90. The Monster
Alexa Play: BEG! by Vana
Cassandra released me from my cage, and I stretched limbs that had been confined for too long.
There was no relief or joy in my newfound freedom.
There was only fury.
Cold, remorseless, lethal fury.
That is what I was.
What I would always be.
I was a creature born of unthinkable trauma and pain. I had been created to protect the woman with whom I shared a body, and today would be my reckoning.
Using my little killer’s body, I stepped deeper into the soulless building where I knew I would find my prey.
My vision bled red as I stalked silently down the hall with my gun clutched firmly at my side.
The path forward was clear, and my subconscious cataloged the markers I’d made note of while watching the security footage the vampire had shown us.
Nothing about this place felt holy or sacred.
It felt plastic and cheap.
Manufactured.
A stage.
Or maybe it was just a cage.
I knew what it was to be caged.
Commercial carpet kept my steps silent, and the white walls were nearly bare.
It felt dishonest.
How could a place so vile be so clean?
I wanted the walls of this place to reflect the horrors they boxed in.
I wanted to paint them red.
The door to the reverend’s office stood like a beacon at the end of the hall, but there were three doors between us that needed to be opened first.
We were already at the first one.
I blinked, then I was there.
I stared at the handle, and my mouth watered with anticipation.
Kill them.
Kill them all.
It only took a gentle push, and the door swung inward.
There was no time to comfort the young girl on her knees.
Not when there was a man standing before her like a nightmare.
I didn’t need to think.
Cassandra had trained this body for years, and I relied heavily on the memory of her muscles to aim the gun.
The man had barely glanced up by the time I was pulling the trigger.
His shout of alarm died on his tongue almost as quickly as my bullet passed through his skull.
The nameless man crumbled to the ground, like a marionette with cut strings.
The young girl opened her mouth to scream, but suddenly, the vampire was there.
He crouched before her and clapped a firm hand over her mouth. Holding up a finger to his lips, he gently shook his head. Though still panic-stricken and pale, the girl seemed to understand, and once he was sure she was calm, the vampire released her.
“He said if I prayed, I would be saved,” the girl whispered, and a growl built in my throat as I watched a tear spill down her cheek. “I prayed and prayed, but none of the angels listened.”
She stared up at us with wide, terrified eyes, and I wished I could kill the man who had hurt her a second time.
I glanced at his corpse, the constant pulse of fury a relentless beat in my ears.
He hadn’t suffered enough. I would take more time with the next one.
This little girl said the angels wouldn’t listen, and maybe that was true.
But we were not angels.
We were something much worse.
The girl was looking at me with something close to hope in her eyes, and I felt something sharp crack in my chest.
“We listened,” I said, my voice a low growl. “We came. Now you are safe. Stay here, we will take the rest of them too.”
To my delight, the brave girl nodded, her mouth a firm line.
“I hope you send them all to meet the god that abandoned me,” she whispered, and I felt myself grin.
I would.
I would send them to meet her god, because I knew the devil personally, and even he wouldn’t want these men.
The vampire stood up, and I turned back to face the way we’d come.
There was more work to do, and I was still hungry.
It only took four easy steps to carry us into the hall again, and seven more paces to the room that held my next victim.
Much like the first door, this one wasn’t locked, but this girl’s screams began the second I entered the room.
She was begging.
Begging someone to save her.
Cassandra once begged like that, and the little girl’s screams triggered some deep, primal part of me that had been designed to protect.
I succumbed to another explosion of fury as I was possessed by the memory of Cassandra crying alone in that dark cage.
So many nights she had cried, until one day, she stopped, and she never cried again.
I couldn’t let that happen to this girl, too.
Cassandra would never forgive me.
Time seemed to slow as I turned my attention to the man who’d made that little girl scream.
The idiot was foolish enough to rush me, and his movements triggered my predatory instincts.
He made it several steps, but… bullets are faster than pedophiles, and in less time than it took to blink, I’d shot him wordlessly in the ankle.
With a scream, the man dropped to his knees, and his pathetic blubbering shattered through the room as I descended on him.
“What the fuck! How did you fucking get in here!? STERLING! STERLING THERE ARE–”
Whatever he was going to say next was cut off as my foot connected squarely with the side of his hideous face.
Blood and teeth went flying in a sanguineous arc as the man buckled before me.
A worm at my feet.
“Wha–what do you want?” the man rasped as I used Cassandra’s body to approach him as he cowered before me. With a lethal smile, I slowly knelt to straddle his prone form.
Exchanging the gun for one of the switchblades my host had slipped into her pockets, I flicked it open, smiling down at my reflection in the steel of the knife.
The man’s eyes bulged as I pressed the sharp point against his cheek, just beneath his left eye.
Do it, do it, do it…. Cassandra chanted in the back of my mind, and I took a short moment to revel in how our roles seemed to have reversed.
Her need for this man’s blood was a rush.
Addicting.
And something I was more than willing to give her.
“P-Please, I’ll give you anything you want–”
I pressed a finger against his lips and gently shushed him, even as I tilted the tip of the knife more firmly against his cheek.
The man’s eyes rounded as my grin spread wider.
“What I want…” I purred, pressing the knife more solidly into the base of his socket, “...is to see your insides.”
“N-n–”
I didn’t let him finish.
Laughter bubbled up in my chest as my knife sank into his right socket, and I relieved him of his sight.
“Now you won’t be able to see things that were never meant for your eyes,” I sang while he thrashed like a wild animal beneath me.
Ripping the knife out of the man’s face, I plunged it back down into his other socket, enjoying the filmy pop of his eyeball as I punctured it with my blade.
Mmm. Delicious.
Someone was laughing.
The sound was like music, and I grinned as warm spurts of my prey’s blood drenched Cassandra’s throat and chest.
I was lost in a rolling wave of ecstasy as the pedophile slowly weakened beneath the unforgiving assault of my blade.
More… more, more, more… more blood… more pain…
Bleed for me, you little rapist. Let me hear you scream….
Abruptly, there was an explosion of bone and brain matter, and the man suddenly died in a pathetic heap beneath me.
Blinking out of the overwhelming bloodlust that had possessed me, I glanced down at his ruined corpse, feeling slightly confused, until I realized it had been the vampire.
He’d shot the man in the head, and now there was rapist blood splattered across the sinfully white walls of this sinister prayer room.
That was better.
It was more honest.
I didn’t have time to reprimand the vampire for stealing my kill, as the girl was still screaming, and it became clear why he’d ended my fun early.
The girl’s tiny cries were an alarm.
My ears pricked at a loud shout from the hall, and both the vampire and I turned toward the abrasive sound.
We heard another door burst open, and I gritted my teeth in irritation.
With a snarl, I wiped my blade clean on the thigh of Cassandra’s leggings before tucking it back into the pocket of her hoodie.
In one fluid motion, I pulled out the handgun and reloaded as I stepped toward the door, eager to spill the blood of the man I could already hear rushing toward us.
Another inhuman growl bubbled in the back of my throat as I was jerked back away from the door. A quick glance over my shoulder explained the sudden resistance.
The vampire’s silver eyes burned with annoyance, and he shook his head firmly. Anger ignited in my chest when I realized he was telling me no.
No one told me no.
No one but Cassandra.
Snarling in fury, I ripped my arm out of his grip, and he rolled his eyes, shaking his head in a show of frustration.
He was telling me it was dangerous and that we needed a plan.
But… I was not his to command.
I was Cassandra’s monster, and she’d told me I could kill them all.
And that was what I was going to do.
Six more steps, and I was back in the hall.
Another man was rushing out of the final room.
His belt was undone, and his cheeks were red.
Red.
Red.
RED!
A furious roar exploded through me, and my arm was moving before I’d even made the conscious decision to aim.
Sighting down my arm, I gritted my teeth as I fired.
With each step I took, I fired another bullet.
Each shot was almost silent, but the recoil ricocheted through Cassandra’s body, and I reveled in the pepper of shocks as the bullets left the gun.
Thwip, thwip, thwip.
Deadly, silent rain.
More screams and several more gorgeous arcs of crimson.
Then…
Another bloody corpse.
Once my prey was down, I prowled forward, examining his shredded body with a deep-seated sense of accomplishment.
It hadn’t been as satisfying as carving up the other man’s face, but the way his wide eyes still held the ghost of terror he’d felt as he died made both Cassandra and me purr.
Unfortunately, with the satisfaction of his death came more tiny sobs and desperate screams.
Not enough.
It wasn’t enough.
No matter how many of them I killed, it wouldn’t be enough.
The tiny ones would still be broken.
They would still be hurt, and no amount of blood would ever give them back the pieces these men stole from them.
But at least now they knew they weren’t alone.
They had me, and I would avenge them… Even if vengeance was just as empty as the promises these vile men whispered in their ears.
With the screams of the young survivors echoing off the blood-stained walls, my vision tunneled, and I found myself turning as one more door opened.
The final door.
The door at the end of the hall.
The door that held my true prey.
Cassandra’s essence flickered in the back of my mind, and I paused, waiting to see if she wanted to take control.
But then, he was there.
And he was mine.
The reverend’s face blanched as he poked his head out of his office to find me standing over the corpse of the man I’d just killed.
I don’t know why I expected a fight or some show of courage.
The reverend gave me none.
Instead, the second his eyes met mine… he ran.
‘Rat Man.’ Some distant part of me thought as he scuttled back into his hole. I barely felt my body move as I tore down the hall to catch him.
My heart was pounding, but my breath was steady and even. He wouldn’t escape. I wouldn’t allow it.
He tried to slam the door behind him, but it was futile.
I was a monster, and he was just prey.
He couldn’t outrun me.
He couldn’t outrun death.
I slammed into the door with enough momentum that the reverend buckled and abandoned his pathetic attempt at barring me from the room.
He yelped and bolted deeper into the office as I forced my way through.
The pitiful thing was shouting words I could barely understand as he scrambled towards his desk. I tracked him from the door as he reached for his phone.
My hand rose, and I aimed, my finger curling on the trigger.
‘Not that one!’ Cassandra screamed, and I felt my hand jerk as she resumed control of the body we shared.
With a twist of our wrist, she adjusted our aim, and when she pulled the trigger, there was no explosion of bone and brain.
Instead, the bullet went wide. Miraculously, it hit the phone, and the device flew from the man’s now bleeding hand.
“On your knees, hands on your head,” my little killer commanded, and the pathetic man shook and begged for mercy, even as he dropped to his knees before us.
‘Got him,’ Cassandra purred as the vampire sauntered into the room behind us.
The mercenary raised an irritated eyebrow on his way by, shaking his head at us in irritation.
‘He’s angry with me,’ I mused.
‘You’re not a very good listener,’ Cassandra replied, though she sounded amused. ‘He was right, you know. What if the man in the hall had a gun? You could have gotten us killed.’
‘But I didn’t.’ I smirked, and my little killer rolled her eyes.
‘Move over, you asshole. I’m taking over.’
‘Must I return to the cage?’ I asked, hoping she would take pity on me and allow me to remain free.
She considered this for a long moment before letting out a sigh.
‘Do you promise to behave?’
‘I am always behaved.’
‘Mmm. You’re not helping your case.’
I let out a soft huff, which caused her to smile.
In an attempt to persuade her, I amended my response.
‘I promise not to kill anyone before discussing it with you first.’
Cassandra seemed to consider this, then she nodded.
‘Fine. You can stay out of the cage for now. But you’re on probation. You kill one person without talking to me about it first, then back in the cage you go.’
‘That is fair, little killer. I agree to your terms.’
‘Alright then, off you go. I don’t need you for this next part.’ She smirked, and I smiled as I faded back into the shadows of Cassandra Walker’s mind, where I would wait patiently until she needed me again.
As we watched the vampire smother the evil man’s face with his poisoned rag, I hoped that maybe now, Cassandra wouldn’t need me very much at all.
I was her monster, yes.
But I had been born of her fury and her pain. She was no longer that small child, begging the darkness for company as she shivered alone in her cage.
Now, she was a wife, a sister, and a friend.
She was healed and whole, and I hoped she would soon be so full of love and light that there would be no more shadows for me to hide in.
I wanted this for my little killer.
My tail flicked as I curled up and lay my head down to rest.
I wanted that very much.