His teeth are chattering now, and I wonder how much of it is the cold and how much of that is because the grim reality of how horrendous he really is is washing over him.
"It's okay, Nick. I broke that one, too."
I laugh when his eyes round, surprised by that admission. "Who?"
"Cole was my first." I admit. "It was really special. I chopped his head off and then baked him into a pie."
Now that I say it out loud, it sounds insane. But sanity is a mortal construct, and I'm dead, so I don't particularly care.
"Cole? He's dead?"
"Of course." I laugh. "He's the worst of you all, you know? Because he knew what it's like to not have the world at your feet, unlike you and Brant. And he still took from innocent people anyway. Making him mincemeat may have been a little overkill, but I really needed to be sure Brant could grasp the full scope of things." I sigh. "He was not a fan of it, go figure. But I think he was more pissed off about the humiliation than he was about the reality of eating his best friend's flesh..."
"You're a fucking demon." Nick says, shaking his head. "You're a monster."
"A monster?" I laugh. "No. I'm justmad."
"Mad?" Nick chokes on his laugh. "You don't force people to eat their friends because you're mad. You'remental."
Maybe I am. Maybe my sanity snapped in those last precious seconds of my struggle. When I was having everything ripped away from me, maybe my sanity decided to go right along with the rest.
Or maybe I'm divine justice. Karma, in a way that can't be stopped. Maybe the universe recognizes the need to tip the scale, and it kept me here so I could help bring balance.
Or maybe my rage just seared into me so deep that my soul imprinted on the last place I was alive.
It doesn't matter, whatever the reason.
"You'll be my last kill, and it's not for the reason you think."
I can sense him opening his mouth to ask questions, but he's a moment too late. I hear the door opening, the slow creak and the shuffle as someone takes the space across from us in the dark confines of the confessional booth.
"You can't atone for your sins." I tell him. "Not enough time for that, I fear. But you can do the next best thing."
He doesn't ask what, torn between horror that he's trapped here with his father inches away, and yet entirely at my mercy.
"Confess."
Chapter 15
Noah
She'sfuckingglorious.
I've sat back most of the night, watching her and letting her do her thing. She's called the shots, and I've acted on them when she's needed to. I've been her silent supporter, and in the spaces between kills, when it's just us and it seems like she's bled a little bit of the evil from this world we're leaving behind, I worship her.
We were told in life not to take idols and to worship no one other than the Lord.
She is my God, though.
I've decided as much today, and I don't care what that means for our afterlife.
Her body was always a temple to me, even when I tried to hold true on my faith. It was a temple, so we couldn't violate it by tainting it with sex before marriage. But we could do other things, experience pleasure all the same. I learned her body and how to work it, the right touch, the perfect amount of pressure, the spots that made her toes curl. I learned how to trace her with my tongue and send her over the edge of madness, holding herthere on a pedestal I refused to let her fall from until she begged me for release.
Just because we kept our virginity intact doesn't mean we didn't do other things. Things that I've missed. Things that we've spent the day doing.
Her spirit, raw and vulnerable without the shell of her body, is softer, more easily manipulated. The slightest touch of our bodies brings pleasure that was too good for this earth, and when I'm inside of her, we become one unit, tethered, twined, anchored.
Our souls won't be separated, even when we part to deal with unpleasantries such as this.
