Celeste pulled on a one-piece skirt outfit. It wasn’t something to wear this time of year, but she didn’t care about that either. Cold couldn’t hurt her right now. She craved heat but not from the air. She left her apartment. Less than ten minutes later, she went through the back door of someone else’s house. His place wasn’t bad for a bachelor, especially one who liked to party a lot. It was pretty clean, a reflection of working in a restaurant probably, and it was neat. It wasn’t a house of expensive things, with exception. He had a pretty high tech entertainment system, and he had a nice collection of DVDs, mostly horror and sci-fi flicks.
Celeste went into his bedroom and waited. It was still early for him to come home. A little before five, she heard his car pull up. She had parked her car in the alley, so he wouldn’t suspect anything at this point. She sat up on his bed and waited for him to find her. He took time to clean up before coming in the room, a matter of indifference to Celeste right now. Clean. Dirty. Whatever. Get in here and give it to me!
Paul saw her immediately when he came into the room. He jolted with shock, which was not so surprising. What was more foreboding was the way he looked at her after the initial shock wore off. His face went slightly pale and his jaw grew slack. He stood there for a few seconds as if not knowing what to say, or maybe if he should say anything at all. Maybe he should turn and run like hell.
“Come here,” Celeste said, opening her arms out in front of her.
Paul shook his head. Then he was finally able to speak a few words. “I thought you were sick,” he said in a near whisper.
Celeste was growing impatient. It had been hard to wait for him to come home. But that was bearable. Now that he was in sight, she thought she could actually sense his heat.
“Shut up, Paul,” she said, alluringly. “Come over here and let me have you.”
Paul shook his head. “No way. I wouldn’t touch you.” But he wasn’t leaving, and there was something coming over him. His whole body seemed to be growing limp. Celeste thought she could feel him being drawn to her.
“Come on, baby. You know you want it.”
Paul moved a step backward, but then stopped. She knew part of him wanted to leave. Deep down, at a level where she could think it, but not feel it, Celeste wanted him to leave. But at a level she could feel, the level that was in control, she wouldn’t let him.
Celeste lay back. She spread her legs, opening the skirt, revealing herself. With that, he inched forward. “No,” he said. “I won’t do it.” He kept moving toward her anyway. He fought like that for a while, nearly a minute, coming toward her ever so slowly. Then, all at once, it seemed to overwhelm him. He dropped to his knees, on the floor in front of her. He used his tongue. She could feel heat from that. As he ate her out, she could feel energy slipping from him and into her. She could also feel him slowing down. She got off the bed and pushed him flat on his back, on the floor. She then removed his pants. She got on top and took him in. He was only semierect, but that quickly changed inside her. She felt the heat rushing from him now. Quickly, he started to pass out. She suddenly knew that she could stop that. She ran a hand in front of his face and that held his eyes open. He was obeying her will completely now. Though his body was too tired for it, he remained conscious. She felt his penis grow slightly and realized he was about to explode. With her will, she stopped that too. She didn’t want his semen in her. She wanted his heat.
Paul’s eyes bulged as if they would pop out of his head. The horror on his face was unbelievable. She liked it. His muscles tensed as she pulled on the heat inside him, emptying it, until he was completely solid, his body not yielding at all under her. She pulled until she felt the very last of the warmth leave him. Then he collapsed.
Celeste got off of him. She reached down and felt an artery in his neck. There was no blood being pumped through him. She didn’t care. She was too high right now. Her thoughts came with speed and clarity. She felt strong, stronger than a man. She pulled Paul’s pants back on him. She lifted him off the floor and placed him on the bed. She thought it would look more natural when they found him like this. He just died in bed.
She wasn’t worried. Intellectually, she knew there were steps she needed to take to protect herself. But that didn’t bother her. She was confident. She had fed, and she wouldn’t have to feed again for a while.
***
Celeste had killed, and she had killed in a way different than any way she’d ever heard of. She had taken a life, removed it from a body, so that her body would be so much more.
Paul had not deserved to die. She was acutely aware of this. She knew that if she allowed herself to come down, she would feel guilt. She would have to stay high.
Celeste went home after leaving Paul’s house, taking some of his books with her. With her energy, she read. She read first a book about vampires. She was able to finish it in a couple of hours. She loved the way they fed on life to maintain their own immortality. Was she immortal?
The vampire book had made references to something called a succubus. That sounded more like what she had become. She researched it further on the Internet. There were various definitions. Some claimed that the succubus fed on male sexual energy. Some claimed it stole dreams in the night.
Celeste had once heard that fiction fed upon reality. The book and the websites had both been based on fiction and legend. She thought maybe there had been others like her, and regular humans had tried to understand them, but lost something in the translation.
None of the books she had taken from Paul’s house told stories about the succubus. So she read another vampire book. It was about noon when she noticed something. The energy from Paul had not yet worn down. She was still reading as fast as before, and in the moments when she moved about her apartment, she could feel swiftness in her nerves and in her muscles. She knew she was so much stronger now. But it wasn’t like it had been last week and the weeks before, where after taking in a certain amount of energy, she was ready to stop. She wanted more.
It had to be the barrier breaking down. No longer would she be satisfied, ever. There was no set limit to how much she could take in. At least, that was what she thought. So, on Sunday, only hours from the time she had taken Paul, she went out again. She laughed at the thought of the vampires. They fed only at night. She could move in the sunlight without repercussion.
Most of the stores didn’t open until one on Sunday. So she sat in a couple of different restaurants. She didn’t eat. She felt no need for food. She could take energy in directly, and she used it efficiently. She didn’t have to derive energy from food, which her body would have to process, only to waste a good part of. She only drank, juices and coffee.
As she sat in the restaurants, she tested her powers over men. She willed them to look at her, and they turned in their seats, as if confused, like they were sensing something but didn’t know what it was. Once they found her, they seemed infatuated. Some stared at her almost constantly. Those accompanied by females stared at her as nonchalantly as they possibly could. She knew that she’d caused a few girlfriends and wives to become angry. But she didn’t care.
She had planned on finding her next victim in the stores. There would be a shopping rush when they opened, Christmas not too far away. She wouldn’t stand out unless she wanted to. But after she left the second restaurant, in the parking lot, a young man approached her.
“Hi,” he said.
Celeste turned and recognized him as one of the people she had teased inside the restaurant. He was tall, with dark hair, probably college aged. He wasn’t extremely attractive, but then again, neither had Paul been. She didn’t care. What she cared about was on the inside, and she could sense a lot of energy in this one.
“Hi, yourself,” Celeste responded.
By the look on his face and that he could come up with no more words, he wasn’t used to talking to women. Celeste doubted that he would have ever talked to her, but he knew he had to, because he had never had a woman as attractive as
her look at him as she did inside the restaurant, and he’d never felt anything like the attraction she had caused.
“Do you live alone?” Celeste asked.
“No,” the boy said. “I live with two roommates up by the community college.”
“And are they home?”
Disappointed, the boy nodded.
Celeste thought of what to do. She couldn’t take him to her place. She didn’t want a dead body in her apartment, a body that she would have to dispose of.
“Get in your car and follow me.”
Celeste drove to a park and the guy obediently followed. The park was on a large pond that the city outlawed fishing in. People would come here to see and feed the big fish. It wasn’t popular this time of year. There were four cars inside the park, but they were all towards the center of the lake. Celeste drove to the very end. He pulled in beside her in a small SUV, the kind mom and dad might buy you if you were a rich kid and maintained your grades at community college. Celeste motioned that he should stay inside his vehicle.
She didn’t spend much time seducing him further. They got into the backseat and she took off his pants and hers. He got on top of her and she pulled his body to hers, keeping him low. She felt he would explode, but she wouldn’t let him.
“No,” he whispered, as he seemed to realize that he was under her control. But his body disobeyed his will, and he continued to pump her until he didn’t have the energy to pump anymore.
Celeste was on fire with the energy entering her. His body tensed up. It was when the final bit of his heat came into her, a sort of extra burst in the energy that told her she had taken his very life, that she felt overwhelmed. She had taken too much in. She now had the energy, the lifeforce, of two men inside her. She wasn’t ready for such power. Her muscles jerked and her breath became spasmodic. She thought she might burst. But then, after less than a minute of feeling that way, she got it under control. The energy wasn’t gone, but she was containing it somehow, keeping it from destroying her.
Celeste left the dead stranger in his vehicle. As she drove home, she thought she had learned a lesson. She would, in the future, have more than one inside her, but she would take it slow, work her way up to it, from now on. She had to learn how to control it.
Lifeforce, she thought. It wasn’t dreams or sexual energy she stole from these men. No, sex was just the power, the trick she had over them. It was their very lifeforce she took.
***
Janet Pollard was near tears. She hadn’t been this disappointed in her family or in life in general since her first husband died. The Pious Eagles had made it through the regular season without a single defeat. This weekend, they would host their first playoff game. That was what her husband and her youngest son were focused on right now, Sunday night, at the dinner table. For the first time since he started the last span of treatment, they were indifferent to Toby’s progress.
Right now, she thought, was when he might need their attention the most, because apparently, he had regressed. He had come home from the session yesterday in good spirits. He had told her that it went well and that he thought he would be even better this week. But then, this morning, he had gathered the breakfast meats on his plate, only to stare at them.
“I’m not hungry,” he finally said.
Janet had thought little of it at the time. Maybe he just wasn’t feeling well this morning. His appetite would come back later. But it hadn’t. He hadn’t eaten at all at lunch. Then, for dinner, she had made a roast. And for what? The two insensitive bastards wolfed it down as always, talking about football, which seemed to be the only thing that mattered right now, the only thing this whole damn town cared about.
Toby had taken a bite of the roast, made a funny face and then sat his utensils down. Finally, he got up and left the table. Janet expected to hear him vomiting in the other room. But after a few minutes, she still hadn’t heard it. In fact, she didn’t even think he went to the bathroom at all.
Janet got up from the table. She found Toby in his room. He lay on his bed throwing a Nerf football toward the ceiling and then catching it when it came down.
“Everything okay, sweetie?”
“Yes,” Toby said, without looking at her. “I know you’re worried that I didn’t eat, but don’t be. I’m sure it will kick in. It’s just taking a little longer this time.”
With that, Janet felt better. Maybe she had jumped the gun. It was only Sunday, one day after the session. She’d wait a couple of days. Then, if things weren’t better, she’d call Dr. Porter.
***
They were all asleep. He would have to be quiet. No one would approve of this. It just wasn’t right to have such a craving. But maybe the craving was false. Maybe he just thought he wanted it, but would try it and realize it had just been some weird trick of his senses.
Around midnight, Toby got out of bed. He was starving. He had barely eaten on Sunday. The things he had wanted last week were not desirable to him now. The thought of vegetables wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good either. The same was true for the meats his mother had prepared. They seemed bland to him now, but in a different way than what most people thought of as bland. They were missing something, but it wasn’t spices. No, Mom was a good cook. She spiced the food right. Even if she had not, there was salt on the table. He didn’t crave spice at all. Actually, he would rather be without it. What he wanted was as plain, as unprepared as could be.
Toby crept through the house. He couldn’t make a sound. Randy and his dad wouldn’t wake up. Even if they did, they’d just go back to sleep. But his mom was vigilant to noise, even in her sleep. He suspected that was part of her maternal instinct.
And what instinct was in him now? None. It was just silliness. He was just curious. He just wanted something he’d never had, that was all. He’d try it, become disgusted and then go back to bed and start again tomorrow.
But as soon as he opened the refrigerator, Toby knew that all that was crap. This was no simple curiosity, nor was it a trick of his senses. He smelled it, and he felt the heat rising in him, telling him exactly what he wanted.
There were leftovers there, roast from earlier, a casserole from last night. But Toby didn’t crave or otherwise care about these things at all. At the bottom of the refrigerator were a few different thawed meats: a half empty tube of sausage, a storage bag of bacon, and about a pound of hamburger. Toby tried a slice of raw bacon. It filled him with pleasure. He had another slice. He stopped there with the bacon, though. His mother wouldn’t notice a little missing, but she would know that there had been enough there for the next serving. He went next to the sausage, smearing a little of it on his fingers and plopping it in his mouth. Delicious. Next, he broke a raw egg over his mouth. It was slimy, but that didn’t bother him. He swished it around his mouth, felt it on his tongue. Savory. He had another.
He buried the shells carefully in the trash. For now, he was satisfied. He went back to bed, but didn’t sleep. The heat went to work on the food immediately. He felt his energy rise until it was at an unnatural level, at least, unnatural for him.
Toby realized that this was going to be hard to hide. It would be hard, but not impossible. Thank God, Dad and Randy were focused elsewhere this week. The only person he really had to fool was Mom. But that was manageable. For the feeling, the high the raw food gave him, the extra work of sneaking around would be worth it.
***
His parents had left this morning. It was one of the things they did now that they were retired. They liked to take spur of the moment trips. That was even easier now. They didn’t have to spend time making sure James had everything he needed before they took off. They had wanted him to go to Florida with them for the week. But they hadn’t been too insistent when he refused. He promised that the next trip they went on he would go. He said being two states away from his home might be a little overwhelming at this point, a neat little lie of convenience. He also assured them that he would lock the doors and not go out at night,
since the news had been reporting that a killer was on the loose and still might be in the area.
The police were saying that the two cases were connected. The same person who killed the Harolds had killed the Bremmers. They didn’t say how they connected the two cases, but James suspected it was by footprints or possibly fingerprints. They were warning people to be careful.
James was glad for his parents to be gone. Now he had the whole house to himself, to think in solitude. He was lucky not to have been caught, and if he hung low, they might not ever catch him. He’d have to learn to enjoy his life like a normal person. He had to stop the possessions.
But he wasn’t able to think this way for much longer. The urge overwhelmed him. That afternoon, he went to his hill.
***
Toby left the school grounds ten minutes before everyone else got to go to lunch. He had set it up with his mom. This morning he had awoken, after about two hours of sleep, to the scents of breakfast being prepared. He knew his mother was probably hoping the scents would attract him to the food. She didn’t know what it really made him feel. To him, she was ruining the meat. But he played the part.
He went into the kitchen with her, where she was cooking. “Umm. That smells really good.”
Her face lit up at the comment.
“But I think I have a new problem,” Toby said.
As quickly as her face had lit up, it became concerned. “Oh. What is it?”
Toby bowed his head for effect. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not. But some of the roast was gone this morning.”
“No, I hadn’t noticed.” She moved from the stove over to the refrigerator. She opened the door and looked inside. Toby had stripped off a noticeable hunk the night before, cutting it from the top to make the missing part stand out.
Scribner Horror Bundle: Four Horror Novels by Joshua Scribner Page 39
