“Depleted?” My back pressed into the headboard harder. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
Cilas gave me a wry look, and I realized that I could almost make out distinct features, even though technically, he was still made of undulating shadows. His face was angular and severe but not unattractive, with bright, glowing white eyes that stared back at me hungrily.
“What he means is had he not intervened, Chaos might have drained you.” He moved in closer, placing one claw tipped finger beneath my chin and raising my face up slightly. “Your pain is our sustenance, and he nearly took it all for himself like a rabid animal. I'll have to punish him for that. Or maybe I'll punish you instead for giving it over so willingly.”
I blinked at the shadow man, processing his words.Your pain is our sustenance…So they fed off of, what, my emotions? My fear? My anger? I was food to them. Their words from last night came back to me…spread out like a feast. In more ways than one, apparently.
“And you?” I asked, looking at Kaz. He wasn’t a shadow creature, but more of a…swamp monster. Did he feed off of me too? Was I food for his hunger?
He nodded, his forked tongue gliding over his lips. My body flushed with heat as he came closer, hearing the squish and slide of his tentacles in place of footsteps. There was only a sheet draped over my legs, and the edge of it lifted as what was unmistakably one of his…appendages slithered beneath it. I held my breath when the slippery, rubbery tentacle touched my ankle. It was warmer than I thought it would be, and softer.
“You’re afraid of me,” he said softly, the tentacle gently caressing my calf, then wrapping around it like a boa constrictor. “I can taste it on my tongue, like the sweetest wine.” It reached my thigh now, completely wound around my leg. Each suction cup latched onto my skin, like little licking tongues, feeling and tasting. "Good. You should fear me, because I'm just as hungry as the shadows."
I looked at each of them as they moved in closer and closer, caging me in on every side. “So if I’m your food, then why did you fuck me?” My words were for Cilas, since technically, he’d been the only one to take things that far. "Do you play with your food often?"
“We have other hungers too, sad one,” said Cilas. At his words, Kaz’s tentacle reached my core, brushing over the thin layer of my panties. Chills covered my skin, even though the room grew warmer by the second. “Your pleasure walks hand in hand with your pain, which makes you a delicacy to savor for as long as possible. I fucked you because I crave your flesh just as much as your misery, and I plan on sampling it again.”
My face heated, and as Kaz’s tentacle pushed against my soaking panties, I had to resist the urge to rub against it.
His words rang true, but how did he know that? Pain did bring me pleasure. I’d learned to relish the feeling of pain and anguish over the years. So many of my emotions had withered and died that I latched onto the only ones that remained.
Every time I cut myself or snorted enough drugs to make my brain melt or drank myself into a stupor, it was only because I could feel it, while everything else was a dull, empty nothingness.
“Are you going to kill me?” I asked finally, voicing the question that had been stuck in the back of my throat since last night. I wasn’t sure if I even cared about the answer, but I was morbidly curious. It wasn’t like I planned on walking out of this house alive, even if it had to be by my own hand.
“Yes,” Cyn said with finality. He sat down on the bed, running his fingers through the loose strands of my hair and pushing them back over my bare shoulder. I held my breath as his face inched towards mine, his sharp teeth close enough to rip out my throat. “I’m going to kill you, sad one, that I can promise, but not today. Not until I drink up every last drop of agony inside of you first.”
The room fell silent as I stared into the paleness of Cyn’s eyes. He continued to stroke his fingers along my hair as if he were petting me. He’d said it with such conviction that I knew he was telling the truth. I could sense the evil inside of him, from each of them, actually. Maybe it wasn’t evil exactly, but something dark and sinister. I wasn’t dealing with human men with a human conscience. I was dealing with monsters.
Instead of running for my life or bursting into tears like any regular person would have, I heaved a long, tired sigh and nodded. “Well if that’s the case, I guess I’d better fuck shit up while I still can.”
There was a pause of confusion as the three monsters glanced at one another, then back at me. I slid out from under the sheet, letting Kaz’s tentacle fall back to the floor. I immediately missed the warmth of his tingling touch. I caught his eyes as I made my way towards the door, Cyn stepping aside for me to pass. Kaz’s eyes dipped, scanning my bare legs and exposed midriff. I wore an old ratty band crop top and panties that saidsuck itacross the ass.
They followed as I hurried out of the guest room and stepped over the splattered gore on the ground, still cringing at the thought of Chaos waking up. I didn’t care what the shadow brothers said, that fucker was not a dog, and I could happily rip it in half myself if it came at me again. The first scare was a freebie, but he wouldn’t catch me with my pants around my ankles again.
I felt them behind me as I practically skipped down the hall, swiping my keys off of the entry table and heading out the front door. I went straight to my car and popped the trunk, knowing the three of them were waiting for me just inside the entryway. I could feel their curiosity and amusement and grinned again. If they were planning on killing me, then it only made my job here easier. I could still get my own revenge and have some fun doing it.
Shutting the trunk, I headed back to the house, hauling a heavy, rusted old sledgehammer with me. The head of it dragged in the mud behind me, its metallic ringing sound filling the early hours of the morning. I walked right past the three cryptids, not even glancing at them as I made it to the living room, set my phone down on the table, and pressed play.
“Tiptoe Through the Tulips” began to play, echoing off of the empty walls, flooding the house with noise. I smiled even wider as I faced Kazimir, Cyn, and Cilas, who remained in the entryway.
Kaz’s massive tentacles were spread out over the hardwood, and he seemed to be perpetually dripping water, because he left a massive puddle everywhere he went. Idly, I wondered how long he could remain out of the water before having to return back to the swamp.
“Now, what are you going to do with that, sad one?” Cyn asked innocently, as if he hadn’t already figured it out. He was crossing his arms over his shadowy chest, leaning against the wall.
I preened under his gaze, heaving the sledgehammer up into a batter position. “Like I said, I’m here to fuck shit up.”
I didn’t wait for them to respond before I took my first swing. The sledgehammer hit the wall with a thundering force, shaking the entire room as dust rained down on me from overhead. I laughed at the hole it made in the aging plaster, expertly wallpapered at least a hundred years before I was born. I had to brace one foot on the wall to get the leverage to pull the hammer back out of the hole, and as I did it, more plaster ripped off and crumbled to the floor.
“Fuck, that felt good…” I shook out my hair, dust creating a cloud around me.
I wasn’t done. Wall by wall, I beat the hell out of the living room. I slammed the hammer into picture frames, sconces, tapestries, and shelves full of trinkets. I even smashed the glass tea table over in the far corner, as well as the TV on the wall.
Everything was in shambles, crumbling, splintering, and completely unsalvageable, but it felt fucking amazing. Even through the haze of dust, I felt like for the first time since coming back, I could breathe again.
My arms were hurting as I moved through the house, my music shuffling as I went, from Tiny Tim to Johnny Cash, all the way to Taylor Swift by the time I made it to the dining room.
"So much rage," Kaz murmured, presumably to the shadow twins. I didn't bother acknowledging him. "How did she taste?"