5. Octavia
5
Octavia
I t feels strange being back in the castle. I wished for nothing else every night, praying to whoever could hear me to take me home, but now that I’m back, something doesn’t feel right. My skin itches, an unsettled hum vibrating through my body. I feel off, a tension filling the room, unable to be ignored.
Perhaps it’s the new bedroom. My room used to be in the south wing, all alone, separate from everyone else. Father used to say it wasn’t proper for a girl to share the same wing as her brothers, but he didn’t seem to have a problem with Bas and Rian not only sharing a room, but a bed as well.
As I got older and more rebellious, I would scream at him about how unfair it was, earning me a slap across the face each time. He would punish me by limiting my access to the twins, keeping them so busy, I would hardly see them.
His punishment worked; it only took a few times before I never mentioned it again. Being away from them was too hard. My days would feel empty; I would wander around this giant castle, searching for them or secrets of what they were doing to feel more connected. I lost a piece of myself whenever we were apart.
My days may have been an empty void, but my nights never were. They would seek me out, silent as ghosts, wrapping their hands around mine and carrying me to their room. They would settle me in between them, most of the time covered in blood or filth, never speaking a word. They would simply hold me tight, stroking my hair, burying their faces in my neck and breathing deep. They’d sneak me out before sunrise, carrying me back to my room with a simple promise to return. And now, I’m exactly where I demanded to be for all those years: wishing I was back in the south wing.
I slam the empty cup of tea the maid brought on the bedside cabinet, burying myself deep in the thick covers on my black four-poster bed. I finally convince myself that I need to separate myself from them, to accept the tiny crumbs of just existing in the same place, and they demand that I never be apart from them. It’s a dream come true and a walking nightmare all at the same time. Father might not be here now, but he’ll be back. The staff will surely inform him. He will send me away for sure—or worse.
Do they not realise that? Do they not care that to be with them, I need to put as much distance between us as possible?
Of course they don’t, because they don’t know how sick my thoughts are—how I used to touch myself as I laid in bed between them while they were fast asleep, or how I bribed a maid to buy a selection of toys so I could use them while thinking of my twin brothers.
Technically, my family would consider me a virgin—if you believe in the concept of virginity or that it requires a fleshed cock to change that fact. I broke my hymen long ago, fucked myself with multiple dildos, screaming their names into my pillow. I might have not been with a man before, but I’ve had a lot of experience getting to know my body.
I’m not sure if that would count in the bloodline’s eyes as breaking the rules. They believe that every woman should remain a virgin until they are matched for marriage, sold off to someone else in the family who isn’t so directly related. My father called me a vile and twisted little girl for feeling the things I do for my brothers, but he and everyone else in this fucking family have a drop of blood in common. I guess mine was just too close.
My eyes become heavy, and I sink further into the pillows, feeling like I’m floating on a cloud of candyfloss. They fall shut as I drift off, laughing in my head at the hypocrisy of it all. I’m too wicked of a person to live in a castle named after the goddess of sin herself. Maybe the castle caused me to be born cursed, a rejected sinner in the house of depravity.
***
The sheer curtains on my bed turn into dripping black tar, snakes appearing from all sides, hissing, angry that I’m here. They hiss that I should leave, that I’m in the wrong place. I’m bad.
Bad
Bad
Bad
A scream gets stuck, my voice stolen as I desperately try to shout for help. I claw at my throat, nails digging into my skin, pain flaring underneath them, but it doesn’t work. The world is melting away, turning into a liquified nightmare, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it. It’s all falling apart, and I’m stuck helpless in the carnage.
Cold sweats cover my skin, the sheets sticking to my body, wrapping around so tight that it makes it difficult to breathe. I kick my legs wildly, bucking underneath the heavy death sheet. They need to get off before I’m trapped and the sticky tar consumes me. A scream finally breaks free, the covers whipped away, and I fall thrashing to the ground on my hands and knees, landing in a puddle of red, warm liquid. Blood fills my entire floor, growing deeper and deeper, trying to suck me down. I pull my arms out, but the blood turns to slime, wet, thick, and sticky, pulling me back.
I slip, my face smacking against the wood floor, thick dark red covering my cheek. I screech, my mouth open wide, giving the blood a chance to invade me, a copper taste filling my mouth. Whispers of sick poison and bad blood taunt me. The blood speaks to me, telling me that I don’t belong in the world of sinners.
Sick
Twisted
Wrong
I sob, pleading with the blood that I’ll be good, that the sins plaguing my soul will stay buried.
“I promise, I’ll be good. I’ll be good. I won’t love them that way. I’ll stop. I’ll be good. I’ll be good.” I scream each word, hiccupping between with sobs. I don’t want to die. I’m finally back with them; I don’t want to die yet.
The blood believes my lies, releasing my arms, slowly turning into a shallow stream instead of a flowing river coating my floor. My racing heart doesn’t calm, though; it beats faster and faster, because as the blood disappears, I hear a creak. The hairs on the back of my neck raise, and I freeze in place.
“Hmmm, naughty little sinner, lying to the demons like that,” a dark feral voice tuts, getting closer and closer.
“Maybe she believes the lies she tells. What a foolish little girl,” a sadistic voice adds. A scratchiness in his tone sounding like nails running down a stone wall.
“No, no, no, no,” I mutter, scratching my fingernails down my face, trying to claw at my eyes.
They’re back. The demons of the castle are back.
Their footsteps get closer, stomping, making the floor shake. My body vibrates violently, and I grasp at the hissing snakes to keep my balance. Their monstrous feet make the world move as a snake bites my hand, causing a sharp sting. I whack the snake away, cradling my hand, my eyes welling at the pain, but my terror is drowned out when a sharp, clawed hand digs into my hair. Searing pain pulls at the roots of my hair, my head wrenched up, putting me face to face with one of the demons.
His entire face is melting like the room, dripping from his hollow eyes right down to his fanged, unnaturally large mouth. Letters on his forehead glow bright in a deep, dark red, saying ‘kiss me’. I recoil away from the creature, but that only makes it laugh, bringing my face closer until I can smell the burning of flesh.
“Our angel has returned home at last, but where are your wings?”
He cocks his head to the side, and his words bring them to life. A heaviness fills my entire back right before excruciating pain. My skin tears apart, the flap of wings filling the air, white feathers falling all around us.
“There they are. Such beautiful wings. I can’t wait to watch them turn black when we catch you, when you admit that you are just as dark and venomous as the demons who chase you. Our sinful angel pretending to be good,” the other evil creature says, laughing cruelly.
He grips my chin, forcing me to face him in the other’s grasp. Neon string has been sewn over his black void eyes, creating an X over both. The same is all over his mouth, with slits so he can speak, blood dripping down his chin. I forgot how terrifying they are.
“You know the rules, little angel. You have an hour to run through this castle and find safety,” Neon demon says—not that I need to be reminded. I know this nightmare well.
“And if you don’t,” Kiss-Me demon continues, “then you will be all ours.”
His tongue extends, licking from the bottom of my cheek all the way to my eye. I shiver, repulsed at his action and the way it makes me feel. His cold, hollow laughter echoes through my bones as he licks up the other side to match.
“Stop,” I plead, hating myself and them.
“Poor little angel, always denying what she wants most,” he taunts, dragging his claws on my neck and chest.
I struggle in their grasp, trying to pull away. They cackle once more, dropping me to the ground. I fling my head up to keep my eyes on them, crawling backwards, scurrying away. They laugh maniacally, never taking their gaze off me. The liquid tar moves across the room, slipping past me, crawling over the walls and ceiling, joining them, making them grow taller and taller.
“You best hurry now,” Neon says, gripping Kiss-Me’s shoulder, holding him in place.
Kiss-Me’s melted jaw unhinges, black shadows flying out, racing in my direction as he roars, “Because we’re fucking famished.”
I scream my brother’s names, desperate for them to get me, for them to save me. My bedroom door is already open, and I race out, pounding on their door, but they don’t answer. The laughter of the demons carries into the hall, and I don’t wait. I run as fast as I can, my long silk nightgown billowing in the wind that suddenly appears.
I have no direction, no thought of a place to go. My only safe place in this castle is my brothers, and I can’t find them. The walls drip like everything else, making it hard to tell which way I’m going. My bare feet pad on the floor, the sound louder with each slap.
Blood flows down the hallways again, washing against my toes, making everything slippy. I’ve tumbled more times than I can count, the cackle of the demons always close behind. Shadows jump out, attacking as I go, whispers from the walls of the sinner who needs to be punished coming through. The castle doesn’t want me here. It thinks I should have stayed away, just like my father demanded, because I’m wrong.
Sick
Sick
Sick
The castle’s words get louder and louder, turning from a whisper into a thundering bellow. It tells me to leave, that I’m not wanted, but if I go, I know for sure that I will die.
“No,” I scream, skidding to a halt, raging against the damn talking castle. “I will not leave. I refuse to be taken away from them again. They are mine!” I stomp my foot, raking my hands through my hair, pulling it until it feels like my skin will tear off. “Mine. Mine. Mine.”
Everyone wants to take away what belongs to me. My father. The castle. The staff. The bloodline. Even my brothers. But no one can take them from me. They can’t even take themselves from me. I will kill them before I let that happen. If the only way for me to have them is in death, then I will slaughter us all.
Movement on the wall catches my eye. My father’s portrait hangs in the dripping black. He moves in it, his eyes wide with unbridled rage, staring at me the same way he did the night he took me.
“I will kill you. I will fucking kill you before you take me away again!”
I slam my entire body into the painting, trying to drag him out and bash his head into the stone, just like he did mine. I attack him in a blind fury, tearing his skin, ripping it to shreds until it sits in a pile of paper at my feet. My nails drag across the brick as the castle continues to taunt me. Black tar drips down my fingers, the castle bleeding as I try to kill it.
“There she is,” a haunting voice whispers in my ear. “There’s our dark angel.”
My feet lift from the ground, and the demons spin me around, pinning me between them. Their bodies are so tall, all I can see is them.
“Are you ready to embrace your sin, little angel?” Neon asks, tilting my chin. His tongue extends, and he drags it over my cheek, collecting tears that have fallen.
“Are you ready to become a demon in a castle of monsters? Are you brave enough to claim them?” Kiss-Me asks, wrapping his hand around my throat from behind. “Tell us, Octavia. Say it out loud, the thing you fear most.”
My breath stutters in my throat, my heart racing, about to fly out of my chest. I’ve never admitted it out loud, never dared to even whisper it in case prying ears were listening.
“Say it,” Neon barks, his void black eyes turning silver behind his stitching, the colours swirling together until only the grey remains.
“I want them,” I say, but it’s not enough for the demons.
“Come on, little angel. You can do better than that. Tell us who you want,” Kiss-Me whispers in my ear like a snake, trying to lure me in.
I shiver uncontrollably in their grasps, sweat dripping down my body, my nightgown sticking to my skin. I shouldn’t say it. Once it’s out, there’s no taking it back, but I’m so tired of denying myself, so fucking tired of screaming at the demons that they’re wrong.
They first appeared to me the day after my eighteenth birthday, similar to what happened tonight. They chased me through the castle, the world turning into something else, always catching me, always trying to demand the secret I hold tight inside, but I never gave it, and when I refused, they would turn wicked. I was terrified for my life until my brothers saved me, bringing me the demons’ heads, bathing me in their blood, telling me it was all going to be okay.
I always deny the demons, but I’m so tired of saying no, of rejecting what I want. I’m rotten on the inside, and maybe it’s time I stop pretending I’m not.
“I want my brothers. I want Dorian and Bastian living in my skin until all I can feel is them.”
My darkest secret comes tumbling from my lips, and I actually watch the words floating in the air as if by magic, showing the world my shame.
“Yes,” the demons hiss together, a drumming beat building. A sense of foreboding fills my veins as a change in the atmosphere thickens, and suddenly, I can’t breathe. I’m gasping for air, clutching my neck where they hold me, trying to swim up through the fog.
My nightdress rips from my body, pulled by shadows of smoke, leaving me naked and vulnerable to the demons in all my truth. Neon cups my pussy painfully while Kiss-Me grabs my breasts, pinching and rolling my nipples. There’s so much pain, but it’s laced with pleasure, pure, euphoric, depraved pleasure.
Neon doesn’t hesitate, his fingers forcing their way inside my pussy, growling deeply as I cry out. He pumps in and out, his thumb pressing a burning pressure on my clit that has my legs going weak.
“Such a sinful little slut for us,” Kiss-Me hisses, licking up my neck, scraping his fangs on my pulse point.
“What a deviant dark angel you turned out to be,” Neon says, black feathers falling around us. “Call out their names as I fuck your cunt. I want to hear you scream your big brothers’ names as you come.”
My legs buckle underneath me, a cry releases from my lips. He finds that sweet spot inside me that makes me squirt, and a blinding pleasure burns through my body. I feel my cum dripping down my legs, and I buck into the demon’s hands, wanting more. Kiss-Me twists my nipples, grinding against my ass, holding me up. My arms scramble back and lock around his neck, holding tight to my nightmare.
“Bastian. Dorian,” I cry. A burning heat rolls down my stomach, making my sex throb.
“Tell your big brothers how much their little sister wants them to make her scream,” Kiss-Me demands, kissing my neck.
“So much,” I moan, working my hips. “I want to be so good for my big brothers. I need them. I-”
A second orgasm crashes into me, and my head throws back in a silent scream. The demons don’t stop until I’m a sopping wet mess, uncontrollably shaking, covering them in my cum. Kiss-Me wrenches my head back, fisting my hair as I sob. He licks my tears, humming in delight, capturing my mouth, and I don’t fight him.
Neon tears us away from each other, slipping his cum-covered fingers into Kiss-Me’s mouth, forcing them to the back of his throat until he gags. Saliva drips down his chin, but he doesn’t fight the invasion, wrapping his lips around the fingers, sucking off my cum, not taking his eyes off me.
I’m hypnotised.
“Doesn’t she taste like the best forbidden fruit?”
Neon pulls his fingers out of his mouth as Kiss-Me nods, putting them into his mouth instead. I squirm between them, keening, my pussy throbbing again, needing more…wanting more.
“Please,” I beg, unable to help myself.
Neon’s eyes flash, and he tips his head towards Kiss-Me. They place me on my knees between them, Neon’s thumb forcing its way into my mouth.
“Keep that pretty hole open,” he snarls, and I do as I’m told.
They stand together, their large cocks in their hands. I lick my lips, wanting the glistening pre-cum that rests on their tips. A slap hits my breasts, catching my hard nipples, making them burn and throb. I gasp, a shriek breaking free. Neon wraps his hand around my throat, hissing in my face.
“I told you to keep that pretty fucking mouth of yours open.” He jams his fingers into my mouth again, forcing it as wide as it will go until my eyes water. I nod, mumbling an apology.
He releases me and uses the spit on his fingers as lube for his cock, working the shaft hard in a tight grip.
“I’m going to come all over your face, pretty girl,” Kiss-Me hisses. “Taste my fucking cum.”
A hot splash hits my face, and I stick my tongue out, catching as much as I can. He grunts, moaning deeply, and Neon grasps his shoulder, spilling his hot seed. They taste like fire and sin, burning me in the most delicious way possible.
Once they’re done, they caress my face, rubbing their cum into my skin, marking me. Their touches are soft, almost loving, and I melt into them. But it only lasts a few seconds before their grip hardens, holding me in place.
A snake appears in Neon’s other hand and jumps forward, sinking its small fangs into my breast. The world immediately turns to darkness, my demons laughing as I go.
“Your big brothers are going to take such good care of you, little sister. Welcome home.”