Chapter 10
It was quiet as Kaitlyn stared up at the candelabra. Unusually, the candles were out, the room dark. Kaitlyn hunkered further down under the sheets as though they could protect her.
The bed was empty but it did nothing to allay her fears. Where was he? She squinted as she looked around the room. Kaitlyn pulled back with a gasp. A figure was standing beside her bed, tall and forbidding and barely discernible against the darkness.
‘Stay away!’ She pulled the sheets up to her neck. ‘It’s over!’
He didn’t speak. He didn’t move. Kaitlyn scrambled from the bed, pulling her sheet along with her, concealing her nakedness.
‘You have no power over me anymore. So you might as well give up.’ Her heart was racing so fast her eyes throbbed, but she would not back down. ‘Leave! Leave me alone!’
‘Is that really what you want?’ Satan said in a steady voice.
’Yes. I want you to go. I never want to see you again. I-I hate you.’
‘Like I said once, that’s all you need ask.’
Kaitlyn hugged herself. Why was he so calm? Why wasn’t he angry? Kaitlyn clutched the sheet more tightly around her. What was he scheming?
‘You—’ she began.
He vanished. Kaitlyn stared at his empty spot in disbelief. She spun around, checking the corners of the room, checking the fireplace where he liked to sit. As her eyes continued to adjust, she could see things more clearly: the lizard-skin chair before the now cold fireplace, the cabinets and desks and other useless furniture she doubted he ever used.
Carefully, she crept towards the door, one arm holding up her sheet, the other outstretched so she wouldn’t run into anything. She was panting. Her heart continued to thunder.
She turned with a shriek at the sound of running footsteps. She squinted frantically into the dark but saw nothing. She’d definitely heard it. It wasn’t her imagination.
Something was happening.
Turning, she sped towards the door. She sucked in a breath as a dark figure darted across the floor on scurrying footsteps not far from her feet. It was hunched low and was dragging something along the floor behind it. It squeaked as it disappeared into the shadows.
Kaitlyn reached the door and found that it was shut. Heart in her throat, she turned the handle, knowing it must be locked. It wasn’t! She tried to yank it open but only managed a small gap. It was stuck! She pulled and she pulled, using all her weight, but it wouldn’t open. Her hands slipped and she stumbled back, falling to the floor with a cry.
The door shuddered in its frame. Kaitlyn froze as a figure reared up slowly in the darkness—a familiar figure. Tall and rake-thin and breathing long, rattling breaths. It was pinning the door shut with a long spindly arm. Slowly, it turned its faceless head towards her.
Kaitlyn couldn’t move. She wanted to scream. But her body felt oddly sluggish and cold. She tried to crawl away, but her strength had drained away and all she could do was writhe against the floor.
The “thing” stood over her, its concave face looking down at her. Did it have eyes? Did it have a mouth? She couldn’t see. She didn’t want to see. Kaitlyn turned her face with a whimper.
Its breaths continued to rattle. Something wet dripped against the floor. Kaitlyn looked desperately towards the bed. Where was Satan? He could stop this!
She jerked her head back towards the demon as it crouched in front of her, looking like some kind of hideous praying mantis with its long, gangly legs. Its knees were bending backwards, disturbingly wrong. Slowly, it reached over a long, clawed hand. The same mottled, diseased hand she’d seen in the cell back at the police station.
Kaitlyn shook her head. What was it after? What did it want? It continued to reach over, stopping at her chest. Its breathing was getting more frantic. The steady dripping of something wet increased to a patter.
It lowered its hand.
‘No!’ Kaitlyn seized its wrist, only to let go almost immediately.
It was slimy. It was wretched. And it smelled! It smelled of something dead rotting away in the grass. With a cry she tried to wriggle away but it pinned down her shoulders before she could get anywhere. Its backward knees dropped weirdly, sickeningly, to the floor on either side of Kaitlyn’s hips. Then it was leaning over her, its face over her face. It made a wet smacking sound as it moved what had to be a mouth.
‘Get off!’ she screamed.
Did it even have ears? Kaitlyn thrashed her head from side to side as it moved its face in closer. She bucked and writhed and kicked out her legs, but the thing hardly noticed. What was it doing?!
She knew what it was doing!
‘Stop!’
Kaitlyn turned her face away, closing her eyes with a grimace, as it pressed its soggy mouth against her cheek. Warm, wet drool dribbled down her lips. She gagged, then retched.
It pulled away and Kaitlyn wiped at her face. Then it grabbed at her sheet and began shredding it with its long, sharp claws. With a cry, she grabbed its arms, gritting her teeth as she dug her nails deep into its disgusting skin. The demon didn’t even notice.
Then she felt something. Something that stabbed at her heart in terror. Dear God, help! She clamped her legs together as a long, thick member bumped against her thighs, prodding, seeking, trying to find a way in.
It felt so heavy.
‘STOP!’
The demon was making excited popping sounds with its “mouth”.
‘STOP!’
Kaitlyn thrashed. She kicked. She bucked. It let her go, only to seize onto her hips.
‘NO!’
With incredible strength, it thrust open her legs. Kaitlyn sat up and tried to punch it in its long, disgusting throat but the demon shoved her back with one of its massive clawed hands. Her head thudded heavily against the floor.
She couldn’t take anymore. ‘Help me! Please!’ She started to cry. ‘Lucifer!’
The demon spread her legs wider. Kaitlyn lay helpless on the floor, the fight draining out of her, her body feeling heavy again. It was like there was a weight pressing down on her chest. It was hard to breathe.
‘I’m sorry,’ she croaked into the darkness. ‘I-I don’t hate you. Please, come back. Help me!’
The demon leaned over to press its face into hers again. Kaitlyn turned away just in time before it could engulf her lips with its smacking, wet mouth. She could feel the tip of its log-like member jutting at her labia down below. Warm and sticky and wet.
Kaitlyn closed her eyes with a whimper.
Quiet fell. The demon turned silent. No more smacking lips. No more rattling breaths or wet, popping sounds.
Hesitantly, she opened her eyes. She sat up with a cry. The demon had vanished. The room was bright, all the torches lit. She turned as a fire roared in the fireplace. Raising her hand against the glare, she saw Satan standing before it, his broad black gleaming smoothly against the flickering light of the flames.
Kaitlyn didn’t think, stumbling to her feet and racing over before she could stop herself. Satan turned, catching her as she collided with him. He held her stiffly as she clutched onto him, trembling so hard her teeth were chattering. She clawed her fingers into the big muscles in his back as though she was clawing onto life.
‘Don’t do that again,’ she said.
‘You told me to leave, Kaitlyn. And so I did.’
Kaitlyn wept into his shoulder.
‘You wanted me gone,’ Satan repeated coldly. ‘And so I was. It is not my fault if something else takes my place. This is hell, Kaitlyn. What did you expect?’
Kaitlyn wiped her face into his chest.
‘This isn’t a game. Terrorise me and I’ll terrorise you.’ His voice echoed with warning. ‘Play with my heart at your peril, Kaitlyn.’
Kaitlyn staggered as he thrust her away. Scowling, he turned back towards the fire. The giant inverted pentagram scorched into his back gleamed against the firelight.
‘I want you gone,’ he said. ‘I want you out of my sight.’
Kaitlyn opened her mouth to say something, but he waved his arm and everything vanished.