Tags:
Fiction,
thriller,
Suspense,
israel,
Christian,
Bible,
book,
middle east,
Novel,
revelation,
story,
iran,
prophecy,
speculative,
second,
amendment,
ferguson,
biblical,
Declan,
Isaiah
hotel-style sheets, she tried to scream and began to shiver in panic and cry uncontrollably.
Nikki violently shook her body, trying in vain to free her arms. The panicked rocking motion only served to knock the chair, and therefore Nikki, over sideways onto the floor. The new position did nothing to loosen her bindings or improve her situation.
Upon hearing the chair fall over onto the floor, Stanton came back into the bedroom, with a third video camera in hand. The video camera was on and filming Nikki, who startled when she saw him walk into the room and jostled even more furiously against the carpeted floor trying to free herself. Stanton set the rolling video camera onto the dresser for a second and went toward her. He leaned over, picked up the chair with Nikki in it, and reset it to an upright position.
“Shhh,” he whispered to her, which only served to make Nikki tremble more fervently. “We’re here to help each other. So, shhh, no crying.”
Stanton set Nikki back up in her chair and scooted her back to her previous location, next to the bed. Then, he walked over to the HD video camera mounted on the small tripod on her dresser, and readjusted the camera such that it was zoomed in on Nikki’s still tortured face, and her terrified light brown eyes filled the frame. He walked past her over to the other mounted camera, and checked to make sure that camera was zoomed out enough to be filming a fully body view.
He picked up the third unmounted, HD video camera, and left the bedroom for a minute or so, only to return with another dining room chair which he placed directly in front of Nikki, and sat down opposite her. Nikki sat trembling and confused, waiting for Stanton to say or do something, but for what seemed like an eternity, he simply sat across from her with his camera focused on her face.
In truth, Stanton sat in complete silence watching her through the camera’s monitor for just over ten minutes. Nikki’s eyes were filled with tears, panic and total confusion. Stanton relished every emotion so purely expressed in her deep brown eyes, so much so that he quite completely lost himself in bliss. He was fixated on the undeniable terror rushing through her body, which mixed flawlessly with the confusion and lack of understanding that spoke through her eyes. That silent, uninterrupted time, the chance to look so deeply into Nikki’s soul through her eyes, to revel in the range of emotions he’d brought forth in her, thoroughly erased every memory of Stanton’s prior failure and the shame that had accompanied it. He was finally, ever so slowly, becoming Abaddon.
Still holding the camera in one hand, Stanton slowly moved the hunting knife toward her face with the other. Nikki shuddered and jerked her head away.
“Don’t do that,” Stanton said softly, as he reached out further with the knife, pressing the razor sharp tip against the center of her forehead. “Just be still and keep your eyes open. Don’t close your eyes.”
Very slowly, Stanton followed the contour of her face with the knife, softly tracing the outline of her cheeks and lips. He guided the knife tip over her chin and down the length of her throat, careful not to press so hard as to break skin. As Stanton maneuvered the knife down, along her nervously heaving chest and the contour of her breasts, he could feel her body tremble beneath the touch of steel. He kept his eyes on her eyes the entire time, never looking at the rest of her body even as he slowly guided the knife over her hips and pelvis. Nikki continued to look up or down, never wanting to hold Stanton’s disconcerting gaze. Tears were streaming from her eyes. Her body began to tremble violently as the knife made its way back up her torso and stopped again against her pounding chest.
Finally, Stanton pulled the knife away from her skin and asked, “Do you know what we’re listening to? Just nod yes or no.”
Nikki tried to focus on the music, the singing she had only
David Beckett
Jack Du Brull
Danelle Harmon
Natalie Deschain
Michael McCloskey
Gina Marie Wylie
Roxie Noir
Constance Fenimore Woolson
Scarlet Wolfe
Shana Abe