Iced Lucid

Justin could hear people screaming outside the elevator doors. It all started when the power went out. Justin had his 4-year-old daughter, Abigail, on the elevator with him. The young man had to be brave for his little girl. Something terrible was happening. At first, Justin felt lost, until he pulled out his phone and saw the news headlines.

A woman killed her fiance at a local nightclub. Witnesses say the woman decapitated him with her fingernails and teeth. Authorities shot the woman, killing her. But she came back to life hours later during an autopsy. The medical examiner escaped, but the woman killed his assistant.

A woman turned into a white zombie after consuming an alcoholic beverage. She attacked three pedestrians and was shot down by police, but came back to life a few minutes later. 

Four women attacked a daycare center after leaving a local bar. Witnesses say the four women had snow-white skin and hair. The daycare’s security guards shot all four women, but now their bodies are missing from the Saint Augustine mortuary. 

A woman gets attacked by a deformed woman while out jogging. The victim reported that the woman had white skin and hair with black eyes. Doctors found traces of an alcoholic substance on the victim’s neck where the attacker bit her. The victim’s wounds were treated at the Saint Augustine hospital, but her hair and skin turned white as snow a few hours later. The infected victim became irate. She killed a nurse and two doctors before breaking out of the hospital.

These were the surreal news reports Justin read on his phone. He almost dropped his phone when he read the first news report. 

“Daddy, what’s going on?” Abigail’s sweet voice broke her father out of his frightened daze. 

Justin unglued his eyes from his phone screen. “I don’t know, Sweetie,” the man spoke to his daughter through a distressed half-whisper. Justin had his daughter in his arms while sitting on the elevator’s floor. It was dark in the elevator, but Justin could still see his daughter’s dollish face and the little sunflowers on her dress.

“Is mommy gonna be okay?” Abigail mumbled. She held her daddy’s hand while laying her head against his chest. The little girl found comfort in listening to her father’s heartbeats. 

“Yeah, Baby, your mommy’s gonna be fine.” Justin assured his daughter. He tried to shut out the screaming by focusing on keeping his daughter comforted. “You wanna play Pattycake like we did last night!” Justin whispered excitedly to his daughter. The father did his best to take his daughter’s attention away from the screams. He laughed softly when his daughter nodded her head. 

The father and daughter quickly went into their Pattycake game. Justin tried to block out the screams while playing with his daughter. He also tried to block out the unreal news headlines he saw on his phone. Justin felt like he was in a horror movie. 

“Can you rap for me, Daddy? Abigail asked. The little girl loved it when her father would rap to her while playing Pattycake. Abigail’s father was an Australian rap star who sold three albums over the last five years. Instead of having a bedtime story read to her, Justin would rap to his daughter after tucking her into bed. Abigail enjoyed the last bedtime story her father told her the night before through his rapping style. The story was about a queen who fell in love with an imprisoned ninja warrior. 

“You want Daddy to rap for you?” Justin chuckled. The young man’s whispering and his Australian accent soothed his daughter. “Pretty baby with the sunshine smile. Brighter than a star with your explosive style. Your eyes like butterflies in the spring. Daddy can’t believe God blessed him with this cute little thing. You make a diamond jealous of your sparkling hair. Your little pretty face is like porcelain and your skin, so fair. When you grow up, girls are gonna hate. Their boyfriends are gonna chase your beauty, constantly asking for a date. When you grow up, you’ll find a guy and he better treat you right. If he doesn’t, yo Daddy’s gonna hunt him down and beat him in a fight. If you choose to have babies, you’ll be a wonderful mother like your mom, who loves you. She loves you more than anything in the world, and your daddy does too. Like a blooming flower. From a princess to a queen. You’re gonna always be Mommy and Daddy’s little goddess supreme.” Justin watched as his daughter gave him a glowing wide grin of approval. He loved how his little girl would give him the biggest smile every time he’d rap to her. Justin received a kiss on his curly beard from his daughter and he returned the favor, kissing his little girl on the tip of her nose.

Justin wanted to keep playing Pattycake with his daughter, but his phone kept interrupting him. He kissed his daughter again while pulling his phone out. More news headlines bombarded Justin’s phone.

An 11-year-old girl escaped from her house after her mother attempted to kill her. The girl says that she found her mother in the basement naked and eating their dog. The girl also says that she found her father’s body in the bathroom with his throat ripped open. The girl’s mother became deformed after drinking a fruit-flavored beer called Lucid. The girl says her mother’s eyes were pitch black. She also reported to authorities that her mother’s body became anorexic and her skin and hair looked like snow.

Police arrested the CEO of a Moscow beer manufacturer called Lucid for unlawful human experiments. 43-year-old Russian businesswoman, Svetlana Ivanova, was apprehended by authorities this morning after underground laboratories, housing dead bodies, were discovered beneath factories and shipment companies owned by Ivanova. Authorities also found cultic artifacts and documents on black magic inside the laboratories. The factories producing the Lucid beer were shut down immediately by authorities and shipments to the U.S. and other countries were terminated. The government has issued a worldwide recall of early Lucid shipments to store retailers. Millions of stores across the U.S. and other countries are moving quickly to remove the Lucid beer brand off their shelves. Authorities are advising people, especially women, not to consume the Lucid beverage if they’ve already purchased it. If you have consumed Lucid, report to the nearest hospital for treatment as soon as possible. 

Justin was so distracted by the freakish news reports that he couldn’t feel his daughter’s little fingers touching his nose ring. The young man kept reading one strange news report after another. 

A teenage girl attacked a worker at a grocery store. Witnesses say the girl bit a store employee in the neck before throwing the employee through a window. People evacuated the store when the girl started chasing customers. One witness reported that the girl looked like a Whitewalker from Game of Thrones and that her mouth stretched open abnormally while she was screaming at customers and employees.

A 14-year-old boy reported to police that he awoke to see a pale-skinned woman standing in his bedroom. The teenager told police that the woman stood at the foot of his bed with blood covering her blouse and jeans. The teen also told the authorities that the woman pointed at him and said, “the fresh meat of a baby is the best meat.” The teen reported that the woman’s skin and hair had no pigmentation. He said she had the body of a bony elderly woman and that the whites of her eyes were blacker than ink. The boy barely escaped with his life, but he believes the blood he saw on the woman’s clothes was the blood of his father and his older brother.

Jake had to take his eyes away from his phone for a minute. He had to allow his brain to process the news reports. What unnerved Jake was that he no longer heard the screams coming from the hospital floor’s upper level. It was dead silent outside the elevator. 

“Daddy, I think the screaming stopped,” Abigail whispered while still holding her father’s hand. 

“Yeah, I don’t hear anything,” Justin said. There was a fearful undertone in Justin’s voice. The young man’s pierced ears tried to detect an ounce of sound from behind the elevator doors, but he received nothing but an unearthly silence. Justin waited to hear something and after three long minutes, he finally heard a sound. The ringing of his phone almost caused him to jump out of his skin. 

Even Abigail let out a brief scream when she heard her daddy’s loud ringtone. 

“Goddamn,” Justin whispered out forcefully while struggling to answer his phone. The young man breathed deeply when he saw that it was his wife calling him. “Hello, Angela? Baby, are you okay?” Justin waited to hear his wife’s reply, but instead, he was greeted by what sounded like a woman letting out a low growl. The young man snatched his phone away from his ear in horror. “No,” Justin whispered down to his phone before releasing a heartbroken gasp. He brought his phone back up to his ear only to find out that the person on the other end disconnected the call. 

“Was that Mommy?” Abigail whispered with her fingers touching her daddy's long dreadlocks. Within a second, her question stirred up tears in her father.

Justin turned away from his daughter, catching a tear with his thumb before it could drip down his nose. “No Sweetie, that wasn’t Mommy. It was a wrong number.” Justin didn’t want to lie to his daughter, but he felt that he had to. He didn’t have the heart to tell his little girl that her mom was now a white zombie. Justin knew what happened to his wife. He heard it on the other end of his phone. That low growl burned deep into Justin’s psyche. The thing he heard on the other end of his phone was no longer his wife. Justin didn’t want to think about that disconcerting low growl that emerged out of his phone. He wanted to hear his wife’s voice again. Desperate to hear his wife’s voice, he played her last voicemail. 

“Hello Sugar, it’s your wife calling to see how your hospital visit is going. I still can’t believe you wanted to visit a guy who bullied you in high school, but whatever. Anyway, I’m so excited about your Grammy nomination for best rap album! I know you didn’t want me to type up your acceptance speech, but I did it anyway. You deserve the Grammy because you’re sweet. I know you’re gonna win. We’re gonna have so much fun at the Grammy after-party. I want you to know that if you don’t win the Grammy, I won’t give a damn, because I already have something more beautiful than a Grammy, and that’s you! I love you babydoll and I want you to tell my little angel that mommy said hi. Tell her that mommy loves her and that she can’t wait to see her later on today. Tonight we’re gonna celebrate your Grammy nomination. For dinner, I’m cooking a special Mediterranean seafood dish that you’re going to love. I also found this new fruit-flavored beer called Lucid, which I think will go well with our dinner tonight. They have different flavors. I bought a six-pack of a flavor called Morocco Raspberry. It’s an interesting looking beer and it has zero calories. I’m thinking about tasting one now. I need a beer to help me unwind. Your wife is tired! Sitting in a recording studio all day is hellish, but that’s the life of a music producer. I just left the store and I’m on my way home. I got everything for dinner and I got our new Lucid beer. I can’t wait to see you and our little girl. I know you drove your Lamborghini Aventador to the hospital. It would’ve been safer to take the Escalade, but that’s alright. All I got to say is don’t drive too fast on your way back home. I know Abigail loves riding in her daddy’s sports car, but I still don’t think that car is safe for a 4-year-old. Just be careful. I’ll see you and Abigail tonight. Tell your former high school buddy that I said hi. I hope his surgery turned out okay. Gotta go! Goodbye, Sugar!” 

Justin didn’t want his wife’s voicemail to end, but it had to. He tried to gather himself as he gazed at his daughter. The young man smiled at his little girl and he told himself not to shed a single tear in front of her. Justin wanted to be brave for his daughter. 

“Are you okay, Daddy?” Abigail kept patting her father’s hand and she could sense a sadness from her daddy, even though he was smiling at her. 

“Yeah Honey, I’m fine,” Justin answered his daughter before resting his lips on her forehead. He chuckled a little from feeling his daughter’s fingers tickling his beard. Justin still had his daughter, and he didn’t want to lose her like he lost his wife. 

 The father and daughter held each other while sitting in the dark. Justin used his daughter’s hair as a pillow while Abigail fidgeted with the gold necklace that decorated her daddy’s neck. The little girl loved being between her father’s arms. She would see her father as a superhero because of his Herculean physique. Sometimes Abigail would study the bulky, rigid muscles in her father’s arms and she would count the tattoos on his skin. Abigail didn’t like the dark, but being in her father’s arms made her forget about the darkness. 

After six dreadfully long hours, the power finally came back on and the elevator was moving again. It only took a second for the elevator to reach the hospital’s underground parking garage. The dead silence still followed Justin and his daughter after they left the elevator. Justin carried his daughter while tip-toeing between parked cars. He tried not to imagine running into a pale woman. The building’s power came back online, but it seemed like the underground garage was just as dark as the elevator.

Justin needed to find his car and he kept getting a sense that him and his daughter were being followed by someone, or something. The young man kept peering over his shoulder every second. Justin didn’t like the dead silence. He preferred to hear screaming so he could hear a sound, and this made him feel guilty. All Justin could hear was his heavy breathing and his daughter’s breathing. He could feel his warm sweat saturating his black muscle shirt. Justin couldn’t believe he was sweating so much. He felt like he had just finished doing a live concert. Justin sweated less when he was on stage in front of his fans. 

It took forever, but Justin finally spotted his gold Lamborghini. The sports car was parked beside a Jeep. Justin pulled his car keys out of his pocket. He was about to make his way toward his car, but he heard a loud click behind his head. Justin knew that sound.

“Daddy?” Abigail whimpered when she saw a wounded man standing behind her father with a gun aimed at the back of his head.

“It’s okay, Baby.” Justin comforted his daughter while keeping his cool. “Take it easy, man,” Justin said as he calmly turned around to confront the gunman. He observed the gunman’s biker thug appearance. “If you want my wallet, you can have it.” Justin pulled his wallet out slowly. He saw the man’s injury and it looked like something took a chunk out of his shoulder. 

“I don’t want money! I’m sorry, but I need your car!” The man’s deep voice trembled like an earthquake. He glared at Justin and his truck-sized body was more intimidating than his 9mm handgun. 

“I can’t give you my car.” Justin knew there’d be trouble after he said that. He covered his daughter’s head when the man brought his gun closer. 

“My car won’t start and I need to get out of here to see my daughter. You’re a dad, so you should understand!” The man spoke through gritted teeth. “Give me your car keys! Please don’t make me ask you again!” The man tightened his grip on the handle of his gun. His finger hugged the trigger as he brought his handgun even closer to Justin’s bearded face. 

Abigail moaned and whimpered as she looked at the light reflecting off the man’s pistol. The girl’s eyes welled up with tears when she thought the man was going to shoot her father. But within a few seconds, Abigail watched her father do something amazing. 

Justin made his move and he knocked the gun out of the man’s hand. The man shoved Justin back and he tried to go for his gun, but he fell on his back from a hard blow to his face. 

Justin punched the man while securely holding his daughter with one arm. It amazed him how he could knock down a guy who was a little bigger than him. Justin went to pick up the man’s gun. When he turned back around, his heart went into his throat when he saw a pale woman standing over the man. The woman’s skin was pulled back over her bones. Her hair and skin were whiter than milk. The woman’s eyes were darker than her black dress. Justin watched as the bony woman revealed her dingy, pointy teeth before jumping on the man, taking a bite out of his throat. He could see a beer bottle in her hand that said Lucid. Justin also saw a wedding ring on her finger and a rose tattoo on her hand. When Justin saw the tattoo, he knew the monster was his wife.