Jess was adorned head to toe in her latex catsuit, her hair invisible in the casing of her gear. Her eyes already covered in her night goggles, her bags were sitting on the bed now, still unzipped open to reveal all the tormenting devices she had to use if Sara made this simple execution as impossible as Jess expected.
The map was tossed on the desk table beside him, and he saw the large X painted in red lipstick along with her arrogant lip print. In that moment Darkeel took over, his eyes glowing bright, that wicked, devious smile cracking over and revealing his innate desire to kill.
“A living sacrifice who even desires to serve herself up to me on a silver platter, of all the places she had to choose my favorite hunting grounds.”
Kyle instantly snapped back into his body yelling out loud;
“I thought we had a deal, you stay the fuck out of my head until we get to Royal Gorge.
Got it?!”
He heard the billowing growls and hisses building up inside.
“We’ll see if I can wait. I’d rather play with the red head, she’s much more my type.”
Jess held him close even in this risky state of daemonic battle. “Kyle my darling, I know you’re here, I know Darkeel wants to kill me, I’ve felt that fear ever since we first met in that kitchen that afternoon. Whatever happens know that I belong entirely to you.” Jess kissed Kyle’s lips passionately, instantly filling him up with her warm, brilliant light.
“Mmmm, thank you, I promise I’ll never let him hurt you.” Kyle’s face grimaced, he did his best to tell her his ideals, but his fears were confirmed as she spoke;
“Don’t keep promises you can’t keep.” She brushed his face gently and smiled, “Whatever happens tonight, know that I have never been happier and more fulfilled than I have been in your arms. Even if those strong hands of yours strangle the very breath within me from my lips. Leaving me lifeless in the snow, to blend in and wash away in the cold rivers of spring; know that everything you have given me is everything I’ve ever hoped for or could ever dream of.”
Jess kissed Kyle again holding him close and filling him up with as much light as she could share with another being without snuffing out her own flame.
“That is much as I have to spare. I hope it holds your monster at bay, at least long enough to ensure that we can spend the rest of our lives together, haunting these hills and slaughtering all who dare cross our paths.”
Kyle reached for the map and eyed her closet door, Jess instantly grabbed her gear and used her mind to dim the lights. She walked towards the closet and gently pressed the secret panel open and wandered back down inside the secret passageway that now felt far more like home than any other place. Jess waited idly by a few steps below in the bowels of Burnett Manor. She watched as Kyle’s mind shut the closet door entrance behind them, once more kissing him and whispering to him,
“I never knew it could be such an honor than to serve the dark will of The Slaughterhouse Hills Hunter, until my last breath, I am yours.”
Jess turned and walked towards his private internal office. His ransacked trophy room with his gear waiting for the skillful hunter to gather his necessary provisions to hunt long into the dead of night. As he watched her sultry ass enter into his sacred inner temple, his mind whispered within;
That is what I am afraid of my darling, that tonight you risk using that last breath in my honor. Here’s hoping I finally am strong enough to conquer you Darkeel, once and for all.
Chapter 36:
Archaic Venery
Jess collected his bags watching him in her mind’s eyes. His bottom lip secured and bitten by his teeth, just watching her pert ass bent over; to retrieve his items invoked a dark arousal over him.
“I can’t believe it, for so long this night has been planned in your honor, I envisioned so many variables getting in the way and tearing us apart, seeing your hands calmly collecting what will soon be our hunting gear, for the kill tonight; I’m walking into a dream that’s finally connected to what I’ve been working on for centuries. Waiting and hoping that you’d be mine again to train someday.”
In that moment her mind flashed back to a time when she spoke no language or knew nothing of outsiders. Those glowing eyes in the dark haunted hills of the black forest waiting for her as she gathered firewood to burn a midst the blizzard in the harshest snowfall that Germany had ever seen in pre-recorded history. He watched her from a distance shrouded in darkness as she slowly pulled her arrow from quiver, drawing her bow back. Her eyes shined and her lips parted into a satisfied smile, when she wandered over towards her prize for that night’s meal she instantly felt herself slammed against the trees, her back scraping upwards feeling her throat crushing in. His eyes glowing menacingly from across the way, hers now bulging out of her skull wondering how this supernatural moment would take the breath from her very lungs leaving her a meal for the wolves in the middle of the snowbank.
“It was you.”
She smiled in sudden epiphany as her previous lives continued to flash before her very eyes time and time again. There he was hidden in the background, prominent in the foreground of the times. Resting, waiting, and watching his prey waiting for the perfect time to slaughter her when he found them coincidentally alone.
“It’s always you, isn’t it?”
She continued to gather his bags, lifting quivers on shoulder and bows up and over her neck, dragging them both over her luscious breasts and resting them further down onto her waist.
“The real question is, why didn’t I let that arrow fly where I first intended it to go… straight, in your heart?”
As her eyebrow raised and she turned towards him, Jess’s eyes glowed, her fangs protruded and she smiled wickedly.
“You know I wasn’t aiming for that rabbit that was just a fortunate coincidence until I blacked out. What did you end up doing to me afterwards?” Her glowing blue green eyes inspired a smile across Kyle’s face.
“You wouldn’t want to know…”
He turned his head in regret and tried to center himself in the present, his mind was once more locked away deep inside. Far away from Jess and her powerful ability to penetrate deep into him, finding his truest and darkest nature that he fought relentlessly to hide from those he treasured more than life itself.
“I suppose it truly does take a special or more accurately worded, crazy woman to continue to find you. Lifetime after lifetime, you think I would’ve wised up by now, recognized your face and learned to flee more stealthily. Perhaps love truly is the darkest form of madness in this world, cloaked in a guise of passionate layers. Any sane woman would’ve fled by now, perhaps Sara truly isn’t as crazy as I’ve always thought she was. I by all rational and logical account should’ve tried to escape the moment I knew who you were with Sara in arms. Running across these hillsides in the dead of night. Never worrying about Royal Gorge or the fact that this entire region has been mapped, with traps set entirely by you. She doesn’t stand a chance. Neither would we if I would’ve left with her hours ago the way she planned.”
Kyle suddenly sighed aloud in a most disconcerting way, this was the last thing he wanted to discuss right now but he realized this rebellious thought pattern would be his demise tonight if she suddenly switched sides.
“In those times my gift was dark, uncontrollable and far too strong for me to understand fully especially at that young age. It was the only way my base instincts understood how to keep you with me forever. Unfortunately I had the displeasure of watching you die in my arms in more lifetimes than I’d ever like to recollect. There’s only been a handful before that we lived both a long and happy life together, including this one… hopefully.”
“What we sew, so shall we reap. Tonight I prove myself to you once and for all. I only hope I have the strength to measure up to your desires and expectations. I can feel my initiation calling to me. The very idea haunting my drea
ms now for weeks. I’ve known its approach was coming, I just never knew it would arrive so swiftly.” Jess let a tear stream down her face.
“I’ve always known I had the ability within me to kill if necessary, but to take the life of the one I love? This will be the biggest challenge to my soul in all of my existence on this earth. Tonight I say goodbye to who I ever truly was, it’s the only way for me to find strength in letting go of Sara in such a brutal but well deserved way.”
As she wiped the tear from her face she looked into his eyes, Jess was geared up and ready to go, handing him his cloak her words quivered as they left her trembling lips, “I know what must be done. Please I beg of you, let’s go before I lose the courage to do what I must.”
Jess descended the dark staircase, for once never fearing the darkness in search of the light. The flames flickered above head after she passed by, she already knew Sara was out there, though she ran down once more to investigate her cage to see if anything else was left behind. Her boots invoked fear and whispered gasps from the many caged victims and prey to The Slaughter House Hills Hunter, as they saw her approaching Sara’s now empty cage they started to cry. Shivering and shaking knowing he’d be here soon to torture them for answers to questions of Sara’s immediate location. She walked towards the locked cage door she saw it open without provocation, as she entered the cage she heard the cries of the prisoners build. It was obvious to her that they saw the same foreboding being walking slowly, silently in darkness. His booming silhouette leering down as he approached Sara’s now empty cage.
Jess continued to rummage around through the cage looking for tools of escape or even a last note of goodbye, but she saw nothing. As she turned around she heard the door clicking shut.
“What is this? What’s going on?! This can’t be part of it.” Jess looked alarmed as the eyes of Darkeel glowed bright.
“I can’t have you getting in the way. Messing this kill up with your precious love. No, too messy for this world. Too busy risking everything we’ve worked for, centuries of me strangling the breath out of you with my bare hands and you still haven’t learned a thing.”
Jess reared back in anger slashing her claws at his bare hands and causing them to bleed. Kyle’s hands dripped all over the stone ground and that’s when she felt it. His blood soaked hand reaching for her neck and lifting her off the floor.
“Give me the gear and I’ll let you live, for now at least. I look forward to playing with you when I get back.” Jess choking, her face turning blue and eyes bulging, tears forced down her face.
“Please, let me do this with you Darkeel, let me kill her for you and then take me in return. It’s what you’ve always wanted isn’t it? To let him watch me die in his arms again after you’ve taken over. What do you say old fiend, shall we dance again?”
The words barely audible yet strong enough for him to hear. His wicked laugh echoed through and clashing off the walls of the room causing all the girls still alive within, to cry.
“Shut the fuck up you stupid whores! I’m speaking.” Darkeel released Jess and she fell to the ground choking incessantly waiting for the color to return to her face, her fangs retracting viciously.
“I knew you’d come around, with an incessant will to die trying to save him. What a pitiful existence. You can come, but I want a head start.”
In that moment he reached for her and dragged her to the cage’s entrance once more slamming her skull hard against the cage and pulling her remote viewed screen into his mind, now he could locate Sara much swifter than he would’ve by hunting down her fresh tracks in the snow. Jess instantly passed out her body slumping to the floor. Warm blood pooling by her a mixture of Kyle’s and mostly hers seeping onto the stones beneath her, clotting; as she fell unconscious while the swift feet of Darkeel moved downstairs and out towards the mausoleum. He crawled through her hand carved tunnel and out of the mausoleum door with bow and quiver locked firmly into place. Sara’s footprints still vivid in the snowbank above lead off into the north eastern direction exactly where he wanted her to go all along; his favorite hunting ground for those who refused to submit, a ravine so deep that even those who claimed immortality now rested in the snow covered graveyard thousands of feet below; never to be seen from or heard of ever again.
As she swam unconscious, Jess’s head fell back onto the cold stone floor, trickles of blood seeping from a small wound on the back of her head. As darkness fell to bleak existences of snow laden hell which expanded across the countryside and haunted hills of Colorado. Jess left her mind forever in tune with the ticking time clock and heartbeat of Sara’s. Feeling her fear, watching glimpses of snow covered trees passing by in her panicked breath that streaked across the skies, twinkling in the stars above. Jess felt her heartbeat, the ferocious pace continued to pound in twisted tune with each and every one of his calculated steps. She could see his large shoulders slinking through the snow tunnel that was carved out by her now bleeding blue fingertips. She watched his lips curl into that demonic smile as he pulled his body through the hole and effortlessly dragged himself up with gear intact on menacing form.
Jess watched as he reached down and saw drops of blood right next too fresh tracks in pristine snow banks. This was going to be a much swifter kill than he ever imagined. So many traps set to ensure that she’d never escape, yet she was making this so easy on him. Jess’s head moved across the cold stone floor still swimming with dark visions of what was taking place mere feet away from her in this very moment. Still powerless to move, unable to waken herself from this horrible slumber, she watched and heard the haunting sounds of whistling winds howling in the distance, pouring sheet after sheet of icy snow onto the hillside. In that haze of white that imminent wall of snow that masqueraded the things that go bump in the night. She watched as Darkeel walked off slowly towards the distance, his dark silhouette disappearing without a trace over the hillside towards Sara’s final resting place.
Chapter 37:
Foolish Love
Sara turned around and Jess heard her gasp, she knew he was close. She felt him approaching her from behind but she didn’t stand a chance. Jess knew Sara had a resourceful way of fashioning weapons out of practically anything on hand, but this was different. There was nothing in that cage to use. Not even as a method to escape this world through the power of her own hands, she would’ve taken her life countless times if she had the chance. As her eyes peered through the trees behind her she saw a flash from the corner of her eyes. Watching as an arrow landed overhead, she knew he was in range, felt his distance closing in on her even though he appeared to be miles behind her. She instantly fled under a hillside covered in fallen trees. Hoping to cloak herself in the pale snow, she never imagined that it would’ve fallen this swiftly. Dressed in black and wearing so little to keep warm she panted and breathed heavily as the tears streaked down her face. She knew he was coming for her. Sara felt the wrath of the beast inside that sought to finally tame her once and for all. Like a lame horse unable to move after falling and breaking its limbs, shattering them to pieces. She knew that she was a bright target in a pale landscape just waiting for the moment that that arrow would land and end her without a single consequence or hesitation.
In that moment Jess awoke gasping and choking on her own air, the blood now dried pulled and tugged at her scalp when she rose to the bars. Still shaking and blinded by the migraine that now rested in the front of her skull. She closed her eyes and focused, watching the cage unlock she pushed it open and stepped out. Searching for the first aid kit that Kyle had hidden down here for himself; in those rare and brutal moments that Darkeel took over in ways to torture him for his refusal to surrender to greater powers, not fully understood. She opened the metal box and popped a few pain pills and downed it with the water she found nearby resting on the floor behind this overseers desk.
The monitors were off and the girls were as silent as the grave. They never
moved, or even rose from the shroud of darkness that kept them at a safe distance a midst this hellish place. Jess slowly slid her hood back on, hissing with the pain;
“Motherfucker, I knew I shouldn’t have gone in there, a set up from the start. Now I’m going to have to play dirty just to keep my promises.”
She threw her equipment over her shoulders and ran upstairs, she knew that the neighbors would be gone until next week, they’d never notice their fastest horse missing. Not in a blizzard like this. Jess stampeded up the spiral staircase towards the surface of the twisted manor resting on a thousand corpses still wailing in the graveyard for sweet revenge. Before she realized she was already hopping over the fence and mounting the horse without a second thought. Fortunately the horse was bridled for she had no time to care about the saddle, she didn’t need it. She charged the fence and felt the air lifting her up, his body crashing down to the ground and his cadence swift, but challenged with the thickness of fresh snow under hoof. She realized she’d have to push him to the limit if she was going to make it to their location in time. It was only twelve miles away from here and she wouldn’t even have to ride the entire way, just enough to give her the advantage, she had to make it to Sara before he did…at all costs.
The trees streaking by in a flash of green coated in white she felt the snow piling on top of her, feeling the steed beneath her thighs breathing hard as they attempted to find any place that was hard enough to run across without having to trample through feet of snow slowing her pace to walking. She focused intently and saw her beloved’s tears, she could see through her eyes that she was nearing Royal Gorge, the eerie vanishing horizon made Sara frightened as to where she was going, she thought she knew the way. She researched it as best as she could in the last week, not realizing that this entire place looked quite strange and mysterious after heavy snowfall. Her fingers clung to the trees and she rested beside them breathing and trying to find a better way out of this place. It would only be a few more hours until sunrise, and she was already hauntingly close to where he wanted her. Jess yelled and charged towards the side of a trail that was still visible but wouldn’t be for even minutes longer. Even if it was frosted in ice, the horse could take it, but he’d soon give out and suffer from exhaustion or worse a heart attack if she pushed him any further.
A Scarlet Collection of Monsters and Madmen Page 47
