down with a thunderous crack which echoed off the walls. The chair’s back faced her. The man sat down, his legs straddling the seat back, arms draped almost lazily off the back of the chair, his fingers dangling just inches from her chest.
“Cat got your tongue?” he asked, “I said, hello.”
“Hello,” she whimpered, her bravery evaporated.
Abigail’s heartbeat seemed to harbor the decibels of thunder in the confinement of such narrow space. Somehow, the man not only seemed to notice her quickened pulse, but appeared to take great pleasure in her obvious fear.
“And what is your name, sweetie?”
She saw no sense in lying, so told him in a scared whisper. He extended his fingers, gesturing a hand shake before pulling them back, as if he had absentmindedly forgotten that she was bound.
“My name is Jacob,” he said, “and I’d like to ask you some questions about the man you were with.”
Abigail hesitated then asked, “What man?”
Jacob ― if that was indeed his name — cocked his head to the side. The same smile that had haunted his face a moment before returned, though wider and this time more terrifying.
“Listen, Abigail, I am going to ask you some questions and I’d really hate to be you if you lie.”
She stared at him, silent. She wasn’t trying to be defiant, but rather trying to buy time while she considered how she’d answer questions about her angel.
Jacob leaned in to Abigail until his fingers were a mere inch from her face. A blue spark shot from his skin to hers and she jumped back with a squeal.
Is he the same as John?
She tried to move away, but there was nowhere to go. She imagined his hands seizing her and burning her alive.
He pulled his hand back, tilted his head slightly, and furrowed his brow.
“Oh, I’m quite sorry,” he said, wearing sincerity like an ornament, “I really didn’t mean to do that.”
He stood up, then faced away from her and into the mirror, where his eyes met Abigail’s in an embrace she couldn’t break.
“You see, sometimes I forget…” he trailed off for a moment, lost in thought, “I certainly don’t wish you any harm. You are only a child, after all. A poor, innocent child caught up in something far beyond her understanding.”
The sincerity on his face seemed to deepen alongside Abigail’s confusion. She began to wonder if maybe this man could help John. Perhaps the two of them were friends, part of some secret group of whatever they were?
“Unfortunately,” Jacob said, still staring in the mirror, “my ugly lovelies don’t share my compunctions about children.”
A sound snapped the unsteady quiet behind her and Abigail watched in horror as something unthinkable writhed through the doorway; something so wretched it devoured the image of the deputy being shot in the head.
An almost skeletal woman entered the room, nude and hairless, her skin almost featureless, save for a nearly translucent membrane that glistened in the glow of the amber lights. She looked, in a word, undone. Her breasts were two small sacks without nipples. Her face wore the landscape of a nightmare, lacking eyes, ears, or even a mouth, constantly changing as bones, or something , shifted beneath the skin as if in a blind attempt at completing its form.
The sound, the crunching of bones beneath the monster’s flesh, reached into Abigail’s gut and twisted like a blade.
The thing moved slowly, its long skeletal fingers reaching out blindly to feel its way around the room as it stepped forward with trepidation. Its footfalls slapped like wet fish against the floor as it moved closer. As the creature’s fingers searched the room, now just three feet away, Abigail began shaking violently in her chair, trying to break free. She wasn’t sure what it would do to her if it touched her, and that made the creature all the more terrifying.
“No, don’t let it touch me!” she cried out, pleading to Jacob who merely looked down at her, that ever-present
Willa Sibert Cather
CJ Whrite
Alfy Dade
Samantha-Ellen Bound
Kathleen Ernst
Viola Grace
Christine d'Abo
Rue Allyn
Annabel Joseph
Serenity King, Pepper Pace, Aliyah Burke, Erosa Knowles, Latrivia Nelson, Tianna Laveen, Bridget Midway, Yvette Hines