“Yeah, I understand,” David said. “But killing people, in and of itself. That’s okay?”
Cadence’s face turned down and away. “Well, we are stopping them from killing you. Would you prefer we not?” David shook his head, his eyes turning into slits. “Then please silence yourself and watch me. I mean watch what I’m doing. My goodness, David. Every time I start to think you’re taking me seriously...” She licked her finger and ran it across the wall to the left of the bathroom, traced it through the air, and then across the threshold of the bathroom door. She did the same from floor to ceiling. “Now they can no longer proceed beyond the barrier I’ve created on this side. No up, down, left, right, backward or forward, when it’s closed. This is a dead end. You do the rest of the bedroom.”
David licked his finger and walked the perimeter of the room. “Can I lick more than once?” he asked. “My saliva is going to dry up before I can do this whole area.”
“You may lick as many times as you wish, David. Or you may use your tongue directly. Continue, please.”
“Why does everything involve licking, Cadence? I swear you say you want me to concentrate but...” David finished walking the perimeter and completed doing the floor. “What about the ceiling? I can’t reach it.”
“I couldn’t reach the ceiling in the hallway, David,” she said. “Reach as high as you can. Or as low as you’d like. It’s more their prison than it is ours. It just needs to be high enough that it contains them and any sound that might pass inside it. If we make it too low and, say, only imprison their feet, they’ll still be trapped, but they’ll be visible to the rest of the world from the ankles up. I’m sorry to confuse you. It’s how it’s done. ...And a tongue is just a tongue, David. You’re the one who assigns it erotic meaning.”
He finished making the invisible cage.
Cadence continued. “Now they are experiencing the silence and they are contained in the glass prison. They cannot speak, they cannot scream, and they cannot escape.”
As David watched, Billy walked out of the bedroom to visit the bathroom and kept bumping into an invisible wall. He was shouting some form of vulgarity, but he wasn’t able to produce any sound, and Joey wasn’t watching him.
“And now we provide,” Cadence said. “First we kill. This is simple too. And the part of the process that allows for the most variety. You can reach into someone’s chest and pull out their still-beating heart, or you can strangle them, or you can break their neck, or you can tear them in half. Almost any way you can think of to end a life is acceptable. So long as you preserve their form. No acid baths or anything.” She winked and looked over at David, who was, finally, not checking her out. But, though it had bothered her greatly, the absence of his fawning made her feel neglected and she could sense a sorrow flowing through her physical body. Remembering doors slamming shut in her face. “But for this part, we first must become apparent. Become more solid. They will be able to see us, but we will still be invisible to the outside world, as long as we remain within the confines of the glass prison. Do you understand?”
“Yes, I understand. I know this has to be done, but... How is this providing anything for you or this town? And what makes you think I can do this?”
Cadence looked back at David and made a pistol out of her fingers, pulling the trigger and gesturing with her hands like her head was exploding. Then stopping. Seeing in David’s eyes that her re-enactment only made him more sure of what he believed to be true about her.
“The procedure is the same. Breathe in deeply. And then out. But watch me do it first, so I can guide you when it is your turn. Eventually, transferring between states will become second nature. Like a feeling. Or a sense you’ll have of it.” Cadence took in a deep breath, held it for a moment and let it out. She repeated the process seven times before he saw her becoming more solid, and then she stopped. As she looked back at him, David could see Joey and Billy both pointing.
They rushed her.
“Look out,” David said, almost screaming. But Cadence stayed where she was standing. Not looking back, as Joey and Billy ran into her full force.
They tumbled backward onto the floor just as violently.
“They cannot harm us. Even when we are fully solid, we are much too powerful. You will feel it. You may have felt it already, over the course of the day. Like when I transferred to you and made you my equal. ...Yes, your almost-equal. Quit being so picky. You will feel that power. Only slightly more subdued, since we don’t need to peak.”
Cadence turned around and grabbed Joey by the scruff of his neck. Giggling as Billy and Joey both beat at her, trying to get her to relax her grip. She stared back at David and looked lost for a moment. “Now you will see more of what I am.” She took her free hand and grabbed Joey by the throat. She pulled on his hair, cranked his head back, and opened her mouth. No fangs, as David expected. Just normal teeth. Some slightly yellowed. Two or three chipped. Nothing unusual. She moved Joey to her side so David could watch, and she bit into his neck, tearing out a wide chunk of his throat and severing the jugular and carotid arteries. Blood began shooting everywhere as she chewed on his flesh and swallowed it, releasing her grip and letting his body drop to the floor as the arterial spray painted the walls.
“Now.” She turned to David, the blood and flesh dribbling from her mouth. “Breathe in. And out. And in once more. And out. And yes. They can see you now.” As Cadence finished speaking, David felt Billy’s fist nudge his head. It was a fully telegraphed knock-out punch, but it felt like a tickle.
“Now,” she said. “Kill.”
David turned toward Billy, who had already tried to stab him while he was busy watching Cadence chewing on Joey’s flesh and following her instruction. He looked on in wonder as Billy brought a nail-studded baseball bat across his face. Again, he barely felt a thing. As he wiped his chin, he noticed he was not harmed.
He walked up to Billy and took the bat from his hands. Billy stumbled backward slowly as David stalked him. “Take your time, David,” Cadence said. “You won’t always have this luxury, but you have more than enough time to kill this one. Be inventive. Impress me.”
He looked back at her again. Still seeing nothing but beauty that happened to be covered in blood from nose to neck. He threw the bat to the floor and grabbed Billy’s left hand. Bending all four fingers backward. Breaking them one by one, as Billy silently howled in pain. Then he broke Billy’s wrist. Then he twisted Billy’s arm, pressing the heel of his foot into it hard, until it broke at the elbow, after which he dropped Billy to the floor, stepped on Billy’s back with his foot and used his hands to twist and dislocate Billy’s shoulder.
“It’s the least I could do to fix the guy who was so excited at the prospect of raping you and beating you to death. He won’t be making beautiful women ugly anymore.” He growled. “And, to tell you the truth, it felt good. I know it shouldn’t, but it did.”
Cadence smiled at him. Her heart feeling lighter no matter how hard she fought the sensation.
David punched his thumbs into Billy’s eyes and pushed them in, digging deep and scraping upward. Lifting Billy from the floor as Billy’s body writhed. He pulled out his thumbs, spun Billy around, dropped him to his knees and wrapped his arms around Billy’s neck in a choke hold. Pulling backward, letting gravity insist on the move, as he pressed his right knee into Billy’s back in a forward motion.
The crunch of Billy’s neck and spine snapping was deafening.
“Holy cow,” Cadence said. For once, David noticed, saying something colloquial. “That was interesting. Was that really all because he was going to hurt me?” She touched at her chest and let out a heavy sigh. “You are like an Angel. I knew you could be trusted to serve with me and protect me. Come to me.”
David walked over to her and she held him. Soothing his head in between her neck and shoulders. Getting blood and rotting matter all over his hair. “Maybe I went a little overboard,” he said. “And aren’t you the one providing th
e protection?”
“You make me feel so vexed, yet so loved,” she said, oblivious to his question. “It’s so wonderful to not be alone anymore. I never dreamt I would find the company of someone like you. Not...” She sighed again. “But we must continue. Now we make the kill ready for consumption.”
“What?” David asked. “Consumption? I thought you... And I. I thought we were just killing these two to protect...? What do you mean?”
Cadence didn’t answer him. She only knelt on the floor beside Joey’s body and made sure David was watching. She placed her mouth slightly above, and over, the hole in Joey’s neck and sucked out the surprising amount of blood still remaining in his body. Appearing, to David’s eyes, as if she were inhaling it, though he could see her throat swallowing. With that, she also sucked out, and swallowed, all the veins, capillaries, arteries and connective tissue. Then she spit into the hole and showed David Joey’s insides through the opening, as his organs dissolved in her saliva. She sucked that liquid out from him, and swallowed it, too.
“Now, you do the same with Billy,” she said. “Nothing should be left but the meat, the skin and the bones. Everything else you can suck out easily. The contents of the organs will dissolve along with them. And trust me, it tastes like nothing. But you must drink it all. One person alone won’t fill you up. You can easily devour hundreds. Any evidence of their being here has to be gone when we’re finished. This will also help when we soften later.”
“Soften?” David asked. He did as he was told and, after gagging on the first three sucks and swallows, he realised drinking the contents of a human body was kind of like drinking a gigantic bland vanilla milkshake. Not much taste to the substance, and it went down his throat easily. For whatever reason, nothing he consumed upset his stomach in the slightest.
“We’re almost done.” Cadence beamed. Proud of how fast they were providing together. “Now we skin them. Do as I do and breathe into the hole you sucked everything out from. Breathe into it until you feel like you’ve finished inflating a balloon.”
He did.
“Then run your tongue around the opening, on the flesh.”
He did as she did, and, as they did, Billy and Joey’s flesh became like burnt paper. Crumbling off their bodies into smaller and smaller pieces that vanished on the wings of a non-existent breeze.
“Now, we proceed to boning. ...No. Nothing like that. Don’t be crass. You know I’m promised to someone else. That’s... It’s offensive. Now, we hold the spine at the neck, pick up our host and shake it.”
He did as she did, and all the still-attached meat fell from Joey and Billy’s bones.
“Next we dispose of the bones. The simplest way is to grind them into a fine powder by rubbing them between your hands. Worst case, you can dispose of them, and anything else, later. So long as you leave it all here in the Beneath and don’t purposefully bring any of it back to the In-Between.” Cadence used her hands to reduce the bones to dust. “And we’re almost done. With plenty of time left. We moved swiftly. Much faster than normal, on the plane in which we’re operating. Which was a good thing tonight, given your continued fascination with me, which I truly can’t understand. Have you noticed that?”
“How fascinated I am with you?”
“No.” She swatted at him. “How time moves more slowly the less solid we are. In our current state, an hour is equal to approximately twenty-six minutes on the physical plane.”
“So this all happened in fast motion for Billy and Joey?”
“What they were able to see, yes. But no one can really see anything for very long. Not at the speed we’re moving, in relation, the majority of the time. We mostly appeared like flickering lights. As you used to see me. Now we must do a few more simple things, and we’re all finished.”
“Are you kidding?” David asked. “We haven’t done enough to these guys? I’m pretty sure they can’t hurt us anymore.”
Cadence continued, looking slightly disturbed. “I’ll take Joey and you take Billy?” David grudgingly agreed and watched as she began chewing the meat that was all that was left of Joey. Swallowing it and vomiting it back up in a pile beside her. “This is called softening. It’s okay, David. Just start eating. Your body will reject the meat when you have ingested enough. You’ll also, naturally, be regurgitating the perfect amount of the liquefied organs and other tissue you swallowed earlier. Their substance will help make the meat reform more easily. Almost everything is put to use. Only the skin and bones are wasted. If you finish before your body has had its fill, you can stick a finger down your throat. Or will it to come back up. Whichever way makes you most comfortable.”
“Okay.” He hesitantly began to binge and purge.
“Now we reform the meat,” she said.
When they finished eating and regurgitating Billy and Joey, she showed him how to form the partially liquefied meat into patties and steaks. He watched her and began rubbing his stomach. Looking slightly pained.
“Now what?” he asked.
“Storage and, when we’ve reversed what needs reversing, transport. I stocked your kitchen with a great quantity of freezer bags. They’re in the top corner cupboards. To the right of the sink.”
David ran into the kitchen, grabbed three boxes of freezer bags, and soon they had all the meat squared away in nice little packages.
“Now, we’re just about done,” Cadence said. “The last things we need to do are simple. I’ll perform, you watch. Everything is much the same as the beginning.” She licked her finger and ran it around the entire glass prison, removing it. She picked up as many pieces of wrapped meat as she could, motioning for David to pick up the rest. They entered the unused small bedroom across the hall from the kitchen area, snuck out its window, closed it behind them and went to the garage, where they placed the new meat underneath the old meat in the freezers.
“So, I’m providing—?”
“So very much and so very well,” she continued. “And now we’re finished. You did a wonderful job. I’m so proud of you.” Noticing that she’d begun to hold David’s face in her hands, stroking his hair as she spoke, she removed them quickly. “...Except there’s no car. And I doubt they walked here. This shouldn’t take longer than twenty-six seconds. Touch your fingers to your temples and think actively. Concentrate on the two men we made into provision. Can you feel them? Can you see how they got here? Yes? Now close your eyes and open them.”
They found themselves standing in a field of corn next to a junker of a car. “Now we can imagine it melting,” Cadence said.
As they each focused their mind on the task, the car turned into liquid and became a tiny drop of metallic goo on the ground. “We may leave that here. No one will probably ever find it. And if they do, they’ll enjoy it being so small and weighing so much. Another thing beyond explanation on this wonderful planet.” She paused, breathing in the fresh air. “Now do the same thing, but envision your home.”
Within seven seconds, they were back inside David and Juno’s house. Closing the unused bedroom’s window and then walking back into the hallway and shutting its door behind them. “A lot of this is all just mental,” he said. Cadence frowned, almost smiled.
“Here’s an idea,” David said. “Since you’re obviously well over me, why don’t you just envision Brent sharing a bed with you?”
Cadence smacked him and quickly returned her hand to her side. “I’m sorry. That was uncalled for. But—”
“Seriously,” David insisted as he rubbed at his cheek out of habit, though he didn’t feel any pain. “Why don’t you just—?”
“And we’re done,” she said, turning a deaf ear.
When Cadence finished dampening the front of her gown at the bathroom sink and wiping Joey and Billy’s mess from the walls, her white night gown was stained with excess blood and excrement. All the by-products of the two men they’d just finished ingesting. David’s clothes and face were stained and muddied too. “Do you see me now?” Cadence asked. “Do y
ou see me for what I am, now that you see what I do? What I must do to live here?”
He looked at her and imagined the waste removed from her and, as he envisioned it, the waste erased itself from her body and her clothes. Underneath, she still looked the same to him. “Is this what you look like?” he asked.
“Yes.” She removed the stains from his body and clothing. “This is me. The real me. Now you see me. Now you know.”
But to him, she still looked the same. “Do you feel ugly?”
“Of course,” she said. “I am. You saw what I did. The killing. The drinking of the veins, ligaments, tendons, organs. The partial digestion and vomiting of the meat. All the filth that covers me when I do what must be done. The monster I become. Or, more correctly, the monster I hide away to fit in.”
“Then you only think you’re ugly because of what you become covered with when you provide? Or do you only think you’re ugly because you know what you have to do to provide?”
“I don’t understand.”
“This is truly what you are?” he asked. “What you look like?”
“Yes, David.” Her features turned sallow as she looked away. “This is what I am. This isn’t what I become. This is the monster I am. You can see me now. You’ve been exposed to the horror I am. And...” She looked back over at him. “I still don’t disgust you. Your eyes are still lying to you. How can that be?”
“I’m a recovering sleepwalker. A junkie. I’ve been dope-sick more times than I can remember. I’ve seen, and hallucinated, plenty of people and things that looked a lot worse than what I saw tonight. Why do you care, anyway? Why is it so important I find you repulsive? And does it really matter why or how?”
fiX - A ParaBnormal Fairy Tale Page 29
