A Small Sacrifice

When Mark woke up, the bed was empty besides sleeping Elka. Michelle and her Tigger were no where to be seen. Panic spread through his system faster than he’d felt in a long time. “Michelle!” His voice called out to her but there was no response. He grabbed his boots, putting them on aggressively. Elka seemed uninterested as he called her to follow him, pulling herself off the big bed with no rush.

“Michelle!” he called again, heading down the stairs at full speed and grabbing his shot gun as he stormed into the kitchen.

Glenn looked up from his eggs and bread, amused. “Good morning, Mark.”

“Where is she?!”

“I’m out here, calm down,” he heard her call from the porch and he walked swiftly past Glenn, slamming the porch door open.

She stood there, hair playing in the breeze around her face. She was wearing a white dress, one that wrapped around her giving her a nice amount of cleavage. Mark could see why Glenn had grabbed the dress for her, as it looked very much like the dresses a preppy girl from when he was alive would have worn. And despite the fact that her hair was colored and done in a very current manner, her beauty gave it an old appeal. She looked like the kind of girl he would have had fun corrupting and playing with, looking innocent for just a moment. And in a way, it occurred to him it was all that.

“I want to go out there.... Can I?”

He relaxed at the sound of her voice, leaning his shotgun against the side of his armchair and grabbed her by the arm, yanking her down onto his lap. “No.”

Michelle looked at him quietly, studying him as best she could. “Why not?”

“Because they can.... If something were to happen to you....”

She suddenly began to rest her head against his shoulder, taking in deep breaths of him and smelling his sweat and musk. Her fingers traced a scar on his chest, going from the smoothness of the scar to the roughness of his skin. “Those girls... why are they in there?”

“Because it... there is only one way Glenn and I can stop being here.”

“What is it?”

“A girl will come. She will sacrifice herself for love. Her sacrifice will be our... my salvation. Glenn’s fate is tied to mine because I dragged him here. It’s complicated.”

“And they... they sacrificed themselves?”

“For men they were in love with. Which makes you different. You didn’t sacrifice yourself for a man.” He began to read her mind, watching as she made sense of the situation with the small amount of information he had given her.

He almost began to continue but it was as if she knew because she shook her head violently. “Don’t tell me more. Not right now.”

As his mind cleared he felt it and almost without warning Glenn was on the porch. “At the same time?”

Mark shook his head. “This almost never happens....”

Glenn nodded, “We can’t take her. She needs to stay.”

“I’m staying alone?” Mark got up, settling her on the floor and began to enter the house, Michelle and Glenn following close behind.

“Yes. Get upstairs. Stay there.” Mark pointed to the stairs, putting on the wide brimmed hat which made her stomach flip. He must have read her mind, she thought, because he hesitated a second before the hat touched his head, then finished the movement. With almost no warning he was out the front door, his long coat the last of him to be seen.

“Bye to you too....”

“He’s hurrying, kid. He doesn’t want you here alone. I’m trying to stall so that you spend the least amount of time alone possible. But I’m getting rushed.”

Michelle was suddenly interested, sitting on the sofa as he began to grab his knife and his gloves. “Who rushes you? How do you know? You hear it in your head?”

“You ask too many questions. Now listen and listen well. NO food or water or anything. Here....” He went into the kitchen and came back with some bread and a glass of water, thrusting it into her hands. “Eat while we talk. Something can be tainted as soon as one can blink. It is why we stay with you when you eat. We know it annoys you....”

“It does not....”

“.... But it is for your safety. Stay in your room, kid. Seriously. Head up there right now. Don’t leave the room until one of us gets there. And I mean it....”

He pointed to the stairs and she sighed, taking big bites of her bread. As she headed up the stairs she felt Glenn’s hands take the food roughly. “Can’t risk it being tainted the second you leave my sight. The drink is hard to taint without being near it but not the food. Think it has to do with the form of it. Don’t miss us too much.”

~~~~

She knew it had to have been a day. At least a day. But it felt like more as she had slept at least 3 times now. Even the dogs seemed annoyed. She’d allow them to leave the room as she stood at the window, watching them relieve themselves and come back inside. The two drank at the toilet bowl. She was tempted to do the same, as they seemed to be fine, but Glenn’s last words stayed with her, that in mere seconds something could be tainted. And she didn’t know if animals were immune to whatever curse Glenn and Mark feared she could suffer or not. But she was starving, her lips becoming dry and her body becoming mad with the hunger. She had screamed a couple times in pain, the hunger making her mad.

Mark’s fear, Glenn’s words. The two rang in her head and replayed constantly. Yet she couldn’t help but want to feed herself. Her body became wild with it.

And even boredom began to kick in. She could hear the noise outside, louder each day.

She woke up on the 3rd day drawn to the noise, like a siren call.

“It can’t be that bad. I’ll die if I don’t eat. I’ll just grab water.... And I’ll see what the fuss is....”

She stumbled down the stairs, the pain in her system unbearable. The dogs kept getting in her way, causing her to bump into things and her hunger caused her grave annoyance. “Stop. Please you two. I can’t wait for them anymore. I can’t....”

She reached the kitchen, her mouth dying for anything to make her feel better. She opened the fridge and a jug of milk stood there. It was almost animal instincts for her to grab it, gulping at it wildly. She grabbed a chunk of cheese and bit down hard.

It was then when she felt it, the wildness inside her not tamed, but awakened.

~~~~

Mark stormed into the house, screaming for her, “Michelle? I’m back. I’m coming to feed you.” He had anger and panic spilling through him as he threw his shotgun on the floor and rushed to the kitchen. It was then when he saw her. And her eyes weren’t the ones he longed to see.

Her brown eyes, the ones that called him as he was kept away had become almost cat like. She screamed as he approached her, inching her way into a corner, almost ready to attack him. His heart dropped, fear rushing through him.

“No....”

And with those words she lunged at him.

~~~~

Glenn walked into the house in a rush, “Mark? Michelle? Mark what the fuck....”

He stopped finding Mark at the foot of the stairs, head in hands. Glenn shook his head. “Don’t tell me....”

“She was starving.... Hunger got the best of her. The kitchen smelled of rot. She can’t smell it, she wouldn’t have known.”

“Did you throw her out? Is she with them?”

Mark shook his head violently. “She’s not.... she’s not too far gone. She wasn’t I mean. She gave me this one,” he said pointing to a cut on his arm, “Took a nice slice into me with those nails of hers.”

Glenn sat down on the sofa, leaning his head back. “How long was she alone?”

“3 days or so? Been here 2 days now dealing with this. I’m in shock that they kept you gone this much longer. The damage was already done....”

“They probably wanted you to have to do it alone.... This never happened with the others.”

Mark looked up at him, his eyes showing signs of exhaustion they hadn’t in a very long time. Maybe not since they were alive. “I noted that.”

“How... how is she?”

Mark put his head back into his hands. “I’ve had to force feed her. She bites at my fingers, claws at my face.... Her body wants to reject the good food. It knows if she takes it in, she’ll get better. She looks like a wild beast. Or she did. She’s calming down a bit....” He groaned getting up, the stress showing on his face. “I’m going up there to feed her....”

Glenn got up, “You sure you don’t want me to?”

“No,” he said, grabbing the plate of food beside him. “I have this under control.” He seemed almost unsure.

As he went for the top of the stairs Glenn’s voice stopped him in his tracks for a moment, “You don’t. We don’t. They got to her. It can’t have been Lucifer. He would have just come for her himself. He doesn’t want to destroy her. I could tell. Her light.... It shines so brightly. He wouldn’t destroy her.”

“I thought of all this already. The wenches. They were quiet for days. And the first....”

“Jez?”

“She’s not there anymore.”

He didn’t continue, heading up the stairs, leaving Glenn to read his thoughts, that he’d tortured the wenches near death in his absence. Grabbing his knife, Glenn intended to do the same.

~~~~

He entered the attic, finding her in the darkness alone, shaking on the old mattress on the floor next to the window, crying in pain.

“Michelle....”

She growled at him almost, retreating into the dark corner of the attic, her bright eyes shinning back at him.

He sat down on the mattress, holding out the plate to her. “Come here. You hear me. Come here, Michelle....”

Inside her body, the human part of her heard his call and she inched her way close to him, reaching out to grab the plate. When she was close enough Mark grabbed her wrist, pinning her to the mattress as she began to thrash about under him. Being this close to her, when she was far from herself, began to push the two to a limit that had been close to being breached constantly over the last 2 days. He brought himself close to her ear, the huskiness for his voice moving past the wildness in her to the part of dying to get through. “You need to calm down and eat this.... Please eat this and don’t fight me.”

The purr from deep inside her drove him insane. He grabbed a chunk of bread and picked up food with it, bringing it to her lips. She was hesitating but her core wanted to eat and could sense it was better if she did so she took the bite, her tongue lingering on his fingers to clean them off. He couldn’t help but his face close to hers while she sucked and nibbled at his fingers as he fed her. She was getting through the aggressiveness, being affectionate in the only way she could. It was when he pulled his fingers away from her at one point that she went back in for a bite at his finger and he pulled back with a yell. “Fuck.”

“Don’t pull away.” It was the first time she’d said anything remotely normal, her first real sentence in days. Short as it may have been, he caught him by surprise, feeling her nails dig into his arm and kept him as close to her as she could.

“Say it again,” he said hoarsely, sure that she couldn’t read the emotion he hadn’t felt since he was alive inch out of him.

“Don’t pull away.... I’m cold, Mark.”

He didn’t wait for her to ask again, he yanked her into his arms and kept her there, feeling her body shiver in his arms.

“It’s cold. So cold.”

Her fingers were pulling at his shirt and he could feel a longing for her fingertips on his chest. Mark pulled himself away enough to yank at his shirt and pull it up over his head, feeling her skin instantly make contact with his. She wasn’t nude, he’d struggled to bathe her as she thrashed around like a cat forced into water and now had her dressed wearing black panties and a long wife beater tank top, a black bra underneath. Her fingers clawed at his chest, dragging down as she smelled his chest, like a wild little animal remembering its owner.

“What happened, Michelle. Tell me what you remember.”

She bit at his chest, as if testing how hard a bite was too hard, trying to taste him. “Hungry. So so hungry. I went to eat and at first I felt fine. When it was just the milk. Glenn said... Glenn said harder to.... I ate cheese. Then I don’t remember anything but screaming and not wanting to eat anymore. And the screaming.”

“The wenches and those corpses out there don’t eat. It is part of what tortures them and makes them the way they are, living dead. As long as you eat, you’re fine. But food can be fucked with and you’ll stop wanting to eat long enough to lose your control if they fuck with it the right way. You were doing what is human left in you to do, eat and survive. They wanted to make sure to keep us away long enough to either drive you wild with not eating or poison you into not eating.”

Her face was now against his, her hands rubbing and squeezing at the sides of his face and his arms and chest. Her body was no longer cold but on fire, a fire he hadn’t felt in her body before. “My baby girl...,” he groaned, feeling her begin to straddle his lap.

The sweet name, one he’d never used before, made her coo and melt, he could feel the heat between her legs on his lap. She was rubbing against him so roughly that he grew, hardening in the jeans he wore. He felt her fingers, digging down his chest to the buttons on his pants. She worked them open, realizing the hardened cock between them. He could feel her panties, soaking wet, rubbing against his member. She had yet to kiss him, instead nibbling at his lips and chin and neck. He didn’t care if she fought him anymore. While she rubbed against cock roughly he took her by the neck, kissing her lips. They were beet red with passion and plump. He’d missed her badly, the aggressive demeanor while unsettling had made him was to dominate her. This battle of force was driving him insane. She was clawing at him, her panties soaking wet now and with the force of her rubbing, slipping to the side. It was as if that was her plan because with swift movement she’d pushed herself completely down on him, so swiftly in fact that the two let out wild cries.

He grabbed onto her hips, bringing her back and forth on his monster cock violently, feeling her nails dig deep into his flesh. She grunted heavily as she gnawed at his lower lip, looking at his face in wild fascination.

She looked like a engrossed child, entertained wildly by the man handling her roughly. While her eyes had returned to a normal looking state, the honey color they originally were stayed vibrant now. The color in her cheeks finally returned. They began to sweat against each other, the attic providing them with enough heat to set the house on fire. The mattress was framed against the big attic windows, the dimness of the outside shining a deep red light upon them.

“Fuck me harder.”

He wouldn’t have believed it had he not seen her lips moving when she said it. He didn’t need telling twice, pushing her back down into the torn and dirty mattress. She was wrapping her legs tightly around his waist. “Hard. Fuck me hard.”

“Oh you fucking little girl....” He said, pounding her flesh and looking down, watching himself beat her into submission. “Who do you belong to? Fucking say it. Say who owns this tight fucking body.”

He could see that the words sent her on fire, an orgasm building deep inside her as she began to turn a bright shade of pink. “You,” she grunted out, pushing down on his cock while he pushed in.

He brought his face down onto hers, taking her upper lip between her teeth and drawing blood. “Fucking scream it, baby girl. Who owns this sweet little body? These hard nipples? This tight fucking pussy. Scream....”

It was then that she couldn’t take more, pounding her so hard the orgasm left her as she yelled, “You! You you always you....”

He’d been holding her down, squeezing her chest and he felt her chest beat wildly, right where her dead heart belonged. The feeling of her heart beating, the sight of her body flush red, the sound of her voice yelling for him was more than enough for him and he burst into her body.

It was in that moment he swore he felt his own heart pump. Just once. But once was enough to frighten him.

~~~~

He returned her to the bedroom after that. Her tamed body weak and asleep in his arms, he watched over her as she slept. She looked peaceful, the way he had before the poison as almost turned her too far. He appreciated the moments in which he could treat her affectionately, moments in which she slept.

He got up, grabbing a wife beater from a dresser and pulled it on as he left the room, leaving the door open as he headed downstairs. Glenn sat in the living room, cleaning a pistol, his bloody knife on the coffee table.

“Where do you think she went?”

“I have an idea,” Mark answered, sitting down.

Glenn raised an eyebrow, “Hunter?”

“Couldn’t be David.”

Glenn laughed, resting back on the sofa, “I will never understand why we learn as humans that his name is Lucifer when he has many.”

“Because as humans he is an enigma of sorts. You can’t really put a name to something like Lucifer. Lucifer is more like saying satan or devil.”

“He hates when you call him David.”

“And I don’t give a rat’s asshole.”

Glenn chuckled, taking a chug from his beer. “How’s she?”

Mark shrugged slightly, taking apart his shotgun for cleaning. “I think she finally has energy, if anything. She was a wild but tamed beast before, she may be a tad wilder now.”

“You’ll have fun with that.”

Mark threw a dirty rag at Glenn who threw it back, “She beated again.”

Glenn stopped what he was doing, setting his stuff down. “Say again?”

“There are moments.... Where her heart seems to beat. Beat when it should be dead.”

“That's... Mark that has to be....”

He shook his head, looking down at the shotgun in his hands, “We don’t know.”

But inside, he was starting to believe it.

~~~~

A dark haired woman sat in a tub, bathing herself as she hummed seductively, a long haired man watching her from the corner of the washroom.

“She’s still working her magic for the dead man, Jez.”

“I have another plan, Hunter.”

Hunter sat up, walking to the tub. He instantly grabbed the woman by her hair, dragging her out of the tub as she kicked and screamed wildly. “You have no such thing.... I risked my place to try and fuck over that prick and now he has a fully working angel that can save him!”

Jez laughed wildly at him as he threw her against the wall, slumping down. “You hate him. Because he gets a chance at salvation! He gets that pretty little pussy Glenn brought here when he came to see Lucifer. You get eternity wiping Lucifer’s ass and shining his shoes. Like a bitch.”

Without a second thought, Hunter grabbed a candle off a table, throwing it at her face. The wax burned her, she screamed in pain. He laughed at her screeching. “It’s not fair! Him? He gets a way out of here? No.... I’ll make sure he doesn’t. I have a plan. You... you were a waste. Thank you for the information.... But I have no need for you now.... I know where I can send you.”

~~~~

There was a commotion outside, they heard from inside, the wenches talking loudly and a familiar voice yelling “No!” with all her might. Mark grabbed his knife and Glenn his, heading to the kitchen when they heard Michelle’s footsteps on the way down.

Glenn let Mark through, stopping and pointing Michelle back towards the stairs, “Go back. You won’t want to see this, princess.” He was shocked at the sight of her, eyes wild with a passion he hadn’t seen in her before.

“I got this.”

The unfamiliar phrase threw him off as she walked past him swiftly, “Got.... Got what?”

He followed her, watching her grab without a second glance the long kitchen knife off the table. Suddenly it occured to him what she intended to do and his interest grew.

Mark was dragging Jez by the hair towards the shack when he looked back at the sound of the screen door being slammed open. He started walking towards Michelle instead, anger growing. “Get back in there, damn it.”

“Fuck that. Let me at her.”

“I won’t let you have her blood on your hands, you fool! That’ll be the death of all of us, girl.”

Michelle stopped, a sight as she stood there close to naked. Even Glenn had to admit that the scene before him was a slight turn on, the wild and fit girl standing there with her hair waving about her face. She was still wearing her clothing from earlier and while the two had seen her naked before, the clothing made her figure all the more noticable and attractive. “I want her to suffer.”

“She will.”

“I want to see you do it.”

“Ain’t going to happen. I won’t let you see what I do.”

Jez was still yelling in pain and laughing at the same time at the girl who was angered she couldn’t hurt her, “Bitch!”

Michelle started at her, Glenn grabbing her by the waist quickly. “Fuck you. I wish I could kill you you whore!”

“You won’t be the last. There will never be a last. You’ll join me soon enough. You will!”

Mark laughed, tapping Jez’s face with a pistol he’d pulled from his back pocket, “Don’t worry, she won’t join you even if she does fail. I have a pretty silver bullet aimed right at your brainpan.”

Glenn was dragging Michelle away when she heard it, stopping to look up at Glenn, “That’s how we can die?”

“After he chops that head of that pretty little neck, damn right. Then it’ll be her soul suffering out there in the fields. Wenches are below us but above those corpses. He’s ‘bout to make her a lesser being of living. One that has NO chance at salvation ever because that is where she’ll belong.”

“Why doesn’t he do it to all of them, damn it?”

“No idea. I don’t question it. Leaves me playthings anyhow.”