A sharp pain rips through my ribs, his boot striking them hard, knocking me sideways to the ground. My arm scrapes against the vile pavement, reaching for the contents of my clutch, searching for the switchblade I placed inside earlier. He drops to the ground, his leg swinging over my stomach, straddling me.
His arm swings back, and his fist swings toward me. I pinch my eyes closed right before my mouth explodes with throbbing pain, and blood fills my palate.
My head falls to the side, and I see the blade just out of reach of my fingertips. I stretch my arm close enough to grip it in my hand and press the button.
“Who’s coming for me?” he asks, clenching the front of my dress and pulling my face close to his.
I smile with bloody teeth up at him. “Mastyx.” When I swing, he sees the blade coming and puts up his hand. The sharp silver tip glides into his palm, and he shouts, before wrenching it away from me. Blood drains down his hand and arm as he drops the blade beside us, stares at the wound on his hand with wild eyes, before narrowing them at me. “You’re going to fucking regret that.”
He grabs me harshly and flips me quickly onto my stomach, his full body weight crashing down on my spine as his zipper rapidly clicks down. “When I’m done fucking you, you can go back and tell whomever you work for that you belong to me now.”
His fingers twist into my hair, winding their way to my scalp before yanking my head away from the asphalt and slamming it back down, sending a sudden shooting pain through my forehead, the grit of the hard surface digging into my skin.
I turn my head sideways, resting my ear against the ground of the filthy alley, feeling the rumbling of cars driving down the cross street, but I can’t hear anything over the ringing in my ears. Blood drains down from my head and drips onto the slimy alley beneath me. I close my eyes and beg for Mastyx to save me inside my head. My dress slides up my thighs, then my ass, and his fingers press inside my pussy. “Nice and wet, just the way I like it.”
“Stop!” I cry out through blurry tears.
He pulls my head off the ground by my hair. “Tell me who you work for, and this will all be over.”
I remain silent. I already told him who I came here for and why. He just doesn’t believe me.
“Fine. Don’t tell me. Just remember you asked for this, now you’re going to fucking take it.” His fingers slide out from inside me, and I feel him positioning himself to enter me from behind.
Something Mastyx said about beingresponsible for your own rescuefilters into my head.
I have to save myself.
With every ounce of strength and courage I have left, I reach for the switchblade, pushing through the pain the weight of him is causing me. It’s just outside my reach, so I buck my body to keep him from entering me from behind and scoot my hand closer to the knife.
Pressure pushes against my ass, and I realize he’s not trying to enter my pussy, he’s going straight for the other hole. I rock my body side to side, stopping him from pushing inside me, and a hammering pain slams into my thigh as he punches it, deadening my leg. “Stop fucking moving,” he shouts, before licking his palm and swiping it across my asshole, moistening it, and making it pucker.
The tip of his cock harshly breaches the opening, tearing me wide open, and I scream just as my fist tightens around the switchblade.
I swing it blindly over my shoulder, and his cock instantly softens as gargling sounds come from behind me. I shift my body from beneath him as he falls sideways into a deep puddle, littered with garbage. I climb on his midsection and slam the blade of the knife in between his ribs, blind rage taking over. The knife plunges in and out of his arms and hands as he tries to cover his vital organs. His arms drop down to his sides, the fight in him fading. My feet slide against the slippery pavement as Iclimb off him, drop backward and stare wide-eyed at what I’ve done.
His legs slide against the pavement and blood spurts from between his lips.
Something wet dribbles down my cheek. I raise my hand to wipe it and freeze. Dark crimson coats my fingers, hands, dress, legs and arms. Every part of me is spotted or drenched in metallic crimson. The fantasy I had about being coated in blood races back to me, and I realize I’m living part of that fantasy right now.
It’s everywhere.
A car horn beeps in the distance, and my head darts in the direction of the noise, breaking me from my trance-like state. I scan the alley around me, my heart pounding. I have to hurry up and collect myself and get out of here before someone sees us.
I crawl across the ground, my hands and knees gliding through the growing puddle of bloody water around Brent and pick up my pink lighter that fell from my clutch. I hold it between us, press my thumb against the flame adjustment, turning it up high and flick it.
Nothing but sparks.
I try again, fighting through blinding tears, but the blood on my fingers makes getting a good grip on it hard. I wipe my hand along the hem of my dress, on a clean part, and try again. A whooshing flame nearly singes off my eyebrows. I take a deep breath, holding it before murmuring one word through staggering lips, “Mastyx…” My bottom lip quivers, and my teeth chatter. “…help me.”
The flame shoots higher than it should, and within a heartbeat, Mastyx manifests beside us in the shadows.
I drop the lighter and scoot back the short distance to the wall, leaning against it as my entire body shivers, suddenly feeling too cold.
Brent’s eyes drift to mine, pleading with me to call for help, to save him. Mastyx steps between us, and through his legs, I watch Brent’s mouth and eyes stretch unnaturally wide in horror. He tries to scream, but blood instead of words coughs from between his lips.
Mastyx peers down at me over his shoulder, his eyes narrowing before snatching Brent from the water, holding him high, and inhaling deeply. Brent’s legs dangle and twitch as his soul separates from his body in a blurry haze and enters Mastyx’s throat, lighting it up on the way down to the pit of his stomach.
I cower beneath them, too stunned to move. Mastyx’s face slowly transforms from a flaming skull to Brent’s. By the time Mastyx finishes sucking the literal life out of him, Brent is nothing but a pile of bones with a light skin covering him, completely desiccated.
