by David Dwan
TWELVE
Half a world away the steel shutters to a supposedly secret location rattled open, and two figures surreptitiously peered into the brightly lit storage locker which was one of three in the facility rented by Michael Davis’ ‘demon time’.
“I can’t believe that’s it,” the young woman said with an edge of awe in her voice as she stepped inside the freezing lock up. She approached the coffin like box which was the only thing in this particular unit, but Lenny caught her arm as she got close to the black and yellow plastic warning tape that surrounded the strange container.
“Don’t,” he cautioned and gently pulled her away and into an embrace. Lenny had been told that it was okay to come into the massive storage unit as long as he kept outside of the taped off area due to the camera.
He eyed a webcam attached to the roof of the unit that as trained on the box itself, which was located slap bang in the centre of the place. He looked down into the girl’s glacial green eyes. The colour of them made all the more vivid for them being blood shot from the joint they had shared outside.
She was a tiny thing really, perhaps twenty at most, and no more than five-two in height. Small compared to most but at six-three Lenny dwarfed the girl. He was about to suggest they leave when she blinked lazily up at him and rose on her tip toes for a kiss. Lenny still had to stoop awkwardly so their lips could meet.
He knew this was a bad idea and if he got caught it would mean his job, but as she pulled away and he gazed down into those twin emerald pools, his libido got the better of his brain once again.
Lenny was in sole charge of the storage lock up that housed the container that supposedly held the so-called ‘Mister Minx’, at least for the time being. A fact that would have sent that dickhead show runner Michael Davis into a shit fit if he ever found out.
He would see the producer down here from time to time in between shows and he had an air of the addict about him to Lenny. He was clearly torn between disgust of the box or at least its alleged contents and the need to see it was still intact and locked away.
Lenny doubted the rumours about the creature were true, but in the end that didn’t mean shit. The diminutive little punk chick (What was her name again?) and self-confessed demon time junkie had whipped herself into a near orgasmic frenzy when he had confirmed that yes part of his job as a security guard at the lock up meant keeping an eye on the strange curio kept well away from any of the other storage units.
This wasn’t strictly true. He was a security guard here, but all security pertaining to the demon time lock ups was handled by their own people.
Apparently the girl, Sasha? Sandy? Something like that, had discovered its whereabouts thanks to one of the increasingly obsessive internet fan sites that devoted all of their waking hours in pursuit of the truth behind the myth.
And as a result she had cornered Lenny in the bar they all hung out at before and after work. Even that bar it turned out was quite well known in certain circles. Lenny offered up a prayer of thanks to the world wide web as she pressed against him with renewed urgency.
It hadn’t been cheap to pay off the two official demon time security guards, who normally hung around the designated units for the show that housed not only the box but also all the props and large amount of set dressing. But as he locked lips with her once more he had the feeling it would be worth it.
The only nagging doubt at the back of his endorphin flooded mind was the knowing look the two guards had exchanged when he had paid them to disappear for half an hour. At first he had taken it as a ‘nudge-nudge, wink-wink’ look, but now that he was actually in the unit with the box it felt more like a look of two people who knew something he didn’t.
He shook it off and let his left hand stray to the girl’s right breast. After all what could happen in thirty minutes left alone with a horny woman and a television prop?
The punk pulled away and gave him a playful slap on the cheek, and for a horrible moment he thought he had misread all the signs, but the mischievous grin she gave him put lie to that. She was playing with him, it was a little frustrating but he had plenty of time to indulge whatever fantasy she had in mind. Hell, he might even enjoy it himself he mused.
She took out her phone and swivelled on her heel to face the container. “I wanna take a couple of shots,” she said.
“Okay, but you need to stay out of the tape. That fucking camera up there will see you then I’m screwed.” Lenny told her. “And keep the flash off, there’s plenty of light in here.”
“Okay,” she said and took a couple of selfies with the box in the background. “Smile Mister Minx. Do you think he’s smiling in there?”
“Christ knows,” Lenny said and the thought that there might actually be something in there made him shudder. “Hey, come on, let’s get out of here.” For some reason he suddenly wanted to get out of the locker. Despite its size he was beginning to feel the walls closing in around him.
“Oh, come on,” the girl said. “Where’s your sense of adventure?” She gave him a look of pure wickedness and took two steps back towards the tape.
“Hey, I said...”
She took two more and was now within a couple of feet of the taped off area. “They can’t watch that thing all the time,” she said gesturing up to the webcam. She let her hand move slowly up to the zip of her leather jacket and seductively pulled it half way down, revealing a black lace bra underneath.
Christ she was so attractive and way, way out of Lenny’s league, he knew that it was his job not his brutish face that had gotten him this far with her and he couldn’t have cared less. He swallowed hard and looked at the webcam. It was true, he remembered one of the demon time crew remarking the other night that it was more there to put Michael Davis’ mind at rest that his prize asset was safe and under lock and key, and not running around, than for security purposes. After all, who in their right minds would try to steal that thing?
That Thing.
Lenny pushed the phrase out of his head. Dare he? He asked himself. He was still conversing with his inner angel and demon when the girl unzipped her jacket the rest of the way and let it part to reveal her perfect breasts.
“I want you to fuck me on the box,” she said making his mind well and truly up for him.
He swallowed hard and looked around redundantly for something apart from the box he could you to climb up to the blind side of the webcam and throw his jacket or something over it to cover the lens. After all he thought as far as he knew Michael Davis wasn’t even in the country, he was in mainland Europe somewhere the last he’d heard from the security guards, scouting locations for the next edition of the show.
So what if he was watching this very minute? He would just think the connection to the webcam had gone down and call one of his men (both currently at the bar spending Lenny’s bribe.) Who knew the score and wouldn’t return for a good twenty odd minutes when the girl would be long gone and he would have an anecdote to make his friends envious of for years to come.
THIRTEEN
“Wait there,” Lenny said and made for the door. “I’ll be right back.” He ran through into the corridor outside the lock up. There was an office just at the end where he could get a chair and a plastic bag or something to cover the cam. He sprinted down the corridor, his footfalls echoing around him as they bounced off the concrete floor as he ran.
He burst into the office picked up the first plastic chair he came to and looked around for something to cover the cam. On the table was a plastic coffee cup so he scooped it up and ran back down to the storage locker. He paused a few feet from the open door to compose himself then strolled inside.
Much to his horror the girl had dis-guarded her jacket and was laid on her back on the box itself. “Shit, get off there!” He said but she just arched her back and flashed him a smile of pure filth.
“We’re waiting,” she said and tapped the box.
Despite his growing lust Lenny couldn’t help but wince at we. Sure this wo
man was as hot as hell and he could only imagine the weird shit she was into, but still he couldn’t shift the thought that there might actually be some wizened creature in the crate.
“Snap out of it,” he told himself out loud and concentrated on her lean body as she arched her back and ran her hands alone the strange looking metal charms that were nailed to the lid and side of the box.
When she let out a sigh and kicked off her biker boots and popped the top button on her black combat trousers, Lenny decided he didn’t care if there were a dozen freaky things locked up in there, this was going to be the most fucked up, amazing few minutes of his life.
With the agility of a man half his age, Lenny climbed up on the chair and deftly placed the cup over the webcam which was at such an angle that it stayed in place perfectly.
“Gimmie your phone,” Lenny told the girl as he pulled his shirt over his head and she threw it to him. “Smile,” he said lecherously and took a photo. She posed seductively and he took another as she blew a kiss at him.
“Hey, I just thought,” she said striking another pose. “Maybe demon time could use one of these for publicity, maybe I could get a job as a demonette.”
“A demon what?” Lenny said never having seen the show.
“Demonette, I’m way better looking than those skanks, don’t you think?” As if to accentuate her argument she straitened her left leg up in the air, pointing her toes to the roof and let her other fall over the side of the box.
It was more porn than art but Lenny didn’t care. “Hell yeah,” he agreed and made a mental note to send copies of these to his own phone later.
`“Well come on then,” she coaxed and Lenny thumbed the phone’s camera option to video and placed it on top of her dis-guarded jacket at an angle so the girl and box, and soon he were in shot. He then ducked under the tape and as he got close she dragged him on top of her and wrapped her legs around his waist. She kissed him hard and passionately as she ground her hips against him and let her long black painted fingernails rake down his back.
“Jesus!” Lenny hissed and had to concentrate on not exploding then and there. He began to think of anything to bring him back from the brink of (literally) blowing the best sex he was ever going to have. Football, that bad movie he had seen on TV last night. Anything, anything to keep control.
Just when he thought he was going to lose it altogether, she whispered in his ear. “Let’s open the box.”
“Christ no,” He said and kissed her again. It was an insane suggestion and he was grateful for it as it cooled his lust just enough to keep control.
She pushed him away slightly and for a second Lenny thought she was going to reject him if he didn’t comply, but her green eyes were still burning with desire. “Hey, swap over, this thing’s freezing against my back, okay?”
“Sure,” Lenny said and they awkwardly changed positions like two lovers trying to negotiate a single bed.
As he lay down the wood felt ice cold on his bare back, and as she straddled him he could feel the various metal charms that were hammered in the lid biting into his back a little. Sure it was uncomfortable but when she grabbed his hands and placed them on her breasts he was glad of the distraction.
At least with the discomfort came the much needed diversion he needed to avoid premature orgasm and the inevitable lifetime of regret he would torture himself with later at the missed opportunity of great sex with the most stunning woman he had ever or would ever be with.
Lenny closed his eyes as the girl began grinding her backside into his crotch. Yes this was going to be fucking amazing.
Kill her.
Where the hell did that come from? Lenny opened his eyes but the girl was still cavorting like a wild thing on top of him. He’d heard the words, no felt the words in his head. Hadn’t he? As he lay there the charms at his back seemed to dig a little deeper, and the wood was a little colder on his bare back.
Look at her, Lenny. Look at what she really is.
Each syllable felt like the sharp jab of a needle behind his eyes. He screwed his eyes tight shut then opened them again suddenly afraid of the dark behind his lids.
The girl lent forwards and moved to kiss him again, but there was something different about that once beautiful pale face. Her eyes were a little older, her skin not pale now but yellow somehow like a thin layer of ancient paper stretched over her skull. She smiled her teeth black and jagged.
“What’s the matter, Lenny boy?” She sneered down at him, her voice that of an old woman with her throat cut. “Don’t you wanna fuck me anymore?”
Lenny tried to lift his body off the crate and roll her off him, but he felt as if something with cold dead fingers was holding his shoulders in place, pinning him to the harsh wood and jagged metal. He managed to glance to his right shoulder half expecting to see that arms had come up though the crate lid to hold him in place but there was nothing, yet still he couldn’t move.
He moved to say get off me but it came out. “Don’t stop!”
Then; Please... but his mutinous voice said; “more, more!”
“More?” She echoed and the word came out like a death rattle. She leant down until her mouth was an inch from his, her lips cracked and bloody like open sores. But still he couldn’t move as the unseen claws at his shoulders gripped tighter still.
Kill herrrrr... The voice purred in his head.
Then that once beautiful creature threw her head back and let out an unholy cry. Lenny screamed and then suddenly felt the grip on his right shoulder give way and he swung an almighty punch catching the thing straddling him hard on the left hand side of her head. The girl was knocked off him and onto the floor from the force of the blow. Lenny ripped himself away from his unseen captor and leapt to his feet.
He stood panting over the prone girl, fists clenched ready for her to leap back up and attack him with whatever supernatural force she had flowing within her.
But the girl began to sob and drag herself stiffly onto her hands and knees, blood pouring out of her mouth and onto the concrete floor of the locker. She looked up at him with a look of pure shock on her young face. A beautiful normal looking, but terrified face.
“Oh, Jesus,” Lenny said and he could have sworn he heard something hideous chuckling from inside the crate behind him. “Oh, Christ I’m so...”
The girl suddenly pounced to her feet and flew at him before he could finish. “You mother fucker!!” She screamed and began to viciously claw at his face whilst simultaneously kneeing him in the balls. Lenny went down like a boxer throwing a fight and tried in vain to protect his eyes as she rained blow after blow down on him.
Yes, through ringing ears and indignant screams Lenny could definitely hear laughing now.
Michael Davis watched open mouthed as the camera phone footage played out on his laptop. It was the third time he had watched it since getting the call from Gorodetsky, his Russian head of security about a ‘breach in security’ at the lock up.
He was on Skype with the granite faced Russian now. He finally switched off the video file and flicked the screen back to Gorodetsky. “Where are they now?” Davis asked.
“The girl’s with our boys at the moment, they’ve had to promise her all kinds of shit to keep her quiet. She says she wants to be a Demonette!”
Davis shook his head in disbelief. The poor woman had just been attacked but all she could think about was appearing on the damn show! “Okay, tell her we’ll let her know,” Davis said.
“She is pretty hot, boss,” Gorodetsky offered. “Anyway, she knows she was trespassing in the first place and she’s a massive fan of the show. So she shouldn’t be too much of a problem if we keep her quiet.”
“Tell her we’ll get her Minx’s autograph or something,” Davis said, after all that wasn’t the weirdest thing he had gotten the creature to do.
“Will do, boss.” The big Russian replied. “Oh, and about our boys? I know they fucked up, but I’ve got to be honest boss, we don’t have anyone else wil
ling to look after the son of a bitch. And besides, they are shitting themselves that they’re going to get fired.”
“Okay, keep them on,” Davis relented. He knew even those two wouldn’t be dumb enough to do something like that again. Besides he had already decided to use this little incident as further publicity for the show. ‘Possessed security guard attacks fan of the show.’ “Now you’re sure Minx is secure?” He asked.
“Yes sir, still in his crate. They’ve checked it over, it’s still totally intact.”
“Good.” Davis replied. He fell silent for a moment as he recalled the faint but still audible laughing on the end of the phone footage. It was a voice he knew only too well. He shook off the sound, they had all become too accustomed to Mister Minx and this was a timely reminder of what he was still capable of, even from inside his wooden prison it seemed.
“Anything else, boss?” Gorodetsky asked pulling Davis back to the matter at hand.
“No,” Davis replied but then remembered the battered and bloody security guard. “Oh, yeah. What happened to the guy?”
“Lenny? He’s still in casualty. They reckon he might lose an eye and a bollock!”
“Jesus,” Davis breathed. He shut the lid of his laptop and contemplated the demon. “Still got it, Mister Minx,” he had to admit. “Still got it.”
FOURTEEN
Dusk had well and truly taken hold of the day when the taxi dropped Father Ross off at the outskirts of the village of Santuario, Mexico. Where the German Hauser had last thought to have been living. But it had done little to tame the obsessive Mexican heat. The young priest arched his aching back and would have tried to slap some life back into his numb buttocks were he not out in public.
The majority of the journey had been pleasant enough as they had left Mexico City and driven on down the highway. It was a long trip and had cost upwards of five hundred dollars U.S but as the church were paying, neither Ross nor his extremely chatty driver Carlos worried too much as the meter continued to climb, ticking off the miles and Pesos as they travelled.
