Scarlet Unleashed

by Krihstin Zink

  Before I adjust to sit—I take advantage that I’m still on my hands and knees—I turn to look over my shoulder. Kissy Face’s gawk of desire causes my thighs to stick, and in a quick but provocative move, I spread my limbs out and wait for her next move.

  “Now, relax while I fasten the restraints,” she orders in a deep, lustful tone. Her stare is intense while she straps me to her bed. Pure, raw lust bursts from my core as I prepare for whatever she has in store.

  “Mmm…too bad Scarlet isn’t here to play.” Her statement stings. She pats my thigh before she walks away. The fuck? I’m glued to her peach-shaped ass and gawk as she steps away from the bed to stride toward the bedroom’s closet.

  “Be as rough as you can, please.” I giggle in excitement. My hunger roars to a blaze, and I feel like an exposed nerve; just one touch from her will make me soak the sheet all the way to the mattress.

  The closet door creaks open, and my eyes fixate on Kissy’s peculiar grin. One of her shoulders hangs lower, and instantly I notice the large metal briefcase.

  “Ooo…what’s in there?” I can barely restrain my hunger for her sexual punishment.

  “Did you really believe that you would enjoy my playroom? Ha. Only good pussies get to cum in this room,” she snarls at me. And again, another Kissy appears when her face twists into a grotesque expression. My hunger and lust is replaced with fear. Well, Inner-Scarlet, looks like we’re fucked. Inner-Scarlet trembles in horror at what might become of us. My attempts to continue as the fearful bitch that I am explodes into miniature fragments of endurance. Fuck. Again, my twat gets me into a mess.

  Olive places her silver suitcase onto her bed. The coldness nips at my skin. “Please. Don’t do this. I’m Scarlet,” I totally lie and hope that Kissy Face falls for it.

  “Ha. You’re Kate, remember?” She focuses on her suitcase, and then the air becomes thick, and I find it difficult to breathe. Inner-Scarlet squeals when Kissy reveals an exaggerated syringe. Fuck.

  “What’s in that? Tell me!” My thunderous demand prompts the bed to quake beneath us. Before I can break free from the bed’s restraints, Kissy face shoots my left arm’s exposed vein with her deathly syringe. Inner-Scarlet’s fright takes hold as she stiffens until she’s a stone statue perched on her wheelchair.

  “You see, I never know what I’m getting when I bring home new playmates. Sometimes I have to drug and dump the crazies.” Kissy’s voice begins to warp while the room grows dim. Paralysis sets in, and I can see and hear, but my limbs are as heavy as boulders, and I lack the ability to move my muscles.

  “Their eyes always show their fear,” Kissy says before she leans in to shut my eyes.

  Kissy’s body movements seem loud against the silence that surrounds us. I’m doll-like to her, like a vegetative patient that she now dresses and moves from the bed to a cold snug surface. Heavy-set restraints tie me snug against the coldness, and I panic when I feel a brisk gust of air brush against my face before a lid is shut above me.

  The air is thick, and if it weren’t for the paralysis, my chest would show my terror-induced hyperventilation. Kissy Face’s grunts fill the hallway as we descend from the staircase. I’m an active mind imprisoned in an inactive sack of bones and skin that is heavily retrained in what feels like a coffin. I try to flee Scarlet’s vessel, but I’m stuck. We’re stuck and fucked.

  Panic erupts within Scarlet’s subconscious, which causes Inner-Scarlet and me to squeal and hold on to each other. We’re blind to what may come next. My neck jerks when our coffin thuds against the base of the staircase. The air within the coffin seems limited, and I feel as if we may die before we’re murdered.

  Kissy Face’s grunts combined with my coffin slamming against the stairs create a frightful song. Suddenly, she stops and then continues to shove at my coffin a few more times until she abandons me. The carpet cushions her footsteps, so all I hear are my palpitations thumping against my eardrums. Whatever neurotoxin she’s administered has an iron-clad hold—even my damn lips are sealed shut.

  “You see! You see what you got us into? You stupid, stupid, slut!” Inner-Scarlet’s bitchiness unleashes. I pace the floor of Scarlet’s subconscious. Fuck, I’m not ready to return to hell…I want to keep having fun.

  “Fuck. I can’t help my sexual hunger. You see how I am with you.”

  I stalk toward her, but once I’m at arm’s length, she holds her hands up and shouts, “No. Olive might kill us, and all you want is an orgasm. Gah. You’re fucked up.” Inner-Scarlet rubs at her forehead while she shakes her head like a disappointed parent toward an impulsive child.

  “I’m a fucking demon. What did you expect from me?” I growl at her.

  On cue, tears roll down her face as she searches the room her subconscious has built. Then, panic pulls at her emotions, and her face twists in every which way as she shouts, “Now what? Now what, Kate? You caused this. I’ll die and no one will even know.”

  Hell. Hell is a place I have no urge to return to. And yet, the idea of an afterlife death makes it too dangerous to stay with Scarlet. I ignore Scarlet’s cries, and sulk against the wall. The thought of returning to hell threatens the last gram of sanity that I have. I rub against my temples as I acknowledge that my demonic soul needs to stay here in this realm. I fought too hard to return from hell—no one will send me back.

  Kate

  Animated bubbles pop in the distance. Immediately, I recognize the sounds of a Samsung touchscreen keypad. A call connects, and the familiar ringing of an active call taunts and echoes.

  “Who is she calling?” Inner-Scarlet gapes in dismay.

  I shrug, then give her a, “How the fuck am I supposed to know?” glare.

  “Why don’t you possess her?” she scolds me as she fumes and rolls her eyes to stare into the distance.

  “It doesn’t work like that,” I hiss at her.

  “Why?” she whines in defeat.

  “Because I’m a baby demon; I feed on lust and fear, and I haven’t fucked enough people to just be all over the damn place possessing people. Right now, I can only be seen by you and David.” My gaze narrows at Scarlet. Her eyes round like a sad, pathetic puppy when she hears David’s name.

  She rolls herself into a corner to sulk. If she only knew about David.

  “What up, B?” a male voice croaks.

  “Yo, Lou, I have a 911 over here,” she replies before she ends the call.

  A momentous gap of silence passes before there’s a forceful knock on Kissy’s front door.

  “Why can’t you use your demon strength and get us out of this shit?” Inner-Scarlet screams from a corner inside the enclosed room within her mind.

  I charge toward her and press my nose against her cheek and say, “I fucking told you that it doesn’t work like that. I’m as trapped as you are. We’re stuck and fucked. At least until the neurotoxin wears off.”

  The front door opens, and we can hear Kissy in a whispered conversation with someone.

  “What the fuck, Olive? When are you going to quit it with this shit? I can’t keep dumping randos for you,” a growl-like, male voice fills the room with his reprimands.

  “Please, Lou, just help me get her into my car. K?” Kissy whines. What a whiny, bitch! Someone releases an extravagant sigh.

  “You know, a ‘how you doin’, Lou?’ would be much better than your ‘911’ calls. You’re lucky we’re family,” he scolds her like an older brother toward his much younger sister.

  Her voice squeals into a high-pitched whine, and my desire to snap her neck builds. My active mind vibrates of ideas on how I will kill Kissy Face and all of her family. Everyone will die— mafia style—fuckers! Their movements draw near, and I shift in my coffin as they open the container to relocate me into Kissy’s SUV. They toss me in the trunk as if I were a box full of donation scraps.

  “Do me a favor: disown me and stop calling me for these damn tasks,” Lou shouts before the trunk door slams. Outside of the SUV, a heated conversation ensues. Tw
o doors open and then slam shut.

  “You know that I can’t carry the bodies once they’re sedated. For some reason, they become twice their weight,” Kissy continues to whine.

  “What the fuck do you plan to do with this one?” His snarl overpowers the low mumbles from the radio.

  “She needs help. Psychological help. Our only option is to return her to Dr. Blantz.”

  Inner-Scarlet begins to tremble in fear; her eyes widen and plead for me to do something because we both know what’s to come. If Scarlet is returned to Dr. Blantz, then she faces a dreadful life of psychological internalization. I will figure this out; we will get out of this.

  “What’s wrong with her?” Lou’s question encourages a long pause.

  Kissy does what a medical professional should never do: She shares a patient’s information. She spills the info like a newbie bartender that pours overflowing shots of Fireball whisky. Inner-Scarlet shakes her head in disappointment while we listen to Kissy tell Lou all of Scarlet’s info, and how Dr. Blantz would be Scarlet’s only hope.

  “She may need to be hospitalized and evaluated for personality disorder.” Her words are harsh. I glance at Scarlet, but her attention is diverted to hide her tears. I’m truly just fucking this bitch’s life up, and it’s not fun for me anymore.

  “My ma’s Catholic. Maybe her priest could do a termination?” Lou shares as someone increases the volume of the radio.

  “Termination?” Inner-Scarlet stares at me with hopes. Exorcism. Scarlet writhers into her wheelchair and averts her gaze away from me. An exorcism would mean that I’d return to hell, and that’s not a fucking option. My hunger to fuck Scarlet and her life up is not worth returning to that inferno. Scorching volcanic magma, a multitude of fire pits, and the screams—the screams of tortured souls all remind me of why I need to avoid returning to hell.

  “I don’t know, Lou, I don’t believe in any of that,” Kissy shrieks and the SUV jerks to one side.

  “But you’re not the one that’s possessed,” Inner-Scarlet says in defeat. She’s always ready to cry about some shit.

  They argue like an old, sexually-neglected couple until Kissy finally agrees that Lou should call his mother. On the fourth ring, a heavily-accented female voice scolds Lou on the hour and the rudeness of his call. Lou apologizes and then jumps into our predicament. Of course, Inner-Scarlet and I are made out to be this deranged person that has attempted to harm Kissy Face—Lou’s cousin.

  Immediately, Kissy’s aunt offers to ring up her priest and then she urges Lou to make the trip to her home before she abruptly ends the call. For the duration of the trip, Kissy and Lou chat as if there isn’t a semi-medically paralyzed person in the fucking trunk. They just chat and chat as if we’re not traveling to Scarlet’s exorcism of my demonic soul. Inner-Scarlet continues to divert her gaze. She wants this—she wants me to be extracted from her and for me to return to hell.

  But I know her—I’ve tasted her. And while in my male form I’ve had her so many times. I know that she’s concealing her excitement to return to her life. The life she had before I became the meteor that destroyed her world. In her wheelchair, she’s perched and content that she will finally rid herself of me. But am I ready to go?

  The hunger to make her mine sparks within me. But then I remember that I don’t need to take her to hurt her, because I’ve kept something from her. A vital piece of information that would change everything. And just by mentioning why David’s in a coma, and how he’ll most likely die, there would be no need for me to continue to torment her. They shouldn’t get a happy ending, and they won’t.

  This afterlife is not what I expected. I’ve done nothing but destroy the lives of those I hate, and I’m a demon—wreckage is my plan. But is it worth it? I don’t feel any better than I did when I was alive. I surrender to my perplexed mind, slump against the wall and allow my guilt to pull me to the floor of Scarlet’s mind.

  For years, I owned it: I claimed what my step-brother did as my sexual awakening. But, it wasn’t. I was continuously molested. My mind accepted what my body learned to enjoy. And with every paramour, deep down I believed I could remove my step-brother’s touch. As if I could fuck him away.

  I’m just fucked up, and my demonic afterlife permitted that I obtain my revenge. But I don’t feel any better than I did the day I possessed Scarlet. Yeah, I’ve had some fun with her while in her vessel, but my hate… My hate is what got me here. My hate transformed me into a fucking demon.

  Kissy Face’s vehicle rattles to a stop. Inner-Scarlet glances at me, but then quickly returns her gaze to her hands. Without speaking a word, Kissy and Lou exit the car. The trunk door creaks open and Lou’s hands feel cold against my skin. The blindfold slips off my face.

  “Fuck, Olive. Why didn’t you shut her eyes? She looks like a demented doll.” His face distorts into a repulsed expression. Lou’s chubby physique matches well with his toad-like voice. His tan skin matches Kissy Face’s, and so does his short, course, cappuccino-colored hair.

  My toes and fingers finally escape the neurotoxin’s hold. But, I don’t fidget or attempt to break free. I know what’s to come is necessary. I know that tormenting Scarlet is a pointless afterlife and not worth pursuing. I’d have a better afterlife if I were to possess a high-end call girl or porn star.

  Kissy and Lou adjust my stone-like form and then Lou lifts my borrowed body to carry me toward his ma’s house. No one speaks during our walk. After the doorbell rings, the door bursts open and with it an obnoxious, nasal, female voice breaks the unnerving silence. Like a melting piece of ice, my limbs awaken from the neurotoxin’s paralytic clutch.

  “Well, what have you two done now? She looks like she’s more than just sedated.” Lou’s ma’s voice is a loud, nasal annoyance. My chest becomes animated as an exaggerated sigh escapes from my nose. She’s a wrinkled, female version of Lou, except her hair style is a smooth bun at the top of her head.

  “That looks like it was her first exhalation, Lou. What have you two done to her?” His ma scolds in disapproval while she jabs her stumpy fingers into Lou’s shoulder. Kissy Face quickly suggests that they wait for the priest in the kitchen. I take this time to set shit straight with Scarlet. Then, in a rare moment of pride, she glares at me with her chin held up high.

  “I thought you said forever. What happened to all that big talk, Kate?” Her taunts do nothing but harm her.

  I charge toward her and say, “Look, bitch, for me to keep you unhappy means I’d have to stick around and see the outcome of the exorcism. Frankly, I’ve grown bored of you. So, bye, bitch.” I motion at her to get up, but a familiar rage ignites in her stare.

  “What?” she growls at me. “All these weeks of mental torment, and now you just leave?” Her tone is harsh as she gathers her strength to lift from her wheelchair. “No. You don’t get to just fucking leave me because you’re bored,” she shrieks as she hobbles toward me.

  “What is this show? Have you developed a love for me, Scarlet? You know, I had intentions to be nice to you, but now I’ll be the bitch you’ve grown to know,” I snarl then unleash the truth I have held in.

  The words sting at my lips as they slam against the walls within Scarlet’s mind. Shock widens her eyes and mouth into almost perfect circles as she sinks to the floor.

  “With David dead, there’s no reason for me to torment you anymore,” I say as I search for a way to exit Scarlet’s body. I can’t be exorcised; I refuse to return to hell.

  “You’re lying. He’s in a coma and he’ll come out. He has to,” she cries before she begins to wail like a tired infant.

  Her sorrow transforms into rage, and an unforeseen energy fumes from her. A bright aura of blues and greens vibrate around her. Scarlet’s screams are so powerful that she’s finally able to reject my demonic soul from her body. Thankfully, the neurotoxin is almost gone, and I escape from her vessel just as the exorcism begins.

  “Bye, bitch!” I yell over my shoulder before I vanish into the
wall.

  Scarlet

  An older, silver-haired priest comes into my line of vision. His words fall on deaf ears because all I hear are Kate’s words echoing within my brain. David’s dead.

  “He’s dead,” I whimper as my emotions take control, and my body trembles in despair as a violent cycle of screams and sobs wail from my soul. My lover is dead because he didn’t wake from his coma. “Why?” I gasp as I leap at the priest. He’s in shock and unsure how to react.

  “Scarlet?” Olive whispers with a sense of hope in her tone. I turn to face her, our eyes meet and immediately her face softens as she recognizes that it’s me. Kate is gone.

  “How?” she mouths.

  For a moment, my sadness subsides long enough for me to recollect Kate’s possession. Lou’s mother slumps into a nearby sofa; her disappointment wrinkles her face even more. The priest stares at me in disbelief while Lou gawks at me in shock. But I too would be stunned with disbelief if I witnessed a person change from induced paralytic to hysterical wailer.

  A tsunami of emotions electrifies me into the sofa as every shared memory of David explodes into my mind. I’m a victim, wreckage left behind by the freight engine that is the revelation of my lover’s death.

  “Why?” I whimper, bawling uncontrollably onto the priest’s shoulder.

  “Miss, I do not know you this well, but I believe whatever evil that once held you has now moved on. Thus, I’m no longer needed.” His pats on my back are forced and unkind. I direct my gaze at the wrinkled, older priest. Exhaustion reveals itself in his bloodshot eyes. I nod my head in agreement as I push away from him.

  The scrubs Kate dressed me in seem peculiar. And I feel exposed due to my lack of bra and undergarments. Lou has yet to disengage his gaze from me. I twist my lips to one side and press further into the sofa. In a defensive stance, I bring my knees to my chest to hug them tight. A silent moment penetrates the atmosphere while each person stares at me in shock.