulled at his other leg.  As the hunger lust of the hyenas grew and the tugs became more violent, he realized that deep down he still had some feeling in his limbs.  The pain was almost welcome.

Another chainsaw growl, hot rancid breath on his throat.  He closed his eyes, knowing what was about to happen, praying that it would all end quickly.   Then the real pain began.