AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Aeryn
I was in Hell. There was absolutely no other explanation for the blazing heat that scorched the hairs on my arms, leaving a thick layer of salty perspiration that sizzled and popped like grease over an open flame. My throat felt like the Atacama, and my tongue licked parched lips, desperate for moisture on the cracked surface.
I threw off the heavy layers of blankets to stumble across the room by the bright lights of the moon and stars streaming in through the panes of glass high above Ness’s empty bed. I pulled open my desk drawer, yanking out three bottles of water, cracking each open and drowning the flames that burned through me.
My heart still pounded in my chest as I remembered the terrified faces of all those women who had…
I cringed, tears running down my cheeks as I rubbed my palms into my eyes. I couldn’t get rid of those memories. Those women...their pain had become my pain. Their souls cried out with my soul. They had needed me, screamed for me, their desperation pounding deep in my skull while the body I inhabited had done nothing but try to rut into their unwilling bodies.
I had been a monster in that dream. A fucking monster. A rapist. A thief. I had stolen their dreams and ravished their bodies to the tune of their soundless screams that had only fed my ardor.
When the tears had dried, I turned on the bedside lamp. I then pulled out an aged sketchbook that had been the final birthday present I had received from my late mentor. Taking out a set of charcoal sketch pencils, one of the few items I had spent my precious saved pennies on, I began to draw the face of each of the women, a silent testimonial to who they had been before he had irrevocably changed the bright lives they had stretched before them.
Once I was done, blowing off the remnants of charcoal dust from the yellowed paper, I closed the cover, whispering a silent prayer to anyone who would listen to protect and comfort their damaged souls. I hoped they would find the strength to recover and the support network to be able to do so.
But too often in the caster world, this simply did not happen. They were damnable patriarchs who treated a woman’s body with less respect than a dog did a chew toy.
I pulled out a few long, thin strips of leather from a tray tucked away behind my water bottles and began to weave a seventh bracelet to go with the six others that I wore to cover the copper on my wrist. Seven bracelets for each recurring nightmare I endured, swearing justice for all that had been harmed in the name of the tiny braids.
???
Marik
The thick stench of fresh blood wafting through the halls led Felix, Drew, and I directly to the body. It was a sandy blond man, his red jacket dyed nearly black in spots due to the heavy flow of blood coming from his nose and open, sightless eyes. His irises were a near milky white, the colors of the rings having been completely bleached away, a stark contrast to his lifeless black pupils. I tried to detect any trace essences that would generally surround a corpse. But there was nothing. It was as if he was a mere husk of his former self, everything that had once made him a person has gone to the nether of existence.
A look of pure horror etched on his lifeless face, his cheeks puckered in a death stare that would drive even the most hardened hearts to fear the darkness and what may dwell there.
Felix bent over the corpse, taking in the scents with his sharp olfactory senses, gifted to him by his natural connection to hell foxes. He frowned and straightened, removing a handkerchief from his pocket that was spelled to thoroughly screen out scents so he could avoid contaminating the scents his ancient mind whirled through for chemical compositions. He circled the body, periodically crouching to peer more closely at different parts as he performed his analysis. I took out my phone, snapping as many pictures as I could.
“Do you see that?” Felix asked, looking at the scout’s right hand.
I knelt beside him, careful to avoid contaminating the body, as I extracted a few thin ashen hairs that sparkled in the warm butter-hued lighting. I handed them to Felix, who carefully wrapped them in a second handkerchief before placing them in his pocket.
The corpse still smelled of the faint hints of brimstone, masked with a heavy application of cologne and body wash. He had a faint pink line across his jaw leading down to the soft flesh on his neck, a wound that would have scarred if not for the perfect knitting of the flesh from the use of magic. Despite the healing, however, it was still possible to see that the gash tapered away at one end, indicating that a claw had done the damage. He was lucky it hadn't punctured his jugular - or worse - removed his head. Closer inspection showed a similar trio of lines running down from his wrist onto the back of his left hand. He had gotten in a fight with something much bigger than him and been lucky to walk away.
“I think it’s the idiot that tangled with a hell bear earlier,” Felix said.
I grunted in agreement.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Felix tucked his handkerchief back in his pocket. “Besides the bleeding and the healed wounds, there is no physical indication of trauma. It’s as if he was simply sucked dry of essences.”
He paused, his frustration evident as he scratched his stubbled jaw. His beard had gotten to the point where it was now itchy, but he was too stubborn to shave it off, instead choosing to grow it again in a fit of defiance to the baby face every woman seemed to think he had. He’d grow tired of it soon and shave it off, repeating the entire miserable process all over again. “Think the vamps have learned a new trick?”
“No,” I responded curtly. “I’d know if any wrath demons had done this.”
“Any other theories? Because at this point, I’m thinking he was so pretentious that even his soul hated him, or a Care Bear lost its colors and couldn’t wait for the next rainbow to get them back.”
“What the fuck is a Care Bear?” I asked, wondering if it was some kind of new heavenly creature I’d been left in the dark about.
“A group of colorful little bears with different symbols on their fluffy tummies like hearts, stars, and clovers...I think. Anyways, they’re led by a cute little guy named Tenderheart who teaches them to love.”
I had no idea what the fuck he was talking about, and from the way he laughed, he knew it too. I rolled my eyes and chalked it up to some idiocy from his young sister.
“I’ve only seen something like this once back in Sanctuary when the chancellor of Cordenia failed to live up to his end of a bargain with Lucifer.”
“You think Lucifer did this? Do you suppose this guy made a deal with Lucifer?” Felix asked skeptically.
It shouldn’t have been possible. But stranger things had happened. I’d need to find out. “The body is too pristine; this needs to look like a fight. Fix it.”
