Women Scorned

by Angela Alsaleem

  “I… I’m a human.” She scrunched her eyebrows and flinched away from the sharp pressure.

  “No, you stupid woman. What are you? Why do you wear these clothes? Why do you talk to God?”

  “A nun?” Confused, she stuttered on. “I’m a nun, a nun.”

  “Nun. Hmmm. Okay, Nun. Have you ever experienced the pleasures of pain?”

  “Th… the what?” Her voice squeaked and she spoke like a frightened mouse.

  “I’m here to teach you about the pleasures of pain. I will purify your soul through pain. Do you understand?”

  “Why are you doing this?” the nun shouted. “Why do you want to hurt me? You don’t have to do this. You can’t do this to a Bride of Christ. The Devil is in you. Let me help banish the Devil from your heart.”

  Unable to tolerate her victim’s insolence, Aludra replaced the sock. She scooted down her toy’s body and cut the uniform straight up the middle, relishing each tear in the fabric. Once she’d reached the throat, she spread the black material out, exposing the nun’s body. She wore plain white underwear with a plain white bra and black knee-high stockings. Her skin rippled in the chilly room and she trembled. Her eyes were closed again.

  “Now, I warned you, didn’t I?” She stabbed the scissors into the mattress between the nun’s thighs and grabbed the needle and thread. The non-believer thrashed her head back and forth, screaming through her gag, her muffled cries music to Aludra’s ears.

  Aludra sat on the nun’s chest, locking her head between her knees.

  “Hold still now,” she said. “You don’t want me to stab your eye, do you? Hold them open.”

  The moaning under the rag became faster but quieter. She was talking to her God again, glowing with new hope and power. This power would be drained. It had to be. If she couldn’t touch it, then she would figure out how to make it go away.

  Aludra grasped the nun’s eye lashes and peeled the lid from the wet orb. On instinct, the bound woman squeezed her eye shut which caused her top lid to slip out of Aludra’s fingers. In turn, Aludra jabbed the needle into the nun’s forehead.

  “I’ll gouge it out instead if you don’t hold still. Keep it open!”

  She pulled the lashes up again. This time, the nun’s blue eyes focused on the needle, then Aludra’s face, then back on the needle again, so quickly that Aludra found herself distracted by the movement.

  She focused and pushed the needle through the underside of the lid with a satisfactory pop as it broke through the skin. The nun screamed and tried to twist her head away, causing the skin to tear. She pulled the string through.

  “Ooh, look how it dances.” The dark virgin tugged on the thread, making the eyelid move. The nun bellowed and cried, her chest heaving under Aludra’s thighs.

  Tiring of this, Aludra went to work on the eyebrow. She had to push harder than expected, the flesh there was tough. It bled more than the eyelid once the needle pierced through. She tightened the string to hold the eyelid open, pushed it through the underside one more time and then tied it off.

  “There,” she said. “Pretty as ever.” She repeated the process on the other side, this time without playing. Bound and gagged, the nun now carried a perpetual look of revelation, as if everything Aludra preached was the most fascinating and surprising information she’d ever received. When she tried to blink, the bottoms of her eyelids rose. The blue orbs darted back and forth, focusing and unfocusing.

  Satisfied, Aludra maneuvered herself to sit between her victim’s legs. She yanked the scissors from the bed and ran the blade up the nun’s stomach to her bra. Sliding the sharp metal under the delicate material, she closed the shears. The strap and cups bounced back, exposing tiny breasts.

  Tears leaked down the nun’s face.

  Aludra pinched her left nipple and pulled the breast up the same way she’d done with the eyelid. Sobs made the flesh shudder. Aludra snipped off the nipple and tossed it over her shoulder to the sound of muffled shrieks.

  “This is a good blade,” she said. “Imagine how it would have been if I’d needed to make several cuts to get through your nipple. That would’ve been worse, don’t you think?”

  The nun turned her head and moaned, snot flowing down her upper lip.

  Aludra licked the blood that streamed from the mangled breast, shivering at the taste. Once she had lapped it clean, Aludra suckled the areola where the pert nipple used to be, flicking her tongue over the wound. She fondled the undamaged breast, scissors still looped around her fingers, and squeezed her own with her free hand. She shuddered with pleasure as her toy moaned in pain, the sounds mingling a morbid chorus.

  Her body ignited with power and she wondered if it had anything to do with God. Could she suck him out of this woman? With the surge of energy came an injection of desire. She’d been wearing her satchel the entire time. She removed it now and rifled through it, still molesting the pretty little thing’s breast. Aludra finally found what she sought. She pulled out her little black box with her razor blade. She bounced off the bed and stripped. Her exposed body stood in stark contrast to the black clothes she wore, the creamy flesh only marred by a couple of knotted lines high up on her inner thigh.

  Back in bed with her student, without hesitating, she dragged the blade over the scar, opening it, sighing with desire as her bodies warmth dribbled out. She massaged between her legs feeling electric. Bending over and placing her mouth over the nun’s mangled breast, she pushed the blade deeper and rubbed herself faster.

  Aludra inhaled the scent of sex and blood, her nostrils flaring. Her kneading became more insistent. The nun’s cries grew louder as Aludra’s moans rose in pitch and speed, her breath coming in short gasps.

  At the moment of climax, Aludra bit into the nun’s breast, eliciting a scream. Her body pulsed with wave after wave of intense pleasure. Then it was gone. The bound woman’s glow dimmed. She wailed with her head turned to the side. Aludra collapsed next to her, hand still between her legs, razor still dangling in her fingers. After a moment, she cleaned her wound and bound it, closing the old scar.

  “Well, that was enjoyable,” she whispered. She stuffed her things back into her bag, then slept next to the bound nun, covering them both with a blanket, her arm draped around her toy.

  After dark, Aludra awoke with a start, an uncontrollable urge to go after Rory filling her mind. Panic seeped into her gut making her scramble to dress. She could feel the spirit moving further away. Soon now, she would have to capture the thing and bring it back to the manor. After all this time, she could return home to her room, no more wandering in pursuit. She would become eternal like the High Priest and Priestess, given the honor because of all her hard work. But these things couldn’t come to pass if she allowed Rory to avoid her grasp.

  Aludra looked at the sleeping victim. With her eyes open and glazed over, she almost looked dead. If she wanted the nun to see anything, then she’d need to make sure her eyes stayed moist. Aludra grinned at this and went into the bathroom. She wet her hands in the sink then let the water drip into the nun’s eyes, waking her up.

  The wretch thrashed her head back and forth, screaming, arching her back, pulling her hands downward, trying to get loose of her bindings. It was as if someone had turned the toy off and the water had turned it back on, resuming a paused game.

  “Shhh,” Aludra said. “This will make it feel better.” She grabbed the nun’s face and squeezed her cheeks making her lips pucker as if for a kiss then dripped more water in her eyes. “There, now. See? I wasn’t trying to hurt you.

  “Now, I’m going to untie you, but you aren’t going to run, okay. You are going to be a good little Bride of Christ and stay right here. But first…” She picked up the scissors and brought them over the nun’s eyes.

  The nun screamed, staring at the sharp blades.

  “Silence,” she hissed. Once again, she had to sit on her chest and steady her head with her knees. After doing this, she cut the strings holding the woman’s eyes open. Afte
r pulling the thread out, she allowed the nun to blink a few times.

  “I need you to be able to see well or you will slow me down, but you are coming with me.” She would be Aludra’s first protégée. She felt bonded to her in a way she hadn’t felt toward her others.

  She untied the nun, who didn’t try to flee, who no longer cried, who now stood slump shouldered in the middle of the room, her radiance diminished as Aludra picked an outfit from the closet. She dressed her in a garish, orange sweater and bright blue sweat pants.

  “You aren’t talking to your God anymore?” She patted the woman on the butt to get her moving. “Has he left?”

  The woman sobbed softly but said nothing. Her aura dimmed further.

  “See? I knew that power couldn’t last. God no longer fills you with it. Is it because you stopped talking to him? Or, did you stop talking to him because he stopped filling you with His power? I really want to know.”

  “God has a plan,” the nun said, chin nearly resting on her chest as she stood in her new clothes.

  “Does he now? And what’s his plan for me?” Aludra’s smile broadened.

  “Only He knows that.”

  “He doesn’t know what I know,” she whispered. “Let’s go.”

  They left through the back door and marched into the forest. The night sang, the strange sounds of various animals no longer startling Aludra. She kept her captive in front of her, ready to play again. This one’s spirit was hard to break. She seemed to be getting weak now but that luminosity was still about her, burning within her like embers. Aludra would snuff it out soon enough.

  Rory and the little redhead weren’t far.

  “Do you think it feels me?” she said.

  The nun didn’t reply.

  “I feel Rory as if it was right here next to me. I can sense the direction the spirit heads. But can it feel me?”

  “Who’s Rory?”

  “That’s for me to know.” Twigs snapped beneath their feet.

  The nun stumbled on a dead branch and fell, scraping her hands in the underbrush.

  “Get up, you insolent wretch.”

  “I can’t see out here,” she whined. “Can’t you walk in front?”

  “You can see well enough. Just get up and keep moving.” She didn’t help her.

  Once standing, she glared at Aludra, hatred emanating from her, more intense than her light.

  “Now, there’s the look I’ve been waiting to see.”

  “The Devil has you,” she said and spat in Aludra’s face.

  Aludra smiled and wiped it off. The glistening wetness slicked her palm. “Here, I think this is yours,” she said and smeared the viscous fluid over the nun’s face.

  Her victim took to crying again. “I can help you,” she said. “If you just let me, I can get the Devil out of you. You can be happy. God will make you happy.” Her glow brightened once again as she spoke.

  “You really believe that, don’t you?” She glared at the nun. “What is the Devil anyway? What is God for that matter? Both are powerful it seems, but what kind of power do they make?”

  “Love God and you will be free.”

  Aludra smacked the Bride of Christ. “Enough talk,” she said. She grasped the plaything’s hair at the nape of her neck, bringing her cheek against her face, lips to her ear, and hissed, “You will hate me in the end.” She licked her earlobe. “I promise.” With a shove, she said, “Now move. That way.” She pointed to the thickest part of the woods.

  What would it be like to play with Rory? Such a strong spirit. Would Rory take her essence or could she turn Rory into something else, twist the creature the way she twisted others? It would be such fun to toy with Rory in the flesh. Torturing that body, making Rory feel pain would be bliss. Would Rory enjoy pain?

  She smiled. Rory would probably destroy her in a flash of light the same way she assumed Rory had dispatched that man’s soul. The delirious man. She’d seen into his eyes and had been frightened. What could do that? Rory. That’s what. Rory could make a spirit vacate a body.

  Aludra would learn this trick, would learn the ways of the spirit world. The further they walked into the forest, the brighter the nun’s spirit glowed. She muttered to God again. This was the connection.

  What she needed to know, what she couldn’t understand, was whether or not God, the deceiver, fed power into the nun or if the woman generated power by talking to God. And did it matter? Either way, she had a strong soul and Aludra vowed to break it.

  Chapter Eight

  Libitina trotted after Camilla, plowing through the brush as if she were escaping the devil. Her legs pulsed with an ache that begged her to rest. Camilla twitched and muttered to herself. Cerberus whined in her backpack, the light weight a harsh reminder that her supplies were almost depleted. How much longer would they go on? Three days… had they been walking for that long? Camilla had stopped once so Libitina could rest a bit but it hadn’t been long enough. Camilla claimed they were being followed by something nightmarish and she didn’t want to meet it.

  When Libitina tried to talk to her, Camilla hadn’t responded. It was like she’d fallen into a trance.

  “I don’t know when she will stop to rest again,” Libitina said into her recorder. Her foot caught on a branch and she went sprawling on her belly, losing her grip on the small machine. Cerberus yelped, but didn’t try to jump from the open backpack. It took her a moment to recover from the blow. Stars danced around her vision.

  After regaining her breath and stability, she collected the recorder and brushed herself off. Camilla had gotten further ahead. She checked her electronics for damages, then continued her monologue. “I don’t know how she can move so fast. It’s obvious her legs don’t work right. She’s jerky and uncoordinated.” She sped up, not wanting to be left behind. “I’m surprised she didn’t kill me. I’m surprised she’s allowing me to tag along. As it turns out, though, she’s not a zombie. Her name is Camilla Benedict, she told me before she went into her trance, and she doesn’t know what she is, but zombies can’t walk through walls. I mean, I’ve never heard of one that could. It seems like that would be something a ghost or a vampire might do but not a zombie.”

  She pushed the stop button and walked, lost in thought. Cerberus huffed and rested his head on her shoulder, his paws on either side of his face. Finally, she pushed record again. “She might be a vampire of sorts, feeding off people’s breath instead of their blood. I don’t know. Because I’ve never heard of such a solid ghost. I mean, she’s flesh and bone. I’ve touched her. Her skin was kind of slimy, like it’s decomposing, but considering how long she’s been dead, it’s obvious she’s decomposing at a much slower rate than a regular corpse. And she can go through walls. This is what gets me the most.

  “Maybe I should get a sample. If I could somehow get some of her tissue, I could test it. That might show me more. Maybe help me discover what the heck she is.” She sighed, watching Camilla ambling along.

  “I don’t know why she doesn’t want to wear clothes. It makes me sick looking at her naked body. She’s covered in so many wounds. And the blood just won’t stop. How is she still bleeding? How is she still walking?

  “God, I’m just so tired. But I have to keep going, no matter what. I have to stick with this. It’s the most amazing discovery since… since… well, since I don’t know what, but this is amazing. I’ve read so many stories but they were just that, stories. I don’t think anyone has ever come across a real… creature? Is that what I want to call her? I guess she is a creature of sorts. But she’s more human than that.”

  She tripped on another root but didn’t fall this time. Each new step onward presented a new challenge. “I’m just so tired,” she said again and clicked off her machine. Camilla stopped and jerked her head. Libitina shuddered. “Ugh,” she whispered, not wanting to close the distance between them. Camilla had been like this all day.

  Cerberus hunched low, ears up, staring at something in the brush with all the focus a one-
track-mind animal can give. A rabbit leapt out of a shrub and bounded away. The dog yipped and wriggled out of the backpack, landed on his side with a grunt, then took chase, his leash trailing. The dumb animal disappeared before Libitina had a chance to realize what had happened.

  “No,” she commanded. “Cerberus.” Each syllable was sharp, cracking like a whip. “Cerberus, come! No. Bad dog. Come. Sit. Stay. Cerberus, stop!” Her tired legs stumbled as she ran after her pet. After a moment, she stopped, panting, listening. Tears welled. “Cerberus,” she whined. “Come on, baby,” she said more softly, coaxing now. “Come on, Cerberus. Come to mommy.” Voice choked with tears, she continued to call him.

  A bark sounded in the distance. She’d recognize her dog’s yelp anywhere. She ran toward the sound.

  “Mommy’s coming, baby,” she called again and again.

  When she found him entangled in a bush she laughed, the knots in her belly loosening. The little black dog wiggled when he saw her, bouncing around her feet as she untangled his leash. The air smelled like rain. The sky overhead grew darker with clouds and the setting sun.

  “We’ve been walking for three days,” she said to her dog. “What made you think you could catch a stupid rabbit, dummy?”

  Cerberus wagged his tail and licked his lips, ears back, head down. She unbound the dog and coddled him, kissing his snout, refusing to let him down. She buried her nose in his short fur and breathed in his scent. He smelled like dust and green.

  “Don’t scare me like that again,” she whispered. “You frightened me.”

  Cerberus licked her chin, lapped away the tears. Once over her shock, Libitina looked around and realized what she’d overlooked in her panic.

  She was lost. The trees closed around her, crowding out the light and any line of sight in which she might spot Camilla.

  “Fuck,” she whispered. She turned in a circle, cradling her dog under her arm. “Fuck,” she shouted.

  That bush over there looked familiar. Maybe she’d passed it? Maybe. She went that direction, not sure where else to go. If she’d had some idea of Camilla’s destination, she might have a chance of finding her again. Whether she found her companion or escaped the forest and went back home, she needed to get moving, and forward was better than staying put. As she shuffled onward, she tried to recognize the landmarks she’d flown past.