Aron appears in my vision, staring down at me with black, empty eyes. I blink him back into focus when he blurs before me. He inspects the frying pan in his hand—the same one he used to beat me over the back of the head—and then he chuckles, tossing the pan in the sink and grabbing me by the arm.
A flash of pain stabs at my skull when he hauls me to my feet. Before I know what’s happening, he shoves me down in a chair. I’m too weak to keep my head up as he grabs a backpack near the fridge and unzips it. He retrieves something before returning to me and crouching between my legs.
He circles the rope around his hand, intent on the task, then peers up at me from beneath his dark lashes. “You know,” he says, “the best is yet to come. You’ll soon get to listen to your boyfriend’s dying screams. If it’s any consolation”—he leans in close enough for his breath to fan my face while he strokes my hair behind my ear—“he really does care about you.”
I force my eyes shut when I see two of him, disoriented from the pain. “The demon… This isn’t you, Aron. You’re possessed.”
His voice fades in and out of my consciousness, my head lolling while Aron secures me to the chair with a long piece of rope. He circles it around my chest several times and then cups my chin. His fingers smell of blood and death, the tangy scentpricking my nose when he skims his thumb over my cracked bottom lip. I flinch away from his touch, and he grips my jaw and digs his fingers into my skin. A whimper claws its way up my throat as he leans close to whisper in my ear. “Listen...”
That’s when I hear Dominic’s guttural bellow.
“Listen to him scream.” Aron straightens, holding his hands out to his sides like he’s praying, head back. His lips part and he whispers what sounds like a mantra in an ancient, foreign language.
I try to lift my heavy head, but every time I do, pain lances through my skull. Aron opens his eyes and turns to face me again. I try to blink him into focus, but struggle to make sense of the vision in front of me. It’s almost like he’s flickering between a human and a tall monster twice the size of Aron. Smoke and embers billow from its nose, swirling shadows cling to its crimson charred skin, and curved horns extend from its head. Yellow teeth, sharp enough to tear through flesh, gleam as it whips its tail restlessly. Then it flickers again, and Aron is back, placing his hands on the armrests and looking me in the eye. In a flash, his face flickers, and I stare into the eyes of evil. I thought I knew the shade black, thought I’d seen the limit of how dark it can be, but this… I’m drowning in an endless void of nothingness. I need to look away, or that void will devour my soul like a black hole devours everything in its path.
Those charred lips peel back to reveal its sharp, yellow teeth just as another scream sounds from the basement. I try not to cry. I try so fucking hard to remain strong, but fear latches on to me with fierce talons.
My nose pricks with the scent of burning sulfur as a cloud of smoke pours from the charred cracks in the demon’s skin. He speaks in a distorted voice, high-pitched yet also deep. “Your fear smells enticing, human.” I gasp when he breathes me in, the scent of sulfur intensifying. “Your desire, even more so.”
“No, please,” I beg, shaking my head as he tears my shorts from my body, like they’re nothing more than a flimsy scrap of lace. Cool air licks at my bare pussy, but before I can close my legs, they’re wrenched open. The demon’s huge form hovers over me as he bends, flicking his serpent tongue over my most sensitive area.
A sob escapes, and I shake my head desperately. More smoke billows from his hulking, charred body as he growls a terrifying, sinister sound, sparks of embers flying into the air.
I struggle against the restraint, but nothing works. I’m at the demon’s mercy until it’s done feasting on my sanity.
A warmth builds in my core. I can’t stop it from spreading outwards. An appreciative growl rumbles from the demon as his slithering tongue fills me up, and no matter how much I try to stop it, a moan dances on my lips. I know the demon is feeding on my desire and fear. Not only that, but also the anger increasing inside me. How dare this ancient creature from Hell, with its big horns and sparking embers, force pleasure on my body for its own twisted entertainment. I want to send it back to Hell, where it fucking belongs.
I try to kick it off, but that wicked tongue morphs from one into two. I cry out when it slides over my back hole and slithers inside my body. There’s so much sensation.
Forcing my eyes shut, I refuse to look at the monster between my legs, with its tongues filling up my holes. A monster that’s growing larger and stronger by the second. A monster that’s possessing me the only way it knows how, because I won’t let it possess my mind and soul.
“Fuck,” I whimper as an orgasm overtakes me. I tremble on the chair, barely aware of the ropes digging into my chest. The tongues retreat, and when I peer down, Aron smirks up at me. I stare into his black eyes, wondering if my friend is aware of whatthe demon is forcing him to do. Brittany was when it possessed her.
My traitorous body shudders from aftershocks, when I become aware of a different shape behind Aron.
Dominic’s lips peel back over a snarl. “I always knew you were after my girl.” He drives the hammer in his hand into the back of Aron’s skull with a sickening thwack, and blood splatters everywhere. I scream as he topples to the floor. Dominic pulls his arm back and brings the hammer back down, crushing Aron’s skull with a hard crack. Brain matter sticks to the hammer when he hits him a third time and then a fourth. Straightening, he tosses the bloodied hammer to the floor.
I’m sobbing now as he kicks the corpse out of the way with a disgusted look on his filthy face. Relief floods me when I feel his blood-soaked fingers on my wet cheek. “It’s over now,” he reassures me, cupping my chin. “They’re dead.”
I nod through the tears and snot and grime. “What happened to Lily?”
He steps around me and removes the ropes. “She’s dead.”
My chin wobbles at his admission. Our friends are dead because of me. Dead. They’re never coming back, which is all my fault.
Dominic rounds the chair, and I stare blindly at his thick bulge. The sensation of his fingers in my hair should be reassuring and soothing. But I can’t shake the guilt.
“The demon will come back. Did you get the axe?” My eyes widen as I lift my gaze to see a deep gash on his side. His T-shirt is soaked through with blood, and it’s not Aron’s. “Dominic?” I whisper. “You’re bleeding.”
He hums, stroking my hair away from my shoulder. More blood bubbles from his side, and a feeling of unease trickles down my spine. I reach out to touch the hem, but he clasps mywrists in a tight enough grip to cut off the blood circulation, a shocked gasp parting my lips.
“What is it about you that makes you so different?” he asks, shoving my hand away and threading his fingers through my hair, but his touch is no longer gentle. It’s rough and cruel. “I’ve always wondered what makes you special…” He pulls tightly, eliciting another sharp gasp. “Your direct bloodline.” Tears pour from my eyes as he puts his moist lips to my ear. “Welcome home, sweetheart. Did you enjoy your family reunion downstairs? Poetic, isn’t it? That your grandfather arranged the bodies with a space in the middle, just for you, before he hung himself.” Breathy chuckles drift from his lips to my ear. “You should have seen his feet twitch as he died. The noose failed to break his neck, so it took him several minutes.”
“I don’t understand,” I say, breath catching, as he releases his tight grip on my hair to resume combing his slick fingers through it.
“Let me ask you something.” His smile is patient, almost kind. But then he pins those black eyes on me, and terror chills me to the bone. “Did you ever feel like you didn’t belong? An outsider amongst strangers?” He fists my hair again, and I cry out in pain. “That’s because you were. The woman you think is your mom… Well, she kept you in the dark.”
“No…” I choke, shaking my hair against his tight grip. “You’re lying.”
