Rule 3 - Craven
LOCK THE DOOR.
Three Years Ago
Ipulled my mouth away from the beautiful Tanis Barclay with a great struggle. I sighed and stood from the mattress placed on the basement floor we’d been making out on. She frowned and shoved her hands under her perfect rack.
“Come back, Craven, please,” she pleaded. My cock was screaming for me to listen to her, but my plans were more important than getting my dick wet. I closed my eyes and thought about the video game I’d been playing before she came over. Portal. I ran through the last level I’d beaten until my dick went down.
“Not yet, babe, but soon. I’m going to go get everything ready now. Why don’t you get the table ready, or go back through the book. Make sure you know your lines.”
She nodded, despite the pout on her plump lips, and stood. She tugged down her short, black dress, covering her G-string panties. I bit my lip until I tasted blood and reminded myself that it would be worth the wait.
Only a little bit longer.
I turned and left the basement, heading upstairs to the kitchen.
“Once the ritual is over, I’m never coming back down here!” she called to me. “It reeks of mold!”
I rolled my eyes but said nothing. It was a basement. What did she expect? I pulled a cigarette from the pack in my pocket and lit it when I reached upstairs, then smoked while I dug through the fridge.
“Are you finally getting that gross stuff out of here?”
I straightened and looked over the door, eyeing my teen sister, Andy. She glared at me in annoyance.
“What’s it to you?” I turned back to the fridge.
“It smells horrible, and it makes me sick every time. What is it?”
I pulled the pickle jar filled with red liquid and chunks sloshing around in it and held it up to the light. Andy gagged and stepped back.
“You’re sick. Whatever that is, you’re sick.” She fled the kitchen, and I slammed the fridge shut triumphantly. We were only four years apart, but she drove me up the wall. I set the jar of blood on the table and went through the spice cabinet. I ran through the list in my head, pulling down all the things we needed to do the ritual.
I put it all in a plastic bowl I found in a cabinet and grabbed the jar, heading back downstairs.
“The book says you need all fresh ingredients,” Tanis whined as I set the items on the pool table.
“It’s like cooking,” I said, pulling out another cigarette. “If you can, always get fresh, but if not, you can substitute it for shit from the pantry.” I blew out the smoke and leaned my back on the table. “It’ll be fine.”
“Maybe we should wait until you buy the fresh stuff.” She twisted her hands. “I want to make sure it goes perfect.”
I stubbed my smoke out on the green felt. “Tanis, babe, relax.” I went to her, putting my hands on her shoulders and pulling her in for a deep kiss. “There’s no point in waiting. Money’s tight right now. I ditched that gig over at Peter Piper’s, and I used my last check to buy all the fucking candles.” I looked over her shoulder, where a stack of boxes filled with 237 tall, white candlesticks sat, waiting for us to get started.
“You lost your job? Craven,” Tanis gently pushed me away. “You said you’d keep it this time. I thought you liked it there.”
“Dressing up like a giant purple penguin and bringing pizza to screaming brats all day? Hardly. I got paid and got out of there. It’s going to be fine. We’ll do the ritual, become reanimated, and then ditch this shitty fucking town and go on the road to pursue our fortune.” I threw up my hands and laughed wildly. “Tanis, babe, the world will be our oyster! We can do whatever we want with no consequences. We won’t need to worry about a thing. Come on, it’s time. We’ve been preparing for months. You’ve got this.”
She chewed on the inside of her cheek and looked up from the floor. She was gorgeous. I still didn’t understand how I’d managed to pull such a fine piece of ass.
We’d gone to high school together, but I was a loser who spent my time with other losers playing card games and RuneScape on the weekends. I was scrawny and my face too greasy and way too shy to do more than stutter when she walked down the hall with all her other popular friends. Tanis was... everything. She was the teen dream. Long legs, hourglass frame, pretty face, but more importantly, she was kind. While her friends loved pushing me into lockers and calling me names, she would stick up for me.
It never went past that. Back then, she didn’t see me as anything other than a boy getting bullied. It wasn’t until after we graduated, when I started hitting the gym, my acne cleared up,and I got a better haircut that she saw me as more. We crossed paths at the gym one day, I mustered up the courage to ask her out, and the rest was history.
Mostly.
There was one thing I’d been holding out on. Until tonight.
“And you’re sure about this? That it’ll work?” Her beautiful eyes melted my ice-cold heart. I cupped her face.
