Page 9 of Scream for Me

I almost don’t register the words after my name—the sound of it on her delicate lips—almost. My black heart aches. “I’m your home now.”

“Scully,” she says my name so soft and sweet, but even my fresh intelligence can’t pretend she means anything I want. “I can’t live like this. I will resent you and wither away if you keep me here.”

I don’t want to scare her. I don’t want her to stay with me because I forced her, but I can’t help it. Steam leaves my nostrils, and my eyes burn. “You can’t go back.”

She doesn’t retreat at my anger, pressing forward. “Because it’s impossible or because you don’t want me to?”

“It’s impossible.” It’s a lie. I could take her back to the portal from which I had taken her. I’ve never done it before, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work if she jumped back through. It always takes me to the same room, but I can’t let her know that. I can’t live without her.

A new feeling washes over me as I watch her brazen demeanor crumble. She pulls her knees to her chest and lets her head fall. For the first time since I’ve captured her, she cries. I’ve heard humans cry a thousand times before. It never affected me, but now it’s like a claw through the gut. A small part of me wants to give her what she wants and bring her back to her world, but I shove it down. Instead, I use this as a chance to comfort her.

I pull her into me, wrapping her in my arms and running my hand down her golden hair. We’ll need to go to the stream soon so she can wash up and we can collect more fruit before we start our journey home, but not until her tears have dried.

Each stroke of her golden locks feels better. I hum. “You feel so good.”

“What?” she asks through a whimper.

“Your hair. It used to burn me, just like the light beyond the dark woods, but now it feels good.”

She pops up, startling me. “What light beyond the woods?”

“It’s a few days' travel, but beyond the canopy of tall trees, light cages us in. If we touch it, we burn.”

“Is it sunlight?”

“It’s the color of your hair.”

She pops to her knees, grabbing my arms. “You have to take me.”

I shake my head. “It’s dangerous.”

“Scully.” She cups my jaw, barely because her hands are so tiny. “It’s my only hope. If there is sunlight, then maybe there’s civilization. Maybe the light keeps away the monsters, and all the humans live on the edge.”

“But I’m a monster. I can’t go into this sunlight.”

“You’re different now. You remember your name. You talk. You even said that my hair used to burn you, but now it doesn’t. Maybe the sunlight won’t burn you either.”

She has a good point, but still, the instinct to stay away from the light runs deep. Besides, my home is all I know. I’m not sure if I want my life to be any different. But that’s not true. I want Marie. Marie makes my life different in a good way, and if she needs this sunlight to make her happy, it’s the least I can do to bring her to it.

I nod. “Okay. I’ll bring you to the light.”

“You will?” She smiles, all her bright white teeth showing, and sparks in her eyes. It’s such a beautiful sight. I make it my mission to look at her happiness for the rest of my days.

“Yes.”

“Oh, thank you!” She wraps her arms around me in an embrace, her breasts pressing against my chest.

I can’t help it, my cock hardens from underneath, but I know it’s not the time to take her again. She needs to recover, but it won’t be long before I have her screaming for me again.

Perhaps I still won’t be able to enter the light. I just hope I can convince her that a life with me in the darkness, choking around my pleasure, is enough. We’ll take the long way to the light, just to be sure.

Chapter 10: Marie

Iinsisted on walking on my own two feet and yet here I am, slung across Scully’s back like an insolent toddler. To be fair to his rather annoying insistence, I’m still sore from running through the woods without stretching, being attacked by a giant lizard, and being fucked senseless. Not to mention the utter lack of sleep and shortage of calories. I want to seem like a boss ass bitch during the chances I get to counteract my willingness to scream around his cock and beg for him to keep going. I’d never get him to take me somewhere if he knew how desperate I was for the pleasure he gave me, but I don’t even have my fucking mismatched shoes anymore. I’ll have to find another time to regain my independence because I sure as hell am not walking through a monster-infested forest barefoot.

I remain rigid for the first ten minutes of the trek, staying vigilant to every twig snap or screech, but then I fade out, burying my head in his fur and clinging to his neck as he walks along. I’m in such a deep sleep that when a loud boom goes off in the distance, I wake with a scream, forgetting where I am.

“Shh!” he orders in a low whisper, pressing me to his chest. “It’s just a boomer throwing a fit far away.” I want to ask what the fuck a boomer is, but I know it won’t help still my racing heart. I’ll just pretend it’s an old person demanding their expired coupons be honored, like in my world. I’ll grab hold of any sense of normalcy my brain can muster