The door burst open suddenly. People began frantically scurrying into the room—Ben at the front of the pack. Most of them eyed the window in shock but Ben looked furious.
“I don’t accept this,” he snapped, apparently thinking he had some say in how the world turned. It didn’tpleaseBen that people had free will, huh? Well, tough shit. I was happy Brandon got out. Something had needed to happen and it was icing on that cake that it pissed Ben off.
I hated Ben,despisedhim. I’d always tried to be understanding, to never hate anyone. Things were different now that he'd attacked my men.
I’d been the one he’d tricked, I’d been the one he used, and I was the one he wanted. The others were a bonus I brought for him to abuse. My own sense of guilt made me hate him so much more than I thought I was capable of hating a person.
While stuck in my cage, I’d imagined my men doing to him what they’d shown me they were capable of with others. Bullets bursting his head, teeth ripping out his throat, a Lovecraftian tentacle emerging from an eye socket having danced a crimson tango with the contents of his cranium.
I’d never been violent but Ben made me greedy with the desire for a bloody retribution. Though it wasn’t just him. It was also because I was no longer the person I was before. I’d seen too much, been through too much. I was forever altered but if my men were okay with that then I could be too. I’d just need help when the memories became too much—afterall this. We would escape and prevail and I wouldn’t always feel Loren’s hands pushing me; wouldn’t close my eyes and see my men drowned, stabbed, captured, and beaten.
One day in the future, I wouldn’t feel the phantom sensation of the haunted house in my blood and the dim cave where ghosts stalked me—alone, scared, and sure of my own death.
“You will never be alone nor in pain again, Ava,” Makwa whispered in my head, his words a feverish promise. “I’ll never let you suffer or die. You will never go through the horrible things I’ve experienced nor anything else for that matter.”
Makwa… he’d gone through something. I could see flashes of it when I slept. I’d felt a taste of his terror and pain and it made me so sad for him. There was just so much to unpack with Makwa that I was finding it hard to start. When would be the time though?
“Thank you,” I mumbled, unsure how to respond to his overwhelming promise to protect me. Unsure what to think of him at all. A ghost possessing me. A killer. A victim. He hissed in my head.
“Don’t think of me as the victim, Ava. Think of me as your villainoussavior,” he said, ending with a humorous tinge to his voice.
Ben sent people out around the property to search while we sat in our cages. A cool breeze that was nearly frigid began to drift through the broken window. It was still late August, wasn’t it? My sense of time was a mess.
I was supposed to be at the next national forest, taking pictures of beer koozies on picnic tables and giggling in tents with Caspian as we explored our new relationship. Now apparently, I was in a relationship with monsters—multiple—and one of them had just burst through a window after I gave him head in front of the other two.
I didn’t even know how to define my… relationship with Makwa.
“A love for the ages,” he cackled. “We’re inseparable. We’re together forever. We’re—
“Shut up,” I hissed. A dark rumble of laughter moved up my spine and it felt as if one of his tentacles brushed between my legs. I made a sound of shock while slamming my legs together—which got everyone’s attention back on us.
“Get the room fixed,” Ben snapped, then started to pace while petting his coppery chin whiskers. A couple people piled out as he went back and forth in front of our cages. “In the morning, if he hasn’t been found, we’ll all go—”
“Scared of the dark?” Makwa said from my mouth and Ben snapped his head to me.
“Don’t think I haven’t noticed the leech inside my golden egg.”
“Wow, I’m impressed by your awareness. What gave it away, the slimy tentacles?” Makwa purred. Those slimy tentacles were bursting to get out. I could feel them under my skin, caressing the walls of their human cage. They’d been no help so far. The cage was iron, which repelled the dead. Makwa had roared in frustration when he realized and then started to panic about being trapped again, like he had been in the cave. Hedidn’tlike being trapped and he didn’t like being touched.
I swallowed Makwa back down, much to his displeasure but I didn’t want him mouthing off to our captor. I pushed him down farther than before, putting him in timeout so he wouldn’t just pop out again. Finally, I felt like it was just me in my head, as much as it could be at least. His presence was always a lingering shadow furtively lurking in the back of my mind.
It was refreshing that the connection between us was becoming increasingly controllable. I had only needed to accept I had power.
“Behave,” Ben hissed at me. “If I see thosethingscome out again then I’ll be forced to take desperate measures on your monsters, Ava. Control your lackey.” He reprimanded me like a child, his pale eyes ugly and wide.
“So much for being worshiped,” Caspian said with dripping sarcasm. Mothman heaved a sigh and readjusted in his cage. He was by far the worst off, space-wise. Not only was he seven feet tall but I knew he had those wings tucked behind him and he was having to sit on them.
“Tomorrow,” Ben started, turning towards the three followers still in the room. “Very early, we will go up into the mountains and find him. We can’t lose him. Luckily, he has headed away from any civilization. Plus,” he fished out what looked to be a phone and fiddled with it. “There he is,” he said with a lecherous smile. “The cameras have him in sight. He’s headed towards the big cave.”
“Why wait?” Victoria asked. His little gofer go-to. I got the feeling she was considered second in command here. She seemed more interested in Ben than us.
“We need to get our supplies together. Also, some tales claim his kind is stronger at night. Some creatures are.” He turned and gave us a look, his tongue moving in his mouth as he thought. “We’ll take them too. We might need leverage.”
“Us as leverage didn’t keep him here before,” Caspian offered, waving towards the broken window.
“Well, you all still make excellent bait,” Ben said, smiling with expressionless eyes. He turned back to his people. “Board up that window and then let them out of the cages for the night. Need them to stretch their legs before the hike tomorrow,” he said before turning and walking from the room.
Several men came in and began to nail corrugated metal sheets to the window. I could hear more people drilling outside. Finally, someone left food before tossing a key on the floor near Mothman’s cage. They scampered out quickly after that.
