I hadn’t felt a goddamned thing, save for my pussy being eaten by two deadly shadow monsters, so I laughed in his face and his smile dropped immediately. “You just want to fuck me, you dork ass loser.” His eyes hardened, his nostrils flaring in anger. “I’ve met a million guys like you who can fuck better and don’t talk too much. I’m not interested, Chris. You need to leave.” I was getting tired of this back and forth, and clearly, he wasn’t getting it.
He stepped even closer, crowding me against the wall, flexing his narrow jaw as if it would scare me or something. My eyes flitted to the other room, where my mallet lay on the floor. All I wanted to do was bash him over the head with it.
“Don’t be a prude. I’m probably the only good guy in this town who’s willing to show his face in public with your crazy ass.” Our bodies were nearly flush together now. He tilted his head and tried to brush my hair back, but I batted his touch away. “If you wanna fuck, I’m down for that too, but I was trying to be a gentleman.”
“You have five seconds to get out of my face and kick rocks,” I gritted through clenched teeth. Behind Chris was a mass of building shadows creeping closer and closer. Two pairs of glowing white eyes were locked on the back of his head, and I knew all it would take was one wrong move, and they would make him disappear.
There was a small part of me that felt a little thrill at the prospect of watching Cyn and Cilas tear this guy apart. I had a feeling that this world probably wouldn’t miss someone like him anyway. Maybe it was deranged of me, but the only real reason I didn’t give them the nod of approval was because of Ashley sitting outside, waiting for him. She had my paperwork, and if I was going to get ownership of the property, then I needed her to make it back to the office, preferably with her little lawyer shadow intact.
He took a step back. “This is why nice guys never get the girl. Sluts like you aren’t smart enough to see a good thing when it’s standing right in front of you.”
Placing a hand on his chest, I shoved him back several steps with surprising ease. His back hit the wall of shadow behind him, and he immediately yelped, hopping forward before he spun around. “What the fuck…?” He rubbed the back of his head, looking around at nothing but darkness, no doubt feeling the coolness of my monsters and the unnatural chill they sent down his spine. The glowing eyes were nowhere to be found, but I knew it was them, waiting to pounce.
“Your boss is waiting for you,” I said, brushing past him and heading for the front door. I let my fingers gently glide through the shadows, feeling only a slight resistance as I caressed them. I yanked open the front door, not bothering to walk him out. I only stood there at the threshold and tapped my bare foot impatiently. “You’ll be lucky if I don’t call the firm and report you for sexual harassment.”
He followed me to the door, still rubbing the back of his head, but as he passed, he shot me a scathing glare. “And why would anyone believe the word of the resident psychopath over the town's newest lawyer?” He crooked a finger under my chin, but I knocked his hand away. “Call me if you want to know what a real man feels like, yeah? I’ll give you the ride of your fucking life. Only if you apologize though.”
“Fuck off, creep,” I spat, as I shoved him the rest of the way out, slamming the door on his heels. The second it closed, I heard the sound of a fist hitting the outside. Fucking man baby…
I flipped him off behind the door, listening to the sound of his car door slam, then the tires on moss and dirt as they rolled down the drive. Behind me, I could feel coldness growing, and the feeling of being watched intensified. I knew without looking that Cyn and Cilas were there. They’d never actually left, and I wasn’t sure how that made me feel, knowing they were always somewhere nearby.
Finally, when the car was long gone, I turned to face the shadow men with my arms crossed tight over my chest and a small smirk on my face. “That was risky, but I won’t pretend I didn’t like it.” They appeared out of the shadows as humanoid shapes, both of them grinning, all those sharp teeth bright against the blackness of their smokey bodies. “Next time that fucker shows his face here, feel free to rip him apart, dick first.”
Iris
Tonight was the night—I was finally going upstairs. Still, it took a bottle of Jack and a couple of pills to give me the edge I needed to get my ass up and go to the base of the stairs.
I’d told myself that I was never going up there again, that I would burn this entire goddamn house down before I took one step on that staircase, and yet here I was, taking the first, second, and third steps. It took me twenty minutes to convince myself this was a good idea, and to just rip the band-aid off while I was feeling confident.
I tried not to stare at the black stain at the bottom of the landing, the one that my mom made as she hung from her neck, her stomach slashed open and pouring out all over the floor beneath her. I wasn't even sure anybody ever tried to clean it up and had often wondered how long the cops had allowed her body to hang there while her blood soaked into the floorboards. Exactly how much of my family had been left behind in this damn place?
My footsteps echoed throughout the house. I hadn't seen my shadow monsters since yesterday, but I also couldn't sense them anywhere either. It made me wonder where they went when they weren't stalking me. Surely I wasn’t the only mortal they were haunting.
I took the stairs slowly, dragging my hand along the banister, trying to breathe evenly. In and out. In and out. It was useless. I couldn't quite catch my breath. My heart beat so hard that I could feel the thumping in my ears.
I paused halfway up the blood stained staircase as a thump echoed to my right. The framed photo of my parents on their wedding day shook, settling again slightly crooked. I stared at the wall, trying to figure out if there was something behind it to explain the thump, but I was pretty sure it was just an empty crawl space. The smile on my mom’s face caught my eye, and I had to swallow the lump in my throat.
They looked so fucking happy that day, her belly already starting to swell with me inside it. My dad was staring at the side of my mom’s smiling face, his eyes shining with nothing but worship and adoration. He had always been the hopeless romantic when it came to her. Magnolia and I used to make fun of them for being so openly head over heels for each other. Nowadays, I’d give just about anything to hear my mom giggling again while my dad chased her around the kitchen.
It was hard to tear my eyes away from the photo, but I managed it, peering up the staircase to the darkness above me. There was a lightswitch at the top, and I was tempted to run the rest of the way up and flip it on. I huffed a laugh at myself. I was being an idiot. I’d already seen the horrors this house had to offer, unless Kaz was right and there really were more monsters lurking in the darkness around here.
Monsters… Fucking monsters.As if the ones lurking in my head weren’t enough to drive me insane, add in some real ones who seemed to want to fuck me more than eat me. What did that say about me? That I enticed the creatures of the darkness this way? That they craved my sadness and rage so deeply that they wanted to savor it, to coax it out of me, sipping it bit by bit until they drained me of it?
I should have run. I should have left this place far behind me, but again, I’d never been levelheaded or logical. If these creatures were willing to drain me of my misery, then I was going to fucking let them. With any luck, I’d soon be a dried up husk, lying on the floor of this house next to my mom's bloodstain.
It didn’t hurt that these particular monsters were good in the sack. My thighs still ached pleasantly, reminding me of the way Kaz’s tentacles had felt slithering over my skin, or how Cilas’ cock filled me up, fucking me so good that it had brought tears to my eyes. I could still feel how deeply he’d reached—so deep that I’d felt the movement in my lower belly.
I was on borrowed time here, and I knew it. Sooner or later, they would get tired of playing with their food and consume the rest of me. Their sharp teeth and claws were meant for slashing through supple flesh and meaty bone. I just hoped I was long dead before they decided it was time to clean up the scraps of me.
I’d almost reached the second landing when the walls moved—literally moved. Several framed photos clattered to the floor, tumbling down the staircase I'd just ascended. The old floral wallpaper stretched, undulating as if suddenly the plaster and wood beneath it had turned to water. I grabbed the banister, trying to steady myself and keep from tumbling over it and plummeting to my death. I looked over my shoulder, again spotting the black bloodstain at the bottom. Such a long fall…
The wall stretched and moved in such a way that it looked like dozens of human faces were pressing forward, with mouths agape in silent screams, as they tried to escape. My eyes widened in horror, but then came the hands, grabbing for me, stretching the wallpaper until I was sure it was about to tear. My heart thundered as I let go of the banister and dashed up the remaining stairs, all while the tips of those grabbing fingers brushed my arm and pulled at my hair.
The top of the landing was in view, only about five more steps…
I didn't make it.
Just as I was about to lunge, taking them two at a time, a hand gripped my wrist and tugged me towards the wall. I stumbled, my feet twisting around each other in my attempt to run. I screamed as more hands gripped me, holding my arms, my legs, and my hair. I could feel the fingers and faces rubbing against my back as I pressed into the wall. Their hold on me was so tight that I couldn't move, could barely even breathe.