“Perhaps you now begin to appreciate what the evening has in store," I growled in delight, cutting a wide smile into my body. In the back of the cave, I could see Mothman and Caspian looking at me with twin expressions of horror—finally seeing thethingthat lived in their girlfriend. How sad for them.
People had them held at gunpoint. One was holding Caspian down.
My eyes went to Ben. Instead of seeing terror in his expression, I saw rage. My body moved towards him, the slimy ick sliding quickly on the ground. He grabbed one of his men beside him and quickly thrust him towards me, blocking my path to him. I laughed in amusement, grabbing his follower and ripping him in half.
Blood sprayed everywhere and his soul began to leave. I couldn’t let it go to waste. I inhaled it in, eating it whole. I didn’t realize that's what Ben had wanted, he just needed a little time to pull a book out of his bag. He began growling out ancient words. The others threw salt at me and it stung horribly. I thrashed at one of them, grabbing hold of their head and twisting until it was backwards.
Their soul came out and I ate that one too. Power hummed through, an electric current burning brighter.
But then I felt a terrible thing. Atug. Not the nice, warming call of Ava. No, this was something else.
The words Ben spoke rose up above the chaos of gunfire, shouts, and screams of terror. They rose above the crunch of bones as I killed another person he thrust at me, ensuring their death. He had no issue killing these people. They were fodder despite their loyalty to him.
Bastard might actually be interesting.
His strange words swirled around me in the air. They made my body feel heavy and I sank to the ground as I struggled to keep moving. More salt was thrown at me and I yelled as it stung my body repeatedly like a relentless series of waves attempting to ram me into the ground.
I felt my soul try to detach from my warped body. My soul felt slippery in my bones as if it were a balloon that's string had been cut. It wanted to drift away.
“No!” I snarled, alarm and horror beating inside me. I did the only thing I could. I surrendered, barreling back into the woods to Ava in a panic, trying to keep hold of my form and my soul as one. This bastard was trying to exorcise me and it was actually working. He planned to send me to Hell.
Ava was on the ground next to Brandon. Her head tilted up to see me coming for her.
“Ava!” I cried and she reached out for me. She was my only hope. I descended on her, covering her entire body in mine. She felt my panic humming across her skin and opened her mouth for my kiss.
I shoved myself in, rough and fast, sliding down her throat thickly, burrowing into the safety of her body. She was warm and being together again felt right, my soul stitching itself back together. I shuddered and sunk inside her until there was nothing left outside. She swallowed me whole and then pushed me down, making sure I didn’t take control.
8
Makwa’s unhinged laugh rattled in my ears as more bullets were shot at him.
I swallowed down the meat—the person. That knowledge didn’t stop me, my fingers ripping and tearing along with my teeth until not an inch of me was free from blood. It was sick but for the first time in days, my stomach actually felt like it was filling up.
Ava scrambled over to me, covering my body with hers in a panic. She shouldn’t see me like this. She shouldn’t touch me. Then I realized she was trying to protect me as the man shot out bullets.
“It’s okay,” she whispered in my ear. She was so warm, her body soft on my back, her fingers gripping one of my arms so tight she’d leave bruises. I looked up and saw the man swinging the gun towards us. A white-hot spark of panic exploded in my filling gut.
A black tentacle shot out, twisting the gun suddenly. His fingers crunched, still locked into the trigger. The motherfucker almost shot Ava. Makwa surged forward, losing the man-like shape he’d taken. He was just a black tentacled mass of darkness, pummeling towards the man. He picked him up and threw him through the trees.
Then Makwa was gone, his laugh growing further away. The sound of flesh ripping and bones crunching in the distance made me ravenous. The sound of gunfire came in staccato bursts punctuated by screams as we heard Makwa laugh and roar.
I couldn’t believe they almost shot Ava. Fury was an emotion I was used to. Angry at my parents for the neglect, at the world for trying to beat me down. I’d worked my ass off to get to where I was and now it was all gutted from me.
All the long hours of work to make ends meet for my sister and me. All the nights I played until my fingers blistered and bled. I gave everything to help my sister reach her dreams and then everything to reach my own. And when they finally all started to come together—my sister in school, me on my way to stardom so we’d never need anyone’s help ever again—it was snatched from me before I even had a chance to enjoy it.
A howl broke from my mouth, sounding more animal than human. Ava pulled off me quickly. I saw Makwa come back in a rush, yelling in panicked outrage before whispering Ava’s name in a mix of desperation and relief.
I looked down at the mutilated corpse beneath me. I could still taste the raw meat and blood in my mouth. The cult had done this to me and they’d done more than that. They’d hurt my friends, they’d hurt Ava, and they’d stuck me in a room hoping I’d break and eat one of them, hadn’t they? That’s why we’d all been locked together. That’s why they limited my food.
They knew this was coming andwantedme to eat them.
People had barreled into the woods. A person leapt at me, wrestling me underneath them. The side of my skull mask slammed into the dirt. I watched as they dragged Ava away from me. She reached out to me. I could see her lips moving to form my name. I jutted my head back, my antlers attacking the man before I pushed him off and scrambled to get to her. When I reached out my arm I saw it coated in blood. What had I done?
A voice broke through the chaos and whooshing in my ears.
“Get him!” Ben wailed, his voice a mean growl. People raced towards me. They hesitated a moment when they saw the blood smeared all over me but then pushed forward, the gleam of greed in their eyes. I could feel that greed of theirs in my gut, a hungry gnawing that would never leave.
I’d eat the fucking greed out of their spilled intestines.
