by Erin Trejo
Dance With The Devil
erin trejo
Copyright © 2020 by erin trejo
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Contents
Prologue
1. Kellin
2. Rose
3. Kellin
4. Rose
5. Kellin
6. Rose
7. Kellin
8. Rose
9. Kellin
10. Rose
11. Kellin
12. Rose
13. Kellin
14. Rose
15. Kellin
16. Rose
17. Kellin
18. Rose
19. Kellin
20. Rose
21. Kellin
22. Rose
23. Kellin
Epilogue
Prologue
Every ending has a beginning. Every beginning has an ending. Both of mine are wrapped up in the same fucked-up package. Sitting on my knees with my hands bound behind my back, my head is bowed in front of the altar. It was twenty-five years ago when I sat exactly the same way minus the ropes currently slicing into my wrists. It also didn’t include her lying there naked, with tears streaming down her face.
In order for you to understand how I got here, you have to know that I started here. I was born into this world. An angry, money hungry, power thriving world. One where the powerful get off on the control of others. As a kid, you thought it was amazing, majestic even. To sit at an altar with a woman sprawled out wide, naked, and vulnerable, was the height of my teenage years. Yet as I got older, I began to question our teachings. Satanists? Oh, we were very much attracted to the Devil himself in more ways than one. With the Devil came power, and men like my father thrived on knowing just how much of that they had to wield. I watched in fascination as my own mother lay on an altar, much the same as the one set out in front of me now. I watched her take her last breath on this very altar, and the sickest part of it all? I was the one who ended her life.
Nothing behind the walls of this massive compound are as they seem. If an outsider were to come in and take a glance around, they would find a massive home of sorts. Our fortress is built much like a college campus. There are separate wings signifying the level of your belonging. You know your place from the very beginning, and if you dare cross the line into a place that isn’t yours, you will suffer the consequences. I’ve traveled that road many times, just to get a taste of the hell that this coven has to offer. I often found myself at the mercy of the elders because I couldn’t get enough of the danger that crept through my veins and I thrived on that. I would nearly beg them to hurt me, punish me in some way.
And my father handed out the punishments like candy on Halloween. He was happy to do it, too. He loved wielding that power over me and others. I own each of my scars, both visible and invisible. The invisible scars lie deep inside, blackening my soul and tarnishing my mind.
And as the sword comes to rest on the side of my neck, the Devil himself on the other end, I raise my head and smile. I wait. I wait for my end.
Or is it my beginning?
One
Kellin
All black, that’s the way we live. In the darkness, creeping in the shadows. A black hoodie pulled down to obscure my eyes, I watch them.
“I hate stakeouts,” Rory says.
“Didn’t ask you, did I?”
“What is your problem? Why are we out here anyway? We have people to do this for us,” he adds. He’s right, we do, but this time I wanted off the compound. I wanted to taste clean air as it fills my lungs.
“Why did you come along, Rory?” I ask, bringing my already lit cigarette to my lips and inhaling, tired of hearing him already. I watch the tip burn red as I suck the nicotine into my lungs.
“To keep you company. We wouldn’t want you getting lonely out here amongst all the bible thumpers,” he chuckles, making me smirk. I blow a ring of smoke into the air, watching it swirl until the breeze takes it away. There are days that I wish I was that smoke, a plume in the breeze, drifting away from here.
“Her,” I say softly, my eyes narrowing as I watch her walk with her books held tightly to her chest.
“Her? Why her?”
“Why not her? Look at her. She’s a loner, no one is going to miss her. She’s out of place here.”
“Whatever,” he huffs.
“Bet me a hundred dollars she isn’t from here. She basically has no family and no one to miss her when she’s gone.”
“You’re on, Kellin.” I smirk as I watch Rory stand from the bench we’ve been perched on and slowly make his way toward her. I see the way she looks up at him, so unsure of his motives. The way she clutches her books tighter to her chest. She’ll break easily for us, of this I have no doubt. I take another drag from my cigarette as I lean back against the bench and watch Rory carry on a conversation. I see the way her eyes light up when she thinks a man is interested in her. She isn’t unlike the other slaves of the coven. She’ll fit right in.
I let my mind wander as I watch people walking around the college campus without knowing there’s a devil amongst them. Some days I wonder what it would be like if I were normal. Somehow, I still don’t think I would fit in. My brain isn’t wired like that of a normal man. My brain is wired for darkness, satanic rituals, and blood. Even if I could live a normal life, what does normal mean? Is this normal? Walking around with your head in a book and learning things that really have no use in the world? I don’t think so. If that’s normal, I’ll gladly stay sick and twisted until the day I die. Not that I’d know what people are learning out here. I’ve never been to a regular school; I was always homeschooled by someone in the coven.
“You’re right, bastard,” Rory says as he drops onto the bench next to me. I don’t smile or gloat. I just extend my hand and wait for him to give me what I’m owed. The money hits my palm and I shove it in my pocket.
“What’s her name?”
“Rose. Of all fucking names, her name is Rose.”
“Rose,” I say letting the word roll from my lips. Soon she will be a withered little rose, losing all color and hope.
“She’s pretty hot,” Rory says, pulling my gaze to his.
“And? You plan on taking a slave?” I ask raising my eyebrow in his direction. I already know he isn’t going to.
“Not right now. I like the job I have and adding to that… No, I’m good.”
I smirk this time because I agree. I don’t have time to deal with a slave of my own when all I do is work. I can train them, break them, and make them fall to their knees, but I don’t intend on owning one for a long time if I can help it.
“I agree. We have the best job as it is.” He nods his head as I shove off the bench and walk back toward the tree line. It doesn’t take long for Rory to follow along behind me.
“Hey, Kellin?”
“What?”
“Do you ever get tired of it?”
“Tired of what?” I ask, unsure of what he’s talking about.
“All of it. The slaves, the rituals.”
I stop walking and turn to face him, the one person who’s been my best friend for as long as I can remember. We’ve discussed this but not in this manner.
“Do you?” My head cocks to the side as I study his face, trying to get a read on him. If anyone can, it’s me. And I see it. The look that says he isn’t sure of our lifestyle anymore.
“Some days. Ebony… It just bothers me some days,
” he admits and somewhere deep down inside of me, I understand him.
“Ebony was born into this just the same as we were, Rory.”
“I know that, but there are days I see the pain in her eyes. You can’t tell me you don’t see it, Kellin.”
I nod my head because I do see it. The agony, the fear, hell, I even see the pain in her eyes.
“I do see it, and as much as I hate it, there is nothing we can do to stop it.”
“I know and yet I hate to see the pleading in her eyes,” he says softly before he continues. “One day we’re going to burn that motherfucking altar to the ground.”
I burst into laughter at the way he says it. To a point, I agree with him. One day we may burn it down to the ground.
“Yeah, one day.”
Two
Rose
I climb the stairs and head down the hall until I reach my room. Slipping inside, I close the door behind me.
“Took you long enough.” I nearly leap out of my skin when I hear my roommate, Violet, speak.
“What is wrong with you? You scared the shit out of me.”
“You’re always so jumpy. What’s your problem?” she asks playfully.
“Nothing. I just scare easily. Why are you here already? I thought you had a class,” I ask as I set my books on the desk next to my bed. Dropping onto the hard mattress, I groan.
“I skipped it. There’s a party tonight and we’re going.”
“Who is we?” I ask, eyeing her skeptically but already knowing she’s going to drag me along with her. The last party we went to she ended up drunk, naked, and nearly riding some guy half way back to the dorms and I was left to fend for myself.
“You and me, and maybe Tammy. I don’t know if she is going to pull her head out of her ass long enough to go,” she huffs before flopping back on her bed.
“Maybe I don’t want to go,” I add.
“Too bad. We have things to do, people to fuck, and liquor to drink.”
I watch her leap off the bed and head for the bathroom as I sigh and close my eyes. I don’t go to many parties, mainly because I’m never invited. The little wallflower that no one notices. That’s how it should be. That’s the way I want it to be. I don’t need attention, and I sure as hell don’t need to screw some guy at a party to give myself some sort of status. I’m here for school and school only. I want a life, one that I never had the chance to have before. I’ve worked hard to get to this place in my life and I won’t ruin that now.
“You’re wearing the red dress with the black trim,” Violet calls out from the bathroom.
“No, I’m not! That one makes me look like a slut,” I remind her with a smile, knowing I’ll wear it.
“That’s the point. I heard some new guys are going to be at this one,” she says. New guys usually mean people from other colleges are going to show up tonight. Not that I don’t like it but some of those guys can get out of control. The whole point of me being here is to blend in and be unseen. That’s all I really want.
“New guys equal new girls, and that equals trouble for you,” I say as a reminder of what happened last time. She nearly got jumped by one of the new guy’s girlfriends.
“Minor technicality. Anyway, there has been talk about that cult thing people have been going on about.”
“What about it?” I ask as I climb off the bed and raid her side of the closet.
“Supposedly their coven is located near where the party is,” she says as she pops her head out of the bathroom and wiggles her eyebrows. I roll my eyes and continue my search for boots.
“Do you really believe there is a satanic cult living in the woods? That’s stupid, Vi.”
“Is it? You’ve heard the stories,” she adds.
“We’ve all heard the stories but that doesn’t make them true. They’re just that, stories. Besides, why would they live in the freaking woods?”
“Hello? To be unseen! They worship the Devil, Rose. They don’t just want everyone in the world to know about them. They’re secretive and creepy as hell. I wonder if any of them are hot?”
I close my eyes to keep from rolling them at her. A hot satanic cult member? I think I’ll pass.
“You’re crazy enough to fit right in,” I tell her. She laughs as I grab the dress and a pair of her boots, walking back over to my bed. I lay out the short blood red dress and look it over. It isn’t the first time I’ve worn this dress. The last time was over two years ago though. I let Vi drag me to a different party, a keg party at that. That was so far from my scene.
I start to strip out of my clothes when Vi walks into the room.
“You still aren’t going to tell me what that tattoo means are you?” I shake my head slipping the dress over my body. It’s smooth as silk as it brushes against my flesh. I shudder as the reminder of my past hits me hard. My hands tighten around the fabric and I can vaguely hear Vi talking but everything else just slowly fades away. My insides tremble as memories assault me. Him. Them. I can’t let them shake me. I won’t. I’ve come too far for that.
“Are you okay?” The spell is broken when Vi’s hand lands on my shoulder.
“Yeah, I’m good. Are you sure you want to go to this party?” I ask once more, knowing she isn’t going to change her mind.
“Hell yeah we are!”
“Fine. You’re doing my hair then,” I tell her. She claps her hands and ushers me into the bathroom and onto the small stool in front of the sink.
“Up or down?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“Up is inviting a man to come closer, lean in, and smell your neck,” she says as she sets about getting her things together.
“Are we meeting vampires?” I giggle.
“They’re satanic. I think that might include blood.”
“I think you’re getting ahead of yourself, Vi. Satanic people can be anywhere. They could be in the room next door and you wouldn’t know it. What makes you think that there’s really a place out in the woods?”
“Okay, that girl Amberly? You know she left last year, right?” I nod. “From what people are saying, she was out one night after a fight with her boyfriend and they found her. Somehow she got away but not before she was scared shitless.”
“I thought she got pregnant and that’s why she left?” I ask confused as I look up at her in the mirror.
“Well, she did get pregnant but that’s the other thing. They thought it was a member of the cult’s baby. She didn’t want her kid in that shit,” she says as she brushes through my hair. I have to control my eye rolls with this girl.
“I think you’re reading too much into it.”
“Maybe I am. Maybe I’m not. We will see tonight, won’t we?”
Three
Kellin
“Kellin, how was scouting?” My father’s voice is hard, unfriendly, and tough - just like the man himself.
“Not bad. I have a few potentials. Just as I thought Rose is a no one. No family here; I pulled her files from the school.” He smiles his bright white smile which is such a contradiction to the man he truly is.
“Very good. After the ritual tonight I assume you are going to the party?” he asks as he shrugs into his black robe.
“Of course. I will have her and a few others from the same school as well, back here by morning,” I assure him as I pull the black hood of my own robe over my head.
“Good. Let’s get on with this then. We all have much to do in preparation for a new flow of slaves.” I nod my head although I know who will be doing most of that work and it isn’t him.
“Are all of the elders attending tonight?” I ask as I follow him into the hallway, pulling the black portion of the mask over my face. During these rituals no one is allowed to see our faces. The women, slaves, will be in red robes much the same as ours without the mask, and the new slaves, virgin slaves, will be in white.
We descend the long hall when he finally stops and speaks.
“Not all will be attending. Franklin and Broc
k won’t be here. They are tending to business elsewhere.”
I nod my head as we walk down the grand staircase and into the main temple of our compound. We have two temples, one inside and one outside. Tonight we will be inside, knowing that the party will be so close and needing to conceal our location. We don’t need to draw any extra attention or have anyone snooping around. To the outside world, we look like a college for the elite. No one knows what lingers behind the walls that we’ve so solidly built here.
My father moves to take his place at the head of the altar on the throne while the rest of us set about getting things in order.
“Kellin!” Rory calls my name as I chuckle.
“You’re such an idiot,” I mumble as I grab the carton of candles.
“You love me though. I can’t wait to see the look on this one’s face tonight.”
“What number is she?” I ask as I pull the black candles from the carton and place them in the holders around the altar. My father is busy looking at his notes and going over his prayers, unconcerned with what we’re talking about. Not that he would say anything anyway.
“Number 6529.” I tilt my head to the side as I try and place which girl that is.
“Redhead?”
“That’s the one. You remember how scared she was when she first came here?” Rory asks, as I pull the single white candle from the box.
“She was a fun one to break,” I add.
“She was. She turned out so well.”
“You boys do a great job breaking them.” My father’s voice sounds through the room.
